Always Running: Photography by Luis. J Rodriguez

04/14/2026 - 06/13/2026

Luis J. Rodriguez is a Chicano poet, novelist, journalist, and community leader with deep roots in Los Angeles. This exhibition marks the 30th anniversary of his first memoir, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA. Rare and unpublished, the photographs on view document the people and historic neighborhoods that touched and influenced Rodriguez’s early life from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Born in 1954, Rodriguez grew up in Watts and the East Los Angeles area. As a youth facing poverty and racial discrimination, he joined a gang and became involved with drugs at the age of twelve. Always Running––and several of his other literary works––chronicle his experiences with violence, addiction, recovery, and personal transformation, ultimately finding refuge through poetry and the arts. As a photographer, Rodriguez documented Chicana/o youth and gang culture from his unique vantage point, including murals and landscapes of East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. 

Today, Rodriguez serves as a mentor and community leader, inspiring youth through his work at Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the Northeast San Fernando Valley, which he co-founded along with his wife and activist Trini Rodriguez and brother-in-law Enrique Sanchez. Together, they provide opportunities for young people to access literacy, art, and creative expression as alternatives to systemic violence.