Reymundo Sanchez

Reymundo Sanchez is the pen name of the main character, a member of the feared Latin Kings gang in Chicago. The memoir traces Reymundo's development from a toddler to quitting the gang before his nineteenth birthday. Reymundo's elderly father died when the boy was just four. His teenage mother quickly married another man, leaving Reymundo and his two sisters with her aunt while she was on her honeymoon. Reymundo was brutally sodomized by his much older cousin Alberto and tortured by his cousins. When the family moved to Chicago, two successive stepfathers beat Reymundo, with his mother's cooperation. Eventually Reymundo retaliated against his stepfather Pedro, in an effort to stop the beatings.

At thirteen, despite the violence at home, Reymundo was reluctant to shoot at rival gang members on his first hit. He got a reputation as a coward. When he refused to have sex in public...