Adventures of Urban Life

Charles Kan

"Always Running" written by Luis J. Rodriguez talks about when he was a child, who just recently came from Mexico, experienced a hard life and racism In addition, the book itself will further explain his memories about being a street gang member and how desperately he went through with his life. Not only that but, his first interactions with other Latino kids in Los Angeles went through pretty much a bad influence because of their Mexican and American identity.
Racism is a factor throughout the book. Such things were when Rano, Luis older brother, was getting chases by neighborhood kids who would fool around with him or they will jumped him. Once a boy, threw a rock at him which gave him a cut in his forehead, leaving a scar that Rano has to this day. (Rodriguez 21)Another one was when a neighbor kid smash a metal bucket over Rano head causing the skin of his skull to be slit which then cause a whole amount of blood loss. After this incident, his mother will go to the kid's mother to confront her. However, the white lady would say "All I know is your boy picked that bucket and hit himself over the head." (Rodriguez 21) Basically, it is saying that color people would do anything stupid and that white people are educated and would not do anything that stupid. All these racism that Luis was telling us can be related to when Arizona put up a law on immigration in the pass week. From what I am seeing I feel like this is an act of racism. It's like it came out from the blue. A rule that they put up such as the failure to carry an immigration documents/paperwork would be consider as a crime and this will give the police 100% power to detain anyone that is suspected of being in the country illegally. This is too absurd and is an act of racism. All these are related to Always Running because Luis, his family and many Mexicans has face Racism from all the white people they see or approach.
Life was pretty hard for Luis and his family. They went through hard times, surviving day by day, looking for shelter and food. All these stuff happening will influence the kids to do bad things, however all these will change later on for Rano and Luis. While they were a child, both were consider bad, but the worse was when Rano who torture his own little brother When they grew older, Luis will be the one going to the bad side and Rano will be the one changing to the good one. At the age of 13, Luis has a tattoo, sexually involved, and was into drugs. In addition, Luis was involved in a gang and even worse, he try to shoot a white man down but lucky he hit the fence or he will be in serious trouble. On the other hand, Rano was 16 years old, suddenly got help by a teacher called Mrs. Snelling who help him skipped grades to make up for the time he got held back. He also has gotten trophies in track and field, gymnastic and as well in karate. later on he will go to high school and was a good kid beside him being a Mexican person.
Last but not least, "Always Running' is about a relationship between his memory of himself and his inability to support his family shows that his role as a man has become tougher and harder to be. Also, social challenge will affect his ways of being a man. Having a hard time will affect and damage his life, but he will then write this book so his own son will not follow in his footsteps.