
Always Running
La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.
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Narrated by:
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Luis J. Rodriguez
About this listen
By age 12, 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 that culture claimed friends and family members. Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education 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 son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in this vivid memoir. At times heartbreakingly sad and brutal, Always Running is ultimately an uplifting true story, filled with hope, insight, and a hard-learned lesson for the next generation.
©2005 Luis J. Rodriguez (P)2011 Dreamscape Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
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The Shot Caller
- A Latino Gangbanger’s Miraculous Escape from a Life of Violence to a New Life in Christ
- By: Casey Diaz, Mike Yorkey - contributor, Nicky Cruz - foreword
- Narrated by: Bob Borquez
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Shot Caller is both a never-to-be-forgotten insider’s look at the violent world of gangs and prison life and a powerful, modern demonstration of how God will go to the most miraculous extremes to reach even the worst sinners. Casey Diaz came to this country when he was just two years old, the oldest son of El Salvadorian immigrants who settled in the barrios near downtown Los Angeles in the 1970s. An abusive family life propelled Casey into street gangs at the age of eleven and he rose quickly within the ranks of the Rockwood Street Locos to become their leader.
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Compelling and Inspiring!
- By Brent Yezefski on 04-07-19
By: Casey Diaz, and others
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Once Upon a Time in Compton
- By: Tim Brennan, Robert Ladd, Lolita Files
- Narrated by: Lolita Files
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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For 20 years, gang unit detectives Tim Brennan and Robert Ladd patrolled the streets of Compton. They witnessed the birth and rise of gangsta rap with acts they knew personally, such as N.W.A and D.J. Quik; dealt firsthand with the chaos of the L.A. riots, its aftermath, and the gang truce that followed; were involved in the investigations of the murders of hip-hop stars Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., and were major players in an all-out tug-of-war with City Hall that ultimately resulted in the permanent shut-down of the Compton Police Department.
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Horrendous narration
- By Mike C on 08-09-19
By: Tim Brennan, and others
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The Rent Collectors
- Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA
- By: Jesse Katz
- Narrated by: Jesse Katz
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Baby-faced teen Giovanni Macedo is desperate to find belonging in one of LA's most predatory gangs, the Columbia Lil Cycos—so desperate that he agrees to kill an undocumented Mexican street vendor. The vendor, Francisco Clemente, had been refusing to give in to the gang's shakedown demands. But Giovanni botches the hit, accidentally killing a newborn instead. The overlords who rule the Lil Cycos from a Supermax prison 1,000 miles away must be placated and Giovanni is lured across the border where, in turn, the gang botches his killing.
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Illuminating
- By M on 12-20-24
By: Jesse Katz
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MS-13
- The Making of America's Most Notorious Gang
- By: Steven Dudley
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Today, MS-13 is one of the most infamous street gangs on earth, with an estimated ten thousand members operating in dozens of states and linked to thousands of grisly murders each year in the US and abroad. But it is also misunderstood—less a drug cartel and more a hand-to-mouth organization whose criminal economy is based mostly on small-time extortion schemes and petty drug dealing. Steven Dudley brings listeners inside the nefarious group to tell a larger story of how a flawed US and Central American policy, and exploitative economic systems, helped foster the gang and sustain it.
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BLAME AMERICA
- By XIgnauta on 12-31-20
By: Steven Dudley
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Blood in the Fields
- Ten Years Inside California's Nuestra Familia Gang
- By: Julia Reynolds
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The city of Salinas, California, is the birthplace of John Steinbeck and the setting for his epic masterpiece East of Eden, but it is also the home of Nuestra Familia, one of the most violent gangs in the United States. Born in the prisons of California in the late 1960s, Nuestra Familia expanded to control drug trafficking and extortion operations throughout the northern half of the state and left a trail of bodies in its wake.
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horrible narrator
- By RUBEN AGUILAR on 04-09-20
By: Julia Reynolds
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The Black Hand
- The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History
- By: Stephan Talty
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, and then the entire country, with fear. The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, and dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, and society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent and invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black hand.
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Not a great listen.
- By Tabitha Rex on 12-08-17
By: Stephan Talty
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Trejo
- My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood
- By: Danny Trejo, Donal Logue
- Narrated by: Danny Trejo, Donal Logue
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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On screen, Danny Trejo the actor is a baddie who has been killed at least a hundred times. He’s been shot, stabbed, hanged, chopped up, squished by an elevator, and once, was even melted into a bloody goo. Off screen, he’s a hero beloved by recovery communities and obsessed fans alike. But the real Danny Trejo is much more complicated than the legend.
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The best book ever!
- By Nicolas Rocha on 07-08-21
By: Danny Trejo, and others
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No Angel
- My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels
- By: Jay Dobyns, Nils Johnson-Shelton
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Getting shot in the chest as a rookie ATF agent, bartering for machine guns, throttling down the highway at 100 miles per hour, and responding to a full-scale, bloody riot between the Hells Angels and their rivals, the Mongols - these are just a few of the high-adrenaline experiences Jay Dobyns recounts in this action-packed, hard to imagine, but true story of how he infiltrated the legendary Hells Angels.
