Always Running

The Animal Tribe dissolves entirely after the death of John Fabela, a core member who is murdered. Luis and the rest of the AT are absorbed into the Lomas gang, which is beginning to organize its large membership into “various sets based on age groupings” (107). Luis and his friends attend a Lomas party knowing they will be initiated that night, and the air is “rife with anticipation” (108). A few older, infamously dangerous members arrive and one declares that Luis will be the first to get “jumped in”—that is, beaten in order to gain gang affiliation. Luis endures the initiation with bravery. He and his friends drive around with the older gang members until they all happen upon a group of unarmed, “hard-working recreational lowriders out for a spin” (110). The gang members attack the group of men without cause, and Luis himself stabs one with a rusty screwdriver.

By now, it is 1970, and Luis is already jaded and damaged, tired of gang life. At the Bienvinidos Community Center, Luis meets Chente Ramirez, a former resident of the East L.A. barrio who had gone on to college and then returned to support and empower young Latinos.