openroadmedia: “Eleven years old—I started in my first gang....

openroadmedia:

“Eleven years old—I started in my first gang. Around twelve years old I started doing drugs,” says Luis J. Rodriguez.

Rodriguez grew up in Los Angeles, where after joining a gang, he lived on the streets and became addicted to heroin. In his twenties, after turning his back on gang violence and drugs, Rodriguez began his career as a journalist and award-winning poet. His depictions of urban and Mexican-immigrant life in works such as Always Running have made him one of the most prominent Chicano literary voices in the United States.