After the gang phase, they stumble through the drugs, the jailings, the craziness, and what they go through maybe shouldn't have been written. It's not something one throws up in the air for all to see, it's more something one tries to hide. But to pretend that it didn't happen is even worse. Because with the bad, there was also some good, an honest effort later on in life at grabbing a hold of some sanity along with some normalcy. This is when what was left of the old clan that had more or less grown up together, found themselves as a cohesive unit again trying one more time to make some sense out of this crazy existence they had learned to call life. This insignificant group of mess-ups called the "Veteranos," managed to do something positive for their people, while doing something positive for themselves. The book cruises through the Chicano Movement, the Murals movement, community involvement, working with kids, the riots, the East L.A. elections, all the different gangs, the different feuds, some of the ones who died, some of the barrio traditions and beliefs, and always an insulated world that seemed to be cut-off from the rest of civilized society. It touches bases on a great many subjects. This is one of those books that has to be read from cover to cover to find out what the hell the author is trying to say. It's a simple book, written by a simple man, for ordinary people. It wasn't written to satisfy my ego. This one comes from the heart.