Please join us on RocketHub where we are raising the financing to shoot the Barrio TV Pilot called 2nd Chances. Watch the trailer and get all the details here: http://www.rockethub.com/projects/3066-2nd-chances-from-the-barrio-pilot

On October 16th, 2011 From the Barrio to the Board Room the 2nd edition will be released nationwide through bookstores, and also digitally through Kindle, The Nook, and the iBookstore (Apple).  With a new foreword by the Honorable Senator Iris Martinez, and a new epilogue by Robert, the Foundation is excited to introduce the Barrio message to more of you chasing the American Dream.  Here is a short excerpt from the new foreword:

“Robert Renteria’s story needs to be heard. Young people are living in neighborhoods with more violence than ever before and gangs have become a routine part of the environment. For some of our young people, survival is all they know.  We have to show them that there is more. We have to encourage them to look beyond, and have a sense of the future and look to where they want to be 10 or 20 years from now. Robert clearly illustrates that life is full of choices, and the choices you make will determine which way you go.”

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BOOKLIST

Adapted from the book From the Barrio to the Board Room (2008) by Renteria, who created a foundation that brings his message of hope to inner-city schools, Mi Barrio occupies a unique position in the sequential-art format: the inspirational graphic novel. Telling the story of Renteria’s real-life struggle to escape a neighborhood filled with gangbangers and a home haunted by an abusive stepfather to eventually succeed as a president of his own laundry-machine company, Mi Barrio hits all the familiar points in a straightforward first-person narrative that eschews subtlety in favor of its lessons, while the artwork conveys the clean, efficient sense of a corporate brochure. However, it has the undeniable gravity of the truth and its inspirational message does come through loud and clear as Renteria, encouraged by his loving mother and grandfather, learns a sense of discipline in the army and employs a philosophy of hard work, a never-quit spirit, and a drive to live out what he describes as “the American Dream.” Grades 6-9. –Jesse Karp

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“He knew he wanted more out of life, even after starting with practically nothing and dropping out of the 11th grade.  So through plain ol’ hard work and perseverance, he shuffled the deck and drew a straight.”

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