A former L.A. gang member describes his experiences in that world, recounting the sense of security and power found in a gang and the grim reality of violence and poverty. By age twelve, the author 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 drugs, murder, suicide, and senseless acts of street crime claimed friends...

Reluctantly a young boy becomes more and more involved in the activities of a local gang, until a tragic event involving his cousin forces him to make a choice about the course of his life.

In a harrowing journey from drugged-out gang member to one of the most revered figures in Chicano literature, Luis J. Rodr�iguez continues the remarkable story of his bestselling memoir. Readers came to know Rodr�iguez through his fearless classic, Always Running, which chronicled his life as a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles. This long-awaited follow-up is the equally harrowing story of starting over,...

The poetic power of "The Concrete River" casts the reader soul-first into the poignant presence of father and children, into the furious heat of steel factory work, and finally into the eyes of the poet which are necessary in order to see 'the first light coming into view.' Through her poetry nine-year-old America reveals her loneliness and most private fears as she dreams of a bright future in her new country.

A mixteca Indian from Oxaca, Amřica Soliz, suffrs from the poverty and hopelessness of her Chicago ghetto, made more enduarable by a desire and determination to be a poet.