WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.610 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.610 --> 00:00:03.338 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:03.338 --> 00:00:05.322 align:middle line:90% You mentioned you [INAUDIBLE]. 00:00:05.322 --> 00:00:33.460 align:middle line:90% 00:00:33.460 --> 00:00:33.960 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:41.480 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.480 --> 00:00:45.000 align:middle line:84% Well, the thing, to me, is kind of like-- let 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:46.000 align:middle line:90% me back up a little bit. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.140 align:middle line:84% The thing to me is we have the greatest social energy 00:00:51.140 --> 00:00:54.410 align:middle line:90% for change in youth. 00:00:54.410 --> 00:00:58.190 align:middle line:84% The revolutionary potential in youth is tremendous. 00:00:58.190 --> 00:01:02.450 align:middle line:84% And instead of it being unleashed, allowed to develop, 00:01:02.450 --> 00:01:06.110 align:middle line:84% it's being crushed, corralled, dissuaded. 00:01:06.110 --> 00:01:09.050 align:middle line:84% When kids start-- become creative and nobody likes it, 00:01:09.050 --> 00:01:11.090 align:middle line:90% they throw them out of schools. 00:01:11.090 --> 00:01:12.530 align:middle line:84% Their jails that they're building, 00:01:12.530 --> 00:01:16.220 align:middle line:84% at the rate they're building them, they're for our kids. 00:01:16.220 --> 00:01:18.680 align:middle line:84% And I saw the politics in the same-- 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:20.870 align:middle line:84% and I'm glad I did because I was prepared 00:01:20.870 --> 00:01:24.050 align:middle line:84% to die and kill for my barrio like everybody else. 00:01:24.050 --> 00:01:28.820 align:middle line:84% My thing was, my enemy was the other person just like me. 00:01:28.820 --> 00:01:29.910 align:middle line:90% It wasn't white people. 00:01:29.910 --> 00:01:30.860 align:middle line:90% It wasn't Asians. 00:01:30.860 --> 00:01:34.880 align:middle line:84% It was the other person that looked like me, acted like me. 00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:38.780 align:middle line:84% The Chicano movement gave me a purpose, a bigger purpose, 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:40.850 align:middle line:84% gave me a sense of what was happening, 00:01:40.850 --> 00:01:42.860 align:middle line:84% that the problems were systematic. 00:01:42.860 --> 00:01:45.440 align:middle line:84% That you had to look at economics, politics, social, 00:01:45.440 --> 00:01:47.180 align:middle line:90% culture, all these things. 00:01:47.180 --> 00:01:50.510 align:middle line:84% And I began to see then what role I was in. 00:01:50.510 --> 00:01:52.400 align:middle line:84% Either I was going to fall right into it, 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:55.910 align:middle line:84% I was going to be part of the plan, or set up my own plan. 00:01:55.910 --> 00:01:58.730 align:middle line:84% And in that period of time, East LA 00:01:58.730 --> 00:02:00.890 align:middle line:84% has the longest continuous street gangs 00:02:00.890 --> 00:02:02.210 align:middle line:90% in the United States. 00:02:02.210 --> 00:02:03.960 align:middle line:84% Been around since the turn of the century. 00:02:03.960 --> 00:02:06.715 align:middle line:90% 00:02:06.715 --> 00:02:08.840 align:middle line:84% The time in which there was hardly any gang warfare 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:10.759 align:middle line:90% was during the Chicano movement. 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:12.643 align:middle line:84% Because there was something to fight for. 00:02:12.643 --> 00:02:14.060 align:middle line:84% There was something to believe in. 00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:17.720 align:middle line:84% And we had [? Downton ?] homeboys into the struggle, 00:02:17.720 --> 00:02:19.100 align:middle line:90% in the movimiento. 00:02:19.100 --> 00:02:20.600 align:middle line:84% It wasn't just about certain people. 