When he first started writing, Dagoberto Gilb was struggling to survive as a journeyman highrise carpenter. Years later, he has won widespread acclaim as a crucial and compelling voice in contemporary American letters. Tackling everything from cockfighting to Cormac McCarthy, Gritos collects Gilbs essays and his popular commentaries for NPRs Fresh Air, offering a startling portrait of an artistand a MexicanAmerican working to find his place in both the cloistered literary world and the world at large, to say nothing of his strange and beloved borderland of Texas.