"After years of scraping by, I suddenly found myself to be an involved, culturally aware person - Mr. Cool and Clean - a man on the brink of business success, at least in terms of paying my bills. If it hadn't been for Felix Guerrero, I might have plodded quietly through my American dream."

And so begins "The Ballad of Gato Guerrero," the second novel in the Luis Montez mystery series by Manuel Ramos, an attorney and part-time professor in Metro's Chicano Studies Department. The book was recently re-released in a revised edition by Northwestern University Press with a new foreword that comments on its contribution to Latino literature and the suspense novel genre.

"(Writing novels) is a way to reveal truths about the human condition in an entertaining way," Ramos says. Ramos especially likes crime fiction because the genre allows him to tell an engaging story about struggles between good and evil without beating the reader over the head with issues.

Ramos' first book, "The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz," was first published in 1993 and was nominated for an Edgar Award. The book introduces us to Luis Montez, a world-weary, middle-aged Denver lawyer steeped in the golden age of Chicano activism who becomes a reluctant gumshoe when faced with a haunting incident from his past.

All of Ramos' novels are set amongst the backdrop of the Latino community, its history, politics and culture. "I write about what I know, who I am," Ramos said.

Ramos has taught "Survey of Chicano/Chicana Literature" at Metro. Although not teaching this semester, Ramos enjoys the interaction with students and faculty. He says it's a nice break from his other endeavors.

The author has written five novels in the Luis Montez series, and a sixth book titled "Moony's Road to Hell," which he describes as a little grittier than the Montez stories. His work has won the 1994 Colorado Book Award for Fiction and the 1991 Chicano/Literary Award.