Israel Robles

          I have interviewed someone that is special to me and others in away. He is very interesting. His name is Israel Robles. I’m glad I got to interview him because he showed me that he does a lot for the community. He also has a good personality for his age group. My perception of Israel was shocking and interesting because he showed me a part of him I never would have known about him and because he looks so innocent. More little facts known about him is that he’s Puerto Rican, has three dogs, and lives on Central Park and Shakesphere.

          Growing up he was always around gangs but never joined a gang. Even though it was tempting because a lot of his friend did and got killed but he realized that’s was not for him. They are fighting for colors and streets that don’t even belong to them. One time he was shot when he was young because another gang saw him hanging out and thought he was a part of another gang. That woke him up. His dad was never there for him growing up it was his stepfather. Another thing that happen to him was that his ex girlfriend’s brother died in 2002. Two years later in 2004 his brother was killed on Kimball and Irving Park. He was depress for two years and started marches to see if they could find the killer. After those two years being depressed, he realized that being depressed wouldn’t get him anywhere. So he quit his carpenter job and got in to being a community activist and a truant officer. What he did was make sure kids were coming to school and doing well. He also made sure he kept them active and made sure they didn’t join gangs. He did that for six schools and they where Roosevelt, Sullivan, Gale, Talcott, Ames, and Geta. Most of them never listen. If two of the kids out of a hundred kids would have listened that were a lot.   

          He states that he is not a hero because he does work in his community and that’s his passion and he still has a lot of stuff to do in order to become a hero.  The person who is a hero in his community is teachers, cops, and people who reach out and volunteer. The hero in his life is his mom because she was always there for him. To me I think he is a hero because he’s there for kids and cares about them without even knowing them.

          In his spare time he likes to be with his girlfriend and help out in the community. He had once taken a group of kids from Ames and took them to his neighborhood and they cleaned the litter and painted the light poles. He likes to volunteer at the Y.M.C.A, and on Thursday night open gym, he goes and gets all the gang members in the area play ball and works out. He’s also a motivator and loves to give motivations to people that are down. One of the motivational/ quotes he told us was “If you can defeat the enemy within you then no enemy outside can do us harm”. He also said that “Money can’t buy happiness”.

          As you can see he is a good person overall. He would fit in to any group because of his wonderful personality. He’s a hero to me because he is someone you can look up to because he’s been shot. His brother died. His father wasn’t in his life. But he still became to be a good person. He also said something to me I’ll never for get. He said that, “Tomorrow is never promised."
By Justin Figueroa