Once a King, Always a King The Unmaking of a Latin King

by Sanchez, Reymundo

• ISBN13: 9781556525056
• ISBN10: 1556525052
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Summary

Traces Reymundo Sanchez's struggle to create a 'normal' life outside the Latin Kings, one of the nation's most notorious street gangs, and to move beyond his past. Sanchez illustrates how the Latin King motto 'once a king, always a king' rings true and details the difficulty and danger of leaving that life behind. Filled with heart-pounding scenes of his backslide into drugs, sex, and violence, Once a King, Always a King recounts how Sanchez wound up in prison and provides an engrossing firsthand account of how the Latin Kings are run from inside the prison system. Harrowing testaments to Sanchez's determination to rebuild his life include his efforts to separate his family from gang life and his struggle to adapt to marriage and the corporate world. Despite temptations, nightmares, regressions into violence, and his own internal demons, Sanchez makes an uneasy peace with his new life. This raw, powerful, and brutally honest memoir traces the transformation of an accomplished gangbanger into a responsible citizen.

Author Biography

Reymundo Sanchez is the pseudonym of a former Latin King who no longer lives in Chicago

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
1 Once a King, Always a King	1	(8)
2 Career Change	9	(6)
3 Josie's Way	15	(12)
4 Fear	27	(10)
5 Cocaine Again	37	(16)
6 The First Blessing	53	(22)
7 Doing Time	75	(18)
8 Almost Free	93	(10)
9 Work Release	103	(14)
10 New Beginning	117	(20)
11 A Different Kind of Girl	137	(18)
12 There Is Such a Thing as Friendship	155	(22)
13 Lovers	177	(10)
14 A New Plan	187	(16)
15 Welcome to Dallas	203	(12)
16 Is This Love?	215	(14)
17 Maybe We Can Try Again	229	(14)
18 Release of Pain	243	(22)
19 Changes	265	(8)
20 Here and Now	273	(12)
For Those at Risk	285