Abstract
Indigenous Disposition is a linked story collection which follows Alexander “Alex” Ramirez, a boy coming of age in an inner-city Chicago under the threat of gentrification. Set between the early 2000s and the mid 2010s, these stories center on the struggle to belong in a community and also on what it means to become a strong, dependable, level-headed man in a rapidly changing and volatile world. Alex lives with his single mother, Ma, and his brother, Rubén. His journey is relayed from multiple perspectives, from Ma, as she faces eviction with her boys, to Rubén, as he wrestles with an unplanned pregnancy, to Carlos, who is forced to fight Alex as part of a gang initiation, and Alex, as he attempts express his insecurities verbally and not physically. Through this patchwork of perspectives, the book attempts to showcase the psychology of a community trapped in cycles of poverty and violence, which ultimately influence their trajectories through life, for better or worse.