Carlos and His Old Neighborhood

On Friday, April 1, Juan, Amber and I went to see Carlos again. This time, instead of going to his house, Carlos jumped in our car and took us to his old neighborhood. He took us to where he lived in downtown before he turned his life around. It was something I had never experienced. The stories he was telling us as we drove around and the incidences that had happened at particular buildings were very scary. I was excited to hear all that he had to say, but also a little scared. When we got out of the car and started to walk around, I noticed that I got a little uncomfortable because I noticed that Carlos was a bit uncomfortable. Since he knew all the people in the neighborhood, it seemed like he didn’t want some people to be aware that he was back in town. That put me a little on edge, but I knew everything would be okay.

As much as Carlos could, he gave us a walking tour of his old neighborhood. He even took us to a church, which was in the middle of the neighborhood, that he referred to as a “safe ground” where no one could ever get him. Carlos was explaining that no matter how many problems you have with people or how much you could dislike someone, no one ever disrespected each other at church. All their problems were set aside while they were at church.

Carlos was really excited to be back in his old neighborhood. When we asked him if he wanted to film anything, he grabbed the camera and was ready. We drove around again and he filmed the neighborhood, willingly telling us anything that came to his mind about the neighborhood and old stories about what had happened there. Interestingly enough, Carlos’s old neighborhood just so happened to be a couple blocks away from where I lived last year. Carlos kept pointing out how from his old neighborhood there was a clear divide between the “bad” part of downtown and the “good” part of downtown and how they are so close to each other. To be honest, you could see a clear difference between the two places, and he kept stressing that just a couple blocks away is where the people of his old neighborhood want to be, but they’re working to get there. Carlos is a strong, optimistic young man and from the looks of it he hopefully has one bright future ahead of him.