NCW Libraries

Based on a true story, the film describes how L.A.'s public schools treat Mexican-American students in 1968, with a mixture of negligence, apathy, and occasional cruelty. Graduation rates are low, students caught speaking Spanish in class are paddled on the spot, they are denied access to bathrooms at lunch. Paula Crisostomo is smart and gets good grades, but when she attends a student leadership conference at a wealthy Westside facility, she begins...

From Oscar-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock. Father Greg Boyle, a white Jesuit priest, has spent some 25 years in the toughest part of East LA, offering jobs not jail, to tough, street-smart, and amazingly sweet young people, all former gang members. Father Boyle is a charismatic visionary, but he's made the dream real: his Homeboy Industries has become the largest, most successful gang intervention and rehab program in the U.S. and an inspiration...

Inspired by a true story, this is the story of a vicious Latino prison gang leader, doomed by his past to a life of harsh, unforgiving violence after his release from jail. He grows up in East Los Angeles, joins a street gang and is in prison while he is still of an age to be in high school. By the time he is back on the streets again, he is a skillful, educated criminal.