Let me introduce myself, my name is Eric Mondragon. I am Hispanic .I am currently 30 years old and have been incarcerated since the age of 17 . Reflecting on my life, I hold no blame for my parents as I believe they did the best they could to raise us as immigrants. Nor do I hold blame towards anyone else. Rather my opinion, is that we were products of the environment we were raised in and simply became misguided youth . I was born in Merced, CA and raised in Livingston, CA which is a small town with not much to do.
Growing up my mom didn’t live with us and my dad had a drinking problem which is why I never blamed my mom for not staying with us .This led to my older sister to watch over us which she did the best she could, but we pretty much did as we wanted to. To give an example, I have a recollection of the cops coming to our house three times in one day for separate incidents and us continuing to be outside like it was normal . This was the environment we lived in which was infested with gangs, which included my older brother and cousin also part of these gangs.
These were my role models. I wanted to impress them by any means necessary. I hung out with them and their friends everyday after school since the age of 8, which actually led to my first scar on my head and first time I had to get stitches, because I got hit by a golf club. I found pride in this scar, it was a badge of honor of sorts I liked the attention I received. I was introduced to drinking and smoking at this age by them and would do it without no hesitation.
By the age of 13 I was going in and out of juvenile hall for numerous crimes . I recall a specific day in December I was 17 I was asleep and woken up by a family member at around 3am that my cousin got shot in the head. I was speechless and remembered just getting angry I wanted to get answers like who did it? I was hurt. I wanted retaliation. This thought led to my eventual arrest as I shot a man who by the grace of God, didn’t die.
I was sentenced to 12 years, and by the age of 18 I was being sent to a level 4 maximum security prison. Rather than being terrified, I was coming in with the intention to further my activity in my gang. Reflecting, now I am ashamed of the way I thought. I was suppose to go home in 2022 however stabbed another man while incarcerated, which added an additional nine years to my sentence. As I got older, I started educating myself and found my beautiful wife who has also opened my eyes to what a real life is, things I didn’t know existed . I began feeling remorse, I began feeling hurt when seeing other people killed while in here. I decided to change my life at the age of 29 a week before my 30th birthday.
I do hold guilt for the people I’ve hurt along the way, which is why I’m committed to helping others upon reentry to society. I am actively educating myself and reaching out to numerous programs in order to do so. Thankfully, I have an opportunity to parole this December under the youth offender program and have complete optimism. I am genuine in my change and know regardless I will not waiver in this commitment to give awareness to all those who are in environments that are misguided to believe something that has no future or purpose behind it, besides hurting others and hurting those people who love you. I am proud of the change I have made regardless of others opinions. I am excited for this new journey and look forward to working with others, as I have a vast amount of ambition and dedication and am now able to focus my energy and attention on myself and helping others, rather than hurting others. I’m proud to become an asset to society rather than a menace to it.
