Tattoos on the Heart: Introduction Summary & Analysis

Beginning in 1984, Father Gregory Boyle works as associate pastor for Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles. In 1986, he becomes the youngest pastor in the history of the church. Dolores Mission is located in Boyle Heights, and it’s by far the poorest parish in the city. There are many gangs in the surrounding public housing projects.

Over his years at Dolores, Boyle witnesses the deaths of many “young people.” In 1988, he buries a victim of gang violence, an eighteen-year-old named Danny. Since 1988, Boyle has buried 167 more people.

Boyle notices that many middle schoolers who get involved with gang violence are kicked out of school. But this makes the problem worse, since these youths spend their time around the public housing projects, participating in more crimes. So Boyle decides to open a school for children involved in gang violence, the Dolores Mission Alternative. Working at the school can be a nightmare: there are fights every day, and many teachers quit. But Boyle knows how important his school is: by welcoming gang members, Boyle is challenging the idea of the church as a place that keeps the “bad folks out.”

Over time, more and more gang members attend Boyle’s church, as well as his school. Boyle reasons that if they spend time in his church, at least they won’t be committing crimes. Boyle’s openness to gang members causes some parishioners to disagree with him. But Boyle insists that the church has a Christian duty to welcome anyone.

Also in 1988, Boyle realizes that gang members need jobs more than anything else. He organizes programs to give gang members jobs cleaning up neighborhoods, removing graffiti, and other simple tasks. The programs put significant financial strain on the parish, but Boyle manages to keep things running.

During the late ‘80s and ‘90s, Boyle organizes some important peace treaties between gangs. In retrospect, he sees that doing so gave the gangs “oxygen”—in other words, he legitimized them by agreeing to sit down and talk with them.

Boyle is shocked by the Los Angeles riots of 1992. There are fires and angry mobs throughout the city, and after a few days, the National Guard enters the city in a vain attempt to restore order. But oddly, Boyle’s neighborhood is one of the safest in the city for the duration of the riots. Boyle gives an interview in which he suggests that his neighborhood has been relatively untouched by the riots because the city’s gangs have an incentive to keep the peace.

After giving the interview, Boyle is contacted by a famous Hollywood agent named Ray Stark. Stark tells Boyle that he is looking for a way to make an impact on gang violence. Boyle suggests that Stark buy a nearby building and convert it into a meeting place for rival gang members. This building becomes the Homeboy Bakery. In the coming years, Boyle and Stark work together to found Homeboy Industries, a nonprofit that builds on Boyle’s earlier efforts to employ gang members.

In the ‘90s, Homeboy Industries grows and begins to offer more opportunities for gang members, including tattoo removal surgeries. By 2000, the nonprofit employs more than a thousand people, and moves to a bigger office. It also offers legal services, career counseling, and psychiatric care. To date, Homeboy Industries runs five businesses, including a bakery and café.

Boyle is proud of what he’s accomplished with Homeboy Industries, but he’s realistic enough to realize that it’s just a drop in the bucket. There are tens of thousands of gang members in his city, only a tiny fraction of whom his nonprofit can help. Boyle thinks of his nonprofit as a tool that can help former gang members “crawl before they walk” and then “walk before they can run.”

In 1999, seven years after Homeboy Bakery opens its doors, it burns to the ground. Boyle’s first reaction is to assume that gangs have destroyed the building. But the fire inspectors determine that the causes of the fire are natural. Many of the bakery employees weep when they see that the bakery has been destroyed. Ten years later, however, many of these former gang members are back and working at Homeboy Industries’ new bakery.

At the original Homeboy Bakery, Boyle employs a man named Luis, a savvy former drug dealer. Luis renounces his gang allegiances after the birth of his daughter, and becomes a foreman for Homeboy Industries. Boyle quickly befriends Luis, and they develop a relationship in which Luis playfully teases Boyle for using the word “great” too much—something which he claims all white people do. As the months go on, Luis earns more money and supports his daughter.

Boyle remembers Luis when he speaks at Luis’s funeral. Luis is murdered on an ordinary Wednesday afternoon while he’s walking to his car—two gang members shoot him for no clear reason. At the funeral, Boyle delivers a sermon in which he argues that Luis was right to use his life to do good, even if his life came to a sudden, horrific end. He remembers the great English mystic Julian of Norwich, who argued that the purpose of life is to discover “God’s goodness.” By any measure, Luis discovered God’s goodness before he died.