Surviving the Streets as a Black Puerto Rican-American Orphan.

When Henry Morales was orphaned at six years of age, he left home carrying sneakers and a bag of toy guns. Little did he know this scene would foreshadow his troubled and violent
youth — that he would be funneled through institutions and have to fight to make his way on the streets of Brooklyn. In his memoir, “Journey of a Man: Packing Sneakers and a Gun” (published by iUniverse), Morales narrates the horrors of his childhood and criminal past, and describes how he overcame them to find peace.

A true story of abandonment, abuse, robbery, and murder, “Journey of a Man” follows Morales as he loses his family, fights for survival, and evolves into manhood without love or conscience. Born a “New York Rican,” Morales is sent to a convent after his mother dies. Stripped of his identity, he begins a quest of self-discovery as a black-Latino.

Without personal affection and attention, he turns his institutional homes and the streets of America upside-down, inciting terrible atrocities and experiencing vengeful joys. The pain of his youth creates a monster; Morales inflicts pain and suffering and commits horrific crimes, all while blaming everyone for his own shortcomings. Morales writes:

There was a pool hall on Fulton Street and Bedford Avenue called St. John’s Pool Hall, where we’d meet and exchange information on possible places that were ready to be held up in different boroughs. Although we all came from parts of Brooklyn that were usually at war with each other, stick-up kids stayed above the fray. We understood that there was no money in fighting, unless you were a boxer…Things started to change and become a little more serious as some of our crew started getting busted, or as in Scottie’s case, killed during a stick-up. He was shot in the head by a store manager while making a getaway.

After over 20 years of incarceration, Morales is finally led to a path devoid of violence in which he finally finds peace. An urban survival story, “Journey of a Man” records triumph of the human spirit after spending years floundering on the edge of society’s throwaways.