Leonard “Bonez” Martinez Jr. grew up in central California, but after his parents got sick, and then both died, he says everything changed. After spending time on the streets of Reno and walking away from gangs and drugs, he found a new direction playing the guitar. Recently though he says his dog died after being stabbed and then a friend starved to death. As best he can, despite these recent tragedies, he’s preparing for another cold winter, while finetuning his musical skills, playing the sorrows and still existing beauties of life.
“I was born in Fresno, California. I was raised in Madera. The lifestyle I lived was common for city kids, you know, a very rough life. I went to prison very early in life, did some time for petty crime.
About seven, eight years ago before I moved over here I was about at my worst, gang banging and selling drugs.
I was walking down the street doing my thing one day and coincidentally this homeless person comes up to me and he said ‘Hey, do you have a couple of dollars? I'm hungry.
I said ‘I don’t, I have some weed though.’ He handed me a guitar and said hold your hands right there and so I started playing it a little bit and he said ‘wow that sounded pretty.’ He said ‘you should play guitar. It might be good for you.’
I hit that first chord which was a G chord. I felt the oscillation in my chest. I knew that was it, and that’s all I did after that. I put down the drugs, I put down the gang banging. I started playing guitar.
I have a line of people that wanted to teach me because I love music and I don't know, it just happened.
I got a few people that are behind me, teaching me what they know … so some music theory and some chords or whatever.
I got my own stuff and I just like playing it and getting reactions. I like being out here and for people to hear me. As long as somebody hears it, I I'm cool with that.
And if they want to drop off some bills, you know, on the way, hey, that's a plus.
This past few months somebody stabbed my dog to death. I don't have no kids. I don't have no outside life. I just had him and my guitar you know and he's gone. So you really don't know what you got until it's gone.
It's really rough out here. It's really lonely. I don't get scared of much anymore. You know? Nights are really cold. Really cold and the winters are brutal. But I've learned that if I keep running from my problems it's only going to create more problems. So I've recently come to the understanding since my dog’s passing I can't run.
I got to stay and fight.
In the winter you have to have a routine, and some kind of cover so I got that. I have a bicycle, and my guitar and my tent.
Every night I set up early and then I’m up before dawn, breaking everything down and putting everything away. There’s a spot I like they call it the Island, by the river. I don’t bother anyone, there’s no trash, there’s no loudness. I play my guitar pretty quietly. So we havent had any bothers for months and months now.
It’s important to have that place that you call home, no matter how raggedy, it means something.
It’s a cruel life out here. You sometimes wonder, where’s the humanity at?
I just had a friend starve to death not that long ago. He starved to death. Like nobody knew what was going on. He couldn't tell anybody that he was hungry, you know? You know … it's really sad to hear that. Somebody, you know, starves to death. I feed everybody. If I have food and if I see somebody's hungry, I automatically give it. No matter what, even if I’m eating it at that time, I'll still give it up because I know what it's like to feel like you have to take from somebody else so that you can eat.
You don’t do that though, that’s not how society works, you have to make your own way…
I got freedom. A true sense of freedom. It’s rare and very liberating. It’ scary and it hurts sometimes.
What’s important is giving everybody something positive that I left behind when I go, that for me is the most important part of the day you know, it's to leave something positive here and that says a lot.
When you walk down the street and somebody says hi to you that's your brother your sister or a cousin your aunt your uncle it's myself, say hi back.”
Reporting for Our Town Reno by Eric Chernaev and Saurabh Chawla