Reminding Me of Mo

Based on a true story, Reminding Me of Mo is a memoir based in Denver, Colorado. Geranimo Maestas was murdered by gang members for his Denver Broncos jacket on November 26, 1993; he was only sixteen. Mo's family—they called him Mo for short—created the No 'Mo Violence Cultural Dance Group in his honor and have championed it to this day. Mo's mother, Cathy, has shared his story throughout Denver and is the leader of the No 'Mo Violence Movement. Over the past two and a half decades the movement has helped hundreds of at-risk adolescents and teens evade street life and the ills of gangs. The No 'Mo Violence Cultural Dance Group's strength is in Ballet Folklórico, a vital link to the past which dates to Mexica dances. Reminding Me of Mo runs parallel with stories of North Denver's once proud indigenous heritage and documents its recent and unfortunate demise because of gentrification. Reminding Me of Mo extols golden-age era Hip Hop, the Chicano Movement, the fanaticism of the Denver Broncos, the boom of the NBA and basketball around the globe, the genesis of Generation X materialism, and the gang culture that swept through the urban centers of America in the early '90s. Reminding Me of Mo is a novel for and by the Hip Hop generation, and its format borrows from Ice Cube's infamous Death Certificate album. Whereas Death Certificate is separated into two sides—and is from Cube's perspective, two halves of the same reality: "The Death Side" and "The Life Side," Reminding Me of Mo begins retrospectively, documenting the beginning of the Patterson's friendship with Mo, and on throughout their formative years, culminating into Mo's tragic death. It is a character study of a natural-born leader who was never able to realize his potential due to a heinous crime. The latter part of the book follows the mythology of Mictlan—for the nine stages of the Aztec underworld—as the years following Mo's murder are both tragic and triumphant, past and prologue. Mo lived Hip Hop culture—it wouldn't be right to tell his story without interweaving the intricacies, codes and beauty that is Hip Hop. The novel's title, Reminding Me of Mo, is a tribute to Common's song, "Reminding Me (Of Sef)" which was released in 1997 as a threnody to his friend, Yusef. The song was an introduction to many about the idea of celebrating one's life as opposed to only mourning the death. Reminding Me of Mo accentuates the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. The pure, unadulterated truth, no matter how hurtful or tragic the content. Mo's life touched every facet of Denver, Colorado. Mo once played one-on-one against an eventual NBA Finals MVP, and the epic battle is mentioned in the chapter "Varsity Letters." Reminding Me of Mo is as fun as it is tragic. It exudes friendship, brotherhood, and comradery. Every year, on the anniversary of Mo's death, Cathy coordinates a candlelight vigil at the spot of his passing. Local television stations cover the event, but a thirty-second clip on the nightly news lacks the depth and detail of Mo's illustrious story.