A brooklyn family tale

00:00:10fL FILMAKERS LIBRARY, INC. New York, N.Y PRESENTS

00:00:20[sil.]

00:00:25NARRATOR Twenty years ago we came to Sunset Park, Brooklyn to make a film about juvenile crime.

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00:00:35NARRATOR Some of the gang leaders we met died violently, others spent their teenage years behind bars. Two nuns, Sister Mary Paul and Sister Geraldine led us to the gang members we filmed. The sisters had recently moved to Sunset Park to create the Center for Family Life. They believe that their unique brand of social work could strengthen this troubled community by supporting its children and families. Although the violence did not stop overnight, we watched as many gang members like Stingray Santiago and his brother Cisco turned to the center as an alternative to the streets. Twenty years after completing our film about juvenile crime, we returned to Sunset Park and discovered that Sister Geraldine was still working with the same Santiago Family that terrorized this neighborhood two decades ago. We learned that Cisco left the gangs to become a police officer and now helps his sister Rosa try to prevent her children from making the same mistakes he made. We followed the next generation of Cisco Santiago's Family for three years, chronicling their hopes, struggles and continuing relationship with Sister Geraldine and the Center for Family Life. This is their story.

00:02:05LUIS CASTRO I mean, it's like… it's like war, (inaudible). Every day we go outside we're trying to survive.

00:02:10FRANCISCO "CISCO" SANTIAGO We've been there.

00:02:10LUIS CASTRO Just trying to survive that's all we were doing.

00:02:10FRANCISCO "CISCO" SANTIAGO Luis's Uncle We've been through it. I mean, I've been shot at. I've… I've been chased by gangs and it's like luckily I'm still here to talk about it, and that's one thing that I… I talk to you guys about it all time. It's like you guys go out there, walking in packs, you never know who's got the gun or who's got the knife.

00:02:30LUIS CASTRO I used to get into a lot of trouble, I used to get into a lot of trouble.

00:02:30FRANCISCO "CISCO" SANTIAGO Oh you gotto trust him, he did.

00:02:35LUIS CASTRO So one day, you know, mama is giving my little weapon and stuff. You know what I'm saying? She told me, she told me, I gotta sit down for weeks let me tell you pal, I learned, and I'll say, and I thank God for my moms. You know what I'm saying? My uncle, Cisco, they're like fathers to me too.

00:02:50How do you feel about your real father?

00:02:50LUIS CASTRO About my father, he was hardly over there, he comes when he wants to, you know and… and it hurts, because… You know what I'm saying? I ain't gotta a pop's or whatever. You know what I'm saying? He is not there and I'll get along, I still love him to death. I won't let you know I'm hurting, but it hurts.

00:03:05ELENA "TATY" CASTRO Luis's Sister.

00:03:05ROSA SANTIAGO CRUZ She feels sad because he wasn't there for her. You know she didn't have a father.

00:03:10LUIS CASTRO I know what she's crying for, you know, our hearts. You know she is, we have.

00:03:15ROSA SANTIAGO CRUZ Luis's Mother Put it this way, I was mother and father's to you.

00:03:15LUIS CASTRO Yeah, my mom (crosstalk)(inaudible).

00:03:20ROSA SANTIAGO CRUZ Yeah, we've been through hell and back, but we're still surviving.

00:03:25[sil.]

00:03:30A Brooklyn Family Tale A film by Roger Weisberg & Murray Nossel Christmas, 1997

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00:03:50LUIS CASTRO Who's going to go, going to get somebody, I got the drugs, I got the drugs today.

00:03:55This is all we got, just 1275! Oh, he was holding out, he was holding out!

00:04:00From where we got this?

00:04:00That's the reed son. Roll that shit, like that shit and smoke it.

00:04:10[sil.]

00:04:25SISTER GERALDINE TOBIA Co-Director, Center for Family Life I think that with Luis like with many other young people the pull of the street and the… a culture on the street that could give them uh… money or quick prestige is so powerful. But I've always loved the adolescent age group. It's the one most of the world liked to get away from, because they're not easy. And I've always wanted to give them a place in the community where they were valued and not shunned.

00:04:55LUIS CASTRO I get to home, I get to home and what are you doing? Crying. Why? There's no… There's no reason for it.

