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Always Running
 
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Always Running (Paperback)

by RODRIGUEZ (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Pocket Books; 1st Touchstone Ed edition (1 Jan 1994)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0671882317
  • ISBN-13: 978-0671882310
  • Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 650,245 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #81 in  Books > Biography > Social & Health Issues > Cultural History > United States

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Product Description

Review
Suzanne Ruta

"Entertainment Weekly"

Every spiky anecdote from a life of guns, razors, uppers, downers, glue, heroin, sex, and early death supports this former gang member's view of the violence as collective suicide. That Rodriguez's memoir takes place...before the '92 L.A. riots only makes this beautifully written and politically astute account more compelling.



Synopsis
A former L.A. gang member describes his experiences in that world, recounting the sense of security and power found in a gang and the grim reality of violence and poverty.

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Customer Reviews

33 Reviews
5 star:
 (27)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to be chicano to love this book!, 14 Jul 1999
By A Customer
Far beyond a coming of age story, this book is a testimonial of the true heart of the inner city Chicano experience. As a teacher in a latino community, these experiences are all too real. In my classroom I see the 10 year-old Luis, with the pressures of the "la vida loca." My only hope is that they have the strength to endure as our author did. The book will give you a fantastic insight into the true problems and successes of the latino community, particularly in California. I have read this book many times and have loaned and lost as well. I don't care how many books I lend and lose, I purchase again. This one has a permanent home on my book shelf!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars an extremely vivid picture of how gang life is in E. L.A, 12 May 1999
By A Customer
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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5.0 out of 5 stars This is poetry for those who lived & survived East L.A.!!, 20 Aug 1999
By A Customer
When I opened 'Always Running' for the first time, something deep inside me snapped and I couldn't ignore recalling the memories of my long past days in East Los Angeles. --IT READ LIKE POETRY-- The memories sang out with laughter and tears; with heartache and celebration. It was as if someone else was there along with me, sharing the same experience. Suddenly, I wasn't alone. Not anymore. I pondered the idea that someone had stolen snapshots of my life. From high school moments at Garfield to running thru shadowed streets in White Fense territory that tempted only a fool to venture down. I experienced that life! That dark tragedy of twisted fate! Luis, you have helped me to bridge a gap between the past I desparetely wanted to forget. Ashamed, and always running from. But now, I can look back and embrace it for what it was; how it was and how I (we) survived. So that today, I can reflect upon that tragic time with strength and foster a different interpretation and understanding about life to my mis ninos. The lessons from the past hardened the soul, but provided the courage and determination to make a difference in my life. If your readers were products of the 60's or 70's, and remember rioting down Whittier Blvd. in East L. A. or perhaps inspired by Edward James Olmos in Zoot-Zoot, then they'll geniunely shed a tear or two at every turned page from this dramatic tale. Healthy reading! Muchas gracias, hermano!!!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor
the author seems to go to extremes to blame others for what happens in east l.a.can he realy expect people to want to be around a pack of drugies,thieves & murderious gang... Read more
Published on 27 Jul 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for Chicano literature enthusiasts.
I loved this book. Being Chicano, I could relate very easily to the protagonist. Rodriguez's writing is so colorful and vivid that I was immersed into a world which I did not... Read more
Published on 6 Jul 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing life story of a young man's life.
Always Running was a very interesting life story of a man. He was a gang banger with drug problems in his early years and turned into an passionate writer/poet, educator in the... Read more
Published on 20 May 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are a human being, you should read this book!
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. Read more
Published on 4 May 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Always Keep It Real.
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. Read more
Published on 29 April 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Always Keep It Real.
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. Read more
Published on 29 April 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT!!!
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.
Published on 16 April 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Gang Days in LA
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... Read more
Published on 26 Mar 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Que Viva La Raza
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... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars L.A
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... Read more
Published on 6 Mar 1999

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