Tattoos On The Heart Book Report

Prior to being assigned the reading of the memoir “Always Running”, by Luis Rodriguez, I had never given much thought on juveniles involved in gang life. Rodriguez achieved success as an award-winning poet; sure the streets would no longer haunt him - until his own son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in the vivid memoir, “Always Running.” “Always Running” is the compilation of events Luis experienced during his youth in San Gabriel. The theme of the book is to always strive for the best things in life and to always take a stand for what you believe. Lured by the seemingly invincible gang culture of East L.A., he witnessed countless shootings and beatings, as well as senseless acts of street crime against his friends and family members. As a Latino in a poor neighborhood, Luis struggled through criticism, stereotypes, and mistreatment. With the help of his mentor, Chente, Luis saw a way out through education and the power of word to successfully break free from years of violence and desperation.

Outcasts in society are in need of love and compassion. In the book Tattoos on The Heart by Gregory Boyle, Father Greg gives gang members an opportunity to better themselves by providing them with jobs. Attention makes gang members realize they are worthy.

His ethnographic data on both Homeboy Industries and Victory Outreach consistently showed that these men can replace a gang lifestyle with a religious lifestyle, and changed their view on masculinity to more family-oriented. The transformation is a difficult process, he managed to capture few examples to show the ways that members might rebound to the gang lifestyle. Mario, a respondent from the Homeboy Industries, had a job with the Homeboy Industries and a plan of forming a household with his girlfriend. Later, he started drinking again under the influence of his girlfriend. Few months later, his old friend died and his drinking problem got escalated so badly, Father Greg (creator of the Homeboy Industries) demoted him from his position and “sent him to drug and alcohol rehab for two months” (p. 120). He resumed work with Homeboy Industries after he left the rehab, but he broke up with his girlfriend and lost the “reformed barrio masculinity”. Sudden traumatic events could lead them back to the street life, and seek comforts outside of religious and spiritual enlightenment. Flores also found that new recruits “struggled to develop a secure sense of masculine identity outside of the gang and alternated between expressions of Chicano gang masculinity and recovered gang masculinity” (p. 133). Despite these examples, the general trend is still clear and is consistent with his statement. Religion and gender expectation help recovering gang members from integrating back to the

Tattoos on the Heart encompasses many themes, but Fr. Boyle predominantly focuses on life and death. In one distinct instance, Fr. Boyle depicts the story of an unnamed sixteen-year-old homegirl who tells him, with such joy, that she is pregnant. Fr. Boyle is unable to hide his disappointment, which leads the homegirl to say “I just want to have a kid before I die.” (90) This narrative was unfamiliar to my own life experiences, which consequently made the story difficult to relate to. Growing up in a middle class neighborhood I was never fully exposed to death that occurs in young adults due to gang violence, as a result I never knew what it was like to genuinely fear for my life or believe that I was going to die before I turned eighteen.

Barking to the Choir is a powerful novel that articulates about the life of several gang members in Los Angeles County and their redemption. Father Gregory Boyle, the author of this book and the founder of Homeboy Industries, entered Los Angeles when gang violence was at its peak. Although Father Boyle has gone out of his way to give hope to communities where gang culture is prevalent, has given guidance and mentorship to youth and adults that society has deemed as unworthy, as a Sociologist we have to critique his reflexivity and his acceptance to communities of color.

Father Gregory had served as an associate pastor at the poorest parish in Los Angeles, the Dolores Mission Church, since from 1984-1958. After his service there, he was tasked to serve in a student service program, however, his trip to aid the poor in Bolivia, where he gained the desire to help the poor. He was sent back to Dolores Mission instead as a pastor. There in Dolores Mission, he was able to learn about the lives of the gang members. He witnessed their violence towards one another, how it affected how they lived and acted towards one another, and how people knew that it was a toxic community to live it. Back then, the church would be known to segregate the “good” from the “bad”, meaning, the gang members were not always

