Luis J. Rodriguez, Author . HarperCollins/Rayo $23.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-621263-0
Poet, essayist and editor Rodriguez (Always Running: La Vida Loca; Gang Days in L.A.) assembles 12 gritty, hard-hitting snapshots taken from the lives of careworn characters struggling to survive amid crime, poverty and racism in the barrio of East...
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Luis J. Rodriguez, Author . HarperCollins/Rayo $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-056076-8
Rodriguez chronicled his youthful days in an L.A. gang in his 1993 memoir, Always Running
, and while his latest novel ends with a cautionary portrait of a gang soldier locked away for life, it focuses on diverse characters living, loving and just...
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Luis J. Rodriguez, Author Curbstone Press $19.95 (260p) ISBN 978-1-880684-06-1
As the preface of this admirable but ultimately disappointing memoir states, Rodriguez, an award-winning poet and publisher of the small press Tia Chucha, decided to document his youth as an East Los Angeles gang member in an effort to steer his...
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Luis J. Rodriguez, Author, Luis J. Rodriquez, Author, Daniel Galvez, Illustrator Children's Book Press (CA) $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-89239-161-5
Monchi, the 10-year-old narrator of Rodr guez's (Am rica Is Her Name) well-intentioned if oversimplified cautionary tale, describes his encounter with a gang. When Clever, Monchi's neighbor and a gang member, announces, ""It's about time you joined...
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Luis J. Rodriguez, Author, Luis J. Rodrc-Guez, Author, Luis J. Rodrguez, Author Curbstone Press $13.95 (125p) ISBN 978-0-915306-42-8
Rodriguez ( Poems Across the Pavement ) writes eloquently of ``a severed America,'' of Mexicans exiled to ``the armed camp called East Los Angeles,'' of laid-off laborers and evicted families--in short, of a populace locked out of privilege and...
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Luis J. Rodriguez, Author, Luis J. Rodrc-Guez, Author, Luis J. Rodrguez, Author Curbstone Press $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-880684-40-5
In Rodriguez's ponderous, wordy story, a Mixteca Indian girl living in a Chicago barrio struggles to find her niche in a hostile society. The author eschews subtlety: the ironically named America witnesses a sidewalk shooting while walking to school;
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Luis J. Rodriguez, Author, Luis J. Rodrc-Guez, Author, Luis J. Rodrguez, Author Curbstone Press $13.95 (72p) ISBN 978-1-880684-50-4
Active on the Chicago spoken-word scene, Rodr guez has appeared on a number of CD compilations and a PBS special, is the author of the memoir Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. and the founder of T a Chucha press. His third collection,...
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