Always Running

After his release from jail, Luis stops attending college. He works in a paper factory but continues to organize grassroots political events. Meanwhile, gang warfare continues. Luis visits Chente, who argues that “the rulers of this country” want gangs to fight each other. The turf that the Lomas are fighting for, he points out, is “tiny” in the grand scheme of things. It’s time for Los Angeles gangs to start thinking bigger, Chente claims—and that means working together.

One night soon afterwards, Luis and some of his old friends are hanging out. A gang member offers Luis a cigarette laced with “angel dust” (i.e., PCP), and Luis declines. To Luis’s great surprise, every single gang member after him refuses the cigarette, too—nobody else wanted it, either. Luis starts to realize that he’s lost all interest in getting high. He wants to help his friends “become warriors of a war worth fighting.”

The same night, Luis is walking home when a car full of Loma members passes by. To Luis’s amazement, one of the members fires a gun at him. Luis drops to the ground, but then realizes that the members intentionally aimed to miss him—they were firing warning shots, implying, “Next time you’re dead.” Luis is stunned: he’s been with the Lomas for years, and at one point he “would have died for them.” Now they’re firing guns at him. 

Soon after this incident, Luis visits Chente and tells him that he’s ready to leave his neighborhood for good. With Chente’s help, he spends two months in a housing project in nearby San Pedro. Before he leaves, however, he says goodbye to his mother and father. María tells Luis that she admires him for sticking to what he believes, even though she never really liked his “revolutionary talk.” Alfonso doesn’t say much, but he shakes Luis’s hand and tells him that he can call or ask for money any time. Luis isn’t close with his father—he’s trained himself not to expect much from his father.

A lot happens after Luis leaves San Pedro. The police officers who killed Miguel Robles are acquitted—just like “virtually every deputy ever accused of maiming or killing an unarmed person of color.” PCP becomes the new drug of choice, making ‘blabbering idiots of once-vigorous boys and girls.” There are more episodes of police brutality, including one that takes place outside Luis’s high school. Gangs take over the community center, and so the community center decides to disband rather than empower the gangs—a strategy Luis compares to “scorched earth” policy.

In the years following Luis’s relocation, his old neighborhood changes. There’s an influx of Chinese and Japanese immigrants, and American real estate companies begin investing heavily in outer Los Angeles. By the 1980s, Luis’s old neighborhood has become much more affluent, to the point where almost none of his old friends can afford to stay there.

Luis travels to political conferences with Chente. He later moves to Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, and later Watts, among many other neighborhoods. Over the years, he continues writing and practicing journalism. He also works with community leaders to address police brutality, labor and immigration issues, and other political causes. In short, he begins “a new season of life,” based on his belief that he has a duty to contribute to society and help other people.

The chapter ends in the late ‘80s, with Luis attending his cousin’s quinceñera in San Gabriel. By this time, he’s married and has a child. Outside, Luis notices a strange, middle-aged man with a limp who asks him, point-blank, if he was in the Lomas years ago. Luis admits he was. The man shouts, “You’re going to die.” He explains that Luis stabbed him, and then pulls up his shirt to reveal the horrific scars on his chest. Luis tries to convince the man that he didn’t stab him. Luis realizes that this man is Chava, once a powerful Sangra warrior.

Chava cries out, “Somebody has to pay!” and pulls out a knife. Luis can see how disturbed Chava is—it’s as if he wants to hurt someone “just to salve his pain.” Luis gently tells Chava, “Don’t waste the rest of your days with this hate.” Chava begins to moan and wail. Luis is disgusted by this sight, but also sympathetic. He finds that he no longer hates Chava, or any other cholo. Chava turns and hobbles away into the night.