Living in a diverse community while maintaining a state of accord is onerous. It is innate to regard that one self’s unrivaled conduct and notion are factual, which leads society to become perplexed by that which they deem foreign. Thus, when one denounces another's truth - chaos ensues. Fr. Gregory Boyle offers that compassion and kinship are necessary to live in harmony yet, kinship cannot stand alone, and compassion must be present to create unanimity. Kinship implies that compassion is present, but that is not always correct yet, with compassion a perceived kinship is always present. To live in a community ridden with diversity can be problematic, but despite the moments in which the novel’s anecdotes were difficult to relate to Tattoos on the Heart informs its readers about what their responsibilities are when it comes to different ideas.

The book I read to better understand and gain sympathy for returning citizens is Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (ISBN 978-1439153154) by Father Gregory Boyle, S.J. $14 can afford this 240-page autobiography about a Jesuit priest serving one of the most troubled neighborhoods in the most unique way.

Tattoos on the Heart is a novel by Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program. He invites the reader to gain insight into the need for solidarity in our world. With this quest for solidarity, Gregory Boyle invites the reader to develop compassion, to alter the margins, and to gain understanding of unconditional “no matter whatness,” love.

Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, Boyle claims resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.

• Scrappy wants to undo the things he did when he was younger, so Boyle hires him for a fresh start

In Tattoos on the Heart, the reader accompanies Father Gregory Boyle throughout a series of heart-warming conversions he conducts through his interactions with numerous gang members in the Los Angeles projects. Likewise, J.D. Vance in Hillbilly Elegy constructs a memoir of his tumultuous upbringing in the Midwest as well as of his familial roots in Kentucky. A commonality throughout the novels is the poverty faced by members of these communities and how it contributes to the conflicts that drive the plot. The topic of poverty, its causes, and possible solutions has always interested me a lot due to a concept of the Lottery of Birth, which is a philosophical position that comes up frequently in my debate competitions. Basically, where we are born, in terms of one’s position and class in society, is arbitrary; I did not choose to be born in the socioeconomically comfortable neighborhood of Massapequa Park. This is a perpetual unfairness to which there is no solution, but there has to be some action that can alleviate the suffering of the over three billion people worldwide who live on less than three dollars a day (DoSomething.org).

In his novel Tattoos on the Heart, author Father Gregory Boyle S.J. shares his experiences as a pastor in the gang capital of the United States, Los Angeles, in an attempt to persuade his readers to look at gang members with a more humane perspective. To help his readers relate to the gang members, Fr. Boyle recounts personal anecdotes about the many gang members he works with and their journeys towards changing their lives. Through his use of colloquial language and informal diction and his narration of personal stories, Fr. Boyle creates an intimate tone accomplishes his purpose of discrediting the stereotypes associated with gangs and depicting a human face worthy of respect and sympathy. Though Boyle published this novel in 2010, his insight and wisdom on the state of gang violence still hold true today, and he continues to inspire his readers to recognize the tragedies many gang members face in their everyday lives.

In “Tattoos on the Heart,” by Gregory Boyle, Boyle experiences how to deal with gangs. The novel, a compelling story about gang violence and one man’s response towards giving those buried within it, tells a story of gang members working for a chance of redemption and solace. Can others be seen as fathers or even as a role models when gang life is such a large force in their lives? Through the story gangbangers that try to change themselves for the pursuit of a better future and a desire to succeed and escape gang life, Boyle tells an emotional, human story about life in the Los Angeles barrios. Boyle characteristics represent him as a father for three gang bangers: Joey Cesar, and Scrappy. While

Tattoos have been around throughout our history, from Egyptian times to the present day. Many people may say they know the history of tattoos, and where they originate from, but do they really? Does one know that there were reasons that some people had tattoos? There may be people who know the actual history of tattoos and body art and why one would decide to get one; however there are people who do not. To be able to understand the idea of tattoos, one should educate themselves to the history of tattoos. Although tattoos have been considered taboo and a stereotype, history reveals that this particular form of body art has been used for self expression, status and