Pubdate: Tue, 18 Oct 2005
Source: Daily Breeze (CA)
Copyright: 2005 The Copley Press Inc.
Contact:  http://www.dailybreeze.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/881
Author: Sandy Cohen

GANGS OF L.A.

Former Members Says His Controvesial Book Is Still Relevant 10 Years Later

Author Luis J. Rodriguez is no stranger to conflict.

He began his criminal life -- shoplifting -- at age 7. At 10 he saw 
his best friend killed. By 15 he was using heroin and living on the 
streets. At 17 he was arrested for attempted murder.

More than 20 years later, he detailed his experiences in Always 
Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.

The conflicts have continued. Rival gangsters sought revenge. The 
book is regularly banned at schools and censored at libraries around 
the country. Earlier this month, parents in Lawndale protested its 
use at Environmental Charter High School, calling it too vulgar for 
freshman readers.

Still, publishers reissued Always Running this year in celebration of 
its 10th anniversary. Rodriguez, who will visit Torrance on Thursday 
to discuss the book, said its message is just as resonant and 
necessary today as it was when it was first released after the 1992 L.A. riots.

"Things have gotten worse," said the 51-year-old Rodriguez, who looks 
more like a friendly schoolteacher than a former gangster. "Entire 
neighborhoods have been criminalized. The culture of being a gangster 
and using drugs has become so cool. It's a culture of meaninglessness."

The book begins when Rodriguez was a small boy, his family new 
immigrants from Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua, Mexico. It follows him 
through the East L.A. barrio where they lived and into the Las Lomas 
gang he joined when he was 11.

"My life on the street involved stealing, shootings, stabbings, 
arrests, homelessness, drug use and overdoses," Rodriguez writes in 
the introduction to the book's 2005 edition. "I felt too far gone to 
be redeemed, to be any good to anyone or anything."

By 21 he was a father. When he saw his son, Ramiro, following the 
same criminal path, Rodriguez tried to dissuade him by telling his 
story of life in gangs. Rodriguez waded through the painful memories 
and wrote in fits and spurts.

But it was too late. Now an adult, Ramiro is nine years into a 
28-year prison sentence for three counts of attempted murder.

In writing the book, though, Rodriguez found healing and a renewed 
sense of purpose.

"I'm not better or smarter than my homeboys -- just fortunate," he 
said during a recent interview in downtown L.A. "Since I got the 
chance, I'm obligated to try to tell this story."

And obligated to become part of the solution.

Gangs and violence thrive where there is no imagination, he said. 
Schools are overcrowded, parents are working too hard and communities 
have become collections of houses and strip malls.

"You start feeling valueless," he said. "Nobody sees you as a human 
being. But the gang accepts you. It reinforces you. And you become 
part of a little world that no one can get next to."

Still, the hopelessness continues. Life doesn't matter. Live and die 
by the gang. Rodriguez said he and his homeboys used to dream about 
what kind of funerals they wanted to have.

The solution?

Foster imagination in any way possible, Rodriguez said. Encourage 
creativity that enables kids to see outside the violence, outside the 
barrio. Bring arts back into the community. Share skills with young 
people. Pay attention.

"Kids are dying for a lack of a strong relationship with an adult who 
cares for them," he said.

Rodriguez credits his teachers at Alhambra's Mark Keppel High School 
for helping him escape la vida loca, the crazy life of gangs. They 
asked him to paint murals, to write poetry, anything but fight and 
cause trouble. They told him he was smart enough to do more.

Though Rodriguez has spoken about Always Running all over America and 
Europe, for the past three years, he has dedicated himself to helping 
young people in his own East San Fernando Valley community. To that 
end, he and his wife opened Tia Chucha's Cafe Cultural, a bookstore 
and cafe that showcases art, theater, dance and music.

"There was no cultural life here, no movie theaters, bookstores or 
art galleries," he said. "We had art on the walls and people thought 
we were selling the frames."

Connecting with the arts is a way of connecting with humanity, 
Rodriguez said. It gives meaning to life, he said, inspiring people 
to reimagine the world and their place in it.

It worked for cafe patron Rolando Roman de Leon. He discovered Always 
Running just after dropping out of high school.

"It inspired me to want to graduate from high school," said de Leon, 
now 30. "I identified with him through the book. And I was inspired 
to read other books. It encouraged me to become more literate, which 
helped me become more educated."

De Leon continues to be inspired by Tia Chucha's Cafe.

"I rarely see a business or corporation where the owner was a high 
school dropout, a gang member and a juvenile delinquent," he said. 
"He's like the light at the end of the tunnel, like there is hope."
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