Always Running

Luis stops attending college due to his stint in jail and financial constraints. Among the gangs, “the incidents of violence continued” (235). Chente encourages Luis to broaden his perspective, perhaps even leave L.A. and the gang violence that has marked his adolescence. Luis tries to forge a truce between the gangs. In response, he is shot at by members of his own gang, who promise that next time he interferes in gang warfare, he will be executed. Luis is heartbroken that these men would attack him—“I would have died for them” (238).

Chente helps Luis find a place outside the neighborhood to start a new life. He bids his parents farewell and then pays a visit to Resurrection Cemetery, where many of his fallen friends and enemies are buried. He remembers the many funerals he has attended there and the grief of all those left behind.

As the years pass, the Hills change. PCP takes hold of many gang members and “whole neighborhoods became ghost towns” (240). Huge areas are bulldozed and Asian immigrants move in, constructing malls that cater to their needs but leave the remaining Mexican residents feeling “swept away” (242). Luis and Camila marry in 1974 and have a child, Luis’ eldest son from the memoir’s Introduction.

One night, Luis attends a dance in San Gabriel and is approached by a limping, slurring man. He is shocked to see it is Chava, horribly scarred from the Lomas attack. Chava insists that Luis was part of the attack (though we wasn’t) and that someone has to pay for Chava’s extreme physical and emotional trauma. Luis says that if it would do anything, he’d let Chava kill him, but it won’t—Chava has to let go of all the hate and move on with the life he has. Chava breaks down in tears and Luis holds him as he cries. As Chava limps away, Luis feels “the final tempo of the crazy life” vanish from his soul, “wrested into the black of night” (245). 

Luis ends his memoir with a dedication to his son, Ramiro, who “has a right to be angry” (247) He provides historical context regarding Los Angeles’ history of riots within his lifetime, as well as the rise of gang culture in the city and the Los Angeles Police Department heavy handed yet thoroughly ineffectual response to the rise of gang violence. “This is the legacy of the period covered in this book,” he says. “This is what my son, Ramiro, and his generation have inherited” (249).

Luis then turns to the central problem facing his son’s future and the future of many young people in poor communities: “What to do with those whom society cannot accommodate?” (249). Luis proposes that gangs can be defeated only when youth have true educational opportunity, a good chance of employment, and recreation options. “If there was a viable alternative, they would stop” (250). His son is on his way out, having found strength within himself to distance himself from gangs, express himself, and most importantly, “stop running” (252).