Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. is a memoir written by Luis J. Rodriguez, published in 1993. The book chronicles Rodriguez's experiences growing up in the Chicano gang culture of East Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s.
As a child, Rodriguez faced numerous challenges and obstacles, including poverty, violence, and racial discrimination. His family lived in a small, cramped apartment in a predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood, and his parents worked long hours to make ends meet. Despite these difficulties, Rodriguez excelled in school and was a top student.
However, as he entered his teenage years, Rodriguez found himself increasingly drawn to the gang culture that surrounded him. He joined a gang called the "Deepords," and began participating in various criminal activities, including drug dealing and vandalism.
As Rodriguez's involvement in the gang deepened, he found himself caught up in a cycle of violence and crime that seemed impossible to escape. He faced numerous brushes with the law, and spent time in juvenile detention and prison.
Despite the dangers and hardships he faced, Rodriguez remained determined to turn his life around. He began writing and performing poetry as a way to express himself and to deal with the trauma he had experienced. He also became involved in community organizing and activism, working to address issues of poverty, racism, and violence in his community.
In Always Running, Rodriguez writes candidly and powerfully about the challenges he faced and the lessons he learned as he struggled to escape the grip of gang culture. His memoir is a powerful and inspiring testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of education and self-expression to overcome adversity.
Always Running By Luis Rodriguez Essay
In his capacity as a gang member, he uses drugs, viciously beats rival gang members, gets into fights with other gangs, and at times participates in some unfathomably horrific behavior at one point, for example, he assaults an innocent person with a screwdriver. He is generous toward the positive influences in his life, such as his mentors in the latter half of the book. We need more diverse stories. Here in California, Always Running is kept behind the checkout desk at my local library because it is one of the most stolen books, so I wanted to check it out. Shows how Latinos live in the ghetto. It got so bad, I didn't even tell anybody when I had to go the bathroom. People dont understand that some people stay homeless for not fighting for their lives.
ALWAYS RUNNING Read & Download for free Book by Luis J. Rodriguez
There were a lot of books in the classroom libraries about gang life, books of poetry by Tupac Shakur, stuff the students prefered as it had to do with, "you know, real life. The ones that are in gangs supposably are just fakes and rookies. Chente encourages Luis to become politically engaged, telling him that he has a connection with all the exploited and impoverished people of the world—not just other Latinos. The glaring contradictions in this memoir make it hard to side with the author. Rodriguez Read Online or Free Download in ePUB, PDF or MOBI eBooks. This is not an easy topic to read about, and certainly not to live through, but Always Running presents such a unique perspective and was truly worth the read.
Always Running Themes
However, I was so put off by the book, that I stopped halfway through. Number Of Pages: 262 pages First Published in: February 9th 1993 Latest Edition: June 12th 2012 Language: English Genres: Formats: audible mp3, ePUB Android , kindle, and audiobook. The American Southwest in the mid-1900s was not the most inviting or friendliest place for Mexicans and Chicanos. It took me way to long to finish this and I only d Honestly, I was incredibly turned-off by this book. Some of those attitudes are reported in this book and that made it painful to read and relive. But one Asian guy got into our face. I knew it was bad in LA, but I had no idea how hard it was just to survive.
Always Running by Luis J. RodrÃguez
To be fair, a Latina waitress did stop me to verify that I was reading this book and lauded that this book be required reading for schools in heavily Latinx populated areas. Like The Corner, David Simon's killer tome on life on a Baltimore drug corner, this book illustrates the condition. He is generous toward the positive influences in his life, such as his mentors in the latter half of the book. Growing up in Los Angeles is a challenge for Luis. Always Running is an engaging and intelligent look into the socio-political factors that have led to the proliferation of street gangs in the last century in areas where large percentages of citizens have few opportunities but plentiful obstacles, told through the firsthand experiences of former gang member and now activist, Luis Rodriguez, as he grows up as an oppressed minority in the over-policed, but under-protected, gang-haven of East LA. Homeboys become fathers even in their early teens.
Excerpt: ‘Always Running’
I appreciate the usage of Spanish and the inclusion of a glossary. I try so hard, but I didn't like this book. Gangs, LA, vato locos - Luis Rodriguez got heart, and he wrote this in what? The author offers lots of short narratives of events that happened in his life, but they are not strung together into a cohesive story. In the barrio, the police are just another gang. Why not make it our own? It talks about Gang days back in the old days of Los Angeles. What do we remember? I was around when South Central Los Angeles gave birth to the Crips and Bloods.
