Always Running

In August 1970, tens of thousands gather in East Los Angeles to protest the Vietnam War. It’s the largest anti-war protest ever held in a minority community. Luis participates in the protest, with Chente’s encouragement.

Luis and his peers march through the streets, chanting anti-war slogans. The area is riddled with cops, who threaten Luis and the other protesters. The officers shoot tear gas at protesters, some of whom are children. Another officer attacks Luis and wrestles him into a “black, caged bus,” along with hundreds of other people. That night, he’s imprisoned in “murderers row” alongside rapists and serial killers—in fact, Luis has a cell next to Charles Manson. All night long, Luis hears word of an “East L.A. riot” from the prison guards.

The next day, Luis witnessed Charles Manson ranting about “niggers and spics.” For the next couple days, Luis is held in his cell—on the several occasions when a hearing is scheduled, the courts cancel it, and Luis’s parents are kept in the dark about the whereabouts of their son. Finally, Luis is released in the middle of the night. He returns home and embraces his mother, telling her, “I ain’t no criminal.” She replies, “I know.”

Los Angeles undergoes some major changes during Luis’s childhood and teen years. In 1965, fires from the Watts Rebellion destroy many buildings in Los Angeles. In 1968, thousands of Latino students protest to demand equal education opportunities. This event is a milestone in the Chicano (i.e., Mexican-American) civil rights movement. Chicano activists organize protests against injustices in the prison system and publish radical newspapers and magazines. The late ‘60s are also a time of great artistic achievement for Latinos living in Los Angeles. Throughout this period, and leading into the early 1970s, L.A. gang violence decreases as gangs work together to fight bigger injustices in their city.

Shortly after his stint in prison, Luis attends a dance at the local church. At the dance, Luis runs into Viviana, the woman he met two years ago at the carnival. They haven’t seen each other since that day, but they dance together, eventually kissing. Luis notes, “I would fall for this woman.” Shortly afterwards, Luis takes a big risk by going into Sangra territory to visit Viviana. As he bikes into the Sangra neighborhood, people give him dirty looks. At Viviana’s home, her brothers ask Luis where he’s from and try to intimidate him—however, Luis has become a big, tough-looking boxer by this point, so they don’t try to hurt him.

In the following weeks, Luis and Viviana spend lots of time together. Luis feels that Viviana teaches him “poetry” just through her words and the “soul-touch” she gives him. One night on her porch they are kissing, and Luis ends up touching her until she orgasms. Immediately afterward, however, Viviana tells Luis that he needs to go immediately. She refuses to say why, but Luis leaves.

Afterwards, Viviana stops returning Luis’s calls. He tries to see her, but she won’t even answer her door. A month later, they reunite at another dance. Viviana tells Luis that she has to tell him something, but then disappears. An hour later, Luis sees her kissing another man. He’s so angry that he tells his sisters, who are also at the dance, about what happened, and they offer to “jump” her after the dance. At first, Luis entertains this idea, but then he thinks better of it and goes home.

In the fall, Luis returns to high school. The principal there, Mr. Madison, is new, and wants to encourage Lomas to enroll in school. He says that he’ll do his best to be fair to Lomas, but only if they behave.

That fall, Chicano students start a club called ToHMAS, or To Help Mexican American Students. The club’s sponsor is a Chicano teacher named Mrs. Baez. Luis becomes more and more active in this club, which is intended to promote Chicano culture in the classroom and at school events. He doesn’t say much at the meetings, but he attends almost all of them. Sometimes, meetings end early because there’s a fight in the halls.

ToHMAS is mostly run by women. The club deals with two main aspects of the student experience: first, repairing the school’s physical deterioration; second, respecting the dignity of Chicano students. At Luis’s high school, the mascots are a pair of Aztecs, one male, one female, who are nearly always played by white students. Some of the ToHMAS officers suggest that Luis and another ToHMAS member, Esmeralda Falcón, try out for the Aztec parts. Luis reluctantly agrees to try out and learn authentic Aztec dance techniques.

Luis and Esmeralda study Aztec dance for weeks, and María, along with mothers of other ToHMAS members, designs the Aztec costumes. Weeks later, Luis and Esmeralda are ready.

During their audition, Luis and Esmeralda act very serious, unlike the clownish white duos who audition for the part. Their costumes are beautiful, and their dance is precise and impressive. As they come to a finish, the judges and audience members burst into applause—Luis and Esmeralda are the new school mascots.

Luis and Esmeralda’s success inspires other Chicano students to join ToHMAS. The group puts on dances and plays, three of which Luis writes himself. Luis’s most controversial play is about the wars between the Lomas and the Sangra. In the play, gang members fight for turf, only to learn that their land will be the site of a new mall. When the play is performed for the school, some Loma members watch. The play ends with Esmeralda speaking about how to end the violence between neighborhoods.

Luis enjoys his work for ToHMAS, but becomes frustrated that things aren’t changing for Chicano students quickly enough. He suggests that the school sponsor a Chicano class, with a Chicano teacher—Chente. He tries to convince the ToHMAS teacher sponsor, Mrs. Baez, to support his idea, but she refuses. Luis has an idea to stage another walkout, protesting the lack of Chicano classes at his school.

Soon after, Luis and many Chicano classmates—at least 300—walk out of their classes. Mrs. Baez has an angry meeting with Mr. Madison, in which Madison accuses her of helping organize the walkout. He complains that he can’t let some “disgruntled students” control what he does. But Mrs. Baez is able to convince him to listen to his students and organize an assembly where they can present demands.

At the school assembly, Luis speaks on behalf of the Chicano movement. He emphasizes that he and his classmates are not protesting white students, but rather the prejudiced school system. The student body president, a white student, accuses Luis and his Chicano peers of being lazy and refusing to get involved with the school. But in the end, Mr. Madison approves a new course on Chicano history and culture, and promises that a Chicano will teach the course. Luis is triumphant, but he knows, “We had only just begun.”

Around the same time, Shorty learns that one of her close friends, Fernando, has killed himself. Fernando, who’s only fourteen, had a crush on Shorty, and the night before his death, he called her to talk as they often did. That night Shorty was tired, though, and asked if they could talk tomorrow. The next morning, Fernando’s parents found his body hanging from a pole in his closet.

At The Collective, Luis learns about the importance of social science. Chente emphasizes that it’s not enough to rely on personal experience: one must dig deeper and grasp the systemic problems underlying one’s experiences. Chente also teaches Luis valuable lessons about dignity and respect: for instance, that there’s nothing shameful about being a janitor. Above all, Luis embraces the “unconquerable idea” that exploited people of all colors and nationalities have a common interest, rooted in their “interests as a class.”

One night, at a party, a man rushes in and shouts that some “white bikers” tried to attack him. Luis joins his friends in driving to find the attackers. Eventually, they do—only to find that the attackers are armed with shotguns. They fire at Luis and his friends, who are forced to run. Luis’s friends tell him to get a gun immediately and come back as soon as possible.

Luis runs to his friend Roger Nelson’s house and asks to borrow a rifle. Roger lends Luis a weapon, and Luis returns to where the white bikers were staying, bringing other friends with him. At the site of the fight, Luis fires on a biker and shoots him in the butt. Before long, however, the police appear and order Luis and his friends to surrender. They do so, and the police drive them to the San Gabriel jailhouse. They’re booked for “Assault with intent to commit murder.”