Nothing was ever the same for Jose after the train ran him over. When the train hit Jose, he miraculously survived, and he was left with a deep dent in his forehead, a joyous disposition and a belief in Jose Cuervo Tequila, because he was drinking it at the time; Our Lady of Guadalupe, because of the medal around his neck, and The Union Pacific Railroad, because it had spared his life–his own personal trinity. \tOnce Jose’s spirituality is combined with that of his sorceress Apache wife Soridtha’s, the two unite to fight the LA power structure by standing with the poor to keep their neighborhoods from being demolished and turned into strip malls after eminent domain laws are enacted. \tMost of the action, like the great poker game where everything Jose has, including his house and his reputation as LA’s best poker player is at stake, occurs in the barrio of East LA. Beyond East LA, to downtown LA, on the cobblestones of Olvera Street, slinking through the mysterious shadows of China Town, visiting the faded Victorian splendor of Bunker Hill and the doomed paradise of Chavez Ravine. Jose and his Apache sorceress wife Soridtha are both loved and feared for their willingness to do anything in the name of justice for the disenfranchised.\t \tWhen their nine-year-old Mexican/Irish grandson, Jesse Flannigan, comes to live with them, he is indoctrinated into their magical world. Jesse is immediately sacrificed to Catholic school, where he is given the impossible mission of becoming a priest while also having at least one son. These apparently contrary acts are deemed necessary by Jose and Soridtha in order to break what they call “the curse of seven,” which they believe has been manifested in their having seven daughters and no sons. Over the years, Jesse, who narrates the story, grows from a confused child trying to fulfill his grandfather’s mission for his life, into a nail-biting, chain-smoking Catholic priest.