What Would You Do with Your Life If You Were Given a Second Chance?
Told by Luis Diaz
Written by Kyle Esterly and Laurie Grobman
The youngest of three boys, Luis Diaz followed his two older brothers and his father into Reading’s streets. He sold weed, cocaine, and crack from the age of 16 to 24, when he went to jail. Weed was his mainstay because he sold it at school. As soon as he got off the school bus in the mornings, a group was waiting to buy from him. After three years in prison, Luis planned to go back to street life. It’s what he knew. He needed money. It didn’t scare him because back then, conflicts and beefs were settled by fists: “Then everything’s cool. That’s it. Move on to the next one.”
But on his first night out of prison, at 27, Luis and his brother went to a bar to watch the Super Bowl. His brother was still in the streets. When they left the bar, guys put a gun to Luis’s head and robbed him. He watched his brother get beat up. They stole his earrings off his ears, his necklace, his money. They had a gun to his head, so Luis was helpless. That incident scared him. Guns replaced fists: “That changed my mind. I didn’t go back to what I was doing, and I haven’t been back.”
As a father of a 16-year-old son, Luis learned from his experiences: “My biggest concern is to make sure that he doesn’t follow my footsteps.” Luis spends a lot of time talking to his son about his past, telling him, “This is the trouble that I got into. I don’t want you to do that.” He informs his son that “the moment you make that one mistake your whole life changes.” Luis found that the best way to keep his son safe was to have him inside. Luis bought video game systems, which his son has been hooked on since. Luis knows some people think video games lead kids to violence, but for him, they kept his son safe.
When his son first started Reading High, he was living with Luis. Then two fatal shootings happened in the streets the second week of school. His son was walking home when they happened, only two blocks away. He got scared. Luis got scared. And Luis took him out of school. A month later, his son moved with his mother to Pottsville. Luis feels relieved for his son: “It’s a nice area. They love it. He’s been doing good over there. And I like that for him. I have one less thing to worry about.”
Luis’s other fears remain. Both his brothers battle addiction: “It’s a constant thing. I’m the youngest one, and I’m always trying to help them.” One brother just went back to Rehab. Luis brought him home from Florida, invited him to his home to live, got him a job, and then he stole from Luis. He’s been living homeless for the last year. Every morning, Luis checks to make sure that nothing happened to him. He looks at the Berks County’s Sheriff’s list to make sure he wasn’t locked up: “And that’s all fear and depression. It’s a lot.”
His other brother recently came out of jail and is living with Luis. All his life he’s been a chef, but this time he’s doing something new–helping others. He’s a people person. He started working at the Hope Rescue Mission and loves it. He’s doing well. Luis tells him how great he’s doing and to keep up the good work. Luis and his brother talk a lot these days about getting second chances. What do you do with that second chance? But Luis knows it’s a battle for his brother to fight the addiction.
Luis bought a home three years ago. He stays busy working on his house and doing side work for his neighbors. He lives in a “tough” area of the city, but his block is nice. Some of his neighbors have lived there their whole lives. But even his block sometimes feels unsafe. A few months ago, a woman’s boyfriend was killed and someone else was killed in a nearby store. Just days ago, a car was stolen from a neighbor’s yard. Recently, one of his neighbors was robbed in her home. The cameras on the block didn’t help because the robbers wore masks. Because of his record, Luis isn’t permitted to have a gun, which makes him even more scared of break-ins to his home: “I have my fists. But then if they have guns, I’m screwed.”
Just living in the city is hard. He sees a lot of homeless people who can’t get the help they need. There are drugs and poverty. And there is violence. Luis doesn’t go out much other than to work: “I work and stay home. I don’t have no life. I would like to have more in my life, but it’s not easy. I feel as though like I’m stuck. Like I’m here working, and then outside of work I have no other life because you can’t go places without running into problems.” Last year, “two cars would pull up, one in front of you, one behind you. And they rob you right there in your car.” He’s also been single for two years. Right now, he isn’t looking for a relationship because “I’m trying to protect myself from everything. And it’s sad that I have to think like this, but you know that’s the way it is.”
With so much going on, Luis feels stuck. He struggles: “It’s a battle. Life in the city. It’s not easy.” But there is hope. Luis finds a respite at the DoubleTree Hotel in Reading, where he works: “This is like my home. This is my peace place. I come here, I’m at peace. Craig Poole,
President at Reading Hospitality, is a second chance person. And I’ve been with him for 12 years, first at the Crowne Plaza.” Luis started as a banquet server. Now he’s an assistant engineer. He’s a “quick learner. You can put anything in front of me. Craig Poole gave me the chance, I took it, I rolled with it, and I’m where I’m at now.”
Luis likes that the DoubleTree also helps out in the community. Before COVID, Luis did an interview with kids, sharing lessons from his life. He was part of the hotel’s Care Committee. They’d go to shelters and serve meals and did Christmas events. Now that the hotel is restarting the Care Committee, Luis is going to become involved because he loves the culture of the hotel – helping the community in Reading.
Luis also has a vision for himself and for Reading. Luis’s son is safe. He’s hoping his brothers will overcome their addictions. And once that happens, Luis will start taking better care of himself. But that’s not all.
Luis wants to be a role model for kids: “There needs to be more of that. They really do. I think if you do more of that, kids will start looking up and seeing things differently. I want to do it. It’s not easy. And I want my brothers and me to do it together.”