00:05:00BENNY "LITTLE" CRUZ Luis's Stepfather

00:05:00ROSA SANTIAGO CRUZ I mean, okay, there's no reason for but I worry and you got to understand, I've been through it. I've been in gangs, I know who's out there. I mean, it's not like I'm a new Jackie here, you know, and I always told you, look this is going on, I don't like what, I don't like some of your friends because, you know, when I'd say something I got no (inaudible ) tongue, and you drink sometimes with them, you sometime come here drunk. That's not a permission that I ever gave you for you to drink. You're only 16 years old, you know. I don't want to see you going down the drain just like your real father went down the drain, you know. You know, you almost lost your father. I mean, I've been through hell and back with you. I raised you by myself, you know, so that's why I (inaudible ) and because I love you. If I didn't love you and I was a mother that didn't care then I'll let you do what the hell you want to do out there.

00:05:50BENNY "LITTLE" CRUZ See we're telling him not to do these things, because we had done it, and look… look what we have.

00:05:55LUIS CASTRO I'm… I'm not… I'm not in a warfront. Back in the days, yeah, there's some crazy shit, but, so you have to understand where teenage life comes in, you did it, we're going to do it and our future generation is going to do it.

00:06:10ROSA SANTIAGO CRUZ Yeah, but that’s why we’re here.

00:06:10LUIS CASTRO It's a part of life, because no kid, I don't want to hear, but the brainy bunch does not exist. Got to be safe.

00:06:20[sil.]

00:06:30SISTER GERALDINE TOBIA The gangs, but the cruel phenomenon of “That's normal, that's not abnormal behavior, it's normal behavior for groups of adolescence to clique together.”

00:06:40LUIS CASTRO And you want, and you want some Pizza? No, I know it’s all fat. I know. I know. You know why I'm not going to sit, because I'm going to eat it all by myself, all by myself.

00:06:50SISTER GERALDINE TOBIA What we’ve worked on is finding a different context within which the adolescent can be the leader. The after-school program is an opportunity to bring that street life indoors. It helps young people understand how they can be giving, powerful and capable by showing the same strength and the same skills in a different way. The role that they have that's anti-social, let's give them that role in a social environment.

00:07:30Luis, Luis!

00:07:35Luis has volunteered as a counselor in the Center's after-school program for 4 years.

00:07:45SISTER GERALDINE TOBIA We've said to that population of young people, you have a very valuable role you can play. We can train you to be a childcare worker.

00:07:55I'm sort of dumb I think.

00:07:55LUIS CASTRO No you're not dumb.

00:07:55SISTER GERALDINE TOBIA It just channels all of that energy, all of that idealism and it focuses it. The focus is on younger children who need you, you are needed in society.

00:08:10LUIS CASTRO Okay, now you see the arrow pointing up, right there, this one? There you go! And then the last one here.

00:08:15Long time no see?

00:08:20After this day, Luis suddenly stopped going to his job. Luis learned that his mother was pregnant. He began fighting with his stepfather, and his mother threw him out of the house.

00:08:35LUIS CASTRO It doesn't matter, that's still my house. I don't give a shit what he says.

00:08:40DARLENE CLASSEN Luis's girlfriend Well.

00:08:40LUIS CASTRO He could pay the bills, he could pay the rent, I lived in that house way before he was even thought of, so…

00:08:45DARLENE CLASSEN Well if…

00:08:45LUIS CASTRO And my Family has lived in that house, my aunts lived in my house. What?

00:08:50DARLENE CLASSEN Why aren’t you in there now?

00:08:50LUIS CASTRO Because I'm just fed up with his shit. You’ve seen what happened that night.

00:08:55DARLENE CLASSEN Yeah.

00:08:55LUIS CASTRO I was going to stab the shit out of him, right?

00:08:55DARLENE CLASSEN Yeah.

00:08:55LUIS CASTRO What I'm going to, burn the car, right?

00:09:00DARLENE CLASSEN Uh-huh.

00:09:00LUIS CASTRO If I stay there either he's going to hurt me or I'm going to hurt him. And if I hurt him, I know I'm going to have to hurt my mother, because she's going to get into it. And that's what I don't want. So she's just the main problem there. I don't want to do anything now but…