Innocence Lost: Destruction of an American Teenager (Revised)

It is 2010, and eighth grader Juan Ramirez is growing up in Little Village, Chicago, a Hispanic-dominated area where the Mexican culture thrives in safety along 26th street, the only other street rivaling the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago in revenue. This was also the same area where his mother, Angie, and father, Roberto, were raised, as they decide to pick a house in the same area they once lived.

However, this area isn't all sunshine and daises. The area they live in isn't known by Little Village, but known by the name of, "K-Town," the name coming from the first letter of the streets here, and from the escalating gang violence in the past years, as two waging gangs, the Two-Four Soldiers to the east, and the Immortal Knights to the west, battle for drugs and turf. Roberto and Angie witnessed the horrors of the gang wars in the 80's, and are afraid that Juan might be sucked into it, especially after he witnesses a drive-by killing when he is only a child, but find that Juan is relativity smart and immune to it all, even if he knows some gang members.

But after Juan's best friend Jacob demands revenge upon a kid named Damien for "stealing" his girl, he finds himself suddenly in a never-ending war between the two warring gangs. The endless cycle of violence and revenge slowly begin to change Juan over the course of 4 years, and Juan's father Roberto sees too late that his son is turning down the same path he almost went down 30 years before...the same path that could never seem to forget him.