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Always Running Luis Rodriguez Analysis

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The book Always Running by Luis Rodriguez is an autobiography. Luis has been involved with gangs since he was eleven years old. He was attracted to the power he saw when he witnessed a gang burst into his elementary school chasing a guy and noticed everyone ran and hide. His gang involvement was with the Las Lomas barrio during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He grew up in the Hills it’s a part of East LA, the neighborhood was not the best during this time in his life and was populated mostly by Chicanos (Mexicans living in America). By the time Luis was a teenager he had fail into enculturation and he was out committing crimes sometimes just to have food to eat. Gang life and involved were forced upon him due to his environment. His parents had to move around a lot after his father lost his job at the school and went to jail. The privileges others had Luis didn’t have, “I didn’t have guidance from parents or older siblings” (Rodriguez 22). …show more content…

The police unconsciously would target the young man or minority every day. I call it self-fulfilling prophecy and this still goes on 30 years later. Luis said, “It seems like we’re paying for everyone else’s mistakes. Sometimes… even when there’s been no mistake. Just for being who we are… Just for being Mexican” (144). Rodriguez experienced the consequences of racial discrimination in the school system. One school he attended he could not speak Spanish because the teachers felt their being talked about, if caught you would have detention or sent home. The Chicano students there felt like they were “being neglected, treated like second-class citizens… denied access to school resources” (182), in comparison to the white students. Everywhere he went it seemed to be a road block, at home, his neighborhood, and

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