Que Pasa? : PEOPLE

“They call me a hero, but I’m not sure,” said Cristal Anguiano. Others, however, have no difficulty in calling the 12-year-old’s actions in February heroic. She somehow managed to carry her brother Rafael, 2, to safety after she was shot in the heart outside her family’s modest home in South-Central Los Angeles. The bullet was fired in a gun battle between gangs. Now, Cristal is back to playing with her friends and getting ready to return to school. Cristal said she remembers little of the shooting. “I was standing (holding my brother) when I started to hurt,” she recalled. “I took my brother to the porch.” It was there that Cristal matter-of-factly told her parents: “I don’t feel good.”

* At times, financial consultant Louis Barajas has gotten hefty servings of enchiladas as payment. On occasion, he charges nothing. After achieving success at a prestigious Newport Beach company, Barajas, 30, chucked that job and returned to the neighborhood of his youth. He opened an office over a Mexican seafood restaurant in Boyle Heights, and now gives advice on matters ranging from income taxes to investments. Of his new job with working-class clients, Barajas, who attended UCLA and Claremont Graduate School, said, “I love this . . . This is where I’m from.”