When he was eighteen, one day his little brother, Paco, came to him and said he wanted to join the gang. Jose looked at his little brother, four years younger than he, with a round, innocent face and big, black, trusting eyes. Fear and anger rose in him.
No way!" he said. "You just stay away from those gangs. You're too young, you don't know what you are asking. You should go to school and make something of yourself, not waste your time with a gang!"
As soon as he said it, and saw the tears start to come up in Paco's eyes, he knew what he had to do. He was not setting a good example for his brother. His brother saw him smoking and drinking sometimes, and glimpsed him on the streets with his "hermanos." Paco knew he snuck out at night and sometimes came home early in the morning to sleep all day while his parents were gone.
He had to leave home. But before he left, he told Paco that he was sorry he had been a part of a gang and that he expected better things from him. Then he took some money he had been saving and bought a bus ticket to California. He had heard that California was better than Dallas, especially for immigrants. The laws allowed immigrants there to get medical service and go to the schools and get welfare. Texas was difficult for immigrants. Texans hated Mexicans, it seemed, so much that they managed to keep any services from them, including medical services, though all were supposed to be able to get emergency treatment.
When the bus arrived at the vast and echoing Greyhound station in Los Angeles, Jose was frightened. It was so big and full of people. He kept his money balled up in his fist and his fist in his pocket, he was so afraid that someone would steal it. He had to find somewhere to go where it was safe and there were other Latinos. He asked around, then took another bus fifty miles north to the town of Oxnard, and there he felt more comfortable. He got a job right away, after spending the night in a motel, working in the fields. He worked all summer and saved quite a bit of money, staying in a room that he rented by the week. He was maturing, he thought, taking responsibility...
The 1990s also saw innovative interpretation of law enforcement's role in the perpetuation of organized crime. One of the most notable examples is L.A. Confidential (1997), in which corruption has reached so deep into the Los Angeles police department that two seemingly unrelated criminal investigations both lead to the police chief. The genre also proved its adaptability and continued appeal with Heat (1995) and Carlito's Way (1993); both films starred
Frank ends up in prison and comes out after 15 years a frail and misplaced person who no longer fits in the Harlem streets, no longer the feared drug baron that he was. It is also a positive experience since even in the midst of the rotten and corrupt police force, there was Richie who refused to compromise his personal and work ethics at all costs. I did experience a
Crazy Horse and the Western Hero Crazy Horse, believed born sometime in 1838, was a respected member of the Oglala Sioux Native American tribe and is noted for his courage in battle. He was recognized among his own people as a visionary leader committed to preserving the traditions and values of the Lakota way of life and leading his people into a war against the take-over of their lands by the
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