I know Chrissie Hynde from the seventies. In her Pretenders song, “Up the Neck,” Chrissie belts out, “Lust turns to anger, a kiss to a slug…” Up until then, I don’t think I had every seen a woman like that on stage before; in front of the band, her guitar slung low across her hips, her hair falling into her eyes. She sang LESS about LOVE and MORE about ANGER. She was hot-blooded and cold-hearted. You better watch out. You don’t really know what she was going to do next. She was a FEMME FATALE.
I mention FEMME FATALE, for I just read a Narco-Lit crime thriller this week titled Lola written by Melissa Scrivner Love. I know of Femme Fatales from my favorite film-noir movies. These women may not be the clear stars of the show, but they steal their scenes. They are beautiful, smart, and most of all, deadly. Over time I’ve learned they have an insatiable need for money, power, or revenge. It’s their ambition that makes them dangerous.
The Lola, from the title of this novel, a young Latina woman who has grown up in South Central Los Angeles, doesn’t really match up with a classic Femme Fatale from the movies. She wears a white cotton wifebeater and baggy cargo pants. When she walks her pitbull around the neighborhoods, she pulls down a hoodie. All you can see is her dark lipliner and tough chick attitude. She's not looking to attract your attention. For the most part, she is known at Garcia's Girl. Garcia is a local drug dealer, head of a gang called the Crenshaw Six. If that is the way people regard her, that's fine. On the surface she wants to keep a low profile. But still waters run deep. Inside, she dreams of becoming the Heroin Queen of Los Angeles.
I bring up Chrissie Hynde, for I have read how the difficult road she took to become the leader of the Prentenders. At the time she tried to make her rock dreams happen, no one would listen or respect her here in the U.S. – I mean, most women rockers were thought of as back-up singers - so she fled to England where she sensed a new and exciting atmosphere of change and defiance taking shape. Most of us today call the music PUNK. Still, the same type of challenges she faced in this country, she met in England. Maybe, the Brits were even more misogynous than we were back in the States. Chrissie mustered all of her attitude and confidence to try to connect with the right musicians, but they must have not been ready for her. They didn’t want to listen to any foul-mouth, aggressive American woman. They were PUNKS. That was part of who they were: They didn't take suggestions or ideas from women. Chrissie must have felt CRUSHED. She was writing her own songs. She was playing her own guitar. She had the look they did. What’s the Problema? Where would she go if she struck out in London? She began drinking heavily. Maybe mixing in a little coke and heroin. That’s when she learned THIS: If she could just get he male counterparts in her group to think that they were the ones that came up with songs (that she herself composed) like “Up the Neck,” “Brass in Pocket,” Tattooed Love Boys, “ well, that just might get her through the door. These guys were such pendejos. She was an entirely different type of female. They didn't know what they were dealing with. If she could just figure out how they could think of HER songs as THEIR songs, she could eventually take over.
Like Chrissie, Lola sees herself as much tougher, smarter and ruthless than the men in her life. If her gang, the Crenshaw Six, is to gain any power or respect on the streets, she realizes she will have to take the bull by the horns. I mean, if she doesn’t do it, no one else seems capable. When we are first introduced to Lola, she seems relegated to a very minor role. We find her in the kitchen with the other chismosas of the neighborhood baking cookies for their drunk boyfriends on the patio. But wait! Lola is listening a lot, but she is not saying anything. Right from the get go, I can see she is different from all the others in the conversation. She’s a woman with vision.
How did she get this way? She didn’t know her father. Her mother was a Crack Ho who often sold out her daughter for drug money. Yeah, that’s right. Her mother was so deeply into her addictions, she would lead her drug dealers into her daughter’s bedroom in exchange for a fix. Lola somehow raised her little brother into adulthood. She loves him, but he grew up with the same neglect she did. He’s a moron. Lola can’t count on him for anything. Maybe that’s why she’s so mean. She hooks up with Garcia, not for any love, but for opportunity. If she stands close behind him, she just might be able to develop some power of her own. “Girl knows to go after the leader,” snaps one chismosa in the kitchen. But she doesn’t know the half of it. Lola has been sleeping with a succession of gang leaders in succession. Some of them are now dead. In each relationship, however, Lola learned a bit more about the rules of the street. Gradually, she’s climbing to the top. Let this bitch talk all she wants. Lola has bigger fish to fry.
I’m not writing a book report here, but author Melissa Scrivner Love places Lola right where she wants to be. Right in the MIDDLE of the violence and chaos of a local gang war. When a major drug deal goes bad, the cartel shows up at Lola’s door. This is the Mexican cartel, the brutal organization that controls the streets of South Central. They want their DRUGS and their MONEY. Lola doesn’t seem to be at fault for anything, but because she is supposed to be Garcia’s woman, the cartel makes it clear that she is going to be the first to die a slow and painful death if the matter isn’t resolved in one week’s time. Lola is on the CLOCK! A bag of money is gone. TWO MILLION IN CASH. The drugs have disappeared. Garcia has no clue what to do. Her Hector was responsible for fucking up everything. Lola has seven days to figure things out, and she’s not going to rely on these pendejos in her life. To show everyone she is in charge, she cuts off her brother’s finger with a kitchen knife. It serves him right. If it wasn’t for him, she would be in this mess. She shoots a rival drug lord’s girlfriend in the face. The girlfriend played a minor role in the drop. Once Lola finds her and gets her to admit to it, she kills her without a second thought. She means nothing to her or the Crenshaw Six. This is just the beginning. It’s going to be a ruthless seven days. Garcia knows what she is capable of. He doesn’t have much to say.
No more spoilers alerts, but Lola is a Femme Fatale. She is clearly ANGRY and DEVIANT. She stays focused, for all her life has prepared her for these circumstances, a matter of LIFE and DEATH. She’s HALF VICTIM and HALF PREDATOR. When Chrissie Hynde wrote some of her biggest hits, her band members began dropping dead one after another from drug overdose. It took to age 32 for Chrissie to become a band leader. This is when her husband left her with their only child. For how many years would a 30-Something women like her be able to rock her audience? She says the lyrics she wrote for her song “Middle of the Road” is her credo: “ "My personal discipline has been to try to stay in the middle, always, no matter what I'm doing. If I buy a jacket and it comes in three sizes, I want a medium. You have to learn how to temper yourself and hold back till you get to the end."
Both Chrissie and Lola know what’s most important. They will do what it takes. They are both suvivors. Gatas Negras.
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