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"I would avoid this one..."
- By Chris on 12-27-12
By: Jay Dobyns, and others
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Pure Narco
- One Man's True Story of 25 Years Inside the Cartels
- By: Jesse Fink, Luis Navia
- Narrated by: Keith Scott
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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For a quarter century, Luis Antonio Navia worked as a high-level cocaine transporter for all of the major Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, including Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel, and flooded the United States and Europe with cocaine before his dramatic arrest in Venezuela in 2000 during the 12-nation Operation Journey. The story of Navia’s rise, fall, takedown, imprisonment, and redemption is expertly researched and told by acclaimed biographer Jesse Fink.
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don't waste your credit
- By Gregory Miles on 06-07-24
By: Jesse Fink, and others
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The Unknown Mongol
- By: Scott Junior Ereckson
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the true story of ex-Mongols M.C. National President Scott Junior Ereckson. From a young teen, peering from behind a bush at an unknown Mongol, Scott fulfills his childhood dreams. In later years, after many experiences, he becomes one of the most respected and feared Mongols to this day.
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Superb book ruined by muppet voices
- By Skinny Pete on 05-29-15
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Pocho [Mexican WhiteBoy]
- By: Matt de la Peña
- Narrated by: Alberto Santillán
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Danny es alto y delgado. A pesar de no ser fuerte, sus brazos son lo suficientemente largos como para lanzar un balón de fútbol americano con tanta fuerza, que cualquier cazatalentos lo contrataría sin pensarlo dos veces. Pero Danny ni siquiera es parte de un equipo. Cada vez que se entra en el campo, es como si perdiera sus poderes.
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Admirable story
- By Santos Covarrubias on 04-26-24
By: Matt de la Peña
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Mexican WhiteBoy
- By: Matt de la Pena
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Danny's tall and skinny. Even though he's not "built", his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce that any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five-mile-an-hour fastball, but the boy's not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound, he loses it. Ball ends up so far out of the strike zone it's laughable. But at his private school, they don't expect much else from him. Danny's brown. Half-Mexican brown....
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Where does a Mexican whiteboy fit in?
- By Thin Lizzy on 03-19-21
By: Matt de la Pena
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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
- By: Erika L. Sánchez
- Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga's role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.
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FOR LATINAS WHO ARE OFTEN TOLD THEY "SOUND WHITE"
- By Alex on 12-14-18
By: Erika L. Sánchez
What listeners say about Always Running
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- hlfbloodprince
- 06-03-24
Vivid
First off, a student of mine recommended this book to me. Said it was the only book he’s enjoyed in all of high school. I had never heard of it, so I started listening and was immediately hooked. It’s absolutely remarkable how real this story was for me. Louis’s description of LA in the 60s, 70s and beyond explains so much of my own childhood in the 90s and 00s that I’m now motivated to ask my parents and grandparents all about what they remember of Los Angeles before I was born. I highly recommend this book all if you want to hear that alternative view of history that you never hear about.
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- Mar
- 01-08-18
Mr Rodriguez offers a needed look into the barrio
A must read for those too privileged to have lived such a hard life. It is easy to pass judgment on troubled youth and those adults trapped in the industrial prison complex, but until we hear and understand the life Mr. Rodriguez, who shares many experiences with them, we cannot begin to fathom the struggle for survival a child living in a marginalized barrio must withstand. This is a story of temptation, survival, and hope. It is not pretty for the barrio life is cruel and it's beauty often dies with the children who are robbed of a healthy childhood by societies failures.
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- Andres
- 07-18-20
Great book
Very inspirational how you can turn your life around from gangs and drugs to a great activist.
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- Anthony Quintero
- 04-06-25
Really good book!
Has me hooked from the start! Couldn’t stop listening to the book and see how life is in a gang world
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- Heather M. Vitz
- 03-15-15
Book for all educators
This is a book that should be read by all who educate children/teenagers. We need to make sure we are still Honoring our Latino students heritage and are aware of their cultural background and struggles.
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11 people found this helpful
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- TROD
- 05-09-16
Expect the unexpected
Loved it! Great lessons to be learned by reading this book. We are all walking history and the Author chose to stop running from his self and decided to live a meaningful life.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Nataly Montufar
- 09-13-21
Better than than The Great Gatsby
Good read, especially if youre a Los Angeles native.. reminds me of High School days
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- Jaime Rodriguez
- 06-30-20
One of my favorites
Such a unique look in the life of a chicano. A must read for all young Chicano youth
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- Juan
- 01-15-23
I could read this over and over
As a minority, they live in a very similar upbringing. This story hits very close to home, and I could read it over and over.. it takes a lot to share stories like this, and even more to do it uncensored without hiding details. I wish this title was more popular.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-04-24
Fascinating and horrifying
The story is compelling and a great window into the gang world of the 60’s and 70’s. Incredible as a memoir, though the prescriptions and solutions ring hollow and unrealistic- a hurting man’s hope still filled with pain and bitterness. It’s real. It’s definitely real.
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