Once a King, Always a King

By: Reymundo Sanchez

Narrated by: Rudy Sanda

Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's Summary

This riveting sequel to My Bloody Life traces Reymundo Sanchez's struggle to create a "normal" life outside the Latin Kings, one of the nation's most notorious street gangs, and to move beyond his past.

Sanchez illustrates how the Latin King motto "once a king, always a king" rings true and details the difficulty and danger of leaving that life behind. Filled with heart-pounding scenes of his backslide into drugs, sex, and violence, Once a King, Always a King recounts how Sanchez wound up in prison and provides an engrossing firsthand account of how the Latin Kings are run from inside the prison system.

Harrowing testaments to Sanchez's determination to rebuild his life include his efforts to separate his family from gang life and his struggle to adapt to marriage and the corporate world. Despite temptations, nightmares, regressions into violence, and his own internal demons, Sanchez makes an uneasy peace with his new life.

This raw, powerful, and brutally honest memoir traces the transformation of an accomplished gang-banger into a responsible citizen.

©2003 Reymundo Sanchez (P)2017 Tantor

Better

the narrator was a lot better. The voices were still a little too fake and the spanish was still bad, but there was a lot less characters or spanish than the first book, so it helped. The story was remarkable and I am glad I listened to both books back to back.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Lackluster redemption...

Honestly there just wasn't much here. The story was pretty mundane for me. There are much better books in this vein.

Sanda was absolutely the wrong narrator for this book. He took out any gravity.

“Brother of a King”

I’m 42 years old and my brother just died a few months ago. We grew in humboldt Park from 1979 to 1990 when I finally left. I was the last to leave. At age of 7 I was taken to the church on LeMoyne and Homan and there I was told in the basement that I was born a Latin king there many of us same age , same hair , same look on our faces. I did not realize that I was being trained since that age. This is a great book and I would love to connect with Reymundo and maybe share a story or two. thank you

help

I wish I can talk to reymundo just to see how he's living in 2019. I've shared many of the same experiences..does anyone know a email that I can contact him?

The reader needs to stop making fake accents

The content is excellent but the reader makes fake Hispanic accents that are actually insulting to a person of a Hispanic background. Not only that it does not even sound anything like what a puerto rican sounds like. The reader it should have just read the story as is without these fake accents and it would have been much more better. As for the content, the book is excellent.

loved it

great book pretty sad how his life turned out and i feel for him OAKAAK

nice book

really good book recommend 100% but have to read my bloody life first . .

I expected better after reading his firs book

I liked the story, I expected more after the first book. I still dislike the way Rudy Sanda pronounces the Spanish words and streets.

realest book I ever read

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Another excellent Reymundo Sanchez memoir.

I was mesmerized by My Bloody Life, the first book by this author. And he did it again. Once a King rings true. My favorite part was the wrap up and ending. This is where the author demonstrated the top talent that he is.

Rudy Sanda, the narrator, was outstanding. This pairing of author and narrator is one of the best I've experienced.