Gang Violence By Luis Rodriguez

Barking to the Choir is a powerful novel that articulates about the life of several gang members in Los Angeles County and their redemption. Father Gregory Boyle, the author of this book and the founder of Homeboy Industries, entered Los Angeles when gang violence was at its peak. Although Father Boyle has gone out of his way to give hope to communities where gang culture is prevalent, has given guidance and mentorship to youth and adults that society has deemed as unworthy, as a Sociologist we have to critique his reflexivity and his acceptance to communities of color.

In Always Running, Luis J. Rodriguez recalls his time growing up in Los Angeles during the 60s and 70s. Rodriguez writes of the hardships that his family had first encountered while trying to assimilate into American society and how he would often, while growing up, be criminalized by his teachers, law enforcement, other people, his peers, his community, and eventually people who cared most for him. Rodriguez recalls the times where he and some friends came together and created a family, a brotherhood of sort, in order to fulfill his need of belonging, but as other people in the community had also formed groups to consolidate power, thus marked the beginning of rivalry and the introduction of gangs. Rodriguez’s gang life had been filled with tragedies and filled with great times, but ultimately he tried to leave the life of crime and commit to an education. Rodriguez tried stepping away from the gang lifestyle by going to school and writing poetry, but ended up back in the life of crime after a serious altercation with the police. When Rodriguez went back to his gang lifestyle, he found the same gang that treated him as a brother, had shunned him away after Rodriguez had offered a solution to wither away the gang violence.

In society today, there is a major problem We live in a society where gangs are taking over our neighborhoods in numbers. It is the responsibility of the individuals to part take in getting their neighborhoods back under control. Gangs are becoming a growing problem in American society. More young people are turning to gangs to solve problems in their lives or for acceptance. When youths join gangs, they drop all their social activities with school, family, and friends. However, individuals ruin their lives, and the chances of them having a decent education, and a successful life by getting involved in gang activity.

Determined to help his audience - people who stereotype against and do not understand gang life - find commonalities with gang members, Fr. Boyle shares his experiences with gangs in Los Angeles. At the beginning of the novel, Fr. Boyle articulates his thesis and expresses his purpose for sharing his experiences when he states, “Though this book does not concern itself with solving the gang problem, it does aspire to broaden the parameters of our kinship. It hopes not only to put a human face on the gang member, but to recognize our own wounds in the broken

In the article Bored, Broke and Armed: clues to chicago’s Gang Violence by John Elgion who is , discusses the how the lack of education can turn children into gang violence.  He observes, Conditions were ripped for

The odds are stacked upon Luis Rodriguez, an upcoming sixteen year old that has found himself in the world of gangs. Luis is a human, and it is expected that he would make many mistakes in his life, however when given choices, he always seems to choose the wrong one and never learns from his mistakes. The theme of Luis Rodriguez’s autobiography, “Always Running,” is that many people feel like they are alone in the world, and that the world is always against them, but there will always be people that will stand in your corner and help them achieve what they were meant for. He proves this by including examples from his childhood and the mistakes he has made and the supports he has had.

The social learning theory argues that a person is heavily influenced by their environment, and they acquire their skills, either positive or negative from their surroundings and from the people in them (Morenoff, Raudenbush, Sampson, 2001 pp. 517-519). Luis was raised in a poorer neighborhood, and with his mother abandoning him and his father working all the time he made his own relationships. Unfortunately, he made them with the wrong crowd as he started dating a gangster and his best friend was keen on becoming one as well. Luis then stopped caring for school. We realize that he learned some violent skills from his friends from the disrespectful way he treated his father, and how quick he was to assault Santiago and steal his father’s truck back. In these cases, the best support to these juveniles would be programs that would allow them to develop their own interests. Programs like these would enable troubled youths like Luis and the gangsters from Crips and Bloods to develop their own sense of identity and allow them to become independent individuals. As a result, troubled youths like these would not succumb to criminal activities because they would not allow the labels that others place on them or their friends’ negative influence to affect them. In theory, with the proper support systems many youths would be better able to explore other alternatives rather than joining the

Fiction is very important and valuable on our school board, it should stay in our educational systems. All fictional stories have special and deep meanings that can make your reading experiences very relatable. In the novel, "Gabi: A Girl in Pieces" by Isabel Quintero, we read about a girl named Gabi that is entering her senior year of high school and uses a diary to write down the events that come into play during her senior year. All types of fiction are meant to stay in our school board and have a place in the curriculum because they have all sorts of problems within them that many people experience. When reading a novel, specifically fiction, they all seem to have real-life problems embedded inside them.

People also criticized the film because they think that it is an exaggeration of what was/is really going on in South Central LA. Another concern was that this film is one sided and depicts the police, institutions and organizations as the culprits for why our black communities have suffered thanks to gang violence. The film did not really mention anything about the mechanics of the gang lifestyle. Why not? I do think that there could have been some information included about the structure of the gangs and their daily

Jose understands at a young age that in order to escape the indentured life of working in a sugar cane plantation like his ancestors before him, he must do something different. In the classroom, Jose is a very bright student as seen through his peers and especially his professor who eventually helped Jose get into a prestigious school because of his academic excellence. He assures his grandmother who is his sole provider and family that one day she’ll no longer have to work tirelessly in the sugar cane plantation. Jose dreams of taking work in a more profitable and higher field then the plantation his community is chained to all being done by attaining

His sister was an adult and needed a job for money. But they could barely speak English so it was difficult. But she eventually found a job as a cashier at a small market. Raul thought about his parents all the time, and he wrote them letters about how life is in America. He had a very tough time in school having no friends, and he didn't know English.

poor family, how he learns the language (English), and what he does for the family.

As the boy encounters the gang a third time, he decides to grab a weapon of sorts to attack them with until they allow him to pass. This has now taught the child that force and violence are viable, and perhaps even preferred forms of progressing and receiving what one wants. This could very well have a negative effect on the way this boy deals with problems in the past, and could easily transcend into his adult life. Especially in an environment such as the ghetto, events such as these teach children how the streets are run, and could heavily influence them to join a gang like environment as they

The topic of whether literature classic novels should stay or not in a school curriculum is a daunting task. Novels like “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Slaughterhouse-Five” have been accused of inappropriate language and questioning topics. These great pieces of literature should stay in the curriculum because of the moral and values they possess.

This chapter analizes the language in the Colombian narrative on urban violence. It addresses the problem in relation to character’s slang and to the fiction’s narrator. I start with Mejia Vallejo’s novel, a fiction following the bipartisan conflict in Colombia, because of this novel depicts the migrants who have had to run away from the country in order to survive in the city. Their language comes from the rural areas but has many elements from the inmates’ language adopted in jails. After that, I read Ramirez Gomez’ little-known book. In which the otherness is not the farmer migrant but the young gangster, whose language belongs to shanties. Finally, I analyze the novella by famous filmmaker Victor Gaviria. His book gives voice to the actual