Always Running Audiobook By Luis J. Rodriguez cover art

Always Running

La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Always Running

By: Luis J. Rodriguez
Narrated by: Luis J. Rodriguez
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.84

Buy for $19.84

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

By age 12, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East L.A. gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests, then watched with increasing fear as that culture claimed friends and family members. Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation. Achieving success as an award-winning poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more - until his son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in this vivid memoir. At times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, Always Running is ultimately an uplifting true story, filled with hope, insight, and a hard-learned lesson for the next generation.

©2005 Luis J. Rodriguez (P)2011 Dreamscape Media, LLC Education Feel-Good Heartfelt Inspiring

Critic reviews

"Rodriguez's account of his coming of age is vivid, raw...Here's truth no television set, burning night and day, could ever begin to offer." ( The New York Times Book Review)
"Every spiky anecdote from a life of guns, razors, uppers, downers, glue, heroin, sex, and early death supports this former gang member's view of the violence as collective suicide. That Rodriguez's memoir takes place... before the '92 L.A. riots only makes this beautifully written and politically astute account more compelling." ( Entertainment Weekly)
"Luis J. Rodriguez gives voice to a unique American experience...compelling...[a] fascinating, brutal and ultimately triumphant chronicle." ( The Philadelphia Tribune)
Powerful Memoir • Cultural Insight • Remarkable Narration • Raw Vulnerable Insight • Authentic Representation
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
First off, a student of mine recommended this book to me. Said it was the only book he’s enjoyed in all of high school. I had never heard of it, so I started listening and was immediately hooked. It’s absolutely remarkable how real this story was for me. Louis’s description of LA in the 60s, 70s and beyond explains so much of my own childhood in the 90s and 00s that I’m now motivated to ask my parents and grandparents all about what they remember of Los Angeles before I was born. I highly recommend this book all if you want to hear that alternative view of history that you never hear about.

Vivid

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A must read for those too privileged to have lived such a hard life. It is easy to pass judgment on troubled youth and those adults trapped in the industrial prison complex, but until we hear and understand the life Mr. Rodriguez, who shares many experiences with them, we cannot begin to fathom the struggle for survival a child living in a marginalized barrio must withstand. This is a story of temptation, survival, and hope. It is not pretty for the barrio life is cruel and it's beauty often dies with the children who are robbed of a healthy childhood by societies failures.

Mr Rodriguez offers a needed look into the barrio

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very inspirational how you can turn your life around from gangs and drugs to a great activist.

Great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Has me hooked from the start! Couldn’t stop listening to the book and see how life is in a gang world

Really good book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I read this book when I was in high school. My classmates started reading this book with me. My teacher made an assignment out of this book. I love this book. I always back to this book at least once 2 to 3 years.

Always my favorite book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a book that should be read by all who educate children/teenagers. We need to make sure we are still Honoring our Latino students heritage and are aware of their cultural background and struggles.

Book for all educators

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved it! Great lessons to be learned by reading this book. We are all walking history and the Author chose to stop running from his self and decided to live a meaningful life.

Expect the unexpected

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good read, especially if youre a Los Angeles native.. reminds me of High School days

Better than than The Great Gatsby

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Such a unique look in the life of a chicano. A must read for all young Chicano youth

One of my favorites

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a minority, they live in a very similar upbringing. This story hits very close to home, and I could read it over and over.. it takes a lot to share stories like this, and even more to do it uncensored without hiding details. I wish this title was more popular.

I could read this over and over

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews