Always Running Testimonials

2023 marks 30 years since the best selling memoir, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., by Luis J. Rodriguez, was released. 

“The award-winning and bestselling classic memoir about a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles.”

Since it was published, it has reached audiences of all ages, across the United States and abroad and has connected with many and changed their perspectives.  

Rodriguez’s honesty and depiction of his young life as the son of Mexican immigrants, struggling to find a place to thrive and grow, all the time suffering abuse, neglect, gangs, drugs, and impacts of street life. We follow Luis’ journey through gangs and drugs, and meet him on the other side, where he discovers activism, literacy, and the need for social justice for Mexican-Americans, Chicanx, and other people of color. We witness redemption through literacy, peace, and confronting the things that hurt us. 

The Los Angeles Poet Society is proud to Host and Organize the 2nd annual Always Running Book Festival that celebrates resilience and power of literacy!

Luis J. Rodriguez’s path is a heroes journey, that ebbs and flows through the pains of the crazy life.

Please share your testimony with us. How has this book affected you or changed your life?

We will share these testimonials throughout the festival.