Puerto Vallarta Squeeze
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''Puerto Vallarta Squeeze'' is a novel by
Robert James Waller Robert James Waller (August 1, 1939 – March 10, 2017) was an American author best known for '' The Bridges of Madison County'', an enormously successful book in 1993. He was also a photographer and musician. Life Robert James Waller Jr. was ...
, which was made into a film in 2004. Originally published in 1995 and subtitled ''The Run for el Norte'', this unlikely
romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...
follows an American
expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
and his
Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
girlfriend on a road trip with a former
Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...
. The title itself may refer to the race-against-time journey that they take, which begins in Puerto Vallarta.


Plot summary

Former journalist Danny Pastor has relaxed in
Puerto Vallarta Puerto Vallarta ( or simply Vallarta) is a Mexican beach resort city situated on the Pacific Ocean's Bahía de Banderas in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Puerto Vallarta is the second largest urban agglomeration in the state after the Guadala ...
over the past year with María de la Luz Santos, a 22-year-old woman whom he'd first met as a
cantina A cantina is a type of bar common in Latin America and Spain. The word is similar in etymology to "canteen", and is derived from the Italian word for a cellar, winery, or vault. In Italy, the word ''cantina'' refers to a room below the ground ...
waitress. They moved in together shortly thereafter, and Luz asked Danny to marry her, but he kept her at arms' length. One night when Luz went off by herself, she got pregnant by a drunken college student. Danny paid for her to have an abortion, and that incident made up his mind about her. One night as they relaxed in the El Niño cantina, Danny heard a gunshot and rushes outside to see two men dead. One was an
American Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...
officer, and the other was a software engineer ready to sell his company's work on failure analysis to the
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
ese government. Back at their apartment, Danny and Luz met a man who identifies himself as "Peter Schumann" and needs to get north of the
Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...
quickly. Paying Danny five thousand in cash, Schumann arranges his passage in a rusting
Ford Bronco The Ford Bronco is a model line of sport utility vehicles manufactured and marketed by Ford. The first SUV model developed by the company, five generations of the Bronco were sold from the 1966 to 1996 model years. A sixth generation of the mod ...
named Vito. The film adaptation featured a
Jeep Wagoneer The Jeep Wagoneer is a sport utility vehicle (SUV) nameplate of Jeep vehicles, with several models marketed for the 1963 through 1993 model years and again since the 2022 model year. Various versions of the Wagoneer were manufactured in the US ...
instead of a Ford Bronco. Unaware at first of the nature of their journey, Luz wants to go with them to see her grandparents' graves along the coast. When she met with them for the trip, Luz wore blue jeans and a shirt that read "Puerto Vallarta Squeeze" with two halves of a lime dripping down the center. Danny saw in the story of this trip a great opportunity for a literary comeback. As they travelled north, Danny, Luz, and Schumann evade American military and Mexican authorities. Schumann later revealed that he's really former
Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...
sniper turned mercenary Clayton Price; he was commissioned to kill the engineer, but he took his job personally when he shot the naval officer. During the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, Price was abandoned behind enemy lines by the officer who commanded the helicopter. After commandeering the backroads of rural Mexico, Price arranged to have a helicopter meet him near an abandoned silver mine at Zapata. After a fiesta the night before, Luz decided to go with Price because she's fallen in love with him. As Price put it, "I'm not sure ''I'm'' capable of loving at all. But, Danny, ''you'' love too timidly. I'm not sure which is worse. You have this offhand way of treating her most of the time, as if she's a partially reformed street whore. . . . She told me about her past. She says I treat her with respect. You figure it out." In a standoff with authorities, Price and Luz are killed. Danny heads back to Puerto Vallarta through
Mazatlán Mazatlán () is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The city serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding ''municipio'', known as the Mazatlán Municipality. It is located at on the Pacific coast, across from the southernmost tip of ...
, but he's arrested when the gun Price used in the double murder is found behind his apartment's toilet. Despite the evidence being circumstantial, Danny serves seventeen months of a ten-year prison sentence before he's released with a one-way ticket to Laredo. Although ordered never to return to Mexico again, Danny does so to find Price and Luz's graves in the Zapata cemetery. Price's marker was removed, but Danny exhumed Luz's coffin and reburied it in
Celaya Celaya (; ) is a city and its surrounding municipalities of Mexico, municipality in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, located in the southeast quadrant of the state. It is the third most populous city in the state, with a 2005 census population of 3 ...
, where her grandparents were buried. During his time in prison, Danny wrote a manuscript about his adventures with Price and Luz as they rode north, but he never saw it again.


