Filled with a dark and vivid creative thread woven through past and present, good and evil, this mystery kept me spellbound with its theme and its surprising twists and turns. This may be Mr. Hernandez's first book, but surely not his last...waiting for the next one! Congratulations!

This is without a doubt, one of the best books I have read. I didn't want to put the book down. I was lost in the world that Ariel Hernandez created. I was attached to this book until the very last page. I recommend this book to anyone who loves to be intrigued by endless twists of fate and suspense!

The cover alone intrigued me but that was the begining. Page after page of fresh ideas kept me reading till the wee hours of the night..with the lights on of course. Dark Ressurection kept me wanting more with unbelievably realistic characters, I felt taken by the book as it brought me from the deserts of Africa to D.C. I couldn't put it down. Not the same old stuff I'm use to. Chapter ofter chapter of good easy reading. Horror has a new name and that is Ariel Hernandez. Definitly a must have!!

Tony Diaz is really making a name for himself as a pioneer in the new way of thinking about Latino Literature. The stories in this anthology come at you from angles and styles I suspect most readers did not expect. Nothing is sacred in this book, which is the point. Even his own style is different. I enjoyed his hilarious novel THE AZTEC LOVE GOD, so I expected his work in the anthology to be in the same humorous style as the novel. Wow, I was blown away by his story "TAKE ME" From Sombrero Hysteria. This is a very intense piece. Also, the excerpt from the late Omar Castaneda's novel ISLAS COLORADAS was equally intense. Once again, these styles are not what is typically thought of when you think of Latino Literature, so this anthology forces you to broaden your imagination about what writers can and should write about and how. But the styles also go back to the what Chicano Writing was about during the Chicano movement. Stephen D. Gutierrez's story "La Gloria Meets La Helen en la Marqueta and What is Best Left Unsaid is for You" is about two ex-cholas who meet up after many years. Even when these writers choose "typical topics" their styles update the tradition. The heresy is that nothing is sacred so that everything can be enjoyed. My other personal favorite piece was "a latina lesbian activst's survial guide: o, mejor dicho, activism de-mystified, de-glorified & de-graded" by Tatiana de la Tierra. Even the introduction is not typical of anthologies. This one does not pound into your head a definition of Latino or Latino Literature. It lets the writing do the talking, and it challenges you to free your mind. If you enjoy strong prose, new styles, new ways of thinking, you need to check out this anthology.

I met Tony Diaz at a lit festival this fall--it was the coolest experience. Here's the review I wrote for my local newspaper:

His words jump off the page and grab you by the throat. From his colorful descriptions of the world around him to his staccato burst of comedy from his "joke scrapbook"-it's all a strong and unyielding voice. With the constant struggle with his life and his identity, the novel is still relentless and uncompromising in its abundant comedy.

High school student and aspiring comedian Tio Duarte is the novel's narrator and main character. He struggles throughout the novel, literally, with his name. No one calls him by his name: his father calls him "Junior"; his girlfriend Rosie and secret lover Farah call him "sweetie"; his manager calls him "T-O;" his adversary Principal Autruck calls him "Marquez." Intelligent enough to take entrance exams for others, Tio makes money by falsifying documents, as well his own identity. This allows him to create several monikers-and a quick exit if things go awry.

There's Antonio Marquez, the average high school student months away from graduation. There's "D," his rebellious high school alter ego who leads an affirmative action group called MALO (Mexican-American Leadership Organization), which does more stealing and selling of examinations than anything else. There's his "over 21" personality, Lorenzo Cassanova, who easily weaves in an out of nightclubs-he's a smooth talker who's having an affair with Jester's exotic dancer girlfriend.

Most important to the novel are his on-stage personalities. An aspiring comedian, Tio starts the novel trying to perfect his comic role of The Aztec Love God. Jester, and old, bald comedic manager offers to take Tio under his wing. There's one condition-has to ditch his The Aztec Love God act. So he does, offering the club audiences a little more comfortable, and funny, Latino stereotype.

One of the main questions the novel presents is whether or not Tio will break out of the traditional -both on stage, and with his own life. In order to do that, he has to take control. Jester tells him which direction to take his comedy. His girlfriend Rosie announces Tio's non-existent marriage proposal, and even purchases the ring he'll give her; Rosie and Tio's father haggle over their finances, their wedding and their entire life.

Tio openly despises his father who disregards his comedic aspirations. Once made rich by a "lottery," his father speaks in broken English and goes through the daily motions although he has no job to go to after reading the morning paper. Tio is especially peeved that his father won't help him financially, blowing his college fund on what he believes to be the original "Leave It To Beaver" set house. In his life, and in his act, it becomes the hilarious Mexican version, "Leave It To Burro."

With Tio's attitude toward him, it's ironic that his father worked for years as an el peladito, a stock Mexican vaudeville character who was part wise man, part fool, part jester, part clown and all underdog. Tio, like his father before him, is becoming a Latino caricature, scrapping the true Aztec Love God for stereotypes like Jester's conception"Hoe-say" Valdez, Jr. (son of the ubiquitous coffee bean picker, Juan). With the big laughs he gets from making fun of his father through "Hoe-say," Tio gives himself a shot at a big career--maybe his own sitcom. But does he want his life to become "Leave it to Burro"? It's a question that looms throughout the novel, even through all the abundant humor. Through all the hijinks and drama, the funniest and most interesting act would be if he told the people in the nightclubs about his own life. Maybe we're the audience, getting the most compelling stand up routine there is. Maybe we're getting The Aztec Love God.

In the end, the novel leaves us guessing. With his identities crumbling and the authorities (his family, his school, and the actual police) closing in, Tio is forced to pick one identity to get him out of his accumulating problems. Is this his one true identity or another concoction to help him sneak his way out of trouble? You'll have to see for yourself by reading The Aztec Love God.

The Aztec Love God is a must-read--unless you dislike laughing, thinking, and reading the emerging and exciting voice of Tony Diaz.

I had heard about Tony Diaz and THE AZTEC LOVE GOD through the writing group Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, which he is the founder of in Houston, Texas. So I went to check it out, and I also read the book. I think they are both alike and linked. THE AZTEC LOVE GOD is cutting edge, and is changing what is expected of Latino Literature. The book is hilarious, but also very wild, and also experimental. On one level, you will laugh out loud at some of the things in the book, the comedy, the situations. The main character Tiofilio Duarte is very funny. It is so funny, and so crazy at times with its form and style that you might miss how deep the book is. It really does take a hard long look at what it means to be an American, what it means to be an artist, how tough and how smart you have to be to survive in this day and age. It will challenge and change what you think of as art, literature, and identity. This is what Diaz does not only with his writing but with Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say.

The Aztec Love God is an experimental text. It is one that does not invest in the style of the Chicanos of the 1970s, nor of the high brows of New York. It is a book about a young Latino coming of age even when challenged to go down the easy road. Durante the comic, encounters Lester, a would-be manager, who only sees Durante in terms of a stereotype. Durante has to decide which road he should travel, and then, look toward a past that has never really been explained to him. To read the text, one most getting ready to laugh, then think. It is not an airport novel, nor a romance. It is a dose of reality, con un poco humor.