Quiñonez, Ernesto 1966(?)–

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Quiñonez, Ernesto 1966(?)–

PERSONAL: Born c. 1966, in Ecuador. Education: Graduate of City College of New York.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—Watkins/Loomis Agency, 133 E. 35th St., Ste. 1, New York, NY 10016.

CAREER: Writer. Teacher of elementary-school students in New York City public school system.

AWARDS, HONORS: Named among Village Voice's "Writers on the Verge," 2000; Jerome Dejur award, 2000, for Bodega Dreams.

WRITINGS:

Bodega Dreams (novel), Vintage (New York, NY), 2000.

Chango's Fire (novel), Rayo (New York, NY), 2004.

ADAPTATIONS: Film rights to Bodega Dreams have been sold to Fox Searchlight and Good Machine.

SIDELIGHTS: A "feisty and hard-hitting" novel marked Ernesto Quiñonez's debut on the literary scene, according to Salon.com reviewer Anderson Tepper. Bodega Dreams is set in the Ecuadorian-born author's adopted home town of Spanish Harlem, and its characters include entrepreneurs with both lawful and unlawful natures. The book is narrated by Julio "Chino" Mercado, a young denizen of the inner city counting on college and a career to turn life around for himself and his pregnant wife, Blanca. Chino's ambition draws the attention of Willie Bodega—a character who, "as Gatsby did for America in the Thirties,… represents both the virtues and the character flaws of el barrio," according to Citypages Web site contributor John Freeman. A former member of the Young Lords, the 1960s-era Puerto Rican liberation group, Bodega has now grown into corrupted middle age; "he runs detox centers with his left hand and sells crack with his right," in the words of Maud Casey writing in the New York Times Book Review. However, added Casey, even Bodega has his larger dream: that of a "revolution-ready, college-educated professional Latino class" in the barrio. As the novel progresses, Chico "begins to work for Bodega, dreams with him, and, in the end, takes his place," according to School Library Journal contributor Francisca Goldsmith.

Bodega, wrote Casey, "is a fascinating character—a twisted, complex cultural hero who provides momentum in Chino's momentumless neighborhood." Time contributor Desa Philadelphia credited Quiñonez's familiarity with his setting, noting that "readers may have to remind themselves that this is a work of fiction and not a memoir." While noting "some periodic, semistereotypical machismo-laced comments" in her review for Black Issues Book Review, Gale Greenlee praised Bodega Dreams as "a suspenseful and strangely comedic tale" that is "gritty, yet entertaining." As for the fast-paced storyline, two reviewers agreed that Bodega Dreams bore the earmarks of a movie; indeed, film rights were sold in mid-2000.

In his next novel, Chango's Fire, Quiñonez tells the story of Julio Santana, who has become a professional arsonist in Spanish Harlem. Seeking to improve his family's lot in life, Santana also goes to night school and works a normal day job. As his old neighborhood becomes increasingly upscale, a white girl named Helen, who runs an art gallery, arrives on the scene and attracts Santana's attention, leading him to a doomed love affair. In a review in Kirkus Reviews, a contributor wrote: "What's best about Chango's Fire … are Quinonez's ingeniously detailed revelations of how people cheat and improvise, to survive in an impoverished and dangerous racist environment." Frank Sennett, writing in Booklist, commented that the author's "exploration of the often misunderstood Santeria—the title references the religion's trickster god, Chango—proves especially fascinating." A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that the author "has a comfortable familiarity with his turf and the catchy Spanglish most of his characters speak."