Danny Orozco seems dressed for a date. He has on a blue checked button-down shirt, a black tie, black sweatpants, a black leather jacket, a new pair of white Reeboks, and a baseball cap that says “I’m All Good.” Hidden by his clothes are the tattoos–the blue and red signature of his life in a Pilsen street gang and his years in prison.
Orozco, who’s 45, carries around a small photo album containing several dozen snapshots of him with various female nursing aides, therapists, and caregivers at Sheridan Shores. There’s also a photo of him as a strong young man deadlifting 305 pounds. On the back of his own wheelchair are buttons and stickers and a patch that says Don Juan.
As he sees it, he had it coming. For 19 years he fought with swaggering tough guys just like himself, using fists, knives, clubs, and guns. “In my life I shot so very many,” he says, the synthetic voice carrying none of the emotion in his face. “I think about them every day. And it hurts.”
Orozco shakes his head. But a few other guys, some of them former members of his gang, have called, and friends who are still in prison and have more time on their hands also stay in touch. And Perez comes to see him at least once a month.
Perez remembers Orozco from the gang, though Orozco doesn’t remember Perez, who was five years younger. Perez says Orozco was a bit of a bully: “He never touched me, but he was kind of strong, kind of bold, defending turf and the colors and upholding the laws.”
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At 14 he was shot in the thigh by rival gang members. At 16 he was stabbed in the back during a fight outside a bar. His lung was punctured, and he spent a week in the hospital. A year later he was stabbed in the chest in a gang fight and spent two weeks in the hospital. Later he was clubbed in the head during a fight with police, shot in the hip by an unknown gunman who fired from a passing car, and shot two different times in his left leg. He still has two bullets in him and was wounded so many times he can’t remember them all. One night someone with a gun came to his door looking for him. His girlfriend opened it and got shot in the face.
