Forever Running an Inside Look into Louis Rodriguez Always Running
Travis Taylor
HST 370.03
Travis Taylor
Dr. Lindsay
History of California
4 December 2008
Forever Running an Inside Look into Louis Rodriguez’s Always Running
Gang life is is a common lifestyle for many many Americans growing up in heavily populated urban areas, where gangs, violence, and drugs are considered to be everyday things. It is a lifestyle in which it affects everyone in the community, not just one individual or a particular gang but everyone living or even working in the community. Gangs, violence, and drugs, were prevalent in Rodriguez’s neighborhood in East Los Angles and these problems shaped and affected the community in several ways.
Violence has always been apart of Luis’ life. When Rodriguez was young he lived with his parents who frequently fought and had several problems. They lived in Watts area, and were very poor moving from different house to different house very frequently. “For months we had been pushed from one house to another, just Mama and us children” (Rodriguez 14). They never lived in what is considered to be a safe neighborhood, when Luis was six his mother had sent him and his older brother to the market to purchase some groceries. On their way home they were attacked and beaten up, “They punched him in the face, in the stomach, then his face again, cutting his lip, causing him to vomit” (25). Situations like these are an everyday occurrence for some communities. When Luis was a bit older his family moved to the San Gabriel Valley which had a large gang population. Their house was located in between two large gangs. “You guys live between the the two largest ‘hoods’. You got to figure out which one to claim or you’re going to get fucked by both of them” (54). In San Gabriel you had to be part of a gang it was considered to be protection, form getting jumped or worse.
Violence and Gangs usually go hand in hand, in most cases it involved turf, or areas where certain gangs claimed for their own. When they were young, around middle school their gangs were not highly organized, they were more like a group of friends who hug out and fought others if they had a particular reason to. When they got in high school things changed a lot if you walked down the wrong street their could be problems for you. As they got older the more organized the gangs got. They would organize who they would hit or in other words shoot. An individual needed a gang it is considered vital for ones protection.
At this time in history the San Gabriel valley saw racial tension and violence among Blacks, Whites, and Latinos. Not only was their discrimination between races but when the Latinos weren’t fighting other races their gangs were fighting each other. Neighborhood violence was something that these people were raised with it was an everyday thing. They were forced to adapt to the circumstances that they lived in. They became desensitized to violence. Nearly all of them have experienced violence directly in their own lives. When you grow up and live in a violent life style it becomes all that you know, making it extremely hard to break the vicious cycle.
Many of the young people involved with gangs never graduate high school. Many of them drop out at the age of sixteen. This is for several reasons the first being, their families do not value education greatly. Their families believe that education is a waste of time they should be working and making money to contribute to the household. Another reason is because they do not believe that enough people within the school system care for them. They feel as if the teachers and the principles could careless about their needs. In Rodriguez book he talks about how the teachers and educators taught a racist curriculum, and many of the teachers had racial prejudices. Eventually several students from the surrounding high schools were able to get together and organize walk-outs. With the hopes of making some much needed changes to the education system. When they leave the school system they would turn to the streets where many of them turn to more violence as well as drugs.
For many growing up in the San Gabriel, they believe that the odds are against them they feel as if they are constantly running, “I never stopped this running. We were constant prey, and the hunters soon became big blurs: the police, the gangs, the junkies, all smuggled into one. Sometimes they were teachers who jumped on us Mexicans as if we were a hideous stain. We were always afraid. Always Running” (Rodriquez 36). Just imagine living a life in which you are constantly running. What kind of life is that? This is some thing that millions of people are living with in urban areas across the country.
Drugs and gangs usually go hand in hand with each other. Many gangs deal drugs because it is a quick and convent way of making money. This is something that is embedded into their everyday society. It is a part of life for many people. When people live in poor areas which face a lot of crime and gang violence they often need to escape and and for many individuals drug use is considered to be their escape.
Another thing that sometimes comes areas such as San Gabriel is prostitution. One day Luis and his friend were driving around and saw two girls on the corner. They pulled over and offered them a ride. Both Luis and his friend developed relationships with these two women later to find out that they were prostitutes. Luis was hurt by this and he ended the relationship with her. The woman had very limited options, she needed to help support her family, with what few resources she had. This is the same story for many women out there who are forced to sell their bodies in order to make ends meat.
The communities try to create activities to encourage the children and young adults to stay out of the gangs. In Rodriguez’s book he discuses community centers which were suppose to be a safe place for children and adolescents to go, it would be free of violence, gangs, and drugs. The community centers also worked between the families and the school. They helped with the communication between the two. These seemed to be helping things for a while their was even a time where Luis was working for them painting murals. The problem with these is that they never seem to last long. As soon as their is a budget cut these are the first programs that get cut out. The community is fighting an uphill battle, it is hard to win the war against the gangs and other factors that exist.
Although the odds are against them their are some cases where some of the people from theses communities actually beat the odds. Luis eventually found their way back to the the classroom where he finished high school and even went to college at Cal State Los Angles for a while. Some people are able to beet the odds and get out of these violent, gang and drug infested communities.
Gangs dominate urban areas because their is so much poverty in the inner cities. When their are high percentages of poverty their are higher crime rates. People are constantly trying to get ahead any way they can. One way an individual may get ahead is to join a gang were he or she works together with other individuals to accomplish something. Many times this something has a negative impact on society. However they believe that they need each other and that they need to do what they are doing in order to be able to get ahead. If poverty is eliminated and if everyones needs are meet, their would no longer be a gang issue. However this is not a perfect world and people are corrupt and some people are put at an unfair advantage causing poverty and the need for gangs.
By writing this book Luis Rodriguez opened the eyes to many Americans as to what gang life looks like from the inside. Many of the people involved in gang activity do not have much of a choice in the matter, it is something they are forced into. Luis opens the eyes of so many people who are not knowledgeable of gangs, he discusses what relationships are like between the family unit when members of the family are actively involved in gangs. He also talks about the relationship between gang members, and how these gangs interact with other gangs in the community. Gangs, violence, and drugs, are very common in low income communities. It is these three things that can shape, form, and influence the community. It is a never-ending vicious life cycle, whether one lives in East Los Angles like Luis Rodriguez or one lives in New York or Philadelphia. These are some things that have a really strong influence in communities that can potentially have an everlasting impact on everyone within these communities. Gangs and violence creates hate among people, and hate can potentially cause lives to be lost, families to be destroyed, and communities to suffer.
In order to truly understand how life is living a heavily populated gang community, one must actually live in that community just reading about just could not bring it justice. Violence, gangs, and drugs are imbedded it to the lifestyles of all who live in these areas. They have learned to adapt to the struggles that have shaped their communities. They eithor learn to live around them or to accept what is considered to be normal behavior in their committees, causing some to feel as if they are forever running.
Works Cited
Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running : La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L. A. New York, NY:
Touchstone, 2005.
No comments:
Post a Comment