Luis J. Rodriguez gives voice to a unique American experience. Written with an insight that is both particular and insular, his autobiography, “Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.” (Touchstone, $15), is a rare work that has become an instant classic. With over 400,000 copies in print since 1995, “Always Running” is a milestone that attests to the quality of its writing and its universal message. While this memoir is compelling, there is much more to this fascinating, brutal and ultimately triumphant chronicle.
By age 12, Rodriguez was a veteran of East L.A. gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings and arrests, then watched with increasing fear as drugs, murder, suicide and senseless acts of street crime claimed friends and family members. By the time he reached 18, he was a true veteran of the streets.
But 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 Chicano poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more — until his young son joined a gang.
“Always Running” is also a social history and life lesson. For years, Rodriguez kept his life story a secret from his eldest son, Ramiro, afraid it would only encourage him to become a gang banger. But when his son joined a local Chicago gang anyway, Rodriguez decided to end his silence because he wanted his son — and other young people like him — to survive. While Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in “Always Running,” the youngster was sentenced to state prison for various crimes and was released in the summer of 2010 after serving 15 years.
Rodriguez’s story reveals the astonishing, yet typical, neighborhoods across America that are plagued by social devastation, poverty, violence, deep-seeded discrimination and hopelessness. In a country that does not understand the problems of the socially disadvantaged or does not care enough to begin solving them, thousands of youths die in the street every year as a result of bad schools, ineffective institutions, absent parents and racism.
The son of Mexican immigrants, Rodriguez hopes his message will compel people to change the distressing conditions in the lives of these youth. He is currently working as a peacemaker among inner-city gangs and runs Tia Chucha Press, which publishes emerging, socially conscious poets.“I have a duty to take my lessons and experience to as many people as will listen, to expand the conversation about why people join gangs, are violent, lose their imaginations and their hopes,” explains Rodriguez.
In September, Rodriguez’s sequel, “It Calls You Back,” will continue the author’s journey from gang member to one of the most revered figures in Chicano literature and American letters.
=-=
For more information, visit the Free Library of Philadelphia at freelibrary.org.
Comments