LEO VAZQUEZ: I've been in trouble with the law.

JUDY WOODRUFF: From what age?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Starting at eight.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The pressures facing Leo Vazquez are quite different than those of Gen Nexters like the Fiskes. The 23-year-old grew up in a tough, predominantly Hispanic section of inner city Los Angeles.

LEO VAZQUEZ: We had a big house, eight rooms, big screen TV. We had a deejay system as a house stereo. We had everything, each one of us had our own room, and we had all the toys we wanted, everything.

JUDY WOODRUFF: But everything was not enough for Leo.

LEO VAZQUEZ: I started hanging around gang members, and that's when I joined the gang too. After that I was just in trouble ever since.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You joined when you were eight?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Yeah, about eight, nine. Nine years old.

LEO VAZQUEZ: The cops don't come down this alley...only one way in, one way out.

Everybody's gang members. So they're always gonna be around me. And even if I'm not from the gang, eventually everybody's gonna think I'm from it, 'cuz I'm always around them.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what kinds of things do you do as a gang member?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Beat up. Probably shot people. Got shot at a lot of times, but never got hit, been in and out of jail.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How old were you when you first used a gun?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Like ten, eleven years old.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Who taught you how to use it?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Nobody, TV.

JUDY WOODRUFF: TV?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Yup.

A Family Man
JUDY WOODRUFF: A sixth grade dropout, Leo spent all but 15 days of his life from age 13 to 20 in some form of incarceration. In fact, there are 430,000 males between 18 and 24 now in jail or prison. Nearly a quarter are Hispanic, 30 percent white, and 43 percent black.

Leo first met his wife, Angie, when she was in high school. At the time she didn't like him or his arrogant attitude. But that would change a few years later.

ANGIE VAZQUEZ, wife: We talked on the phone when he was in jail like for two years, and he was really nice on the phone. He was just, I don't know, he was different, really different. He'll talk to me with a very different tone of voice, really sweet. So then that's when I started liking him.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You got pregnant at one point, right?

ANGIE VAZQUEZ: I believe a month after we got married.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think that had an effect on him?

ANGIE VAZQUEZ: I think it did.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Why did you want to have a child?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Because I was still messing around. So I was just--just in case I get killed, you know, I just want somebody to be out there for me, and still remember me.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Angie –a good influence on you?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Yeah. If it wasn't for her I think I would have been in jail a long time ago, probably the same time I got out. I would have probably been right back in.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What is it that she says to you that makes you want to work for her and Emily?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Just waking up to them--next to them everyday. That's it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: How does that feel?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Feels good, real good.

ANGIE VAZQUEZ: He wanted a family. That's when he started changing. He finished all his community service. He started looking for a job. But it was really hard for him to find a job. Really, really hard.

Working without a diploma
JUDY WOODRUFF: Leo taught himself how to read while in jail. But found there were limits to what he could do without a high school diploma. And he's not alone. Only about half of all Hispanic males in the country graduate from high school...and in Los Angeles the number is even less.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think more school could lead to better jobs?

LEO VAZQUEZ: Yeah, but I can't go to school 'cause I got bills to pay. So in the meanwhile if I'm going to school, I can't pay my bills. So I got to work.

JUDY WOODRUFF: You could do both.

LEO VAZQUEZ: It's harder. It'll be harder. 'Cause I basically work two jobs, so I wouldn't have no time.

JUDY WOODRUFF: With the help of some occupational training he received behind bars, Leo found a year-long job installing toilets for the city of Los Angeles. Supervisor Gwen Bartley remembers their first meeting.

GWEN BARTLEY, supervisor: So he comes in and, you know, he does this macho walk and stuff. And I said, "Ok..."

First thing I told him, I said, "You gotta pull your pants up, you gotta put a belt on, you gotta turn that hat around."

You know, cause when their hat is twisted to the side, their way of thinking is twisted.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And what did he say?

GWEN BARTLEY: He says, "No problem."

I said "Wow, wow."

And I knew then that—it was like the wall—the façade that he had. That's just who he was. But he would do whatever it took to get this job and to straighten up.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Since our visit Leo and Angie have welcomed a second baby daughter to their family. And, for now, they still live with his parents, in Leo's neighborhood, surrounded by his old gang members.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What would you do differently if you could do it all over?

LEO VAZQUEZ: I'd go to school. Probably try not to join a gang, but that'll be hard.

JUDY WOODRUFF: With his city job over, Leo now works for the local cable company. But unless he moves away, it's not clear how or if he can truly break free from his gang.

LEO VAZQUEZ: Just walking I could get shot from here to the corner.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Do you think he'll make it? Do you think he'll be what he wants to be in life?

GWEN BARTLEY: I believe he'll make it, I really do. He can venture out, and he can have anything that he wants, because he's just that much of a go-getter.