Summary:
When Luis Rodriguez was nine years old, he and his family immigrated to Los Anglos, United States from Mexico, in search of a better life. However, no matter how much Luis and his family tried to fit in, they were still aliens in the eyes of an Anglo, or Caucasian American and were constantly mistreated by them. After being ignored by teachers in school, Luis quickly gave up on academics and joined a local gang called, The Animal at a very young age. Luis then moves out of his home and drifts from one homies’ house to another. While in the gang Luis would past time with his homies by stealing, getting high, and raging war with a rival gang called, The Sangra Diablos.
After living on the streets for a certain period of time, Luis realized how even the police in the city was corrupted by provoking most of the gang rivalries’ and beating every kid they arrest.
As Luis finishes his final year in high school, he starts losing interest for the gang life and questions what was purpose of fighting in this endless gang war his gang fought with Sangra. Instead of getting high all day, Luis makes an effort to improve his education and aspires to become a writer. Luis also makes an effort to help some of the gang members see that there was more to life than just the gang and that there was a whole other world that they were missing. However, by doing this, the gang leaders considered that Luis was betraying the gang and tries to kill him by doing a drive by. Luckily however, Luis was able to duck for cover in time, but he knew he had to leave town because they would come back and try to kill him again. As Luis says farewell to his family, he looks at the city one last time and reminisce here, before getting into the car and heading out of the city. It would be years later before Luis returns to Los Anglos, only this to start a family of his own.
Quote:
“ The homeboys tried to kill me, vatos whom I had known as brothers…slept next to in jail…they were dudes I fought for…I would have died for them” (Rodriguez 238).
Reaction:
Luis was beginning to see that there was more to life than just gangs or drugs and was making an effort to change his life for the better. However, when Luis noticed that his homies from his childhood were dieing one after another, he realized something had to be done. So Luis went and told his gang members that the gang life was not everything and that there was still many other things they have not experienced yet. However, the gang leaders thought of Luis as a traitor for trying to persuade others members to leave the gang and decided to kill him. But to Luis’s luck he was able to run into cover when they tried to kill him. This forced Luis to leave town in fear that they would come back and try to kill him again, if they knew he was still alive.
