" Let's say you're sitting in a group meeting when the counselor calls you a gang member.

You're offended. You hang around with people of the same cloth, the same experience, the same sufferings. These are your friends, like family. You don't think of yourselves as gang members, but of course, technically, that's what you are.

And let's say you embrace the label. "

― Daniel Alarcón , The King Is Always Above the People: Stories