00:02:20.600 --> 00:02:22.070 align:middle line:90% It was everybody got involved. 00:02:22.070 --> 00:02:24.830 align:middle line:90% And that movement was crushed. 00:02:24.830 --> 00:02:27.460 align:middle line:84% They brought in agents like they killed the Black Panthers, 00:02:27.460 --> 00:02:30.530 align:middle line:84% just like they killed the Young Lords, just like they 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:31.910 align:middle line:84% killed off the AIM movement, just 00:02:31.910 --> 00:02:32.840 align:middle line:90% like they did all these things. 00:02:32.840 --> 00:02:34.250 align:middle line:90% They infiltrated the groups. 00:02:34.250 --> 00:02:35.550 align:middle line:90% They killed off people. 00:02:35.550 --> 00:02:37.550 align:middle line:84% I knew two political people who were killed off. 00:02:37.550 --> 00:02:40.025 align:middle line:84% One of them was an ex-tecato who became political. 00:02:40.025 --> 00:02:42.425 align:middle line:90% You know how they killed him? 00:02:42.425 --> 00:02:43.550 align:middle line:90% Shot him up full of heroin. 00:02:43.550 --> 00:02:46.670 align:middle line:84% They found him in a car, super overdose. 00:02:46.670 --> 00:02:49.570 align:middle line:84% It was the more than any he could have done. 00:02:49.570 --> 00:02:51.570 align:middle line:84% Others were found with bullet holes in the head. 00:02:51.570 --> 00:02:54.080 align:middle line:84% Nobody ever figured out who did it. 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:57.380 align:middle line:84% And then, there used to be community centers and teen 00:02:57.380 --> 00:02:59.930 align:middle line:84% posts in all the barrios, where people 00:02:59.930 --> 00:03:01.160 align:middle line:90% could go to and do things. 00:03:01.160 --> 00:03:02.510 align:middle line:90% They all began to fall apart. 00:03:02.510 --> 00:03:06.680 align:middle line:84% The early '70s, the cutbacks, the Nixon cuts, Proposition 13, 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:08.780 align:middle line:84% all these things began to cut all these things. 00:03:08.780 --> 00:03:11.030 align:middle line:84% And then, in the '80s, they had no more programs. 00:03:11.030 --> 00:03:13.040 align:middle line:84% In the '80s, you had the industry leave, 00:03:13.040 --> 00:03:16.078 align:middle line:84% the industry that saved a lot of people, that kept me out 00:03:16.078 --> 00:03:18.620 align:middle line:84% of a long prison sentence was that I could work in factories. 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:21.080 align:middle line:84% I worked in factories for seven years, steel mills. 00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:22.580 align:middle line:90% Those are all gone. 00:03:22.580 --> 00:03:25.460 align:middle line:84% The options that people had to try to get their life together, 00:03:25.460 --> 00:03:26.850 align:middle line:90% completely gone. 00:03:26.850 --> 00:03:30.470 align:middle line:84% So in the '80s you had the worst number of gang violence 00:03:30.470 --> 00:03:31.770 align:middle line:90% in the history of this country. 00:03:31.770 --> 00:03:34.490 align:middle line:84% You had the Reagan years and the loss of industry. 00:03:34.490 --> 00:03:36.200 align:middle line:84% And you need to see these things. 00:03:36.200 --> 00:03:38.060 align:middle line:84% Because people keep thinking it's us. 00:03:38.060 --> 00:03:41.570 align:middle line:84% People think we're the ones that did all this. 00:03:41.570 --> 00:03:43.400 align:middle line:90% They don't see the big picture. 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:46.130 align:middle line:84% In Chicago, for example, there is a community 00:03:46.130 --> 00:03:48.860 align:middle line:84% in South Chicago, a Mexican community, one of the most 00:03:48.860 --> 00:03:50.960 align:middle line:90% stable communities ever. 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:53.720 align:middle line:84% They came in several generations to work the steel mills. 00:03:53.720 --> 00:03:55.890 align:middle line:90% They had bought their own homes. 00:03:55.890 --> 00:03:57.360 align:middle line:90% They had cars in garages. