Genesis Mazariegos

Period 6

Always Running Essay

A world without gangs is unimaginable. Most people in gangs don’t have a choice and

some have a choice. Either you choose the good path, or you choose a wrong path. With all

events that come into growing up some events may cause a person to choose the wrong path. But

what matters is how a person gets back on their feet and realizes this isn’t where they wanna be.

In Always Running, it shows the struggle of choosing the right path for Luis J. Rodriguez, and

as well as what lead him to the wrong path. The memoir discusses the many mistakes Luis made

as a teenager when he jumped over fences to play basketball and run away from the cops,tries to

suppress his feelings with drugs, and then tries to take out his feelings on his own body.

, and commits an attempt on possible murder.

The first example of a mistake Luis J. Rodriguez made as a young teen was when his

friend and him ignored a simple no trespassing sign which lead up to having major

consequences. When the two kids are approaching the school Luis J. Rodriguez realizes the sign.

Tino however shrugged his shoulders and gave Luis a who cares look and jumps over the fence

like nothing. Rodriguez writes, “It never stopped,this running. We were constant prey, and the

hunters soon became big blurs: the police, the gangs, the junkies, the dudes on Garvey Boulevard

who took our money, all smudged into one. Sometimes they were were teachers who jumped on

us Mexicans as if we were born with a hideous stain. We were always afraid. Always running.”
It was as Luis took the chasing of the trespassing as a whole life of events. He knows the struggle

of always being chased for simple things and being innocent but being claimed guilty.

The second mistake Luis J. Rodriguez made was turning to drugs to let go of his pain.

Convinced that he has nothing to work towards and nothing to aspire to, he takes out his

frustration on himself by cutting himself and doing hard drugs. One of those bad nights Luis

said, “ I was in combat with myself, against a dark side, poised for destruction.” Then follows

up with, “ I had came home in a stupor from pills, liquor and from sniffing aerosol can spray.”

He was put in that dark situation for all those things in his body. Later on in chapter two he

continues to talk about that night and when he was close to committing suicide he didn’t. He

simply said, “ I pressed my street-scarred and tattooed body against the wall and held a razor to

my wrist. Closed my eyes. Hummed a song- I don’t know what song. But I couldn’t do it” If you

really see Luis didn’t want to do it no matter how many issues his life had he knew there was

more to it. That just proves that there is more to life even when you think there isn’t. Just gotta

keep fighting all those bad demons that comes in life. Luis J. Rodriguez encountered many more

moments like this where his life was on a string but no matter how many moments he encounter

he never did it. He continued to put up with gang life, racism life, and the hardest age period of

time becoming a teen.

The mistakes just get worse and worse throughout the book. Luis crossroads with a

mistake that maybe in his life he may regret, or may question what if I never did it. In Chapter

five Luis is jumped into a new gang. After getting jumped into the gang him and some other

guys decide to create a big war of violence with hard-working lowriders. While the rest of the

gang beat and assulted the guys Luis wrote, “ I observed the beatings, as if I were outside of

everything, as if a moth of tainted wings floating over steamed sidewalk.” He was just there
standing not doing what the rest of the gang members did. Until later on in the event he wrote “ I

clasped the screwdriver and walked up to the beaten driver in the seat whose head was bleeding.

The dude looked at me through glazed eyes, horrified at my presence, at what I held in my hand,

at this twisted,swollen face that came at him through the dark. Do it! Were the last words I recall

before I plunged the screwdriver into flesh and bones, and the sky screamed.” Luis had come

face to face with possible murder. Nothing can excuse the action of Luis. Not the drugs not the

hard issues in life he had. It was more like he was confused and lost at this point. He was

frightened, uncertain of his direction in life, and full of self-hatre. It comes to a point where you

do stuff where you really do without knowing why. Where your not in your five senses and act

upon everythin you have on your shoulders.

These are examples of a mistake in life where Luis knows it is wrong but still does it.

Throughout the book you realize how Luis J. Rodriguez mistakes get worse and worse, is like

there is no hope for him to stop and make a change for himself and his life. Every person knows

what is right and wrong. But as a young teen who went through a lot starting from the age 9 snd

up he acts more upon his pain and his desire to survie. In the story it’s more like your the prey or

the pedator. For Luis J. Rodriguez his society and surrounding push him in many bad directions

where he caused and made many mistakes. Mistakes shouldn’t be seen as regrets more of lesson

learned throughout life. Lesson where you will take them under consideration and not repeat

them. But what this story has is a great exapmle of how you can be at your lowest and still raise

up to the top. Luis J. Rodriguez went from being a gang member, theif, drug user, almost commit

suicde to being a famour writer, artist, and political organizer. What I’m trying to say is that

there will be many dark places in life where you are heading in the wrong path. But that’s not

where it ends. You can continue to go that way or wake up one day and say “this isn’t what I
want, I derserve more.” The changes you decide to make no matter what kind of obsctles you

face in life.