Characters

*Clayton Price *Walter McGrane *Danny Pastor *Maria de la Luz Santos *Agent Neil Weatherford


Miscellaneous

As an acknowledgment, the author claims he first heard this story from his wife, who heard it in Puerto Vallarta. Characters from Waller's other novels make cameos in ''Puerto Vallarta Squeeze''. When Luz flashes back to her childhood in Ceylaya, a
gringo ''Gringo'' (, , ) (masculine) (or ''gringa'' (feminine)) is a term in Spanish and Portuguese for a foreigner, usually an English-speaking Anglo-American. There are differences in meaning depending on region and country. In Latin America, it is ge ...
photographer bearing a strong resemblance to Robert Kincaid from ''
The Bridges of Madison County ''The Bridges of Madison County'' (also published as ''Love in Black and White'') is a 1992 best-selling romance novel by American writer Robert James Waller that tells the story of a married Italian-American woman (WWII war bride) living on a ...
'' takes photos of her working in the fields and sends her a copy of one. When Danny, Luz, and Price arrive in Zapata, Price gets a drink from the bar and barely recognizes another Marine. When the Marine goes off with his partner, he's referred to as "Jack" and is told to stop pining over "Linda". Carmine Jack and Linda Lobo are two prominent characters from Waller's novel ''
Border Music Karl Lippegaus (born 28 October 1954 in Cologne) is a German music journalist, author and radio presenter. Life and career Lippegaus studied German literature, musicology and philosophy at the universities of Bonn and Cologne after making his ...
''. Much of the background information of the character Price come from the real life Vietnam Era Marine Sniper
Carlos Hathcock Carlos Norman Hathcock II (May 20, 1942 – February 22, 1999) was a United States Marine Corps (USMC) sniper with a service record of 93 confirmed kills. Hathcock's record and the extraordinary details of the missions he undertook made him a l ...
, whose legendary career in Vietnam has been the basis for 4
non-fiction novel The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events woven together with fictitious conversations and uses the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwi ...
s. Several of Price's stories, told first hand, seem to come directly from ''Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills'' by Charles W. Henderson. An interesting characterization of the "Killer" is that he is developed as a psychopath. He feels that he was abandoned as a child. He seems to justify his need to kill through some of rationization of those innate feelings.


Adaptations


Motion picture

In 2003, ''Puerto Vallarta Squeeze'' was made into a motion picture. Adapted for the screen by
Richard Alfieri Richard Alfieri (born April 9, 1948) to Sam and Nena Alfieri is an American playwright, screenplay writer, novelist, film producer, and actor. His awards include two Writers Guild Awards and an Emmy nomination. Career A graduate of Yale Univer ...
, it was directed by
Arthur Allan Seidelman Arthur Allan Seidelman is an American television, film, and theatre director and an occasional writer, producer, and actor. Career Born in New York City, he received his B.A. from Whittier College and an M.A. in Theatre from UCLA. He subsequently ...
, and starred
Harvey Keitel Harvey Keitel ( ; born May 13, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters. He first rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement, and has held a long-running association with ...
,
Scott Glenn Theodore Scott Glenn (born January 26) is an American actor. His roles have included Pfc Glenn Kelly in ''Nashville'' (1975), Wes Hightower in ''Urban Cowboy'' (1980), astronaut Alan Shepard in '' The Right Stuff'' (1983), Emmett in '' Silverado'' ...
, and
Jonathan Brandis Jonathan Gregory Brandis (April 13, 1976 – November 12, 2003) was an American actor. Beginning his career as a child model, Brandis moved on to acting in commercials and subsequently won television and film roles. Brandis made his acting debut ...
(in his last role before his death in 2003).
Vikki Carr Florencia Vicenta de Casillas-Martínez Cardona (born July 19, 1940), known by her stage name Vikki Carr, is an American vocalist. She has a singing career that spans more than four decades. Born in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican parents, she has pe ...
also appears and sings in Spanish.


Album

In 1996,
Willie & Lobo Willie & Lobo was a musical duo composed of William Robert "Willie" Royal, Jr. (violin) and Wolfgang Hubert "Lobo" Fink (guitar). Their music, characterized as New Flamenco and World Music, is a blend of Gypsy, Latin, Celtic, Flamenco, Middle Easte ...
compiled an album of their music, ''The Music of Puerto Vallarta Squeeze'', to accompany the book. The artists' music is a blend of sounds, Gypsy, Latin, Celtic, Flamenco, Middle Eastern, Rock, Jazz, Cuban Swing, Tango and Salsa., loosely labeled New Flamenco.


References

{{reflist 1995 American novels American novels adapted into films Novels set in Mexico Puerto Vallarta