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:58.640 align:middle line:90% They had clean lawns. 00:03:58.640 --> 00:03:59.540 align:middle line:90% There was no gangs. 00:03:59.540 --> 00:04:00.920 align:middle line:90% There was no drugs. 00:04:00.920 --> 00:04:05.750 align:middle line:84% When the steel mills went down, now go to South Chicago. 00:04:05.750 --> 00:04:09.260 align:middle line:84% Boarded up buildings, gangs on all the corners, 00:04:09.260 --> 00:04:10.370 align:middle line:90% drugs everywhere. 00:04:10.370 --> 00:04:12.830 align:middle line:84% Drugs is the only economic life going on in some 00:04:12.830 --> 00:04:14.160 align:middle line:90% of these communities. 00:04:14.160 --> 00:04:16.279 align:middle line:90% Families are broken up. 00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:17.810 align:middle line:84% These are important things to look 00:04:17.810 --> 00:04:21.138 align:middle line:84% at because I think society is trying to say it's all on us. 00:04:21.138 --> 00:04:22.430 align:middle line:90% Well, we have a responsibility. 00:04:22.430 --> 00:04:27.980 align:middle line:84% But part of our responsibility is to fight all that stuff. 00:04:27.980 --> 00:04:29.630 align:middle line:84% That's part of our responsibility. 00:04:29.630 --> 00:04:31.250 align:middle line:84% Not to just accept it and just say, 00:04:31.250 --> 00:04:32.990 align:middle line:84% you know what, it's the way it is, it's the way it's always 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:33.882 align:middle line:90% going to be. 00:04:33.882 --> 00:04:36.090 align:middle line:84% Part of it is to say, it doesn't have to be this way. 00:04:36.090 --> 00:04:37.400 align:middle line:90% And the youth are the key. 00:04:37.400 --> 00:04:40.874 align:middle line:90% 00:04:40.874 --> 00:04:44.353 align:middle line:84% I just wanted to say that when I was in the [INAUDIBLE] 00:04:44.353 --> 00:04:48.329 align:middle line:84% I had a lot of friends that were [INAUDIBLE].. 00:04:48.329 --> 00:04:51.311 align:middle line:90% And all of them [INAUDIBLE]. 00:04:51.311 --> 00:04:54.790 align:middle line:84% And I saw a lot of my friends do that, and jumped 00:04:54.790 --> 00:04:56.281 align:middle line:90% in [INAUDIBLE]. 00:04:56.281 --> 00:05:09.700 align:middle line:90% 00:05:09.700 --> 00:05:14.173 align:middle line:84% And I see a lot of my friends [INAUDIBLE].. 00:05:14.173 --> 00:05:16.658 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure if that's [INAUDIBLE].. 00:05:16.658 --> 00:05:23.650 align:middle line:90% 00:05:23.650 --> 00:05:25.540 align:middle line:84% No, you know, the interesting thing about it 00:05:25.540 --> 00:05:28.180 align:middle line:90% is I never wanted to get out. 00:05:28.180 --> 00:05:29.410 align:middle line:90% I never wanted to get out. 00:05:29.410 --> 00:05:30.490 align:middle line:90% This is my barrio, man. 00:05:30.490 --> 00:05:32.410 align:middle line:90% And I loved my homeboys. 00:05:32.410 --> 00:05:34.900 align:middle line:84% And I never betrayed them, and I never went against them. 00:05:34.900 --> 00:05:36.760 align:middle line:84% And I never said I'm trying to get out. 00:05:36.760 --> 00:05:41.560 align:middle line:84% What I wanted to do is I wanted us to stop dying. 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:44.200 align:middle line:84% I wanted us to stop killing each other. 00:05:44.200 --> 00:05:46.450 align:middle line:84% And there was a lot of people in my neighborhood 00:05:46.450 --> 00:05:47.780 align:middle line:90% that was with it. 00:05:47.780 --> 00:05:49.120 align:middle line:90% But it's like anything else. 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:51.730 align:middle line:84% First of all, there's a lot of pressure from society 00:05:51.730 --> 00:05:53.260 align:middle line:90% not to stop the killings. 00:05:53.260 --> 00:05:54.730 align:middle line:84% And I will tell you this right now. 00:05:54.730 --> 00:05:56.230 align:middle line:84% If you don't know this is true, it's 00:05:56.230 --> 00:05:57.850 align:middle line:84% true, and anybody that's been in LA. 00:05:57.850 --> 00:06:01.330 align:middle line:84% The police have instigated a lot of the gang wars. 00:06:01.330 --> 00:06:04.746 align:middle line:90% [AUDIO OUT] 00:06:04.746 --> 00:06:10.080 align:middle line:90% 00:06:10.080 --> 00:06:12.630 align:middle line:84% And we had treaties and we were talking. 