Behind Physical Voilence

Behind Physical Voilence Joseph Rodriguez’s photographs gave us an opportunity to explore what the Cholos, “low life” in East L.A., is really like from the insider’s perspective. Why the life is so different within the four- block neighborhood, called “inner city”, comparing to the rest of the American cities. In the inner city, the majority resident is Mexican-American kids, aged from ten to twenty-one. The drop out rates from schools and the unemployment rate are extremely high. Also the teenage pregnancy rate and juvenile crime rate are super high. Not like other crime photographs, Joseph’s pictures is not focusing on the physical violence, but focusing on what behind the physical violence, quiet violence, which is more crucial
In the picture Anthony Bolin, a boy, 5 years old, was holding a gun with his both hands and watching cartoons. There are two things that the viewer could differentiate him from the normal kids instantly. One is the way that he held the gun. Anthony held the gun like an experienced gun-user did, and he even put his finger on the trigger. He looked alert and ready to pull the trigger anytime. Another is his dead eye. The dead eye made him look like a fighter and looked similar with those disobedient criminal kids. From the caption we knew more details: “…five months after being shot in his living room. … his grandmother noticed a change in his attitude. "He's become tougher, like a teenager," she said. It struck me that kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore.” (Joseph) That was the story behind this photo, which is more sad and shocking than the picture. When these kids don’t allow to be kids anymore, what the world could look like? Gun shots and defensive murder, these experiences will definitely isolate them from other boys who only play gun in the game, which represents the majority society. Joseph’s photographs is like a window opened us an opportunity to look inside these gang kids childhood. Through Anthony Bolin, it is not hard to imagine that how earlier the gun started to intervene in these
(Joseph) In the picture Chivo, a farther was teaching his two- years- old daughter hold a pistol. The baby girl was surrounded by bullets and guns, like normal kids surrounded by toys. Chivo was almost killed by his rival gang on the morning, who had tried to shoot him for couple times. The baby girl’s mother was watching them with a smile. Her relaxing facial expression gave the viewers a clue of that her attitude to the shooting and the gun. In my view, she seemed happy because her husband was teaching their daughter learning the skill of protect herself. Even holding the gun seemed impossible for their baby girl, teaching was never too earlier, like other mothers will glad to teach their children learning phonics in the earlier age. This photograph showed us how gang people treated death, the life, and losing the family. Even though losing the family for them might be more frequent and common than normal people, it would still hurt. But after going through these hurt repetitively, they learned to not waste time on sorrow and learned that launching a new round of revenge murder would be