In Maplewood Park forward Chicago's...

In Maplewood Park forward Chicago's Northwest Side, Reymundo Sanchez, who had lately started hanging out with members of the Latin Kings public way gang, was asked if he wanted to turn the thoughts for members of a rival gang called the Vicelords. He naively agreed, and was in a short time handed a sawed-off shotgun. Minutes later, he performed his first hit. He was 14

Sanchez (a pseudonym) repeats the incident in "My sanguinary Life: The Making of a Latin King," his stark memoir of becoming swallowed on gang life in the 1970 He writes that he wants his story to point out to "that most kids are driven to gangs by the agency of adults, not by their lords or the dreaded 'white man' who is blamed for each problem."

Sanchez writes about young children who were taught to portray or show allegiance to, their father's gang, a police officer who worked for the gang and community members who ignored the violence.

Sanchez mov to Chicago from Puerto Rico in 1964 when he was 6 years olden and ended up in Humboldt Park upon the Northwest Side. When he was 13 his parents mov back to Puerto Rico. He mov in with his heroin-dealing brother Hector, who ignored him. The Latin Kings, he writes, became his strange family.

He and his Latin King brothers lived in a deadly circle of time of retaliation where respect and reputation were earned through violence. He was once beaten on fellow Kings for not killing a 10-year-old lad representing for another gang.

He watched his friends die or journey to jail. And he overdosed upon cocaine and did a stint in jail himself before enduring a turn topsy-turvy initiation in which other gang members beat him for several minutes. Sanchez, then in his early 20 conclud leaving Chicago was his simply option.

"I shed tears each time I hear news of another victim falling to gang violence," he writes. "I think it's time we take responsibility for our avow neighborhoods and put a stop to the crying."

"My murderous Life: The Making of a Latin King" is published by way of Chicago Review Press.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Community Renewal Society

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