Sleuth Cities: East L.A., Seoul, and Military Mysteries in Martin Limón’s Slicky Boys and The Wandering Ghost

In this article I explore cultural representations of Chicano/as in Korea, specifically focusing on Martin Limón’s numerous portrayals of an impoverished East L.A. as a gritty California counterpart to the desperate, at times overtly racist military district of Itaewon, located in Seoul. I also explore the genre of this mystery series as an aperture into racism, gendered exploitation, militarization, and expansion of U.S. frontiers from California across the Pacific to Korea. I argue that Limón'snovel binds together East L.A. and Itaewon as interconnected sites of war, poverty, gender and racial exploitation that inspire a critique of state power.