Chapters 1-5 Summary and Analysis

My Bloody Life recounts the life of Reymundo Sanchez, a young boy in Puerto Rico who moved to Chicago and joined the bloody Latin Kings. He performed dozens of hits in six years and waged war on rival gangs. In Chapter 1, La Familia, Reymundo Sanchez was born in 1963, in the back of a 1957 Chevy. The family lived on a hilltop farming village in central Puerto Rico. His elderly father died before Reymundo's fifth birthday. Reymundo's mother soon married Emilio, leaving her children with their aunt while she went on her honeymoon. His cousins and aunt beat the five-year-old daily while she was gone. Eighteen-year-old cousin Alberto raped Reymundo and threatened to kill him if he told anyone.

In Chapter 2, Chicago, shortly after the wedding, Reymundo's mother gave birth to another daughter. Then the family moved to the U.S...