A journalistic memoir detailing the author's firsthand experiences with immigration, gang life, and guerrilla warfare explores the violence that shaped generations of his impoverished Salvadoran family to connect today's immigration crisis to the realities of everyday families. The child of Salvadoran immigrants, Roberto Lovato grew up in 1970s and 80s San Francisco as Salvadoran gangs were forming in California. In his teens, he lost friends to the escalating violence, and survived acts of brutality himself. As a human rights advocate in wartime El Salvador, he joined the guerrilla movement against the U.S.-backed, fascist military government. Lovato channeled his own pain into activism and journalism, focusing on how trauma affects individual lives and societies. Here he interweaves his family's history with first-hand reportage on gang life, state violence, and the heart of the immigration crisis in both El Salvador and the United States. -- adapted from jacket

Prologue: Los Angeles, California -- Karnes City, Texas -- "Maras": the short, tragic, and completely made-up tale of the Marabunta -- San Francisco -- Ahuachapn, El Salvador -- Ciudad Merliot, El Salvador -- San Salvador -- Ahuachapn, El Salvador -- Ilopango, El Salvador -- San Salvador -- Ahuachapn, El Salvador -- Panchimalco, La Libertad, El Salvador -- San Franciso, California -- San Franciso, California -- Panchimalco & Rosario de Mora, El Salvador -- San Franciso, California -- Las Aradas, Chalatenango, El Salvador -- San Salvador -- San Salvador -- A Náhuat story of the Underworld: Izalco, El Salvador -- Guarjila - Corral de Piedra, Chalatenango -- San Salvador, El Salvador -- San Salvador -- San Salvador -- Mexico City -- San Salvador, El Salvador -- Los Angeles, California -- San Salvador -- Northridge, California -- San Francisco, California -- Ahuachapn -- Los Angeles, California -- Epilogue: "Todos" by Roque Dalton.