Peter Ortega's profile

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Profile about:
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Peter L. Ortega
to my readers,
about myself....

The small town of Warden was an easy place to live with my grandparents, Felipe and Angelica Pruneda and my dad Steve Pruneda, and his little brothers Ralph and Junior. A small town with a middle school, high school, and a park in the middle of town with a basketball court and a lot of truckers not much of gangs, but I moved to a town of the lower valley of Yakima called Wapato with my mom and step dad, and little brothers of three and little sister. The five of us attended school there. The town was not much bigger than small town Warden, just more to it. Not many street gang turf, but there was gangs and drug dealers. In a part where the projects were with natives is where I'd hang out. Most of the friends I had were gang members or pushing drugs. I never joined, but I had their backs and to me a friend stands by his side 'cause to me, seein' things was never leave a person, friend, or family struggling so I rode it through side by side. I was born in Moses Lake, Washington, a city of mixture races and rich people and a good town to visit with little gangs around. I never moved there 'til later in life after prior visits to the Washington state facilities and juvenile institutions. That was in 2001, and I channeled my energy in doin' things way different so I never went back to the state facilities, so I'd visit my grandparents 20 minutes away in Warden and my dad and visit couple people I met through the system and see how they did things. Couple of them were into that tough man stuff and training so I started doing that with them and doing back yard fights, placing bets, and I did that for a good couple months. It was fun.

I was born on January 27, 1982. My parents Ruthie Ortega and father Steve Pruneda, both from Washington. My dad drives and still drives truck. My mother lives with and still going strong with my step dad Joe Saiz living in Wapato. Even then, before doing that backyard fights, me and my brother, 'cause I'm the oldest on both sides, we'd every lunch time from high school and after school would hold fights and bet. We did that for about almost a year but it was cut short when my step dad came home and noticed two streets of cars on our road and people all around our house while we had three fights going at once. Both my mom and step dad worked hard, and still there was not much money raising us five kids, but they strived to prevail. As a child, I enjoyed ridin' in the trucks with my dad, grandpa, and uncles Ralph 'n' Junior. When I was eleven or twelve that's when I moved to Wapato from Warden and started third grade. That's when in a small town, a little bigger than a town I just left, opened my eyes and I seen more and things, got tougher, and on occasions, I'd be asked to join a gang and I'd refuse. Never had problems, but I still hung with some of those members and got a fair amount of fights. To be a friend is sticking with them, not joining them.

My step dad, Joe, seeing that, would make us work out. Bought us weights and stuff, gloves, and that's where the learning how to fight kinda stuck with me, but I never thought about it, just used what was taught when needed.

I never kept up with school. I was already wanting to be grown up at 13, running around on the streets, fighting, and making money the fast way, stayin' with friends or jumpin' from house to house. I was in a circuit where I was earning a reputation and respect for the way I was. In the meantime, I'd visit my mom and step dad. When I was 14½, I was having my first daughter and living with her mother in the projects.

In 2004 or 05 I really got into a little more fighting back in Moses Lake with some friends that went to Oregon, Vancouver, and Spokane, and I went with them and done it with them. I did good and kept it up with them for a while, but in between those years of 04-05, after bein' outta the state facilities since 2001, the gangs was hittin' big time; and, not bein' a gang member, I was dragged havin' to choose sides; so I stepped back and seen what it was, but certain people started actin' different towards me when I'd talk to certain friends, and I had to choose the ones that never changed or acted different, but stayed like I did and never left from my side or left me stranded; and I respected that, and ain't nothin' changed about us or our friendship. But bein' older and wantin' to be with family and my girls and lovely lady, I'm makin' a few changes and wantin' to open up a business of my own. In July of 2009, I was in an area and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time 'cause I wasn't working and back to fast money. I got caught up with someone's crime tacked onto my own charge of a possession, and now gone for a change in life for the better, myself, for my loved ones, my lady and her kids and family as well as my kids and family.

Signed, Peter Ortega

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