Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.84 (684 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B006S63K5W |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 144 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-03-11 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Multifaceted and Important Book Dripping with Lived-In Human Experience Jon LaPoma Always Running is an engaging and intelligent look into the socio-political factors that have led to the proliferation of street gangs in the last century in areas where large percentages of citizens have few opportunities but plentiful obstacles, told through the firsthand experiences of former gang member and now activist, Luis Rodriguez, as he grows up as an oppressed minority in the over-policed, but under-protected, gang-haven of East LA. Though his story is fairly common—his parents moved from Mexico to LA to improve their lives and in spite of their best efforts weren’t able to protect their son from getting a. birdmom97"This book should be a required high school course in EVERY school -" according to birdmom9726. This book was much less riveting than I thought it would be. Having said that, I do think it's an important book that our youth should be exposed to IN SCHOOL and AT HOME, because it seems to portray the very high price - in many cases, the ultimate price - that kids pay when they engage in gang activities. I totally fail to see why this book was banned from schools. Are they denying the reality of what kids these days are actually living? These kids need facts and information, and this first-hand account from the front lines of gangs in L.A. provides exactly that, and minces no words in doing it. Maybe that's why all the politc. 6 said This book should be a required high school course in EVERY school -. This book was much less riveting than I thought it would be. Having said that, I do think it's an important book that our youth should be exposed to IN SCHOOL and AT HOME, because it seems to portray the very high price - in many cases, the ultimate price - that kids pay when they engage in gang activities. I totally fail to see why this book was banned from schools. Are they denying the reality of what kids these days are actually living? These kids need facts and information, and this first-hand account from the front lines of gangs in L.A. provides exactly that, and minces no words in doing it. Maybe that's why all the politc. "Sadly, not much has changed since the events he writes about" according to Theresa Alan. What’s crazy about this book is that so much of this was eerily similar to events that happened much more recently: What happened in Baltimore and Ferguson, to name just two. Unfortunately, stories of police brutality disproportionately being inflicted on people with brown and black skin hasn’t changed much since what Luis Rodriguez experienced in his youth.One thing I didn’t like about this book was that he jumped around time-wise for reasons that weren’t clear to me. He’d talk about stuff that happened in 1970 and then suddenly we’re back in 1968, back and forth. Sometimes he’d be talk
gang warfare. Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation. Achieving success as an award-winning poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more - until his son joined a gang. By age 12, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East L.A. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests, then watched with increasing fear as that culture claimed friends and family members. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in this vivid memoir. At times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, Always Running is ultimately an uplifting true story, filled with hope, insight, and a hard-learned lesson for the next generation.