1955's 'Gomez' has a Puerto Rican teen genius for its hero, which I appreciate, considering the way many people treat Puerto Ricans these days (and it was probably worse back then). Julio Gomez may be the hero, but we learn about him from a newspaper reporter, Bill Vilcheck.

Vilcheck is interviewing Dr. Sugarman, head of physics at the university. Dr. Sugarman shows him a letter from a Julio Gomez, a 17-year-old dishwasher. Gomez is working out a formula for breeder reactors, but has a problem. The letter includes some lines of math. Dr. Sugarman doesn't think much of it, but lets Vilcheck have it to run in the paper for a laugh.

Vilchek doesn't find it funny when a hard knocking on his door wakes him up. It's the Sunday Editor with three hard-looking young men and an older man named Rear Admiral McDonald. Vilchek gets searched. MacDonald is the Deputy Director of the Office of Security and Intelligence at the Aromic Energy Commission. Gomez's letter was printed without his name and address, so the admiral wants the original. He and his men would have left with the letter, but Vilchek's boss blackmails them into letting Vilchek cover the Gomez story when it can go public.

They fly to New York to pick up Julio Gomez because Dr. Monroe of the Scientific Advisory Committee saw the letter. The Doctor says that's his work and it's a closely guarded secret.

Gomez is quite angry when MacDonald doesn't believe that he worked those equations out himself. The Admiral calls Dr. Milnes, Chief of the A.E.C. Theoretical Physics Division to come meet Gomez. After some talking that Vilchek, MacDonald, and the Admiral's Corporal Higgins can't follow, Dr. Milnes declares the lad to be a physicist and compares him to the great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (real person).

Gomez and Vilchek get contracts and the teen gets to work. Dr. Mines dumbs things down for Vilchek in their briefings.

Gomez has worked out something that he is worried about when Vilchek thinks he needs a break. During the break, Gomez marries his beloved Rosa and forgets what he was working on (he wiped all the equations off the blackboard).

Gomez and Rosa have a happy married life with their son, Francisco, named for Julio's father. Vilchek learns something, but keeps it quiet while Gomez lives.

It's a good story about a good man who, thank God, had a good sense of ethics. ( )