Selena Cortez: A Victim of Poverty

[np]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

”Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”

- James Baldwin

 

Poverty is an almost permanent state of the world not caring about you. When you’re impoverished, you aren’t just out of money. You’re trapped, clinging onto the last bit of decency you have left before you succumb to the world around you and become a product of your environment. Your personality, thoughts, and looks all revolve around money and the best way to gain from another human being’s loss. Robbing, killing, and beating are all tickets out of the lowest part of society, and, for most, the only ticket.

 

Gangs rise up because the biggest dogs in the lot beat the other dogs until they either submit or cough out their last breath. Those big dogs become the kings and queens of the neighborhood, ruling with either a fist full of lead or lilies. And all of those that grow up in that environment with barely any money or any role models to look up to tend to flock to those big dogs. They do whatever it takes to get out of this state of being looked down upon, even if it means murdering or stealing their way to the top. And appeasing those big dogs within a gang is one of those ways.

 

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Selena Cortez.

 

Selena Cortez is a product of poverty. Born to a prostitute for a mother and an unknown father (who she suspects was a frequent client of her mother), she resented the world around her. Her mother cared little for her, doing the bare minimum of giving her money for food every week and kicking her out of the small, one bedroom apartment they both called home frequently. A lack of motivation and an authority figure in her life led to her frequently skipping school or refusing to work at school, and as such her mother continuously sees her as a failure of a human being.

 

Now, her life revolves around her neighborhood, of which is controlled by the famous (and infamous) Rancho Trece gang. She has found a family in the unlikeliest of places, and has become addicted to showing that she is down for the life she purports to be down for. Selena’s activities with the Frontline Lokaz clique within the large Hispanic street gang has led to her earning more money than she could have ever imagined herself earning, thus leading her to believe that this life, one of crime and death, is the only life worth living.

 

Because poverty never truly lets go of one’s neck.
 

This thread will document the life, experiences, and possible death of Selena Cortez.

[goddessoflife]

L&A, Inactivity.