Everyone growing up has experienced forms of pressure to participate and soon regretting their decisions. Luis Rodriquez is no exception, detailing the extent in his autobiography called Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. Luis Javier Rodriguez, born in El Paso in 1954 and a former Los Lomas Chicano Animal Tribe gang member, has led an extensive life filled with criminal activity to activism in the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. When he was just a young teen, Luis Rodriguez joined the Los Lomas Chicano Animal Tribe gang. During his time in the gang, he developed an extensive criminal record, even getting arrested for “assault with intent to commit murder” at only seventeen years old after four people were shot. He was …show more content…
Along with his accomplishments with helping the community through various organizations, Luis Javier Rodriguez had a successful writing career. It was during this writing career that he published his autobiography in 1993 titled Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. Luis Javier Rodriguez effectively uses realistic dialogue, symbolism, and description in his autobiography to vividly display the horrific difficulties and pressures associated with participating in Mexican-American gang activity in Los Angeles. Throughout his autobiography, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., Luis Rodriguez effectively uses dialogue to build a realistic portrayal of his gang activity and the horrors that follow through. Not long after completing his initiation, Luis is riding through Los Angeles in the back of a truck with a group of other recently initiated recruits. They came across a group of four men sitting in a “cherried-out 1952 DeSoto” While …show more content…
A prime example of this is seen directly after Rodriguez completes his initiation into the Lomas Loco gang. “I looked back at everyone standing around the driveway. My right eye was almost closed. My lip felt like it stuck out a mile. My sides ached. But I had done well” (Rodriguez 2). In this moment, Rodriguez describes what he felt after fulfilling his initiation requirement. These descriptions of the pain he felt throughout his body is not only an example of the horrible actions committed by Mexican-American gang members but it also shows the pressure individuals face choosing to join a gang. Towards the end of the excerpt, Rodriguez describes his direct experiences with him and the Lomas Loco gang attacking the four individuals, who were sitting in the 1952 DeSoto. His vivid descriptions establish an emotional connection. This then establishes an understanding of the pressure Rodriguez faced in this moment to follow through with the horrific orders he has been given. “The dude looked at me through glazed eyes, horrified at my presence, at what I held in my hand, at this twisted, swollen face that came at him through the dark” (Rodriguez 3 – 4). In this moment, Rodriguez was given a rusty, screwdriver by a fellow gang
Rodríguez began school at a disadvantage, being unable to speak English, as have many other tykes of Spanish-speaking background. “In those days there was no way to integrate the non-English-speaking children. So they just made it a crime to speak anything but English. If a Spanish word sneaked out . . . kids were often sent to the office to get swatted or to get detention. Teachers complained that maybe the children were saying bad things about them.” Thus Rodríguez entered the conventional society as a social outcast, uncomfortable in the language of the ruling culture, and compelled to feel
With the Fiction that a student reads there’s a chance that the author could be relating it to current events happening in today’s society nowaday. A huge struggle we see throughout our lives is discrimination. Reflecting back to Always Running, which does contain the matter of discrimination against Luis. Yet the important part of it all is the fact that it relates to something happening in today's time and age. “A car is pulled over, a pedestrian is stopped, an air traveler is pulled out of line. If the person is being singled out on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion rather than a specific action.” (NewsELA) This article I relate heavy to when comes to Luis situation mentioned throughout the book. It’s something that fiction does for the youth, it allows them the reality and the fact that some things do continue to come.
The two most critical social issues that are impacting the Alvarez family are gang involvement and violence, and a lack of community involvement. Gang involvement is especially troubling to both the community and the immediate family as it is directly related to violence and crime. “Gang members engage in a higher level of serious and violent crime than their non-gang-involved peers. Research about gangs is often intertwined with research about gun violence and drug crime. It is clear that gangs, guns, drugs, and violence are interconnected.” (Gangs and Gang Crime, 2017)
By the age of 16, Santana’s worldview and identity is well established. He exhibits a strong internalization of his Chicano (a Latino subculture) heritage and has begun to experience and establish an awareness of what Peter Bohmer describes as “internalized colonialism:” the socially and economically structured practice of securing the labor of non-Whites for the least desirable, "dirty and servile" jobs that are unwanted by Whites (Bohmer, 1998). Forming his own gang seemed to be a “natural” alternative to becoming a “pawn” in the well-established system of internalized colonialism. His Latino gang became a sub-cultural “vent” for relieving much of young Santana’s social, economic, and personal hardships, as well as a means of developing self-respect through the illegal and coercive powers made possible by gang activity and gang unity.
