Ya sea en la comiquísima y filosofaclora voz de un chófer de limusina cuyo sueño es mejorar su grupo amateur de "rap-metal" en "Mi Carro, Mi Revolució", o en la diatriba en forma de monólogo de Ysela, una evangelista de carpa que da tes-ti-mo-nio en "Oiga", Rodríguez halla humor en las vidas de personajes que no están dispuestos a sacrificar sus sueños debido a las circunstancias que los rodean. Rodríguez le da una voz elocuente al barrio donde pasó muchos años de su vida como padre, organizador y finalmente escritor: un vecindario que le ofrece al mundo más de lo que su apariencia sugiere.

Republica de East LA, La: Cuentos (Spanish Edition)

Literature & Fiction

Rodríguez, Luis J.

United States

Rayo

In a stunning literary achievement -- with a power and scope in the tradition of John Steinbeck and Theodore Dreiser -- Luis J. Rodriguez captures the soul of a community and a little-known era in America's history in his epic novel about love, family, workers' rights, industrial strife, and cultural dislocation.
When the Salcido family departs for the United States, their flight is hardly different from the journeys of the indigenous tribes who roamed America for tens of thousands of years, or immigrants who sailed across entire oceans, or countless others who have left their native lands behind for the promise of a better life.
Traveling mostly on foot, Procopio Salcido and his future wife, Eladia, leave Mexico for the United States to escape the bleak realities of their homeland.
Finally settling in Los Angeles, the young couple discover that the hopes they have for their children must now be weighed against the backdrop of the mighty Nazareth steel mill, their engine for survival, which will eventually become the lifeblood of their own American dream.
Spanning sixty years and three generations, Music of the Mill is set in the industrial boom of post–World War II Southern California, where jobs seemed plentiful, communities thrived, and racial harmony prevailed. However, while postwar prosperity seemed to supply jobs to many migrant African American, Mexican, and poor white workers, in reality there was great struggle and racial discord -- low-paying, backbreaking labor and the cruel manipulation by manufacturers who pitted groups of workers against one another.
For the Salcidos -- especially for Procopio's idealistic son, Johnny, and his young family -- the hard knocks of life often resound louder than their own sense of hope. When their aspirations have long since lost their luster, retaining their dignity and sense of worth becomes the family's greatest challenge.
Destined to be a classic of American literature, Music of the Mill, the long-awaited first novel by Luis J. Rodriguez, portrays the journey of one family caught in a web of politics, racial polarization, and corrupt unions' power struggles, revealing the drama, pain, joy, and humor of working-class life.

Music of the Mill: A Novel

In a stunning literary achievement -- with a power and scope reminiscent of John Steinbeck -- Luis J. Rodriguez captures the soul of a community in this epic novel about love, family, workers' rights, industrial strife, and cultural dislocation
As the World War II cultural and industrial boom birthed a new California, a mighty steel industry rose with the potential to make modest dreams real for the workers willing to risk their lives in the mill's ferocious heat.
For the Salcidos, the Nazareth mill became an engine for survival. Luis J. Rodriguez chronicles the simultaneous evolutions of this American family and the enormous enterprise that drove them -- from optimistic and cohesive units questing for stability and prosperity to disintegrating entities whose dreams have long since lost their luster.
Spanning six decades, the novel conveys the drama, resilience, and humor of working-class life during a little-known era in American history.

Harper-perennial

Mientras el boom cultural e industrial de la Segunda Guerra Mundial dio a luz una nueva California, surgió a su vez una poderosa industria de acero, y con ella vino el potencial de cumplir los sueños modestos de los trabajadores dispuestos a arriesgar sus vidas en el calor feroz de la acería. Para los Salcidos, la acería de Nazareth se transformó en una maquina de supervivencia. Luis J. Rodriguez relata la evolución simultánea de esta familia americana y la empresa enorme que los impulsó adelante―desde las unidades optimistas y cohesivas buscando estabilidad y prosperidad a las entidades desintegradas cuyos sueños hace rato habían perdido su brillo. Abarcando seis décadas, la novela transmite el drama, la adaptabilidad y el humor en la vida de la clase obrera durante una época poco conocida en la historia americana.

