Outside Reading: Always Running #1

I decided to read "Always Running" by Luis J. Rodriquez because gang violence is something that I've always been interested in learning about but never really did anything about learning about it. The first couple pages were very interesting, and for me they were extremely interesting because they were all true stories about how he got involved with the gangs. Its really interesting for me that for some of these kids getting involved with gangs is less of a choice and more of a family issue. Most of these kids had parents who were involved and they were around gangs, and talking from experience, I like to follow in my parents foot steps so why wouldn't these kids? "Mama always seemed to be sick. For one thing, she was overweight and suffered from a form of diabetes. She had thyroid problems, bad nerves and high blood pressure. She was in her thirties, but she had all these ailments. She didn't even have teeth"(23). With his mom being sick he really doesn't have a mother figure to point him in the right direction. She was so young, but she had such a hard time just taking care of him and raising him when he was little. Him and his brother were basically on their own. They got into trouble and when they got home their mother would, "chase after my brother with a belt or a board" (23). That was their punishment, their mother was too weak to do anything else, and also that seemed to be the norm during the time they were growing and where they were growing up, but it did not change the route they went on. If anything it pushed them to the wrong route of life.