The Making of a gangbanger. (Keeping Current).In Maplewood Park on Chicago's Northwest Side, Reymundo Sanchez, who had recently started hanging out with members of the Latin Kings
Latin kings of Rome, Alban kings of Rome or kings of Alba Longa, series of legendary kings of Latium and Alba Longa who, in Roman mythology, fill the gap between Aeneas's foundation of Rome and street gang, was asked if he wanted to look for members of a rival gang called the Vicelords. He naively agreed, and was soon handed a sawed-off shotgun Noun 1. sawed-off shotgun - a shotgun with short barrels scattergun, shotgun - firearm that is a double-barreled smoothbore shoulder weapon for firing shot at short ranges . Minutes later, he performed his first hit. He was 14. Sanchez (a pseudonym pseudonym (s  `dənĭm) [Gr.,=false name], name assumed, particularly by writers, to conceal identity. A writer's pseudonym is also referred to as a nom de plume (pen name). ) recounts the incident in "My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King," his stark memoir memoirHistory or record composed from personal observation and experience. Closely related to autobiography, a memoir differs chiefly in the degree of emphasis on external events. of becoming swallowed by gang life in the 1970s. He writes that he wants his story to show "that most kids are driven to gangs by adults, not by their peers or the dreaded 'white man' who is blamed for every problem." Sanchez writes about young children who were taught to represent, or show allegiance to, their father's gang, a police officer who worked for the gang and community members who ignored the violence. Sanchez moved to Chicago from Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (pwār`tō rē`kō), island (2005 est. pop. 3,917,000), 3,508 sq mi (9,086 sq km), West Indies, c.1,000 mi (1,610 km) SE of Miami, Fla. in 1964, when he was 6 years old, and ended up in Humboldt Park on the Northwest Side. When he was 13 his parents moved back to Puerto Rico. He moved in with his heroin-dealing brother Hector, who ignored him. The Latin Kings, he writes, became his new family. He and his Latin King brothers lived in a deadly cycle of retaliation RETALIATION. The act by which a nation or individual treats another in the same manner that the latter has treated them. For example, if a nation should lay a very heavy tariff on American goods, the United States would be justified in return in laying heavy duties on the manufactures and where respect and reputation were earned by violence. He was once beaten by fellow Kings for not killing a 10-year-old boy representing for another gang. He watched his friends die or go to jail. And he overdosed on cocaine and did a stint in jail himself before enduring a reverse initiation in which other gang members beat him for several minutes. Sanchez, then in his early 20s, concluded leaving Chicago was his only option. "I shed tears every time I hear news of another victim falling to gang violence," he writes. "I think it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a we take responsibility for our own neighborhoods and put a stop to the crying." "My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King" is published by Chicago Review Press. |
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