The reader may notice that I have chosen to include the full spelling of racial epithets in the story, particularly those aimed at Hispanic people. That was not a gratuitous decision, nor one I took lightly. Those references remain because I felt that they were critical to understanding the uglier aspects of the story and certain key characters that sent the central action careening out of control. For me, those epithets also point to the larger truth of what a serious and long-standing problem anti-Hispanic racism is in the United States. It cannot be, nor should be, covered up, sugar-coated, or censored.