Always Running: LA Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.

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Summary: an extremely vivid picture of how gang life is in E. L.A
Review: This book held my interes throughout the ten chapters and 250 pages. what i liked was that this was a real story written by a former gangbanger who had a slim chance of life after the age of 20. twenty-five of his closest friends died in "La vida loca" or the crazy life.rodriguez was a banger in L.A in the 60's and 70's. He shows from the first page how his family wrer "outsiders" coming from Mexico to L.A. when he was just two years old. He says, "Our first exposure in America stays with me like a foul odor. It seemed a strange world... spitting on us, stepping on us... immigrants as if we wre phlegm stuck in the collective throat of this country." The message tht kept coming through to him and his family was you don't belong in this country. His early experiences showed what his life was going to be like in the future. For example the first day of schoool he was put in a class for retards because he couldn't speak English and was punished if he spoke spanish. To show how he doesn't feel in control of his life from the beginning, he says, "I'm just a ball. Bouncing outside. Bouncing inside. Whatever." When he was 10, experience changed his life forever. He and his friend Tino had been playing ball on a schoolyard at night when they weren't supposed to be there. The cops saw them and started chasing them off the yeard. Luis says "It never stopped, this running. We were constant prey, and the huners soon became big blurs: the police, the gangs, the junkies, the dudes on Garvey Boulevard who took our money... sometimes they were teachers who jumped on us Mexicans as if we wre born with a dieous sain. We were always afraid. Alway running." At the end of this incident, his friend Tino was found by the police dead ona floor. He ahd fallen through a skylight when running from the police. After this Luis joined a gang. Being a gang member meant power to him, control over his life, and protection. Throughout the rest of the book Rodriquez tells about incidents that show why kids join gangs in the first place and the needs that gangs fill. In this case he emphasizes the racism that existed in his neighborhood whre the mexicans wre segregated in their own nighborhoods ,even their own beaches, and wer not accepted by others. he says the "police were just another gang" after a cop tells him that the police have a plan-to detain every mexican kid from the age of 7 so that they would records a mile long by th time they were teenagers and get thrown into jail eventuallt

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Summary: If you are a human being, you should read this book!
Review: I am White, but I've been studying and speaking Spanish since I was 12 by immersing myself in the Spanish-speaking communitites of So. Cal and Arizona. This book gives a very accurate picture of what life is like within many sections of our communitiy. Everyone should read because we all should be educated regarding the injustices and reality of police brutality. Open your eyes. I think it's a shame this book is being taken off "official" reading lists and banned in some school districts. This is just one more example of the system trying to keep us from learning the TRUTH.

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Summary: Always Keep It Real.
Review: Luis, I think this is the greates book I ever read in my life. You have opened up my eyes into what the world is really like. This is the first time I ever read a book from the first page to the last page, it really got my attention. Thanks for keeping it real, "la vida loca" is for locos! I thk Luis should get all the respect, I understand how hard it is to live in a world like that. I recomemd this book to everyone.

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Summary: GREAT!!!
Review: In this book it truthfully shows the world though the eyes of a Mexicano. I think that's very important to show others how it REALLY IS.

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Summary: Gang Days in LA
Review: This book was a gift to his son Ramiro and to all the children, who will experience all this drama. This book is at times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, it's a true story, it's filled with hope, insight, and a hard-earned lesson for the next generation. "Rodriguez's account of his coming of an 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.Always Running is the same as any other gang movie. For example Boys in the hood or Blood in blood out show the same as the story does. I'm sure some of you know what i'm talking about. Especially if you have experienced this as i did and know what the author is talking about. Always Running is about a young boy who grew up in East Los Angeles in the barrios. When Luis was two years old, his family left Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, to go to Los Angelas. In those days an educated man had to be careful about certainthings- questioning authoriy. They ended up in Watts, a community primarily of black people except for La Colonia,whish is the quarter, the Mexican section and the oldest part of Watts. I recommend this book to anybody. This book really touched me, at times i was really angry, sad, happy, and sometimes i had a grin on my face. I also got to learn a piece of my history. For example, in 1965 there was a Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War- which was called the so- called East LA Riot. Latinos were the largest group among the 18,000arrested at least 700 of those detained were white. Which people called the Countr's first "Multi-ethnic" revolt? I also learned that LA has the second largest homeless population in the country was the foundation for the kind of response that followed the Rodney King verdicts, and many, many more. "An absolutely unique work: richly literally and poetic, yet urgent and politically explosive at the same time... A permanent Testament to human courage and Transcendence." Jonathon Kazol, author of Savages Inequalities.

