A story of a Mexican child named Carlos, separated from his grandmother, and brought across the US border by a determined mother. Carlos is raised in the mean Chicago streets of the late 80s and early 90s, where he joins a gang and ends up in prison after killing a rival. In an underground super-max prison, Carlos finds the path of redemption as he obtains his college education and becomes a model inmate, but then is brutally attacked by his own gang. Carlos's path takes a surprising twist when he is given the choice to stay in prison in the US or be deported much sooner to his country of birth. Carlos chooses deportation and soon finds himself in a foreign land where he uses his higher learning skills and life's lessons to not just survive, but to achieve success. Over the course of a decade, Carlos becomes a successful, law-abiding businessman. The story ends with Carlos's heartfelt letters to the victim of his crime, his mentors, and the reader, offering a message of hope and determination to those carrying the burden of society's dismissimve and disparaging labels. It is a gripping story of redemption and a sobering message of empowerment that advocates the use of education to rise above poverty, violence, ignorance, and the mistakes and circumstances of one's past.