AUGUST 5, 2011
Former gang member turned, educator Luis Rodriguez talks about the globalization o f a violent culture
BY JAKE THOMAS
STAFF WRITER
uis Rodriguez joined an East Los Angeles
street gang when he was just 11 years old.
After living a tumultuous life that involved
numerous arrests, drug use and a stint being
homeless, which he documents in his memoir
“Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in
L.A.,” he turned away from the violent life,
becoming a respected activist and community
leader. He also began working as a journalist for
various newspapers in California and became the
editor of the People’s Tribune, a radical newspaper
that covered labor issues, homelessness and the
arts.
The highly praised author of both poetry and
nonfiction is an outspoken critic of more
conventional lock-’em-all-up approaches to
combating gangs, which Rodriguez says are
shortsighted and make the problem worse.
Rodriguez says that we are in an age of gang
globalization that is being driven by policies in the
U.S.
In recent years, Portland has seen an uptick in
gang violence, including a rash of shootings. All of
which has community leaders and city officials
stepping up actions to respond to the public outry.
Rodriguez weighs in on some of the approaches
being advocated in response, what drives kids to
join gangs, and how far it’s gone beyond the kids in
the hood.
B
Jake Thomas: How have gangs changed in the
past 2 0 years. Who is jo in in g them today?
very rarely getting education. They’re coming out
more gangster oriented.
Luis Rodriguez: It used to be more about
protection, but now it’s more about drugs and
money. The vast majority of kids who join gangs
that vast majority — are not violent Most of them
aren’t even criminally involved. They join gangs for
reasons that have to do with fitting in. They think
they’ll get respect Some of them will get in
trouble, but they’re not really gangsters.
But the hardcore part of the gang — it’s hard to
say what that is, maybe 10 percent - that hardcore
group drives most of the violence. They’re the
ones that go in and out of the prison system. The
prison system trains them to be better at i t Better
gangsters, better shot-callers. The prison system is
like the school for the advanced gang leaders, so
what’s happening is because we have such a great
proliferation of prisons in this country, you’re
getting a greater proliferation of hardcore gang
members entering communities, schools and
neighborhoods where kids would join gangs but not
necessarily be hardcore. But with hardcore gang
members among them, a lot more tends to happen.
I think that we have too many people in prison,
or on probation or parole. In California, we had
15,000 prisoners in 1970 and now we have 165,000
and several thousand that have been shipped off to
other states. So it’s really a gross number of
people who go into the system and are not getting
help; they are not getting rehabilitation; they are
J.T.: In Portland, we’ve had a resurgence o f g a n g
activity a n d the mayor has asked the U.S. attorney fo r
Oregon to more
aggressively prosecute
career gang members and
give them longer
"Because we have such a great
sentences. Do you think
proliferation of prisons In this
that’s an appropriate
country, you're getting a greater
approach fo r career gang
proliferation of hardcore gang
members?
members entering communities,
L.R.: That seems to
schools and neighborhoods where
make sense from a
lads would join gangs but not
media gratification
viewpoint In other
necessarily be hardcore. Bnt with
words, it’s politically
hardcore gang members among
expedient and sounds
them, a lot more tends to
good, but those kids
happen."
could turn their lives
around if we give them
the proper assistance
and support Those kids
eventually have to get o u t I have seen
exponentially how the gangs have grown in relation
to how they put those so-called career criminals in
jail.
In California, for example, and I’m sure Oregon
See GANGLAND, page 5
Inside
Raising lettuce,
Summer arts
Eyes of the streets
leaders in North
workshops
Portland
A selection o f
writings from guests
a t the Downtown
Chapel
Street paper vendors in
Glasgow^ Scotland,
document their world
am ong the shadows
Food Works youths
grow vegetables and
se lf in Sauvie
Island soil
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