Howell and Griffiths (2016) attribute the Latino gang growth during the third period to be supported largely by social disorganization theory, during the 1960’s and 70’s the many Latino migrated to southern California replacing black and third generation Latino ghettos with the new first generation immigrants barrios. The three common elements of social disorganization theory are ethnic heterogeneity, low socioeconomic status, and residential mobility; all of which are shown throughout the film. In the begging of the film of the film Santana’s does not appear to be poor, but the live in a heavily clustered area. Social disorganization really begins to show when he goes to prison. Prison is social disorganized because it has all three of the key factors necessary. The first ethic heterogeneity is shown because there are people of all races in prison, white, black, and Latino were shown the most frequently in the film. This competent cause people of different races to band together to provide protection from the other races. This causes peer influence to make those that are lesser criminal turn into more violent criminals. This was shown when Santana, who was arrested for burglary eventually turns into a murderer, after becoming a rape victim. Very few people that go to prison are going to be middle or upper
Luis J. Rodriguez turned his life around, but for the worst at this point. Grillo had forgotten about everything except drugs, gangs, and his friends. For example, “ I clasped The screwdriver and walked up to the Beaten driver in the seat whose head was bleeding. The dude looked at me through glazed eyes…. Do it! Were the last words I recalled before I plunged the screwdriver into flesh and bone, and the sky screamed.” (Page. 111) The gang violence Grillo was being a part of only made the person he was becoming even more disappointing. All the running would blank out of Grillo’s mind as long as he was living the life of violence which seemed to be the only thing he cared about at that very
In Rodriguez’s Always Running he explores the themes of gang violence as he was involved with many gang members and was in one as well. It also had discrimination as a theme in the book because many Mexicans and Hispanic didn’t have the same education as the wealthy and financial people, for example, the whites and first class. “Lomas was reorganizing and recruiting. No longer could one claim Lomas just by being there, Chicharrón invited me to get in,” (108) said Luis. “They beat on you for about three minutes-- that’s all,” told Chicharron to Luis. (108) Luis is saying that the Lomas gang has something in hand for you in order to officially be part of the gang. The requirement to enter the gang is for
The book Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez is about a boy or guy named Luis and his family. This book takes place in gang infested cities in Los Angeles. The action begins when Luis talks about him and his family. Then, after talking about his family the story goes to talk about how he joined a gang and did a lot of bad things as a teenager. Next, Luis about what he was doing and starts to think about what he is doing wrong and tries to change it. After that, Luis joins a boxing team to stop thinking and stop being involved with gangs. The story ends talking about how he want to be an example to his kids and doesn't want them to follow the wrong footsteps he did. The authors theme to this story I think is to keep going and not give up.
Therefore, for a lot of black families the mother was the head of the household. In this case, without a father figure in their life, a young African American youth would find it difficult to avoid going down a criminal lifestyle because of the lack of a father figure guiding them through these difficult stages. Even worse, if the father figure is gangster himself, then a young black youth would find it nearly impossible to try and avoid gangs. In the film, one gangster said that he was simply born into the gang life without even knowing why, and not having a positive father figure can be a big factor. In A Better Life the Mexican family is depicted as a kind of patriarchy. Family is the most important aspect in a Mexican family where the father is the head of the household and the mother is the moral center. With Luis’ mother abandoning him during his infancy, Luis was faced with a serious issue as he did not have this moral center guiding him throughout his youth. This could have played a major factor in his association
He also discusses how the youth in El Barrio face so much conflict outside of their neighborhood just based on where they live. This study predominately follows the lives of Primo, Caesar, and Candy
Luis, from “Catch the Moon,” lost his mother, and himself. He was participating in illegal activities
In contrast to Brooks’ views, Malcom Gladwell from Revisionist History, in a podcast called “Carlos Doesn’t Remember” asserts that in order for poor people to move up in the world, they must have an advocate fighting for them. More specifically, he claims that the advocate must be someone who has deep pockets, stubborn, willing to get “dirty,” and know a lot of people. He uses his friend Eric Eisner and a boy named Carlos to emphasize this point. Carlos lives in Lenox, Los Angles, California, and he is a very talented and smart boy. However, Lenox is a very poor community of mostly Hispanics that isn’t the best neighborhood for Carlos to be able to succeed. Eisner wanted to wait until the boys were in 8th grade, however he was told not to wait that long because “in Lenox you have to start finding kids in the fourth grade because […] 80% of the boys would be gang affiliated by the 8th grade” (16:30-16:45). Notice that statistic, “80% of boys” get involved in gangs by the 8th grade. 8 out of 10 boys would be in gangs. That is a lot! Before Eisner started his company, Yes, most boys didn’t go to high school because there was no high school in Lenox, and they would have to cross gang lines to go to high school. Every year, Eisner comes to Lenox looking for fourth graders that are very bright and gifted, like Carlos, so that he can
“David where were you when you were my age?” “I was not in the same place that i'm in right now it was way different from the way you have lived I had been growing up in Montebello, California right next to east LA and the surrounding cities for miles had been flooded with gangs,” Said David. “There had been many Riots and it was the one in 1992. The 1992 Los Angeles riots, also known as the Rodney King riot, and the South Central riots etc... I was 17 years old when this had occurred and I mean it wasn't scary for anyone really, because it was basically just an amped up fight. I was with my girlfriend at the time and we had been hanging out, and we were passing by it on the freeway you see first, and also you would see people stealing from stores. It was hectic but that’s also how I got my tv.”
In Chapter 2 Luis gains more confidence he found a group of friends he hangs around with called a clique. A clique is different from a gang because they are just basically friends who hang out together at school and everyone at school has a little clique of their own. Luis tells us how his dating life went in school, he had many girlfriends and one of them tried to tell him to stop messing around with cholos because they are no good. Their relationship didn't last long because he liked to be free when she was more proper. In school he said that they had many teachers throughout the year because they treated them so bad and no one would listen. One of the teachers from Cuba always used to get mad at the fact they never listened and Luis said
Thirty years ago (1987), Gloria Anzaldúa published "Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza." The editor notes the revolutionary and controversial aspect of the book, first because of its context and second because of the historical moment in the USA: the sociopolitical environment that Hispanic, queers and people of color had to endure. Though in 2017 many organizations thrive