As a boy, Miguel �ngel Tobar fled a small town in El Salvador torn apart by warring guerillas and US-backed death squads. As a teen in Los Angeles, he fought discrimination and beatings by joining a gang–MS-13. By the time the US deported him to San Salvador, The Hollywood Kid joined a wave of thousands of US-bred gangsters, whose violence–in concert with corrupt offiicals–have in turn helped propel new waves of refugees.
The incomparable Salvadoran journalist Oscar Martinez got to know the Hollywood Kid and met with him as he first turned on MS-13, killing gang members, and then in turn was assassinated by other gang members. In intensely vivid scenes, Martinez and his anthropologist brother Juan tell the story of a violent life and death–and of the geopolitical forces that propelled a country into becoming one of the most violent on earth.
About the author
John Washington is a writer, translator, and activist. A regular contributor to The Nation magazine and The Intercept, he writes about immigration and border politics, as well as criminal justice, photography, and literature. Washington is an award winning translator, having translated �scar Martinez, Anabel Hern�ndez, and Sandra Rodriguez Nieto, among others. A long term volunteer with No More Deaths, he has been working with activist organizations in Mexico, California, Arizona, and New York for more than a decade. He is currently based in Brooklyn.
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