"The people in "Eastsiders" are people I know," Bojorquez says. "I met the guy on the cover when I was 14. We're 49 now, and he's at my house all the time. We're best friends. There are some people in the book that passed away. They died in different ways, and it affected me because these are people I grew up with. A lot of the work was done on Fifth Street. My friend Mike, who I grew up with, lived on that street, so it was the hang-out spot. The neighborhood had a Bronx type of feeling. All the neighbors knew each other, and it was fun. Sometimes bad things happened. People would show up wanting to hurt someone, sometimes drive-bys, and that's when things got serious. But the good overlapped with the bad."

Gregory Bojorquez: Eastsiders

"The people in "Eastsiders" are people I know," Bojorquez says. "I met the guy on the cover when I was 14. We're 49 now, and he's at my house all the time. We're best friends. There are some people in the book that passed away. They died in different ways, and it affected me because these are people I grew up with. A lot of the work was done on Fifth Street. My friend Mike, who I grew up with, lived on that street, so it was the hang-out spot. The neighborhood had a Bronx type of feeling. All the neighbors knew each other, and it was fun. Sometimes bad things happened. People would show up wanting to hurt someone, sometimes drive-bys, and that's when things got serious. But the good overlapped with the bad."

FROM THE FEATURE

Gregory Bojorquez: Eastsiders