Classic Upward Bound Book Club

Always Running by: Luis J. Rodriguez

Luis J. Rodriguez was born on the U.S./Mexico border in 1954 and is of Mexika/Raramuri indigenous descent. At the age of two, his family migrated to Los Angeles, where they settled in South Central LA. Later, at around age 8, the family moved to the San Gabriel Valley. In the 1960s and 1970s, Luis was an active street gang member in the East Los Angeles area, documented in his memoir Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.
Courtesy of http://www.luisjrodriguez.com/history/history.html

 

“Rodriguez' account of his coming of age is vivid, raw...fierce, and fearless. Here's truth no television set, burning night and day, could ever begin to offer.”                                                        -Gary Soto, New York Times Book Review

“Always Running is an absolutely unique work, richly literary and poetic, yet urgent and politically explosive at the same time... a permanent testament to human courage and transcendence.”
-Jonathan Kozol, author of Amazing Grace

 

If you enjoyed reading Always Running, you might enjoy:

Down These Mean Streets By:  Piri Thomas

The Republic of East L.A.:  Stories By:  Luis J. Rodriguez

My Bloody Life:  The Making of a Latin King (Illinois)  By:  Reymundo Sanchez