Tafolla Toro: Three Years of Fear

by Lorenzo Gomez III

The great lie of our society is that mental health and mental illness are the same. Lorenzo Gomez wants to dispel that notion for good. In his new book, Tafolla Toro, he reaches back in time to share stories of his turbulent, traumatic, and often violent middle school years in one of San Antonio’s most crime-riddled neighborhoods. He opens up to reveal the fear, anxiety, and hopelessness he felt as a teenager and how those forces shaped his life until he began taking steps as an adult to improve his mental health. Alternating between shocking stories from his youth and letters written to his 12-year-old self, Lorenzo shows young people how to retake the battle of their mind by dealing with what is true and dismantling the lies that lead to self-deception. In Lorenzo’s journey, readers will see someone who understands what they feel, knows what they’re going through, and is standing up to tell Decide today that you are worthy.

Genres: Memoir

202 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2019

Reviews

[Mitzi Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling story of middle school in a rough San Antonio neighborhood during the 1990s gang wars.

[Rhys · Rating 1 out of 5]

So.........this book.

Let me preface by saying the author and I are are relatively the same age, and are from the same city, and incidentally, went to the same schools at roughly the same time. It’s very possible our attendance overlapped at some point. I’ll need to pull out my yearbooks to verify. (Yes, Tafolla had a yearbook) So I feel somewhat qualified to fact-check his stories.

Before I do, though, let me give an overall reader’s critique. The book was decent. It had a very simplistic storytelling style that was easy to read in 2 sittings. I wish the author’s editor did a better job, though. There were horrible grammatical errors peppered in and the flow was frustrating. Did the author edit his own book?

Now, to the rest. Alright dude, if you’re reading this, I don’t think you and I were at the same schools. I went to Tafolla in the early to mid 90s and I even know the people you referenced (from the school)...well, with the exception of Mr. Alvarez or Alvarado. I don’t remember which name you gave him. I’m assuming you didn’t get permission to use the principal’s real name(?) Probably because he read the story and was like, “that didn’t happen.”

What frustrates me about this book is that it perpetuates the stereotype of Mexicans being thugs, gang members and “cholos.” That kind of stereotype and generalisation has caused a lot of us to deny our heritage or culture for fear we will be looked at the same.

I do not remember there being as many fights as he claims. I definitely do not think, for the general population, the Carrilla was a thing. I don’t want to make assumptions, but I feel like yes, there we’re definitely troublemakers in the school. And yes, I remember Officer Almendarez (that’s the most accurate of the book...well, Ms. Richards being a badass was definitely true) being around. But I don’t remember living life in fear at all while I was there. Maybe the closest came when I got detention (my first and only time)for something ridiculous and I really felt like I might’ve been in juvenile detention, but otherwise, it was a normal school that had good kids and bad kids. Sometimes the bad kids acted up and mostly they didn’t. 2 of my sisters went there after I did and never did we talk about violence the way he did. We certainly wouldn’t be able to write a book about 3 years of fear.


Also, Brack was NOT that bad. This is just an assumption, but maybe you were a multilingual student on paper, but really a Regular by heart. I just didn’t hang around any of the people you knew. Maybe there was an underground life to which I was just not privy.
I’m disappointed. I wanted to love this book and reminisce with someone who knew all the nonsense of our school.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I am an educator on the Westside and I figured this would be an interesting/relevant read. I moved to San Antonio when I was in middle school (20 years after this story takes place) and I live on the Southside which shares demographics with the Westside (majority low-income, Hispanic families) but I lived a very sheltered life (and I am a girl). So although school policing, fighting, and drug/gun mention were still regular school occurrences (as well as dysfunctional families) it did not impact me personally to the degree described in this book and it was frankly, concerning to read (especially as it paints Hispanic communities in a very poor light — the contrast to Health Careers especially felt jarring since it failed to examine the socio-economic differences between families). I hope this means that 20 years after Lencho was in middle school, it is better for students across SAISD because it was for me in the Southside. There’s a lot still wrong with the US public education system and San Antonio (and behavior problems/violence persists in the halls of schools). But I hope it is a small relief for readers to know that the violence described here is maybe not universal (at least not the same degree).

However, the overall message the book shares was very good and important — mental health in young people especially, is important and it shouldn’t be stigmatized. I enjoyed the letters format from future/older Lorenzo to Lencho and found they served their purpose well in normalizing recognizing our feelings and equipping ourselves with positive next steps. I am definitely only at the start of my mental health journey and have a long way to go with recognizing my own fears/trauma but this book was an excellent primer which is why I would still recommend it to others — especially middle/high school age groups.

[Alistor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I'm from San Antonio and this is by far one of the most relatable books I've read. I'm from a younger generation, but I've been through a lot of the same stuff. Oh my god, this really hit close to home. I would totally recommend.

[Arlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great read. Took me back to my early years. Great stories about growing up in San Antonio. Highly recommend.