Octavio Gomez Character Analysis

An Oakland drug dealer whose intimidating, tough demeanor masks a deep and fierce love for his family. Octavio has known great sorrow and loss throughout his life, losing his mother and brother in a car accident and his cousin Manny in a drug-related episode of violence. Octavio, himself in hot water with his higher-ups due to Charles and Carlos’s carelessness, comes up with a plan to rob the Big Oakland Powwow. Octavio hopes to use the money to pay his debts and improve things for his family, demonstrating that behind even terrible acts of violence, there are sometimes good intentions. The narrator of the novel’s thoughtful interlude expresses a kind of empathy for Octavio and his gang, suggesting that the bullets fired at the powwow have been traveling there for years and for miles—implying that there are uncountable and unknowable factors, missed connections, and twists of fate which lead any individual at the brink to take their final step off the ledge.