This book talks about a young Chicano who was an official gang member by the age of 12. He gets into a lot of trouble and because of it he ends up in jail. But he also becomes a boxer and tries to turn things around but the vida loca is always calling his name. his worst mistake, as a gang member, is that he falls in love with a girl from a rival gang. In his world, a cop is the same thing as another gang member , because the police harass them and instead of taking them downtown they take them to a alley and beat them up.

What I like so much about this book is that when you read it you imagine you and him sitting in a living room and he's telling you stories from his past. This book doesn't just have one continuous story, he breaks up his stories into different tales, for example in one part he'll be talking about his encounter with a cop who kicked his butt and in another part he'll talk about his boxing days. I would recommend this book to any former or current gang member because I think that it is a lot easier to understand this book if you have gang experience. All in all this is a good book.