Always Running, written by Luis Rodriguez, begins in Mexico, with seven-year-old Luis and his family in their car headed for their new life in America. Luis has two sisters and one brother. His father used to be the school principal, a position of great power in a small town. The local parents had forcefully removed him from his position. The family was forced to leave their home and their lives for the safety of the United States. The story resumes with Luis as he begins high school; Luis attends James Garfield High School where he is the president of the Latino awareness club. He leads rallies to bring awareness to the struggles of non-English speaking students. He eventually graduates from high school but does not go to college. Luis’s …show more content…
Luis yells to the men to leave her alone and upon arrival is tackled by an officer and is struck repeatedly in the side with a nightstick, he is then arrested. In his trial he is convicted with assaulting a police officer, he later learned that when the officer tackled him his foot hit the officer in the side. The lady that was arrested with him gave him her number and told him to go to her house in three years when she got out, one year after he would. When Luis arrived at her house the door never opens after he knocks so he goes to the bus stop and sleeps on the bench. One week later he returns to where his parents live in hope to rent a room, he gets a sub-minimum wage job at a nearby fast food restaurant. Luis calls the lady that he met before prison and asks why she did not answer the door; she replies that her sentence was extended for fighting. Luis tracks down some old friends, they meet up where they used to hang out as a gang and some of the other members are there sharing a cigarette, they offer it to Luis and upon his refusal, to his surprise the rest of the people refuse it as well. He then remembers how much he used to love helping other