Today I received a letter from my primo Danny Boy, who is currently serving a 25 year to life sentence for bank robbery. Danny Boy is one of those hard dudes, always in the mix of trouble. Danny Boy and I had done time for bank robbery, when I came home I continued to live a little crazy but began to change. Danny Boy was paroled a few years after I came home and was out for three months and was arrested for bank robbery again. He has been moved four times in the last six years; mostly due to his violent behavior. He was what they call in prison a torpedo or the muscle.
Danny Boy was state-raised, so he had that state mentality. He was moved from California to Florida after stabbing two inmates and a guard. He was in Florida for about a year till he ended up stabbing another inmate and was moved to Indiana. After arriving in Indiana, he met a man by the name of Teco that was 69 years old and had been in prison since he was 21 years old. He is an old timer and likes things to be cool and slow; Danny Boy is like an 18 year old, active and full of hate even though he is 36 years old. I began to notice the change in Danny Boy’s letters. They went from one extreme to another, from talking about the new charges he has piled up from staff, to inmate assaults, to vile quotes. He said he realized that the life he has been living, was not really living. He was living for other people’s satisfaction and not his own. The people he was hurting never did anything to him, he was just following orders from the people who called the shots.
He found a away to live for himself, and he found that in the Lord. I would always joke around and tell people that I thought Jesus was in prison because everyone finds him there. When I was in prison I thought that they would use religion so they wouldn’t have to be part of the riff raff. After hearing Danny Boy tell me what he did, I realized that people do really genuinely become religious. I should never have doubted anyone’s religious ways as a copout for anything, especially in prison. People like, Danny Boy and me, hit a stage in our lives where we seek change. I found mine in writing and helping others and he found his in Jesus Christ. I wish that he would have met Teco 10 years earlier but you can’t change faith and it was faith that found him in Indiana.
A year after Danny Boy and Teco met, Teco passed away in his sleep. Danny Boy feels like Teco’s life was complete when he changed Danny Boy. Now Danny Boy works with the new inmates to try and help them change and he doesn’t try to turn them on to the Bible he just tries to make them change their ways. I look back to the things we did and the way we lived and I am grateful for what I have and I thank God for sparing my life.
by Rolando Ortiz
About Being Latino Contributors
that`s deep
Thank you Rolando, for sharing this story. Thank you for keeping it real, and not bullshitting or glorifiying your life. Thank you for being man enough to recognize your sins, accept God as your Savior, and be secure enough with yourself, and with your devotion to our Lord, that you tell your story, straight up, and do this, only because you want to help all our beautiful, strong, RAZA. May God Bless you and yours. I do admire you.
Change… for some it’s takes longer and harder consequences. Unfortunately, for Danny Boy, he is a product of a system that has failed too many. It doesn’t surprise me here that it took another inmate to help Danny Boy see differently, the system obviously was not a rehabilitating factor. It is not designed to be that way, for it was then we not see the repeated cycles.
Thank you guys for taking the time to read my piece,
@Edric: Thanks!
@Princesa: WOW, Thank you and it’s people like yourself that inspire me to do what I do! Mil gracias.
@Efrain: I always love your opinion, what you said is so true. Another inmate always opens your eyes.
Wow! I was hanging on to every syllable of your piece. You have the gift of being a writer who paints pictures with words; I didn’t want it to end.
You are well on your way to going down in history as one of the most prolific Latin writers. Write on! -Bruce George, Co-Founder of Def Poetry Jam
thats right bro,amen God can touch any gang member,he can move on the hardest of hearts,proude of you dany boy
The Lord takes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh. What a testimony to God’s glory!
A higher power stepped in and gave this man the opportunity to change. So many people don’t take the cues and change for the better. Life can be beautiful if we look at the other side and live the way God made us to live. It’s up to us to influence others to make that change.