In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio

In “Living with Crack,” Bourgois tackles the management of Ray’s crackhouse, the Game Room. The crackhouse was actually owned by Primo’s first cousin, Felix. Felix, however, was a horrible manager. He spent his time and energy preying on female addicts like teenage girls, using his influence to gain sexual favors. Bourgois notes that Primo was one of Felix’s best customers during the early crack epidemic in 1985. Primo admits he was a huge user, and he tells Bourgois some of the things he dealt with while using. Primo recalls a time when he was high and saw a Mexican man sleeping in the lobby of a building. The man had a gold ring on and didn’t look homeless. Primo asked the man for the time and when the man flashed his ring, Primo grabbed him and placed a knife at his back. He threatened the man and admits to Bourgois that he really would have stabbed him if the man hadn’t complied. Primo then goes on a rant about how Mexicans are "a joke" (79)and nothing like Puerto Ricans. He, his friend, and a girl he was seeing then robbed the man and took his ring.