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Summary: Que Viva La Raza
Review: Luis Rodriguez It hink needs all of our respect he was man who went through all the things a man goes through when they come from mexico he went through drugs and i say he needs and deserves our respect because now he told us his story and we should learn somehthin from it. I thought the book as of something the mexicans should be proud of and that we should show the gavachos that we never give up and that we have the pride my main wish it to get to meet Luis Rodriguez and I am going to get to that goal and wish he is a man that I respect and love Thank you Luis for writing this book its my favorite book and the best one i have read in my whole entire life thank you Luis once more. Y que viva Mexico y la RAZA

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Summary: L.A
Review: Well I have read this book five times and it is my favorite one and I don't think that in my whole life I will read one lIke this and my wish is to meet Luis J Rodriguez he is my Number 1 fan i just love his book and it made me cry to and it was just the best of all the books. I thank Luis for this book.

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Summary: Sometimes the truth hurts!
Review: I have read the book various times and I have also read all the book's reviews on this site thus far. This book is definitely not for everyone, Anglos and LAPD in particular. I know first hand what it is like to be raised in East LA, having been born at General Hospital (USC Medical Center) and living in Boyle Heights, going to school at Bridge St., Hollenback, and Roosevelt. Kicking it at Prospect Park and State Park. At the age of 9, my older brother and I were eating a hamburger at Gus' Burgers, in the corner of Brooklyn and State, when two Caucasian LAPD for NO apparent reason, other than being young Chicanos, roughed us up pretty badly. With an experience like that at such a young age, I couldn't help but to grow up being afraid and hating Caucasians, LAPD, LA Sheriffs, and CHP. In spite of being treated like this, we are supposed to be civil towards them. Give me a break! A lot of what Rodriguez writes is the way it was and the way it is today. Jdwolfe writes "No where does the author accept responsibility for his actions!", well, no where have Caucasians nor LAPD accepted responsibility for their actions. There is an epidemic in the barrios that started so long ago and in order for there to be change in the barrios, EVERYONE must be willing to accept responsibility. I am now a successful engineer and family man living in Silicon Valley, but the hurt and the pain of growing up in the barrio still exists within me. Mr. Rodriguez, you have done an excellent job of bringing light to the truth of what is still happening to our youngsters in the barrios.

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Summary: THANKS FOR KEEPING IT REAL
Review: Hey first of all if you read this book and didn't understand the content, dont worry. I think that to fully comprehend the content of this revealing book you must live through or at least understand what the author went through. I myself have lived through the hell of drugs and gang life and survived,and I'm only eighteen. This is one of the best books that I have ever read.Rodriguez kept it real and told it like it is.Good work Rodriguez you are an insperation to me and other young Chicanos. Im going to take after your work and apply it to my life.The world can look forward to a new book that will be written by me for everyone to see. Alberto Frias Chicano student

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Summary: real life put into words! keepin' it real.
Review: i read this book in 1993, recommended by my English teacher. he warned me that it was very graphic but a good book at that. so i decided to read the book. it was raw and uncensored which made it harder to put down everytime i picked it up to read it. the way Rodriguez was able to portray what was going on with such realism and feeling was fascinating. this book is truly one of the best books i have ever read and 'til this day i can remember many of the events that Rodriguez depicts in his book. this book i recommend highly to everyone who appreciates reading a good book. warning: this book will be hard to put down once you start reading it.