Published September 2020
Hardcover, Paper or eBook
268 pages, 6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-7331841-2-0 (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1-7331841-3-7 (paperback)
Available through:
or your local bookstore (through the Ingram catalog)
Angeleños: L.A.’s Golden Age
By Ron Schuler
A grandson of Mexican immigrants, Ron Schuler draws deeply upon his family background in his first novel to tell a fictionalized tale of two families who arrive in East Los Angeles in 1919: the Martín family, fleeing the Revolution in Zacatecas, Mexico through Arizona copper mines and ranchos southeast of L.A.; and the Baumiller family, after a wildcat strike goes awry in Kansas City, Kansas, starting a new life in the American City of Last Resort. A descendant of both families—half-Mexican, half-Anglo, known by his genealogy website handle “bauwau685”—returns to the West Coast and searches for his roots among the traces of these families and amid the Golden Age of L.A. itself … its old boxing gyms and speakeasies, its after-hours clubs, Bible rallies and quack doctors, California politicians and the fringes of Hollywood, the unraveling of the streetcar system and the sinister launch of the aerospace industry, and against an undercurrent of atmospheric and internalized racism toward Mexican-Americans. In the process, “bauwau685” uncovers tragic secrets that were never meant to be exposed and discovers the extent to which identities can be fabricated and reimagined in a city in which image is everything, and truth is ephemeral.
Winner, Gold Medal, 2021
Cover Design – Fiction
Independent Publisher Book Awards
“Lush but tightly-wrought prose reminiscent of Raymond Chandler and Gabriel García Márquez … a gift for any reader interested in that most essential human quest – how we can understand our lives through the lives and hearts of those who came before us.”
– Lori jakiela,
Author of Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Maybe
“[A] well-thought-out novel about immigrants and migrants—newcomers trying to figure out how to live and fit into Los Angeles during the 1920s, 30s and 40s … Schuler carefully builds his characters and places them in a wellresearched and accurate depiction of the era, weaving them through a maze of historical events toward the unexpected and surprising end.”
– Richard Soto,
Founder, Chicano Research Center, Stockton California
“…[U]nforgettable characters … moment after moment that will stick with you.”
– Ray Werner,
Playwright (Night Song: Elder Hostages trilogy; Poster Boy)