Description
From Publishers Weekly As the preface of this admirable but ultimately disappointing memoir states, Rodriguez, an award-winning poet and publisher of the small press Tia Chucha, decided to document his youth as an East Los Angeles gang member in an effort to steer his teenaged son, Ramiro, away from the gang that he recently joined. A member of various Latino gangs based in and around the South San Gabriel Valley during the late 1960s, Rogriguez participated in random acts of violence, and was imprisoned on several occasions for the crimes he committed. Unfortunately, he offers frustratingly little detail behind the facts of his life and activity in the gangs. Rodriquez presents colorful characters and highly charged events, such as shootings, Mexican funerals, rapes and arrests, but his writing style renders much of that rich material forgettable. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. "Rodriguez's account of his coming of age is vivid, raw...fierce, and fearless...Here's truth no television set, burning night and day, could ever begin to offer." -- Gary Soto, The New York Times Book Review "His sculpted lines emphasize important phrases and images." --David Roderick, San Francisco Chronicle "Every spiky anecdote from a life of guns, razors, uppers, downers, glue, heroin, sex, and early death supports this former gang member's view of the violence as collective suicide. That Rodriguez's memoir takes place...before the '92 L.A. riots only makes this beautifully written and politically astute account more compelling." -- Suzanne Ruta, Entertainment Weekly "Extraordinarily haunting and evocative." -- Paul Ruffins, The Washington Post Book World The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis J. Rodriguez began writing in his early teens and has won national recognition as a poet, journalist, fiction writer, children's book writer, and critic. Currently working as a peacemaker among gangs on a national and international level, Rodriguez helped create Tia Chucha's Café & Centro Cultural, a multiarts, multimedia cultural center in the Northeast San Fernando Valley. Visit his website: www.luisjrodriguez.com. Read more
Features & Highlights
- The award-winning and bestselling classic memoir about a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles, now featuring a new cover.
- Winner of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, hailed as a
- New York Times
- notable book, and read by hundreds of thousands,
- Always Running
- is the searing true story of one man’s life in a Chicano gang—and his heroic struggle to free himself from its grip.
- By age twelve, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East Los Angeles gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests and then watched with increasing fear as gang life claimed friends and family members. Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and the power of words and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation.
- Achieving success as an award-winning poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more—until his young son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in
- Always Running,
- a vivid memoir that explores the motivations of gang life and cautions against the death and destruction that inevitably claim its participants.
- At times heartbreakingly sad and brutal,
- Always Running
- is ultimately an uplifting true story, filled with hope, insight, and a hard-earned lesson for the next generation.
