John Rechy

John Francisco Rechy, born March 10, 1934 in El Paso, Texas, USA, is a writer, novelist, essayist, playwright and literary critic. The youngest of five children born to poor Mexican parents during the Depression, once wrote, "There was so much poverty and hunger in El Paso and Juarez that we didn't consider ourselves poor, because we ate and had a home." But as a gay boy in Texas, he did often feel like an outsider. His novel "City of Night," published 1963 by Groove Press, chronicles the journey of a young Mexican-American from the border town of El Paso into the gay underworld of Times Square, Hollywood Boulevard and the French Quarter of New Orleans during the 1950s. The book sold 65,000 copies in hardcover and remained on the New York Times best-seller list for 25 weeks, peaking at No. 3. The success of "City of Night" was followed by, among other works, "Numbers," "The Sexual Outlaw", "Rushes," "Bodies and Souls", "Marilyn's Daughter," "Our Lady of Babylon" and his novel "The miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez, "Which has been taught in Several Chicano literature courses throughout the United States. "I have a competition going with 'City of Night,' " Mr. Rechy said. "Today, it is better known than I am. And I might add that book is more loved than I am. People will come up and say, 'I loved your book.' And I say, 'Which one?' I think of Don Quixote, who is more famous than his creator, Cervantes.".