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Summary Of Always Running Luis Rodriguez

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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

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