Family

The book Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez begins with him as a child with his siblings in the backseat of his parents Dodge. Rodriguez has a brother named Jose Rene, also known as Rano (frog), who later becomes known as Joe. He has two sisters Ana Virginia and Gloria Estela also known as La Pata (the duck) and Cuca (short for cockroach). His father Alfonso gave all his children animal names at birth, Luis was known as grillo (cricket). In the beginning of the book his family are the main characters especially his brother who was a bully to Luis as children. Later in the book his friends seem to become his family as his brother focus on school and starts to do something right with his life while Luis heads into the gang life. Through the whole book however his parents stay faithfully by his side, showing up to get him out of jail multiple times.

Childhood Friends

Friends seem to come and go in Luis's life and not because they chose to leave but because in one way or another they seemed to die around him. At age 10 he experiences a friend dying for the first time when he and his friend Tino are chased by police for playing the part after hours and Tino falls from a roof to his death.

His next group of friends include Clavo, Wilo, and Chicharron together at age 13 and 14 they formed "the Southside Boys" (p52). The would later join the Tribe together after running into another childhood friend Miguel who was already in the Tribe. Clavo is later shot, loosing an eye after which he disappears. Wilo tries to move away from the gang violence but is killed 10 days after he moves. Chicharron ends up going to prison at the age of 17 when he is found guilty for accessory to murder. Miguel is killed by a police officer when he hops on an officer to help his brother who is wanted for outstanding warrants.

People that helped

Chente I believed was one the biggest helps that Luis Rodriguez received. He was the administrator of the Community Center. He gives Luis a job, he is the reason why Rodriguez returns to school and big part in him graduating.

Daniel Fuentes is another person who changes Rodriguez's life. He was at the center to sign up amateur boxers, he teaches Rodriguez that in didn't matter how tough you thought you were you need to think as well as have muscle.

Mrs. Baez- "the Home-School Coordinator" (p173) it seems like she was the person they could go to at school. When they felt they weren't being treated fairly because of their race Luis and other Mexican students went to her and even though she didn't want to fight like them and opposed their walk out, she was in their corners and agreed that they should be treated equally to the white students.

Summary of the beginning

In the beginning of the book the author Luis Rodriguez explains his family. His mothers want to return to Mexico and his fathers need to achieve the American Dream. He tells about the troubles he faces being a Mexican in a place where white people saw them as illegals and treated them like they didn't have the right to live here. He talks about his first experience in a school, and being put in the corner because he didn't speak the language and the teachers were not prepared to deal with him.

By the time he hit middle school gangs began to surround him. It became a way of life and either you belonged or you were attacked by them all. At a young age he began his "clique" and later got pushed into bigger and badder gangs. It became a big war between Lomas and Sangra, the same people fighting for different land. At a young age he begins to see his friend killed, and the unjust world around him from the cops to the teachers who didn't know how to deal with someone "like him".

Ganglife

In the middle of the book we began to see Luis Rodriguez as a real gang member. His gang being involved in rapes, robberies, and murders however, he seems to not do everything his gang does. This is also where he begins to see his childhood friends and well as his new gang brothers slowly die one by one. Everyone around him seems to end up dead, shot, or incarcerated.

This is also the part of the book where he begins to meet his loves from 15 year old Roberta who ended up being a prostitute in order to pay  her sister rent to Viviana a girl from the rival gang who ends up leaving him when her brothers see her having sex with Luis on the porch. The girls in the gang life seem to end up dead or pregnant at a young age, some with a father and some without. Roberta's friend Shoshi ends up pregnant by Luis' friend Chirarron and is later left with the child alone after Chicharron is sent to prison.

Highschool

At Chente's request Luis returns to high school and begins to get involved with the Chicano groups. He organizes walk outs to stand up for the rights of Mexicans. He becomes a popular student and joins a student council type of group with the white students in order to try and make the school a better place.

While in high school Luis is arrested twice once for helping a women who was getting beat by the police for being drunk and disorderly, he goes on to have a short relationship with this older women. The second he is arrested for attempted murder, this time his mother didn't come to his rescue. Chente however was there to help him out. The police who arrested decided to let him sly in order to pin the murder on another person named Roger who was the one who supplied the guns. Since Roger was not at the scent the cops could not keep their stories straight and Roger was found not guilty.

After Luis graduate he attends college for a while. After the members of his own gang, the friends he grew up with and called brothers shoot him he decides to leave. "The homeboys tried to  kill me, vatos whom I had known as brothers, with whom I scurried down muddy streets and slept next to in jail, with whom I partied and hung out in front of courthouses and the fields; they were dude I fought for and with I shared a taste of la carga. I would have died for them." (238)


Voice Summary

My thoughts

After reading the book Always Running by Luis Rodriguez it showed why someone would feel pushed into the gang life. It was a way to fit in a way to feel like you had someone by your side in a place where you felt completely unwanted. After looking up the book in images I saw the original book cover and came to realize that I have had this book in my collection for years (taken from my older sister) and had never even thought twice about reading it. Now I'm looking forward to reading It Calls You Back. Although Luis Rodriguez turned out to be a success story his story shows how not everyone is as lucky. These were children being killed over land that was never theirs to begin with. Overall it was a great book that takes you through the mind of a boy who from day one in school felt that he was in a society that did not want him. It shows how lower class Mexicans did what they could but unable to speak the language were powerless to defend themselves in a land that openly showed the fact that they saw them as lower beings.

Comments