In this novella, a short, bookish half-Mexican doctoral student returns to his hometown of Woodland, California, and tries to reconnect with Lupita Valdez, the girl he worshipped in high school. But in order to date Lupita, he must first fight her three hulking brothers. Attempting to make sense of his unusual predicament, he ruminates on his many insecurities.

Maceo Montoya is an assistant professor in the Department of Chicano Studies at the University of California, Davis, and an affiliated faculty member of Taller Arte del Nuevo Amenecer (TANA), a community-based art center in Woodland, California. He is also the author of The Scoundrel and the Optimist and The Deportation of Wopper Barraza: A Novel (UNM Press). His paintings, drawings, and prints have been widely exhibited and published.