Speedy Ortiz

Eulalio (Speedy) Ortiz is a secondary but important character in LOCAS. Speedy is the youngest brother of Isabel. Speedy first meets Maggie Chascarillo when both are small children. They remain good friends, but take different paths. Maggie becomes a punk and falls in love with her friend Hopey, while Speedy becomes a member of a street gang led by Litos. (Izzy) Ortiz, the godmother to the young punks of Hoppers and mentor of Maggie Chascarillo and Hopey Glass. Speedy also has another older sister, Chabela, and an older brother, Big Eddie.

Maggie and Speedy are attracted to each other, but for a long time neither does anything about it. Maggie is involved with Hopey and also with men like Tony Chase and Rand Race, while Speedy (who fancies himself a great lover) has a series of affairs, one of them with Blanca Rizo, an old enemy of Maggie's.

Things come to a head when Speedy starts going out with Maggie's 16-year old sister, Esther, who is also having an affair with a rival gang leader in the neighboring town of Montoya. Esther's two-timing and Speedy's jealousy and hot-headedness nearly trigger a gang war. Maggie is beaten up by Blanca, who is in turn beaten up by Maggie's girl-gang cousin, Licha Rodriguez. Litos is shot by the Montoya gang and loses an eye.

Remorseful over the trouble he has caused, Speedy turns to Maggie for support. He confesses his love, but Maggie is too upset and too self-doubting to accept it, and she turns away from Speedy. Overwhelmed and rejected by the person whom he now realizes he loves most, Speedy commits suicide. His death is a major blow to his sister, Izzy, and a lasting source of guilt for Maggie.

Speedy is handsome, tough, headstrong, and sometimes violent, the image of a macho young Mexican-American. Yet beneath this he also has a sensitive side, which he reveals only to Maggie.