The Famous All Around Town by Danny Santiago When I was little, I remember driving across the country, going to Florida, and passing through neighborhoods that were anything but mine. They had old houses that looked like they were going to collapse any minute, really dilapidated. In Colorado, my house was beautiful and always maintained. I sat in the car, wondering what kind of people lived in these rundown places and what they looked like. The answers came to me years later when I read the book Famous All Over Town by Danny Santiago. The main character, Chato, is a young Hispanic boy living in a neighborhood like the ones I saw when I was little. After reading the book, although I never thought I would have anything in common with people who lived like that, I learned that Chato and I have similarities, but we have more differences. There aren't many similarities between Chato and me. , but there is one, and it's a big problem. We both have families who love us. Lena, Chato's sister, takes care of him after he returns from the hospital. Then he starts thinking about his family and how happy he is to be home. “Lena loved me, my mother loved me, and my father loved me, it seemed” (45). Chato's whole family loves him and he loves being with them. In my house you will find the same kind of environment and I can relate to some of Chato's family life. However, Chato's family is not always kind to him. His family has many problems, such as everyone keeping secrets from each other and everyone lying to each other. For example, Chato's father is having an affair and everyone knows it, but they all hide it from Chato. When he finds out, he is very angry at himself and at the things he is stupid for not knowing, when everyone else does. “She knew, they knew, the whole fucking town knew, except me, stupid and stupid” (146). In my family, however, everyone is honest and you would never see anyone hiding something so important from others. Another example of how Chato's family is different is shown when Chato has a stomach ache and his father thinks he is faking it. He said to him: “Shut up, you crybaby-coward” (26). His father is not very nice to him because he is sick.