Journalist Pitluk, a contributor to Time
, charts Chavez's discovery of boxing while in the gang neighborhoods of Chicago's West Side, an apprenticeship that was interrupted by his imprisonment for armed robbery and later deportation to Mexico as an illegal alien named Gabriel Sandoval. (Chavez's nickname, El Matador, celebrates the Chicago gym where he learned the sport.) Born in 1972 in the Mexican town where Pancho Villa was killed and buried, Chavez was brought to the U.S. at age seven, after his father swam across the Rio Grande. Every one of the fistic life's clichés is here—starting with the inspiring immigrant parents and gruff but softhearted Irish trainer who sees the boy's promise—but that doesn't mean they're untrue. Pitluk's writing is stilted but serviceable, and he thoughtfully lays out the horrors of the Illinois prison system at the time Sandoval served his sentence. Still, the work is strictly for fans of El Matador who want to share the ride and relive the battles, especially the accounts of his tough losses to Floyd Mayweather and Erik Morales. Photos. Author tour. (May)
