At the start of her novel Mecca, Susan Straight introduces readers to a young man named Johnny Frías, who lives in California. Frías' Native and Mexican ancestors were among the first to settle in California, something which Frías is proud of. His ancestry is also integrated profoundly into his soul. His ancestry, in other words, is part of who Frías and his family are.
For work, Frías is a California highway patrolman. Day in and day out in the desolate desert, Frías pulls over those who are speeding and who are otherwise acting suspiciously. Unfortunately, while performing his duties as a patrolman, Frías has to deal with quite a few awful people and things. For one, many of the people that Frías pulls over are racist and hurl insults at him. Additionally, Frías killed a young man who was insulting a young woman named Bunny during his rookie year, something that has haunted him ever since.
One day, Frías killing the young man comes back to haunt him in a real and tangible way. Bunny, and other sordid and otherwise interesting characters from his life, come back and interact with Frías in several surprising ways. Not only that, Frías must contend with other difficult things like prejudice, racism, and similar barriers. And ultimately, Frías finally deals with the death of the man he killed, the racism, and the other barriers and people he deals with.
