The ex-gang member breaking the cycle of violence among LA youths
‘A child isn’t born to commit gun violence,’ Francisco Villarruel says Francisco Villarruel and Gustavo Galvez sat in a park in Los Angeles reminiscing on their first boxing lesson together. They had gone to a big commercial gym, where they took turns hitting boxing pads and doing footwork exercises. They then started regularly training together. For Villarruel, 40, working out together wasn’t…
Francisco Villarruel, an ex-gang member, is working to break the cycle of violence among LA youths through mentoring and boxing lessons. Villarruel and Gustavo Galvez, a 19-year-old former gang member, met at a boxing gym in Los Angeles. Villarruel, now 40, empathizes with Galvez because he too grew up in a gang-ridden community and experienced similar traumatic events.
Thousands of Hispanic people in California suffer gun injuries annually, and last year, half of the state's 1,374 homicide victims were Hispanic. Villarruel works with ex-prisoners to help them reintegrate into society, but he believes addressing intergenerational trauma is crucial to reducing violence. Villarruel himself was born into a family deeply affected by gun violence, as his father was a teenager during the 1965 Watts rebellion riots.
When Villarruel was nine, two robbers held him and his father at gunpoint, an incident that led to his brother-in-law's murder by gang members years later. These experiences hardened Villarruel's resolve to avoid violence. After serving 17 years in prison for gang-related crimes, Villarruel became a trained social worker and mentors young gang members and victims. He believes addressing trauma is key to breaking the cycle of violence.
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