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Title: Once a King, Always a King: The Unmaking of a Latin King by Reymundo Sanchez ISBN: 1-55652-505-2 Publisher: Chicago Review Press Pub. Date: October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: All the King's Horses and All the King's Men...
Comment: 'I just want to know why me, why...me!' Reymundo Sanchez wails during an explosive argument with his estranged sister about how, as a child, he suffered years of abuse at the hands of their mother. That question, which occurs about two-thirds of the way through this sorrowful memoir, haunts every page of this book, and indeed seems to have been the theme of much of Mr. Sanchez's scarred, young life.
Born in 1963 to a 16-year-old mother and a 74-year-old father in the hilltop village of Cayey, Puerto Rico, Sanchez (a nom de guerre) survived being raped and beaten by his 18-year-old cousin at age five. After his father died, his mother quickly remarried, decamped Puerto Rico, and moved the family to Chicago. There, Sanchez suffered another wave of physical and psychological torment from his mother and stepfather (and, subsequently, a third father figure named 'Pedro') while his sisters seemed to escape much, if not all, of the mistreatment. At 13, Sanchez found himself alone on the mean streets of Chicago, after his mother cast him out of the family home.
By the mid-1970s, the Latin Kings had established themselves as a highly organized megagang in Chicago, and their mantra 'Amor de Rey' ('King Love') seemed to hold the promise of a better, if not love-filled existence for Sanchez, who quickly joined. To his dismay, though, he found only further violence and ruinous relationships in his newly adopted 'family.' Still, as a gang member, there were other castaways with whom he could relate, and although he hated what was required of him to maintain his membership, at least he felt a sense of belonging.
Eventually, even the brotherhood of the Kings proved to be an illusion, and for the next ten blood-splattered years, Sanchez existed at the fringes of society on the unkindness of strangers and on a steady diet of alcohol, cocaine, and loveless sex. In the name of the Latin Kings, he also returned to society much of the brutality that had been inflicted upon him, by participating in the usual gang fare of beatings, shootings, and other acts of violence and revenge.
Most of these events are chronicled in Sanchez's first book, My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King (Chicago Review Press, 2000), a savage record of a young immigrant's cold life on the streets, whose hopeful finale had Sanchez quitting the Latin Kings and thinking ahead to college.
In this tortured sequel, Sanchez lets us know that that is not how things turned out.
Like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part III, Sanchez proved no match for the lure of la familia, and was pulled back into the thick of the Latin Kings' lucrative drug trade, despite numerous attempts to stay out. He acknowledges that trying to give up gang life 'is like trying to quit an addiction.'
After he was arrested and convicted on a drug trafficking charge, the young gangbanger spent two years in a state prison, which, he says, turned out to be his salvation. Sanchez reports that it was a turning point in his life, and freely admits that, paradoxically, it was his membership in the Latin Kings that afforded him that singular opportunity. He used his time inside to educate himself, to write, and to begin reflecting on all that happened in his life ' this time from an adult perspective, and in relative seclusion.
In a series of emotional hemorrhages, Sanchez resurrects his tangled past, in particular, several ill-starred sexual relationships he had with women he mistook for people who cared, in part, one would imagine, out of a desperate need to relieve his own immense suffering, to feel loved, and to feel, finally, a sense of belonging to someone, anyone. Only in a coda tacked on at the end of the book does he reveal perhaps the real source of his impulsive behavior, and it's as eye-opening as it is troubling.
While the first half of Once a King focuses on Sanchez's misdeeds as a 'restored' member of the Latin Kings, the second half centers around his life-redeeming but ultimately ill-fated relationship with a discontented feminist named Marilyn. Marilyn seems to be the first person in Sanchez's life who challenges his intellect, and whom he can trust with the knowledge of his horrific past. It is therefore devastating to Sanchez when she uses his past against him in a heated and ultimately violent exchange that alters their relationship forever. As Sanchez recalls: 'The one and only person I had ever opened up to about that experience with my cousin had just used my own words to destroy me.'
But destroy him it didn't. In a final chapter titled 'Here and Now,' Sanchez seems to have achieved another level of self-awareness and acceptance, even if he still seems disquieted about the past. Although his family's lifelong indifference toward him still haunts him, he has come to terms with it.
As a sequel to My Bloody Life, Once a King is best understood in the context of the earlier book. Like its predecessor, it is a somber, intense pathography, but offers a somewhat deeper insight into its author's tender psyche.
Sanchez's narrative style is effortless and evocative; its power lies in the naked honesty with which he chronicles his ultimate deliverance from the past. There are times when it seems he is revealing too much about himself; at other times, it's hard not to want to reach through the page, extract him from the situation he's in, and give him a life-affirming hug. Though the prose has its flaws ('Hearing the name made me mentally reminisce about the old days') and occasional clichés ('I had been robbed of my childhood and young adulthood'), Sanchez hits his mark so often, and with such resonance and candor, that it is easy to forgive him the occasional miss. -Jeff Evans, author of Undoing Time: American Prisoners in Their Own Words
Rating: 5
Summary: Incredibly Real
Comment: I enjoy reading, in fact their is nothing that I enjoy more then curling up with a good book. I finished Part I, and when I realized their was a part II I ran to the bookstore and picked it up, this book is amazing, very easy to read, keeps you captivated from the moment you start to reading it, very exciting, and you only wish you can locate his mother and find out why she did the things she did. I am a native of Chicago and very familiar with all of the streets, and even Bellas Pizza, you only wish you could have been around to give the author the love he needed growing up. An excellent book, I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5
Summary: True hero
Comment: I read "My Bloody Life" in two days, and immediately picked up the next installment, "Once a King, Always a King". Last year through Americorps, I taught in an elemenatary school near Humboldt Park, with the majority of kids coming from that neighborhood. These books gave me insights on two levels. First, it gave me a glimpse of what some of these students go home to, and what their life is like after the bell rang at 3. I did not grow up in an inner city neighborhood, so these books are extremely valuable. Second, and most importantly, it gave me a sense how the parents of these children grew up, and how these cycles of behavior that Sanchez describes in the book are being repeated in their children and grandchildren with whom I worked. I work with children again this year, and now have a new sense of urgency to help these cycles of self-destruction stop. However, despite my best efforts, my words and actions cannot be validated in the same way that Sanchez's can - I did not grow up poor, surrounded by gang violence, etc. In that way, I applaud Sanchez's ability to be so candid and honest, for that is the only way to get his message across. I also applaud his ability to take ownership and responsibility for his actions, and rather than hide them, he boldly confronts them, challenges them, and grows. I could only imagine the demons that he confronted and overcame. He is a true hero in a time when we care more about who Jennifer Lopez sleeps with than children who are destroying themselves. So, I personally would like to thank him for giving fuel to the fight not just against gang violence, but against violence in general and injustices. It is a must read for, well, anyone. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Sanchez, if you doubt your impact, I recently was at Clemente for a presentation, and talked with a teacher. That teacher recommended the book, because of my familiarity with the neighborhood, and said, "It's like a Bible around here." Let's hope that these kids open their minds and hearts to your message.
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Title: My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King by Reymundo Sanchez, Rey Sanchez ISBN: 1556524277 Publisher: Chicago Review Press Pub. Date: September, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: 8 Ball Chicks by Gini Sikes ISBN: 0385474326 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 20 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Monster : Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member, The by Sanyika Shakur, Monster Kody Scott ISBN: 0140232257 Publisher: Pearson Addison Wesley Pub. Date: 01 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Always Running by Luis Rodriguez ISBN: 0671882317 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 09 February, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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