Post: #1

Quote:In My Bloody Life, Reymundo Sanchez tells a chillingly sad tale, from his birth in the back of a pickup truck in Puerto Rico to the day he quit the Latin Kings gang, 21 years later. From the first page, his narrative is unpretentious, disarmingly honest, and horrifyingly riveting. His early years were so full of pain and abuse that by the time he opts, at age 11, to hang out with the local gang, the Latin Kings, it seems a perfectly logical choice. In his shoes, any one of us--smacked nightly by a mother and beaten ragged whenever the stepfather got the chance--would likely have chosen the same path. The gang was the family that accepted him as well as the peer group that offered girls who didn't say "no." Any violence that went with the territory couldn't match the atmosphere of brutality that permeated his own home.

Sanchez was a Latin King for six years and participated in innumerable bloody gang battles--years rife with sex, drugs, booze, and acts of gang revenge. He finally got up his pluck to leave (and the only way was to be "violated" out through a gang beating), but admits in his conclusion that life since then has, in some ways, been even harder. He's had to quit drugs, lose the only community he's known, support himself, and deal with the nightmares of all the horrors he's seen and done. Though Sanchez still hasn't accomplished his dream of completing college, he has managed to leave the Kings, leave Chicago, leave behind his mother's legacy of violence, and write an impressive first book.

This is a short and straight forward easy to read book. Its a pretty good look into gang life. The author just tells it like it is. He starts off enjoying the drugs, brotherhood, easy pussy and rush from fights and shootings. Then gets burned out and realizes the gang doesnt give a fuck about him or anyone else in it. He was a pawn in the game.

I'm not sure what a professional would say is going on in his head after living the gang life, getting raped by his cousin as a kid, losing his virginity to a 30 something woman when he was 13, and repeatedly sucking a married man's dick for cash and shelter. I would recommend it if you're curious about street gangs to see the good and bad. Its pretty much like the real life version of Hollywood gang movies with drama, killings and sex everywhere. I still need to check out his second book which is a continuation.

Post: #2

Good thread. This is the content worth viewing, teaching and learning from. The hollywood machine sells gang life as something desired when it's simply a male meat grinder

Post: #3

Here I clicked thinking this was going to be a post about Screwstons life.

Post: #4

I know some old school Kings that say this guy hyped up some of the things in the book. But it's still an interesting read.

Post: #5

Post: #6

Thanks for the suggestion. My fav genre of books is true crime but especially stuff about smugglers gangs mafia and prison and foreign prison stories. Hadnt heard of this one. Sounds interesting

Post: #7

Is there a downloadable version? Audiobook?