Gang days in L.A.

Rodriguez, L.J. (1993). Always running: La vida loca: Gang days in L.A. East Haven, CT: Curbstone Press.

OVERVIEW

Luis Rodriguez grew up in Watts and East L.A. He joined his first gang at the age of eleven and was drawn into la vida loca—the crazy life. Gangs were "how we wove something out of the threads of nothing," he remembers. By age 18, he was a veteran of gang warfare, police killing, drug overdoses, and suicides that had claimed 25 of his friends and had driven him and many others to despair.

Rodriguez survived the violence of his youth by writing down his experiences. Later, when his son, Ramiro, joined a gang in Chicago (where they now live), these memories were woven into this book.

This book is written as a loosely compiled autobiography. Rodriguez writes about snapshots in time throughout his gang career.

His book, says the author, "is an argument for the reorganization of American society—not where a few benefit at the expense of the many, but where everyone has access to decent health care, clothing, food and housing, based on need, not whether they can afford them. It’s an indictment against the use of deadly force which has been the principal means this society uses against those it cannot accommodate."

As Rodriguez wrote this book, Rodney King’s beating by the Los Angeles Police Department continued to play itself out throughout the country. The Los Angeles Daily News, in late October 1991, reported that the L.A. County Sheriff Department had shot 57 people since the first of the year. About 80 percent were people of color, and a few were disabled or mentally ill; all of them wer unarmed or shot in the back.

His goal is not only to report the destructive lifestyle of Latino youth, but also to give insight into a system that is more of a cause than a deterrent to the problems facing today’s youth.

When reading the book, it is easy for the reader to feel as though he or she is trapped in the world of la vida loca. Rodriguez has authored a book about Latino gangs as one who has lived through it.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. What basic human needs do gangs fulfill for young people?
2. How can parents, schools, the government, youth programs, and church best meet these needs?
3. Are alternative activities enough for people living in this situation? If not, then what can bring about the kind of changes needed?

IMPLICATIONS

1. In order to best serve people most affected by gangs, one must be willing to correct societal wrongs while also rectifying individual wrongs.
2. Youth workers must become more familiar with gang culture in order to be effective serving within it.