00:06:12.630 --> 00:06:13.830 align:middle line:90% It wasn't easy. 00:06:13.830 --> 00:06:17.520 align:middle line:84% The day that we sat down and signed a little treaty 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:20.490 align:middle line:84% kind of like, a little like a pact, that weekend, 00:06:20.490 --> 00:06:23.640 align:middle line:84% two of my homeboys were sitting in their front lawn somewhere. 00:06:23.640 --> 00:06:25.020 align:middle line:90% Car came by. 00:06:25.020 --> 00:06:26.972 align:middle line:84% Didn't say anything, going 30 miles per hour, 00:06:26.972 --> 00:06:27.930 align:middle line:90% nobody knew who it was. 00:06:27.930 --> 00:06:31.110 align:middle line:84% Shot them both straight through the heart and killed them. 00:06:31.110 --> 00:06:33.750 align:middle line:90% And I knew it was the police. 00:06:33.750 --> 00:06:35.280 align:middle line:90% The people said it was Sangra. 00:06:35.280 --> 00:06:36.710 align:middle line:90% And the war started up again. 00:06:36.710 --> 00:06:40.590 align:middle line:84% Some people, not everybody, and I challenged those people. 00:06:40.590 --> 00:06:43.680 align:middle line:84% What happened with me is that, one night, because I took them 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:47.640 align:middle line:84% on, one night they set me up and had me shot at. 00:06:47.640 --> 00:06:49.800 align:middle line:84% And I never wanted to leave my barrio. 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:51.217 align:middle line:90% I never wanted to do that. 00:06:51.217 --> 00:06:52.050 align:middle line:90% And it was a choice. 00:06:52.050 --> 00:06:53.730 align:middle line:84% And I was prepared to die for this. 00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:54.810 align:middle line:90% I was prepared. 00:06:54.810 --> 00:06:57.270 align:middle line:84% There was people in the movement that said, you know what? 00:06:57.270 --> 00:06:59.363 align:middle line:84% Maybe you should think about leaving. 00:06:59.363 --> 00:07:01.530 align:middle line:84% And maybe you should think about getting out for now 00:07:01.530 --> 00:07:04.860 align:middle line:84% and coming back when you can do some good. 00:07:04.860 --> 00:07:06.640 align:middle line:84% And I never knew what that meant. 00:07:06.640 --> 00:07:07.898 align:middle line:90% I just knew I had to do that. 00:07:07.898 --> 00:07:10.190 align:middle line:84% And that's when they took me into this housing project. 00:07:10.190 --> 00:07:11.490 align:middle line:90% It's two months, get off the-- 00:07:11.490 --> 00:07:13.830 align:middle line:84% stay clean, get into the [INAUDIBLE],, get into-- 00:07:13.830 --> 00:07:16.220 align:middle line:84% I moved into East LA, moved into Boyle Heights, 00:07:16.220 --> 00:07:17.220 align:middle line:90% did work with gang kids. 00:07:17.220 --> 00:07:18.420 align:middle line:90% I never left the barrio. 00:07:18.420 --> 00:07:19.560 align:middle line:90% I never left my people. 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:20.450 align:middle line:90% Kept doing things. 00:07:20.450 --> 00:07:23.310 align:middle line:84% It took me 20 years to go back to Lomas. 00:07:23.310 --> 00:07:25.060 align:middle line:84% But then I came back with the book. 00:07:25.060 --> 00:07:26.820 align:middle line:90% And I came back to do something. 00:07:26.820 --> 00:07:28.380 align:middle line:84% And then it made sense, what they 00:07:28.380 --> 00:07:30.750 align:middle line:90% were saying to come back for. 00:07:30.750 --> 00:07:31.590 align:middle line:90% But I never left. 00:07:31.590 --> 00:07:32.790 align:middle line:90% I never left my 'hood. 00:07:32.790 --> 00:07:35.070 align:middle line:84% In fact, for that generation of people, 00:07:35.070 --> 00:07:37.920 align:middle line:84% I'm probably one of the few people that still keep 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:40.100 align:middle line:90% the name, still keep it going.