4 out of 4 stars
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GRINGO by Dan "Tito" Davis with Peter Conti as co-writer, is an interesting memoir. This memoir is full of adventurous tales of Davis who was born and bought up in South Dakota and was a fugitive, from the United States, for more than a decade. Police arrested him for illicit drug transactions, but after some time released him on bail, but he jumped his bail and became an international fugitive.
The long journey of Davis covered in this book has many interesting events in details and his wandering years in Latin America. Davis possesses a photographic memory as he recalls every moment's details, right from his departure from Texas to reach Mexico. Disguised as Judson Allen an amateur surfer who divorced his wife of six years and his goal is to expand his business and travel across Mexico and learn Spanish. In this journey of hardship, Davis never loses his sense of humor and perseverance on the shaking grounds. He shows a tremendous amount of grit in facing the tough situations.
My favorite part of this book is when Davis tries to learn Spanish in Mexico. He sits in a kindergarten's class with children for learning Spanish. In search of his new identity, Davis tries to learn Spanish as he thinks this is the only way to hide his true identity.
Davis tries his best to get forged travel documents in Mexico. He decides to take risks in this direction and shows that how easy and dangerous, it is to get forged travel documents and even passport in Mexico. As he manages to get a British passport with a new identity, but his joy comes to an end shortly, when the police arrest him.
In the last part of this book, Davis still wandering in Latin America,
he reaches Colombia via Venezuela. Here he finds some interesting things about this part of the world.
Davis writes: In the mid of 1990's Campo Valdes was one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the world. It was almost completely lawless. During this period in Campo Valdes Medellin, Davis' friend Julio introduces his girlfriend Monica to him. Davis stays for a few days at Monica's house for learning Spanish. He discovers very soon that his beautiful Spanish tutor is an assassin and assassinated a businessman and his bodyguard and she is on the wanted list of the police.
The last part of this book is very interesting as the events in Davis' life gather pace and the tough situations Davis faces makes this memoir an engaging thriller. I like the way the authors wrote this book even though the narrative is very lengthy and I don't like lengthy narratives, but the authors have managed to make this book very interesting and inspiring.
I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. It is quite an interesting and engaging memoir. I would like to recommend it to anyone who likes to read a memoir full of adventurous tales. I found a few typing errors on some pages, but the book is presented in a very professional way.
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Gringo
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