My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King

Content Warning: This section mentions abuse. 

Economic instability and systemic inequality manifest in multiple ways throughout Reymundo Sanchez’s memoir. His adolescence was marked by cramped and unsafe living conditions, as well as the lack of basic resources such as food, clothing, and education. Sanchez’s family, like many others in impoverished communities, struggled to meet basic needs, which exacerbated tension and violence within the household. For example, his stepfathers’ abuse was intertwined with their inability to maintain employment, reflecting how economic stress often fuels familial breakdown.

Sanchez also highlights how systemic inequities—whether through disinvestment, redevelopment, or stereotypes—create environments where gangs offer not only survival mechanisms but also a distorted sense of identity and community. The researcher Laurence Ralph explores similar ideas in his book Renegade Dreams. Sanchez depicts the systemic roots of inequality by focusing on Chicago’s inner-city neighborhoods, where low-income, predominantly Latino communities are concentrated. These areas are marked by high unemployment rates, limited access to quality education, and inadequate social services—conditions that stem from historical patterns of discrimination and disinvestment, as Dayna Bowen Mathews argues in Just Medicine and David A. Ansell posits in