|
||
Chicano/a Studies 098 - required book |
|
ALWAYS RUNNING Luis J. Rodriguez
By age twelve, Luis Rodríguez 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. Before long Rodríguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and the power of words, and sucessfully 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. Rodríguez 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.
The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis J. Rodríguez grew up in Watts and East Los Angeles. He began writing in his early teens, and eventually won national recognition as a poet, journalist, and critic. He is currently working as a peacemaker among inner-city gangs and runs Tia Chucha Press, which publishes emerging, socially concious poets.
"An absolutely unique work: richly literary and poetic, yet urgent and politically explosive at the same time....A permanent testament to human courage and transcendence." Jonathan Kozol
"Bravo, Luis Rodríguez, for the beauty of a strong singular voice....Must reading. Punto!!" Piri Thomas
"Every spiky anectdote from the life of guns, razors, uppers, downers, glue, heroine, sex, and early death supports this former gang member's view of the violence as collective suicide. That Rodríguez memoir takes place...before the '92 L.A. riots only makes this beautifully written and politically astute account more compelling." Suzanne Ruta
"Extraordinarily haunting and evocative." Paul Riffins
Winner of the 15th Annual Carl Sandburg Literary Arts Award for Nonfiction
260 pages 1994 ISBN 0-671-88231-7 Touchstone
|
