Critical Thinking Question: How does money play a role in your text?
Having to rob a store at gunpoint just for a couple of days worth of food is complete desperation. Sharing a one bedroom apartment with your family of 5 is absolutely dreadful. Well, this is the reality for Luis Rodriguez, A Mexican-American who is the main character in the memoir "Always Running". The book is about Luis's life growing up in the crime riddled streets of East Los Angeles in the mid-sixties to seventies. In the text, poverty plays a huge role in the text.
Luis's family was much poorer than most families in Los Angeles. For example, when Luis was cleaning a house he said "[one house] had a swimming pool and a fire place and things called rugs."(Rodriguez Page 23) This statement shows that Luis was not exposed to any luxury or leisure in his community. Another example is when Luis describes he first house in LA, "[The house was] a small matchbook of a place.Next to it stood a tiny garage with holes through the walls and an unpainted barn-like quality."(Rodriguez Page 10) This quote shows the meager conditions he lived in. Another example takes place on page 22 when Luis explains what holidays were like in his house. "[Christmas] presents came from a church group which gave presents to the poor. This was our first Christmas."
Luis's family is also looked down on in society because he is poor. Luis was beat up and made fun of several times for being poor and Mexican. One example is from when Luis and his brother went in to a white neighborhood and two boys stopped him, "They punched him in the face, in the stomach, then his face again, cutting his lip, causing him to vomit...[the boys said] go back you poor spics" (Pages 25-26)This quote portrays how so many people in the text have antagonism towards poor people. Another example is from a big fight between the Angelos (whites) and Mexicans "F**k you,poor beaner, he said as he hit me square in the jaw"(Pg 98)
To conclude, Luis Rodriguez did a great job of incorporating these themes in his memoir. The sad thing is that this is a true story and Luis and many others suffered through these conditions. The story makes you feel sympathetic of Luis's struggles through childhood.
