Who Is Reymundo Sanchez's Motivation In Once The King Always A King

According to a study by Dr. Michael Carlie, fifty to eighty percent of gang members come either from a single-parent home, or one in which no parent resides. If the parent is not available to provide structure, supervision, support, and caring during this crucial time of adolescent development, teens may turn to gang participation to fulfill their needs. In Reymundo Sanchez’s memoir Once A King, Always A King, Sanchez takes the reader through his struggle to rebuild his life outside of the Latin Kings, and his motivation to move beyond his disgusting past of drugs and violence. He also talks about losing close ones and friends due to resisting old habits. Sanchez implies that the life he chose while he was younger still haunts him in some aspects

For instance, Sanchez’s hyperbole reveals just how close it is for him to go backward into his violent nature. Sanchez purposely exaggerates chopping his current girlfriend “into little pieces” to create fear, “ ‘You know I could chop you into little pieces, throw them in the trash compactor, and no one would know the difference?’ “(263). Obviously, the love and attention that Sanchez needs isn’t provided. Due to his lack of needs, he feels a sense of freedom to roam back into his violent ways. A lover that deeply cared about Sanchez and his actions would never allow him to get to that point in an argument. A lover would express to him the love and attention that he lacks giving him the strength to focus on life beyond violence and drugs. Additionally, Sanchez’s hyperbole displays the struggle of attention and love that he searches for, “I cried rivers of tears, but nobody cared” (2). Clearly, the amount of tears Sanchez shed allows the reader to understand his pain of feeling unwanted. Because of growing up with a father who abandoned him and a mother who left him to pursue her life with her boyfriend at the time, Sanchez was never shown any type of love; besides the wrong love he endured by his fellow gang members. A lover would focus on the love and affection he needs allowing him to feel wanted. Feeling wanted from a lover is a much better feeling than feeling wanted from a gang. Which allows Sanchez the strength to focus on life beyond gang violence and drugs, and to never seek love and attention within his old gang