Author Profile

Luis J. Rodriguez was born in El Paso, Texas in 1954. He was an American poet, novelist, journalist, critic, and columnist. His work has won several awards, and he is recognized as a major figure of contemporary Chicano. His best-known work, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., is the recipient of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, among others, and has been the subject of controversy when included on reading lists in California, Illinois, Michigan, and Texas schools due to its frank depictions of gang life. Rodriguez has also founded or co-founded numerous organizations, including the Tía Chucha Press, which publishes the work of unknown writers, Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural, a San Fernando Valley cultural center, and the Chicago-based Youth Struggling for Survival, an organization for at-risk youth.
Rodriguez was born in the United States-Mexico border city El Paso, Texas. His parents, natives of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, had their children on the U.S. side of the border to ease the transition into the United States, where they had intentions of relocating. His father was a high school principal and his mother, who is descended from the Raramuri, a people indigenous to Chihuahua, was a school secretary. The elder Rodriguez, who refused to be dominated by local politicians from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, relocated the family to South Los Angeles when Rodriguez was two. There he spent the first part of his childhood and witnessed the 1965 Watts Riots. The family later moved to the San Gabriel Valley, and he joined his first street gang at the age of 12. He had joined the Lomas gang during their early wars with the Sangra 13 gang (Chicano slang for "San Gabriel"). The two gangs are still active as of today in the San Gabriel Valley and still maintain a fierce rivalry despite gentrification.
After all that happened Luis became a writer of novels and poetry. He had left his “vida loca” for simply becoming a writer. The first poem he wrote was “Poems across the pavement” which was published in 1989. After he wrote that poem he started writing more and more books and poems. There’s one I consider the best “Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.”. I like that book because he wrote about his son joining gangs and doing drugs. “You get a busted lip. So what? It’s worth it.” His son was about to get in a fight and he didn’t care if he gotten a lip busted. So then his son gets in love with a prostitute. But he didn’t care that she was a prostitute all he cared about was they both loving each other. "Art is the heart's explosion on the world. Music. Dance. Poetry. Art on cars, on walls, on our skins. There is probably no more powerful force for change in this uncertain and crisis-ridden world than young people and their art. It is the consciousness of the world breaking away from the strangle grip of an archaic social order."
“Poetry
Rodriguez, Luis J. (2005). My nature is hunger : new & selected poems, 1989-2004. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press. Rodriguez, Luis J. (1991). The concrete river. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press. Rodriguez, Luis J. (1989). Poems across the pavement. Chicago: Tia Chucha Press. Rodriguez, Luis J. (1998). Trochemoche : poems. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press.
Nonfiction
 Rodriguez, Luis J. (2001). Hearts and hands : creating community in violent times. New York City: Seven Stories Press.
 Rodriguez, Luis J. (1993). Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press. Rodriguez, Luis J. (2005). Music of the mill : a novel. New York City: Rayo.
Fiction
 Rodriguez, Luis J. (2005). Music of the mill : a novel. New York City: Rayo.
 Rodriguez, Luis J. (2002). The Republic of East L.A.. New York City: Rayo.
 Rodriguez, Luis J.; Daniel Galvez, illustrator (1999). It doesn’t have to be this way : a barrio story / No tiene que ser así : una historia del barrio. San Francisco, California: Children's Book Press.
 Rodriguez, Luis J.; Carlos Vasquez, illustrator (1996).”