The Plight of Rudy 'Gordo' Sanchez and Other Short Stories' is a collection of one novella and nine short stories dealing with a broad range of themes like borders, immigration, race, sex, sexuality, violence, religion, spirituality, food, obsession, fetishes, and death. The stories range from sad and serious to sarcastic and darkly humorous to happy and joy-filled to really quite disturbing. They are meant to be raw, sexual, grotesque, violent, beautiful, sweet, delicious, and painful. The characters are gay men in love, a reality television show judge, a bench, feminine little boys, a sadistic group therapy leader, a man dying of AIDS, Frida Kahlo, a piñata maker, a female prostitute with supernatural powers, and an overweight taco truck chef with a special soul. The Stories are set in diverse places like Ciudad Juárez, El Paso (TX), Gun Hole (a fictional city in the Texas Bible Belt), Denver (CO), St. Louis Park (MN), Minneapolis (MN), San Francisco (CA), Barcelona, Albuquerque (NM), and Trinidad (CO). The stories all speak to the human condition as well as what it is to be human physically, biologically, and genetically. Love is at the core of most of these stories, not just romantic love but familial and also the love of self. Craft wise, the stories use the idea of central image, some play with form and structure, some use magical realism, the point of view varies from story to story, and the novella plays with time, setting, plot, and footnotes. Several pieces are still works in progress, but the idea behind this collection is my sincere attempt to affect my reader, to make my reader feel some specific emotion from the characters and language of each story.'
","abstract_html":"<p>The Plight of Rudy 'Gordo' Sanchez and Other Short Stories' is a collection of one novella and nine short stories dealing with a broad range of themes like borders, immigration, race, sex, sexuality, violence, religion, spirituality, food, obsession, fetishes, and death. The stories range from sad and serious to sarcastic and darkly humorous to happy and joy-filled to really quite disturbing. They are meant to be raw, sexual, grotesque, violent, beautiful, sweet, delicious, and painful. The characters are gay men in love, a reality television show judge, a bench, feminine little boys, a sadistic group therapy leader, a man dying of AIDS, Frida Kahlo, a piñata maker, a female prostitute with supernatural powers, and an overweight taco truck chef with a special soul. The Stories are set in diverse places like Ciudad Juárez, El Paso (TX), Gun Hole (a fictional city in the Texas Bible Belt), Denver (CO), St. Louis Park (MN), Minneapolis (MN), San Francisco (CA), Barcelona, Albuquerque (NM), and Trinidad (CO). The stories all speak to the human condition as well as what it is to be human physically, biologically, and genetically. Love is at the core of most of these stories, not just romantic love but familial and also the love of self. Craft wise, the stories use the idea of central image, some play with form and structure, some use magical realism, the point of view varies from story to story, and the novella plays with time, setting, plot, and footnotes. Several pieces are still works in progress, but the idea behind this collection is my sincere attempt to affect my reader, to make my reader feel some specific emotion from the characters and language of each story.'</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Rubalcava-Talamantes, David Andrew"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"MFA Creative Writing","degree_level":"Masters","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Mueller, Daniel","Warner, Sharon Oard","Rebolledo, Tey Diana","Ciabattari, Jane"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-08-28T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-08-28T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:27:25Z","subjects":["Short stories","Gay men -- Fiction","Mexican Americans -- Fiction","English Language and Literature"],"languages":["English"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/42"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/42","href":"https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/42","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/1928/21073","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Mueller, Daniel","Warner, Sharon Oard","Rebolledo, Tey Diana","Ciabattari, Jane"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Rubalcava-Talamantes, David Andrew"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2111-07-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters","Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MFA Creative Writing"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Short stories","Gay men -- Fiction","Mexican Americans -- Fiction","English Language and Literature"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1928/21073","https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/42"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The Plight of Rudy 'Gordo' Sanchez and Other Short Stories' is a collection of one novella and nine short stories dealing with a broad range of themes like borders, immigration, race, sex, sexuality, violence, religion, spirituality, food, obsession, fetishes, and death. The stories range from sad and serious to sarcastic and darkly humorous to happy and joy-filled to really quite disturbing. They are meant to be raw, sexual, grotesque, violent, beautiful, sweet, delicious, and painful. The characters are gay men in love, a reality television show judge, a bench, feminine little boys, a sadistic group therapy leader, a man dying of AIDS, Frida Kahlo, a piñata maker, a female prostitute with supernatural powers, and an overweight taco truck chef with a special soul. The Stories are set in diverse places like Ciudad Juárez, El Paso (TX), Gun Hole (a fictional city in the Texas Bible Belt), Denver (CO), St. Louis Park (MN), Minneapolis (MN), San Francisco (CA), Barcelona, Albuquerque (NM), and Trinidad (CO). The stories all speak to the human condition as well as what it is to be human physically, biologically, and genetically. Love is at the core of most of these stories, not just romantic love but familial and also the love of self. Craft wise, the stories use the idea of central image, some play with form and structure, some use magical realism, the point of view varies from story to story, and the novella plays with time, setting, plot, and footnotes. Several pieces are still works in progress, but the idea behind this collection is my sincere attempt to affect my reader, to make my reader feel some specific emotion from the characters and language of each story.'
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Plight of Rudy \"Gordo\" Sanchez and Other Short Stories"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Mueller, Daniel","Warner, Sharon Oard","Rebolledo, Tey Diana","Ciabattari, Jane"],"dc:creator":["Rubalcava-Talamantes, David Andrew"],"dc:date.available":["2111-07-30T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The Plight of Rudy 'Gordo' Sanchez and Other Short Stories' is a collection of one novella and nine short stories dealing with a broad range of themes like borders, immigration, race, sex, sexuality, violence, religion, spirituality, food, obsession, fetishes, and death. The stories range from sad and serious to sarcastic and darkly humorous to happy and joy-filled to really quite disturbing. They are meant to be raw, sexual, grotesque, violent, beautiful, sweet, delicious, and painful. The characters are gay men in love, a reality television show judge, a bench, feminine little boys, a sadistic group therapy leader, a man dying of AIDS, Frida Kahlo, a piñata maker, a female prostitute with supernatural powers, and an overweight taco truck chef with a special soul. The Stories are set in diverse places like Ciudad Juárez, El Paso (TX), Gun Hole (a fictional city in the Texas Bible Belt), Denver (CO), St. Louis Park (MN), Minneapolis (MN), San Francisco (CA), Barcelona, Albuquerque (NM), and Trinidad (CO). The stories all speak to the human condition as well as what it is to be human physically, biologically, and genetically. Love is at the core of most of these stories, not just romantic love but familial and also the love of self. Craft wise, the stories use the idea of central image, some play with form and structure, some use magical realism, the point of view varies from story to story, and the novella plays with time, setting, plot, and footnotes. Several pieces are still works in progress, but the idea behind this collection is my sincere attempt to affect my reader, to make my reader feel some specific emotion from the characters and language of each story.'
"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/1928/21073","https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/42"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:subject":["Short stories","Gay men -- Fiction","Mexican Americans -- Fiction","English Language and Literature"],"dc:title":["The Plight of Rudy \"Gordo\" Sanchez and Other Short Stories"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters","Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["MFA Creative Writing"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:27:25Z"}