Homeboys Forever

“The decades since the study began parallels with breath-taking local population change and economic growth. San Antonio has grown by leaps and bounds moving beyond Loop 410 the original perimeter. But the Westside has not shared the boom, and Valdez documents the “Homeboys” are on the sideline watching the class gap widen. Impoverished, even more isolated, still hoping to participate in the American Dream but increasingly struggling to halt the move down the social mobility ladder. And the bottom looms closely.”

“Longitudinal studies by sociologists tend to be particulate, interpolating between data points to deliver a perspective on processes of life. Homeboys Forever gives us an intimate and humane vantage point for understanding the condition of young Mexican American men under circumstances of poverty and prejudice.”

Avelardo Valdez is Professor Emeritus in the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and the department of sociology at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Mexican American Girls and Gang Violence: Beyond Risk and co-editor of Puro Conjunto: An Album in Words and Pictures.