Publishers Weekly
★ 11/13/2023
Anthropologist Ralph (The Torture Letters) offers a riveting and personal account of the 2019 San Francisco murder of a distant relative, his stepson’s half brother. Luis Alberto Quiñonez, who went by Sito, was killed at 19 in retaliation for the 2014 slaying of Rashawn Williams, a murder committed by Sito’s acquaintance Miguel during a street fight for which Sito was also present. Sito was initially arrested for the murder, serving several months in juvenile detention before video evidence exonerated him. Ralph, who had spent much of his career studying gang violence, was spurred to investigate the circumstances surrounding Sito’s death, which had a profound impact on his family though he himself had barely known Sito. He analyzes the environment that shaped Sito’s youth, which he argues was characterized by a form of toxic masculinity, as well as San Francisco’s justice system and the structural racism Ralph argues was evident in its handling of Sito’s arrest and the trial of Sito’s murderer—Rashawn’s brother, Julius Williams. He identifies the justice system and street culture as two halves of a closed loop of violence that ensnares Black and brown men and boys. The work gains complexity as he juxtaposes his sympathy for the murderer with his personal connection to the story and his family’s desire for justice. It’s a gut-punch personal narrative with broader societal implications. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
"[A] gut-punch personal narrative with broader societal implications." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Sito is a harrowing, impactful account of a teenager caught in a cycle of violence and the juvenile justice system that failed him."—BookPage, starred review
“Ralph tells his story well. He avoids sentimentality. Nor does he pepper his prose with the kind of opaque language that so often dogs academic writing. … “Sito” is a readable, empathic portrayal of a Hispanic teenager whose promising life was cut short because of failures in the criminal justice system and violence in the streets.”—New York Times
"[T]he story is at once...a sociological academia, an account of a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco, and an intimate look into generations of a close-knit family pushing against the stronghold of gang violence...The book, Ralph's third, follows two other ambitious nonfiction works...but "Sito" is his most personal yet."—The San Francisco Chronicle
"Sito is Laurence Ralph's most intimate, most searching, and most liberated work yet. Following the murder of a teenage family member, Ralph explores this gutting loss through the eyes of fathers and mothers, brothers and friends. Moving seamlessly from living rooms to court rooms, he forces us to recognize that there are no easy answers when it comes to vengeance, healing, and justice. With depths beyond depths, this profound book is a memoir and a sociological analysis; it is a critique, a confession, and a prayer." —Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted
"Laurence Ralph ruminates on gang violence and our decadent criminal legal system through the life and tragic murder of his 19-year-old loved one, Sito. The blend of intimacy and authority, of self-and-structural reflection, of despair and expectation make for a profoundly affecting and edifying book. Sito is a triumph." —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book award-winner and New York Times bestselling author
“With great care, skill, and nuance, acclaimed anthropologist Laurence Ralph tells the tragic story of nineteen-year-old Luis Alberto Quiñonez. Drawing on his pioneering research on race, policing, and violence, Ralph takes the reader on a powerful and moving journey that unveils the failures of the criminal justice system in the United States. While there is much to despair, Ralph leaves readers with a deep sense of hope—that the failures of the past can be corrected and that we can build a more just and equitable society where young people like Sito can survive and thrive.”—Keisha N. Blain, coeditor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019
“Sito is an extraordinary story of murder, grief, revenge, and the possibility of healing. With this beautifully written account, Laurence Ralph takes us to a place that is, at once, intimate and revealing. He calls into question his own ideals and scholarly conclusions as he confronts his family’s loss and grief. And, in the end with the Orishas guiding his tongue, he offers a prayer that we all need to hear. Heartwrenchingly complex. Sito is a powerful and moving book.” —Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University
"SITO is both a deeply moving work of remembrance and a powerful indictment of our racist judicial system. Once again, Ralph proves that he is a brilliant ethnographer and expert storyteller. His sensitive prose gives us heart wrenching insight into a young life that ended too soon and a grieving family’s search for truth, justice, and forgiveness. This book sets a new standard for social science writing in the 21st century."—Jason De León, Author of Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling
"Ralph draws on family experiences and his research into justice-impacted youth to paint an honest, heartbreaking, and enraging picture of his 19-year-old family member Sito’s life and death."
—Booklist
"Through a heart-wrenching study of a youth’s murder, Ralph reveals a larger picture of social decay, despair, and violence."—Kirkus Reviews
"For these young men, there are rarely second chances. This ultimately is the lesson Laurence Ralph takes from Sito’s short life…. Sito invites us to regard the Sitos of the world with a bit less judgment and a good deal more humility.”
—New York Review of Books
Kirkus Reviews
2023-09-28
A professor of anthropology delves into the violence and terror on the streets of San Francisco, where real solutions are elusive.
Ralph, the director of Princeton’s Center on Transnational Policing and author of Renegade Dreams and The Torture Letters, tries to find reasons for the increasing gang-related violence in San Francisco via a thorough examination of the death of a young man called Sito, a member of a family with which the author had a connection. Sito was 19 when he was killed, and the murderer was only 17. The motive was revenge for Sito’s peripheral involvement in the murder of the killer’s brother some years before. In his sociological investigation, the author finds a whirlpool of unstable families, conspiracy theories, dysfunctional legal systems, and gang violence with its endless cycles of retribution. Sito was trying to get his life back on course after a spell in juvenile detention, but it was a struggle. A high proportion of the men in this part of San Francisco have been incarcerated at some point, and Ralph traces the legacy of a host of psychological problems that have led to crime. Gang culture reaches into the jails, and a period of incarceration is effectively a badge of honor, so it is hard to see how the pattern can be broken. As a minor, Sito’s killer faces only a few years in juvenile detention, which hardly sounds like justice to Sito’s family. During this project, Ralph was forced to reassess his belief in a variety of liberal reforms, facing "the feeling that my ideals were betraying me.” In the end, he offers no concrete solutions, although he clings to hope and remains “sensitive to the reality that academic research has been—and can still be—exploitative.”
Through a heart-wrenching study of a youth’s murder, Ralph reveals a larger picture of social decay, despair, and violence.
