33 pages • 1 hour read
Always Running
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Symbols & Motifs
Resurrection Cemetery
Resurrection Cemetery is the Catholic cemetery where, as Luis says, “most of the barrio dead were buried” (205). This includes many gang members, and hence, many of Luis’ friends as well as his enemies. On one visit, Luis recalls the number of funerals he has witnessed in this place. He describes the grieving mothers who “beseeched to be buried with their son or daughter” and the “girls with harsh makeup and, sometimes, infants against their shoulders” (239). Resurrection Cemetery stands as a symbol for the true cost of gang warfare. Gang violence takes away the lives of young people, like Luis, but his description of the cemetery shows the sheer scope of those victimized. Parents suffer the loss of their children, grandparents suffer the loss of grandchildren, girlfriends and wives are torn from their partners, and children grow up fatherless. Even Luis, who loses no family members, but many friends, is brought to tears simply by walking through the cemetery. He too, is a victim.
The Chevrolet
In Chapter 6, two of Luis’ friends steal a 1969 Chevrolet and then are involved in a fatal crash. Both boys are killed, “‘practically disintegrated’” (156) in the fiery crash. The next day, Luis describes the crowd of friends, family, and onlookers who come to see the car, the “jagged monument” (156) to the two dead boys. In this way, the car is even more than a monument—it represents the boys themselves. Where once the car had been new and shiny, with years of life ahead of it, it was now “steel, paint, and rubber wreckage” (155). And so too were the boys who stole it. They were 15 years old and all their possible futures went up in flames with the car. The car is mourned in their place—Luis describes the crowd “paying their respects” before the car is compacted and burned (156). It is the funeral they cannot have for their friends.
Luis’ Murals
Luis is a self-taught artist who draws “Chicano-style, freehand” but “never took art lessons” (199). Chente sees spirit and talent in what Luis draws on the walls of his garage and so offers him a spot making murals as part of a city beautification initiative. Luis’ murals represent the life that is possible for him outside of his gang. As a muralist, he is asked to supervise a team and so gains leadership experience. He experiments with materials and soon learns about “how to choose brushes … human figures, perspective, and color schemes” (200) and so gains artistic knowledge. He draws from his life, images of “hypodermic needles, cholos, and coffins,” and so discovers the comfort of self-expression. As Luis himself says, “another world opened up to me” (201). Murals as the anti-gang experience is further solidified during Luis’ confrontation with the Lomas over attacking Chava. When he speaks up, another gang member identifies him as the artist who paints murals over gang graffiti. This makes Luis suspect, a possible enemy. The confrontation makes it clear—Luis can be an artist, or he can be a gang member. He cannot be both. Ultimately, Luis chooses the path of an artist, leaving the gang and continuing to take mural painting jobs while in college.
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