The Legend of Chico Mandez

About the Book

The Legend of Chico Mandez Outline The story is mostly about an extraordinary young man named Chico Mandez, the son of an Italian sailor, who had jumped ship in Montevideo. Chico is a rising Argentine soccer star, and during his college summer-sports tour, he gets lost in the Amazon jungle near Manaus but eventually teams up with an unknown colony of chimpanzees. After fruitless searches and months after Chico is given up for dead, his remarkable mother, Maria Louisa, who bore her only son after nine daughters, has an astonishing vision of Chico alive in the jungle living with apes. Her amazing quest for a new search culminates with the presidents of both Argentina and Brazil! Finally, during an official search, Chico is rescued, but not before his mother’s vision-inspired direction leads a search helicopter to Chico and the chimps’ sanctuary. Back home he resumes his soccer career, yet now after a year in the jungle eating a super-nutritious purple root with other jungle foods, he has somehow gained phenomenal physical capabilities; and when playing soccer, he soon surpasses the great Brazilian, Pele. The colony of apes is also rescued; and the close relationship between Chico and Hoot, the leader of the apes, continues in Buenos Aires. Chico’s and his mother’s families built a unique theme enterprise called Chimpland in which Chico often plays soccer with the chimps, who had learned to play in the jungle. Like his father, Julio, before him, Chico has amorous adventures and becomes engaged to a lovely Brazilian girl. Finally, Chico stars in Argentina’s World Cup team; and after a series of stunning victories, the whole of Argentina goes wild with excitement for the grand final game against England. The game is played in Chico’s father’s birthplace of Naples. It is a gut-wrenching battle, and Chico is the outstanding star! Not long after the team’s triumphant return to Buenos Aires, Chico is kidnapped in a daring raid at Chimpland, and the tragedy is compounded when Chico’s well-known father Julio dies after being shot during the kidnapping. Negotiations with Chico’s kidnappers failed, and a body identified by his mother causes a terrible national grief, which is comparable only to that felt for the great Eva Peron. And for a while there is great military tension along the borders of Argentina and three other nations who are accused of being behind the kidnapping. Meanwhile, the nation mourns for Chico and the Mandez family, and the legend is born. But it was not until Arturo de Lorenzo, a well-known writer, started interviewing Chico’s mother, Maria Lousia, shortly before she died in the late 1990s that the full story was revealed. Yet there are still unanswered questions that not even Arturo can solve, and by this time, he is in love with one of Chico’s sisters and so is very close to the entire Mandez family. Meanwhile, the undisclosed kidnappers die during an underworld vendetta. The members of the Mandez family are revered with such tributes as a beautiful tango being named in their honour. Hoot and the other chimps now live back in their wonderful Amazon jungle refuge. Few know of its precise location and even less know of the location of Chico’s widow and her son. One morning in the present, Hoot becomes excited. A very special young man is coming to visit the colony. His identity in the world is a secret, but somehow, Hoot knows.  The main part of this story is set in two time frames, the present and from a few years before World War II until the 1960s. There is a third time frame involving a stranded family of chimpanzees in the Amazon jungle at the turn of the century, evolving to the 1960s when Chico was lost. The Mandez Legend purports to be a high-drama adventure saga, overcoming great adversities—suitable for the mature family. But it is more than that. The sport of soccer and romance are both strong integral themes. The settings are Italy, the Amazon jungle, and Buenos Aires.

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