Musica de la Aceria: Una Novela (Spanish Edition)

Parenting & Relationships

From the award-winning author of Always Running comes a brilliant collection of short stories about life in East Los Angeles. It is a life brimming with hope and vitality, the depiction of which reaffirms Luis J. Rodriguez as not only one of America's keenest urbanists but as a writer with a perfect blend of humanist empathy and poetic soul.
Behind this famed enclave's notorious gang violence its well-documented and stereotyped poverty rates, and the supposed desperation of those who live in East L.A. without any hope of escape, lies one resounding element: real people, with real strength, in very real predicaments.
Whether hilariously capturing the voice of a philosophizing limo driver in his late twenties whose dream is to make the most of his rap-metal garage band in "My Ride, My Revolution," or the monologue-styled rant of a tes-ti-fy-ing! tent revivalist named Ysela in "Oiga," Rodriguez squeezes humor from the lives of people who are not ready to sacrifice their dreams due to circumstance. In so doing, he allows readers to enter into the hidden and hope-filled chambers of an individual's spirit, only to artfully balance this with the more serious intonations of life's grimmer realities.
In "Finger Dance," Rodriguez pays tribute to the slow death of a violent and harsh father who, in his last days, is rendered physically and mentally helpless. In "Pigeons," we are shown a world where Mexican-Americans ironically and hypocritically distrust Mexicans, while in "Sometimes You Dance with a Watermelon," we meet a mother who finds momentary relief from her life with a good mambo, a hot sun, and a juicy piece of fruit.
In these stories, Luis J. Rodriguez gives eloquent voice to the neighborhood where he spent many years as a resident, a father, an organizer, and, finally, a writer: a neighborhood that offers more to the world than its appearance allows. The Republic of East L.A. is unforgettable fiction from a true talent.

The Republic of East L.A.: Stories

When Carlitos's mother and the other cleaners go on strike for higher wages, Carlitos cannot think of a way to support his mother until he sees her on television making a speech, and then he gets his class to help him make a sign to show his pride.

Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can! (Spanish Edition)

Teen & Young Adult

Cohn, Diana

Demco Media

Always Running : LA Vida Loca : Gang Days in L. A.

Bt Bound

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.a.

By age twelve, 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 drugs, murder, suicide, and senseless acts of street crime claimed friends and family members. Before long Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and the power of words, and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation. Achieving success as an award-winning Chicano poet, he was sure the streets would haunt him no more -- until his young son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in Always Running, a vivid memoir that explores the motivations of gang life and cautions against the death and destruction that inevitably claim its participants. At times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, Always Running is ultimately an uplifting true story, filled with hope, insight, and a hard-earned lesson for the next generation.

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Touchstone

A provocative, critically acclaimed account of the author's life as a fifteen-year-old gang member in East Los Angeles and his Herculean effort to break loose of the culture of violence, drug use, and crime. Reprint. NYT.

La vida loca: el testimonio de un pandillero en Los Angeles

Arts & Literature

Fireside

The award-winning and bestselling classic memoir about a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles, now featuring a new introduction by the author. Winner of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, hailed as a New York Times notable book, and read by hundreds of thousands, Always Running is the searing true story of one man’s life in a Chicano gang—and his heroic struggle to free himself from its grip. By age twelve, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East Los Angeles gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests and then watched with increasing fear as gang life claimed friends and family members. Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and the power of words 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 young son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in Always Running, a vivid memoir that explores the motivations of gang life and cautions against the death and destruction that inevitably claim its participants. At times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, Always Running is ultimately an uplifting true story, filled with hope, insight, and a hard-earned lesson for the next generation.

Atria/Primero Sueno Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rodríguez, Luis J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Rodríguez, Luis J.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rodríguez, Luis J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Republica de East LA, La: Cuentos (Spanish Edition)

Music of the Mill: A Novel

Music of the Mill: A Novel

Musica de la Aceria: Una Novela (Spanish Edition)

The Republic of East L.A.: Stories

Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can! (Spanish Edition)

Always Running : LA Vida Loca : Gang Days in L. A.

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.

La vida loca: el testimonio de un pandillero en Los Angeles

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.