Award-winning author Luis J. Rodriguez, whose early life was plagued by gang life, addiction, and incarceration, is now joining forces with a group of prisoners at San Quentin to help change the outside world’s perception of prisoners.
In January, Rodriguez visited Kid C.A.T. (Creating Awareness Together), a group of prisoners at San Quentin who committed their crimes as juveniles but were tried as adults. Like Rodriguez, the group strives to openly express themselves about their troubled pasts, and have been writing journal pieces for the past year and a half to tell unguarded stories of their lives.
“When we were children, we never had a voice,” said Michael Nelson, chairman of Kid C.A.T. “Now, through the writings of Kid C.A.T., we have the opportunity to express ourselves as ‘who we are’, separate from our crimes and being incarcerated.”
Rodriguez and Kid C.A.T. will work together to publish a collection of the journal pieces, which Nelson hopes will change the perspectives of people on the outside.
Rodriguez also took the opportunity to tell Kid C.A.T. about his struggle with drugs, gangs, and fatherhood.
The San Quentin News, aided by Larry Schneider of the Media Center, followed up with a telephone interview to hear more about his riveting life story. He began with the relationship he had with his father, who forced him into the streets. He became involved with gangs at the age of 11. At 12, he became addicted to heroin. At 17 he was arrested for attempted murder, and was placed in a cell on murder row right next to Charles Manson.
“When my son was born, my oldest son, I was 20 years old,” he told the San Quentin News. “I had just left heroin. I had gotten out of the county jail. You know, I just left all that craziness, I’m never going to go back. And I held him in my arms, thinking, I want to be the best dad.”
But Rodriguez said he couldn’t meet that promise — though he was no longer addicted to heroin, he had become an alcoholic and suffered from other problems. “I had rage issues,” he said. “I had addiction issues that lasted for a total of 27 years, and I had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I didn’t know anything about [P.T.S.D.], so I could be triggered really easily. I had a hard time with relationships and with my own kid.”
Eventually, he got a wake-up call. When his oldest son was 13, he told Rodriguez that he wanted to be just like him: a gang member. Rodriguez decided to turn his life around and become a real father. His son’s mother sent him to Chicago to live with Rodriguez, hoping it would get him away from the gang life in Los Angeles. But Rodriguez quickly learned that Chicago was not exempt from gang life, and his son eventually succumbed and became a gang leader himself.
His son was arrested for shooting at two police officers and received a 28-year sentence, but was freed after 13 years after a change in the laws.
“It tears you up as a dad,” Rodriguez said. “When you realize that, I’m partially responsible. I should have been there for him. I should have kept that promise that I made to him. It was very difficult, but that’s what you learn, you learn, to be there for your kids.”
Today, he and his son have a good relationship. Rodriguez proudly discussed his son’s work in Chicago, where, like him, he works with young gang members to show them a better way of life.
Now, Rodriguez is a leading activist for a stronger social network for prisoners and parolees. Prison administrators around the world have invited him into their institutions to spread his message of hope to prisoners who believe their lives are over.
A transcript of the telephone call with Luis J. Rodriguez is available on the San Quentin News website, www.sanquentinnews.com.
