Welcome to Part I of a new 5 part series sponsored by halee.diaryland.com. In order to promote literacy and recreational reading, I have given myself the assignment of reading 5 books in 5 days, and sharing these books with you online.

Well, not so much books as comics.

And no so much Marvel-type comics as adult Mexican-type comics.

Our first book comes from a series of comics called "Feos Pero...�Cumplidores!" which I think means "Ugly but Dependable!"

I present to you:

De Noche Taloneaba y de Dia Como Santa Vivia
or
"A Whore by Night and a Living Saint by Day"

This story is about a family. Ver�nica is the mother, trying very hard to provide for her son in college (Hugo) and her impetuous daughter (Ver�nica II, who they call "Vero"). She has to try so hard, in fact, that she is forced to work nights at a "sewing shop."

It greatly bothers Hugo that his mother has to work such late hours as a seamstress, and it bothers him even more that her boss forces her to dress up and wear so much makeup to work.

One evening, we follow Ver�nica to the cab where she meets her driver Romualdo, who will take her to work, only to find her quickly taking her hair down and changing into a sluttier dress and shoes. He does not take her to a sewing shop at all, but to a strip club where we realize she is not a seamstress, but a whore.

Two seconds later we find that Hugo has some sort of deal with Pedro to secretly work at the garage. Hugo has been working there for approximately 12 seconds, when Romualdo happens to bring his taxi in for repair.

Later at the garage, the other guys try to convince Hugo to go out with him, but he insists he needs to go straight home. They call him a virgin and some other Mexican slang that I can't figure out...so he finally agrees to go when he realizes his mother is working that night and won't know if he's late, anyway.

So they go to a naughty club, and (I think you might see where this is going) who does Pedro run into, but his mother Ver�nica!!! He proceeds to beat the shit out of the guy she's with, and then shoots and kills him.

The story ends when we learn that Pedro will go to jail for 20 years, Ver�nica II will marry Pedro, and Veronica Sr. learns that "your children are the most severe judges, and that a woman can work in a dignified and honorable way, and does not have to humiliate herself by resorting to prostitution."

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