Once a King, Always a King: The Unmaking of a Latin King [Hardcover]

This riveting sequel toMy Bloody Lifetraces 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 heartpounding scenes of his backslide into drugs, sex, and violence,Once a King, Always a Kingrecounts 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.

“The pseudonymous author must be enthusiastically applauded for his struggle to extract himself from the jaws of the monster.”  —KirkusReviews

“A survivor who turned his life around, Sanchez writes plainly and powerfully, and what is shocking about his tragic tale is not the barbaric actions of young gangbangers but the appalling collusion of adults, from criminally abusive parents to mercenary gun dealers and immoral cops.”  —BooklistonMy Bloody Life

“Sanchez carefully traces his own transformation from an inner-city Puerto Rican boy who likes to play baseball into an accomplished gangbangerl³'