Run, but Don’t Trip into the Trap

 

Throughout Always Running, the memoir by Luis Rodriguez, the author describes various adversities faced in East L.A. during the 1960’s and 70’s. Along with the uprisings in the Latino communities in this period came the formation of the gang life and culture. Rodriguez vividly describes his youth involvement with such a lifestyle and the range of places it can forcefully direct the lives of partakers. Even though participation in the way of life requires personal choice, strong factors can influence a human’s judgment in making the decision as well. Discrimination and insufficient education are unpleasant problems individually, but when combined can lead to a synergetic outcome that bonds with poverty, drugs, violence, and can inevitably cause incarceration and death.

Many people who don’t speak English immigrate to the Unites States and start families without having adequate plans for work. Because they are illiterate and new to the country, they get taken advantage of by others. When Luis walks into a laboratory in which his father works as a janitor, he discovers the way his father is treated:

 

“Mr. Rodriguez, you have to be more careful with the placement of laboratory equipment,” trembled a professor’s stern voice.

“I unnerstan’…Sarry…I unnerstan’,” Dad replied.

…My dad looked like a lowly peasant, a man with a hat in his had – apologetic. At home he was king… But here my father turned into somebody else’s push-around. (136)

 

The professor clearly takes control of Luis’ father because of his bad English and passiveness. Poor working conditions allow minimum wage as the only accessible and legitimate salary to migrants. Rodriguez depicts how his parents both worked but were making barely enough to survive, “We couldn’t always pay the gas or light bills. When we couldn’t, we used candles... we ate without any light, whispering because that’s what people do in the dark” (22). This indicates that parents foreign to the country had tough times supplying the needs of their family.

When a young person is in a struggling family, the chance of success for them is decreased. Deprived communities that house many of these families also have weak school systems that can ruin the likelihood of positive lives for students. Luis is denied the classes he picked at a new school because of the few prior courses that were taught at his old school.

 

“These classes are privileges, for those who have maintained the proper grades in the required courses. And I must add, you’ve obtained most of what credits you do have in industrial-related courses.”

“I had to - that’s all they’d give me,”

“…I think you’ll find our industrial arts subjects more suited to your needs.”

The classes she enrolled me in were print shop, auto shop, and weight training. (137)

 

As time passes the harder it becomes for Luis, and others in similar situations, to get in the right direction.

People who are trapped in such situations gradually begin resorting to other, more enticing and impulsive, ways of life. They become involved in theft, robberies, drug dealing, and other illegal methods of acquiring money for their needs. Luis gets caught leaving a restaurant in which he ate without paying, and has to explain to the owner:

 

“Listen Mr. Kurley… I was hungry. I don’t have no money. So I got something to eat. My moms works hard for the family. She don’t like me doing this, and I know she feels bad ‘cause she can’t get enough for us. It’s not her fault…I just have to make it on my own, do what I can to keep the pressure off moms and the family.” (143)

 

This demonstrates that Rodriguez did this since things were not going well within his family. Because of the increase in coercion and aggression for money, people begin forming cliques, which eventually develop into gangs, in order to feel safer. After a drive-by during lunch break at their middle school, Luis and a few his friends decided to unite for some power and protection: “We didn’t call ourselves gangs. We called ourselves clubs… five of us gathered in the grass and created a club – Thee Impersonations” (41). They had no real intent in engaging themselves into the unexpected troubles that would soon follow.

People’s lives that are linked with the problematic aspects of gang life usually advance to higher levels of offense. As this happens, they are required to comply with the decisions of the other members. After Luis joins a much larger and tougher gang, he is asked to help out with an attack: “Shit, I thought, they want me to firebomb a house. This meant somebody’s mother, little sister or brother could be hurt or killed… I didn’t want to do this. But once you’re asked to do a hit, you can’t refuse, can’t question or even offer an excuse” (118). After someone commits themselves to a gang, they slip deeper into the hole that prevents them from a constructive life. Many of the members start using drugs in order to lighten the difficulties they face within their lives. Luis reveals his usage during his early teens: “I fooled with all kinds of pills, with mescaline and meth. I sought the death in Silver Satin and muscatel, and then pure tequila and vodka. I snorted heroin and PCP” (125). With the help of drugs people can become inclined to intensify their participation in dangerous activity very rapidly.

For most of those who live such a “loco” lifestyle, life ends unpleasantly, whether it’s while serving time in prison or while defending one’s barrio (neighborhood gang). Innocent family members are often caught up in the middle of the continuous revenge that exists within the gangs. After a group of gang members shot and killed someone, one of their enemies decided to retaliate by taking a sibling, “somebody thrust a shotgun through a bedroom window and opened fire, striking Tiburon’s 13-year-old brother in the head” (225). This can help explain why there is a war going on constantly within the gangs; once a close family member is taken, it’s difficult not to seek revenge. This can cause mistrust within the members, in some cases causing them to turn against each other. Before deciding to completely abandon his rugged lifestyle, Luis encounters his former friends for the last time, who approach in a car:

 

He looked straight at me, returned the smile, then picked up his hand to reveal a handgun.

My face flushed. For seconds, time stood still. For seconds, my mind raced, trying to figure out what was going on. Thoughts promenaded back and forth, telling me to drop down, to protect myself, at the same time denying everything in front of me. (237)

 

He was obviously not expecting this since he was respectful to them prior to the incident: “The homeboys tried to kill me…whom I had known as brothers…I fought for them…I would have died for them” (238). His near-death experience demonstrates that the lifestyle he led was very unpredictable and turbulent, especially in loyalty and friendship.

Two problems − discrimination and poor education − while seemingly moderate when separated, can lead to a chain of more severe problems, if established simultaneously within the same setting. A person who has fallen in this trap may decide to take the tempting way out by joining a gang and not realize the possible horrible outcomes of their choice until they are in too deep. Fortunately, Luis Rodriguez was able to escape the horrific circumstances of his past, and live to write about them by providing vivid descriptions of his experiences as a troubled teen involved in gangs, violence, and drugs.