Always Running is an autobiographical book about Luis Rodriguez’s experiences as a Mexican-American growing up in East Los Angeles. The book is divided into ten chapters, which is significant because the number of pennies represents one return. Rodriguez begins as a boy who doesn’t belong anywhere, ending the story as a member of respectable society. While being respected as a member of society, Rodriguez is connected to his community and integrated into himself. As a child, he constantly struggles with his dignity as a man, but as a man, he finally comes to terms with his identity. Written in 1993 to his son Ramiro as an attempt to direct his son from “la vida loca”, Rodriguez carefully describes all the experiences of first being a victim, then being a victim as part of several groups, then being a victim again with. constant violence and struggle departs from life, and the consequences belong to these.
This is a story of self-discovery. A boy a boy throws himself into a world that does not accept him; consequently he becomes a victim. Not knowing what else to do, the boy asks for protection through force and peers. As he grows up and learns to think for himself and question everything, he learns that he does not need to be ashamed of his family or heritage, and he gains respect in his community. Part of Roderic’s heritage is Spanish. Therefore, it often incorporates Spanish words and phrases into the text. In order for everyone to understand clearly, he includes a glossary at the back of the book with an English translation for every word he uses. Of these the book is easily accessible to all; it also gives the reader a sense of how important Rodriguez’s cult is to him.
This book is generally written in chronological order. Each major event represents a different stage in Roderick’s life. But sometimes the events are repeated, and sometimes the less significant events are out of order. This confuses the parts of the story, so that the reader takes some time to understand what is going on and where to place the event in the author’s life.
Rodriguez makes the stories come alive in a very flowery, poetic way; The reader is touched by many of the memories of the people that Rodriguez saw die for his gang life and these events seem like they are happening today. It is very easy to sympathize with the author; the reader clearly sees where he is coming from and why he acts the way he does. However, he often justifies his violent actions. In this way, she is like the character Clemencia in Sandra Cisneros’ “Never Marry a Mexican”. Like Rodriguez, he justifies all his actions. But even like Rodriguez, even though there is reason behind the action, he doesn’t always do the right thing.
Most of the descriptive parts of the story are when Rodriguez writes about women he either was or was or was only interested. There is no doubting how familiar he is with these women, and he uses many similes to illustrate how beautiful these women are. For Rodriguez, these images are important to the reader’s imagination. For example, he describes one of his first loves, Vivian, as “like fine clay glass in honey” (88). The way she describes women gives the reader insight into how Rodriguez thinks about women. He clearly treats them with respect, since he sees them as fragile and sweet. Many women are mentioned in this book, and Rodriguez is very free and bold when we review these memories. He is not afraid of his hope, his feelings of confusion, and even the feeling of rejection and loss. Every moment spent together is described in detail, even Rodriguez’s thoughts during those moments, and the women are always remembered with love and respect. Women are very important in Roderic’s life; even if he spent most of his days with his children, he always valued and respected women.
Several dialogue books have been written. This made the book more interesting and easier to read. It also helps the reader to see and understand better. By seeing how the characters relate to each other, the reader gets a better sense of how each character feels about the other, and can infer more about why things happened the way they did. For example, the dialogue between Rodriguez and his peers a few nights before he is shot helps the reader understand that his peers no longer respect him and no longer protect him. In fact, he has become a peasant and they feel that they are removing themselves from him because he no longer believes in continuing violence and resisting gang revenge. For this reason, the peers call him “I think a pinch” (208) and say to him that “no one feasts with us” (209). The reader should clearly see that these words were a warning to Rodriguez. He showed what he was after.
Always Running is a look at the lives of Chicanos, especially those who grew up in Los Angeles. In the book, all the policemen are portrayed as evil forces who do not treat Chicanos as real people and start wars between the groups. They are those who will achieve no peace. This contradicts everything they stand for, and that’s why people don’t trust the barrio police. In fact, Rodriguez refers to them as a different group. For people living outside of East LA, this is hard to believe because it’s not often that they see abusive police officers being the very people they were hired to protect.
This book is written for anyone who wants to read it. Although it is Turner’s page, Rodriguez did not write it to appeal to the masses. He wrote it as a way of expressing himself, and in a way to experience catharsis. From the end of the story it is clear that the author has finally figured out who he is and what type of person he wants to become, and is now on his way to goals to be achieved. As it is also explained in the two prologues and the epilogue, this story is meant to guide Rodriguez’s son, not to become a gang, and hopefully also to control other teenagers to not choose what he says as “a life of madness.” What Rodriguez has endured and the number of shots and beatings he has survived seems unmistakable. Although reasonable doubt all this happened, which happens so often that readers do less. inclined to believe all these fables, and consequently less effective in persuading him to be turned away from life by the crowd.
The reader of this book asks one question about the definition of a normal being. For Rodriguez and his parents, the idea of normal is very different from the one he grew up in Orange County. Rodriguez is a normal survivor, while a normal kid growing up in another country can simply mean going to school every day and eating dinner every night for seven days. It just shows how insecure some people are. This is a good way to expose people to different cultures and ways of life, which if the readers can accept, they can be more accepting and tolerable of other people. If this book evokes emotions in the reader and the thinking needs to change, then it is good. If he succeeds in persuading only one person to turn away from “la vida loca”, then he succeeds. It is easy to agree with the author that no one chooses “la vida loca”, that is they just have no other option. This book makes the reader want to see change, and maybe help make changes. And for that, it is a literary work.
