Random Family and Nuyorican Dream

Random Family is one of my favorite books, and a good representation of the evolution of my taste in literature and my other interests in general. It is about culture, an ethnography in a sense.

Random Family tells the American outlaw saga lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. With an immediacy made possible only after ten years of reporting, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses the reader in the mind-boggling intricacies of the little-known ghetto world. She charts the tumultuous cycle of the generations, as girls become mothers, mothers become grandmothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation.

I then watched Nuyorican Dream on Netflix. It pretty much is the same situation but in Brooklyn and presented using a different medium. One brother, Robert, went away to college, while his siblings failed to finish middle school. His sisters' having babies and his younger brother spending the majority of his life in prison, only at the age of 23. All of Robert's siblings have issues with drugs that ultimately interfere with the care of their children, ability to hold a job, and stay out of jail.

Robert's mother must take care of her grandchildren and house her adult children (similar to Lourdes, the mother, in Random Family). She struggles to keep the household above water, especially ensuring her grandson's medical issues are handled appropriately.

Robert works diligently to make sure his youngest sister, Millie, does not fulfill the lifestyles of his older sisters and his nieces and nephews avoid that fate as well.

Both the book and the movie portray the vicious cycle that impacts many families, in many cultures. Nuyorican Dream, I think, puts emphasis on the idea that education is the opportunity out of the lifestyle.

I do believe that the documentary and the book are limited portrayals of group of people, but nonetheless a truth and reality for individuals.