Papa hit him, Mama kissed him   Made him go to Catechism   With the sisters in their black and white   And all the time those city streets   Were teaching him another kind of wisdom   When to run and when to fight   Up at the playground after school   Listening to tales of the prison system   And those lawless avenues      Dawn on a half darkened street   A child's footsteps repeat   And something there turns them   Down those lawless avenues      Silent Joe went down so bad   He was the strongest fighter the avenues had   Stabbed in the chest he went down swinging   Someone from some other part of town   No one even seen it coming down   And you don't hear no church bells ringing   And in the violent night the police light   Sweeps across the lots and the yards   Following those lawless avenues      Down on a half darkened street   Armies advance and retreat   And struggle to take control   From those lawless avenues      Manuelito's sister Rosa   Ran away with a surfer from Hermosa   Manuelito, cuida a Rosa   Hay mira como estan las cosas   (Manuelito take care of Rosa   Look at how things are)      But who could blame her after she saw   Every boy die who could have gotten close to her   Rosa es joven u solo quiere   Ver la belleza del mundo   (Rosa is young and only wants   To see the beauty of the world)      Manuel said   "You gotta fight for what you want in this life"   Just before they shipped him overseas to 'Nam   Otra guerra sin razon   Otra guerra sin fin, sin honor   (Another war without reason   Another war without end, without honor      And she was fighting to understand   When they shipped Manuelito's body home   All she heard was one more shot   Echoing down lawless avenues      Hoy amigo, tal igual como ayer   La lucha en el barrio no cambia   Nuestros hijos son los que han de crecer   Por ley de la calle, viviendo entre abrazos   Y chingazos   (Today my friend, just like yesterday   The struggle in the barrio doesn't change   Our children are the ones to grow up   By the law of the street   Living between hugs and blows)      Down on a half darkened street   Fathers' and sons' lives repeat   And something there turns them   Down those lawless avenues      En el calor de la calle   (In the heat of the street)   Buscan valor en la calle   (Looking for valor in the street)   Hasta final de la calle   (Till the end of the street)