Always Running

This book written by Luis J. Rodriguez is a self biography about his life. In this book he writes about his young life as a gangbanger and how he ran away when he was young, just like his son did when he was young. He writes this to his son so that he won’t go the same way he did and end up like him. He also writes about all the bad things he did and what happens to his family, and how he does not want that to happen to his family, and also he hopes that this book would make young people turn away from this life, even if you’re not a gangbanger. When reading this book it really made me think about the life we live today in the United States. How most of the young people don’t think about what could happen to them if they get into gangs, also if they keep on doing bad things like he did. At the beginning the book was really boring and hard to read, but once I got pass Chapter 1 and 2 it’s when all the action started to hit and when it got really interesting. I could really relate to this book in very different ways, like how at the beginning of the story he did not speak English, and how he felt around people who did, how he would think they were talking about him, and how because he did not speak the language people made fun of him, were racist to him because of being Mexican and how they kept him apart from everything else. Also how he lived in el barrio* this reminds me of where I used to live in Cuba, a poor neighborhood with lots of lomas* and people just hanging around because they have nothing else to do as there are no jobs for them. I believe this is a really interesting book that every teen should read. As we are starting life most of us don’t know what we want, and some think that being in a gang is “cool”. Also at the end of the book the author tells about his current life as a writer and how much it has changed. This told me that everyone could be successful in life no matter what you are right now you can always change your lifestyle and be