Tafolla Toro

Three Years of Fear

By: Lorenzo Gomez III

Narrated by: Lorenzo Gomez

Length: 3 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

The great lie of our society is that mental health and mental illness are the same.

Lorenzo Gomez wants to dispel that notion for good. In his new book, Tafolla Toro, he reaches back in time to share stories of his turbulent, traumatic, and often violent middle school years in one of San Antonio’s most crime-riddled neighborhoods. He opens up to reveal the fear, anxiety, and hopelessness he felt as a teenager and how those forces shaped his life until he began taking steps as an adult to improve his mental health.

Alternating between shocking stories from his youth and letters written to his 12-year-old self, Lorenzo shows young people how to retake the battle of their mind by dealing with what is true and dismantling the lies that lead to self-deception. In Lorenzo’s journey, readers will see someone who understands what they feel, knows what they’re going through, and is standing up to tell them: Decide today that you are worthy.

©2019 Lorenzo Gomez (P)2020 Lorenzo Gomez

Great mental health journey

Thank you for guiding me on my mental health journey! I can definitely relate to many of your childhood experiences and have used them
To mold a better next generation.

Greatest Story Teller in the Country

KFC 4 L
Loved listening to this book.
I'm positive it will help and change many lives for years to come!

Life lessons for youth and young at heart

I recommend this book for any who struggles with self-doubt. I appreciate Lorenzo's style of writing words of encouragement to his younger self. I highly recommend this book.

Solid story with life lessons

The author has a great way of telling a story that is both engaging and educational.

It Felt Like I Was Reading My Middle School Life

I related to so many of the stories on so many levels. I had never once considered how my upbringing might have currently affected my life. I found myself taking an internal retrospect of where my mental health state is.

I also found myself laughing like crazy. The storytelling is excellent! But I mostly admired the heart to help kids in middle school by encouraging them to protect their mental health.

Best book ever!

First of all, I love that he took the time to narrate it himself. Secondly, I love the comedy and reliability in each chapter. I finished it in one day. Just read it you'll see. I think I'll have to buy the first two books now.

Since we're on a 90s music kick: isn't it ironic...

From comparing the historic Alazan Apache Courts to Alcatraz and bemoaning, (even, as Gomez admits, into adulthood) how 'anyone on food stamps can afford to buy Redwings,' --an assumption that echoes Ronald Reagan's classist and racist notion of the "Welfare Queen"--Gomez's depiction of Tafolla Middle School is so littered with egregiously problematic statements, it renders the entire narrative offensive.

I understand Gomez's need to write about mental health, but he could've created a fictional campus based on his real-life experiences instead of disparaging a school & community that still exists and has been thriving since the early 90s. And now the book has been adapted in to a play being performed for the public by a different school, a charter school.

Isn't it ironic how Gomez mentions lifting others up while simultaneously putting down an entire community? Isn't it ironic that Gomez writes about how adults should create a safe place for kids, while vilifying Tafolla and Lanier High School, depicting both as frightening , prison-like institutions void of hope for its students, when that's far from the truth. He talks about how, years later, when he transfers to Health Careers, he finds himself surrounded by kids whose 'parents cared about what their kids were doing and how they were behaving.' Another obnoxious assumption that if kids aren't in a charter school, their parents must not care. These are just some of the of offensive comments littering the pages of this book. Disappointing read/ listen altogether.