Nearly 3 decades after publication of his classic memoir, “Always Running,” the former gang member who became an L.A. literary icon is still a man perpetually on the run.
One recurring theme in “From Our Land to Our Land” is Rodriguez’s gradual awakening to his indigenous identity. Though Rodriguez was born in El Paso to Mexican immigrant parents and raised in the Los Angeles area, he grew up seeing himself as a descendant of an indigenous culture that existed in the Americas long before Europeans arrived.
In the book, he recounts a 2016 incident in which a belligerent white protester harassed people arriving at a San Bernardino Valley College event where Rodriguez appeared. But after Rodriguez began his talk, the antagonist stayed quiet and eventually left. “I think he probably expected me to start screaming and yelling against white people,” Rodriguez says. “I think he wanted me to be just defensive. But instead, I just laid out the facts. My lineage, my ancestry here is as deep as anyone’s.
“As for whether writers of one group can write about another, this depends: Do they have intimate and authentic relations with that group, and can they respectively express all the complexities and nuances of that group ? Great writers have done this with varying success. In spite of such obstacles, Rodriguez managed to break through with “Always Running.” His 1993 memoir tells the story of an impoverished, violence- and drug-plagued adolescence, which nearly claimed his life until a youth counselor helped him to find another path. Because of those beginnings, he still feels a strong connection to the inmates he’s been teaching since he worked as a newspaper reporter 40 years ago.
“The second thing, I try to be real with them. I don’t over- or under-emphasize my involvement in gangs and drugs. It’s just what I went through. What I’m trying to give them with creative writing is a way to examine their lives with some depth — how they got there, what is underneath the rage and grief, and find way to express it. Poetry, plays and novels are tools they can use to do that.”
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