Accepting One’s Fate

In Ryan Gattis’s novel All Involved, it captures 17 different perspectives during the LA riots in the early 90s. All the perspectives explored are people from different backgrounds with only one thing connecting them: they’re all involved in the chaos of the riots despite their backgrounds. Ray Vera, also known as Lil Mosco, shows a perspective of someone who was involved before the riots began and has gotten his whole family involved as well.

At the beginning of the novel, the reader learns Lil Mosco is a part of a gang and the youngest brother of his two other siblings Ernesto and Lupe Vera (A.K.A Payasya). Being a part of the gang impacts him and his family. It gets his oldest brother who is not involved with any the gangs killed and makes his sister more involved than she anticipated. To include, Lil Mosco is also killed for being involved in gang corruption. The novel constantly mentions Lil Mosco throughout the first day; however, the novel doesn’t introduce his character until the end of the first day for a brief moment. On the way back from a run they stop at a women’s house for his partner Baseball to have a sexual rendezvous. As Lil Mosco waits for them to finish, he finds out someone has set him up and is confronted by other gang members disguised as the LAPD. As he is face to face with death his final words are, “‘Tell my sister I love her. My brother too. And my mom. Tell them’” (64) and accepts his fate.

The way Lil Mosco views the destruction of the city is indifferent. He’s been all involved in this violence before the riots began. He willingly accepts his death thinking his family is safe from the chaos. A reason why he joined a gang was to have that reassurance of his family’s safety. As everyone else in the novel is trying to not be involved in the riots or are forced to become involved, Lil Mosco knows he has always been involved and doesn’t run away from his fate.