FOREWORD - TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE OF THE MOON is a fictionalized account of a Filipino immigrant's life in the U.S. from the 1990's to the mid-2000's. The narratives that appear in this book are based on real people and real events taken from the "Pinoy" underworld of gangs, drugs and crime during those times. Although the names have been changed and circumstances altered, many who witnessed this desperate world remain. Written in the first person, this book reads like pages from a personal journal. I intimately knew this malevolent world which I was fortunate to leave behind. More than twenty years later, the "dark side of the moon" still exists. It continues to hold people in its grip of darkness and despair. -LAMBERTO "BERT" ARMADA JR. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +INTRODUCTION - "MY DARK AMERICAN DREAM"- It was September 22, 1989. The welcoming lights of Los Angeles shone brightly as I sat and watched from my window seat on board Philippine Airlines Flight PR101 from Manila. The Boeing 747 jumbo jet approached the glittering metropolis just as the sun had set and dark skies loomed before me in stark contrast to the brightly lighted city below. I was finally over the city where I could make my "American Dream" come true. I was so near. A new beginning, a new life awaited me. I was excited. I could see my future and it was as bright as the lights of this city that bred countless dreams for many an immigrant. I could not wait for the plane to touch down. I was thirty-three years old. Back in the Philippines, I had a wife of seven years who was six months pregnant; three children (two boys and a girl, ranging in ages from six years to eight months old) and a strong desire to give my family a better life by going to the U.S. I told myself that I wanted to build a future for my family but then this was a lie. I deceived myself into thinking this way, to make building a new life in America appear as a noble undertaking, that I was doing it not for myself but my family. The truth was, I was leaving my family for very selfish reasons as would later events prove. But as I was about to step foot in Los Angeles, I had already buried those thoughts. I was comfortable behind the lies I had woven. I faced a new life but with the same selfish heart. I left behind a life that at one time seemed promising but poor judgment and bad choices led to a reversal of fortune that left me heavily in debt. I had no way out except to cross an ocean and start anew. My life had hit rock bottom. Escaping to the United States was the best option for me. My widowed mother, four brothers and three sisters were already in the U.S. and starting families of their own. The last of my siblings (my youngest brother and sister) left for Los Angeles some seven years before I came. I was happy to be joining them. I knew that I could build a new life for myself and my family in the land where Donald Trump and Hugh Hefner ruled as kings and where Hollywood made one believe that anything was possible. My Mom had been in the U.S. since 1978, two years after my Dad died. In the next five years, my siblings were able to join her, all seven of them. My mother was a strong-willed widow and her determination to make a future for her children was what led her to overcome the many obstacles to bringing our family to a new land and a new life. My mother was eagerly anticipating my arrival. She was ready and willing to help me face the kind of life America offered. With my family supporting me, my success seemed assured. I was confident and completely embraced a future of limitless possibilities. I was in America, where anything and everything was possible. (more inside the book)