Hearts and Hands, Second Edition Creating Community in Violent Times

Hearts and Hands focuses on healing through community building. Empowered by thirty years of experience with gangs in Los Angeles and Chicago, Rodríguez offers a unique book of change. He makes concrete suggestions, shows how we can create nonviolent opportunities for youth today, and redirects kids into productive and satisfying lives. And he warns that we sacrifice community values for material gain when we incarcerate or marginalize people already on the edge of society. His drive to dissolve gang influence on kids is as personal as it is societal; his son, to whom he dedicates Hearts and Hands, served more than a decade in prison for gang-related activity. With anecdotes, interviews, and time-tested guidelines, Hearts and Hands makes a powerful argument for building and supporting community life.

LUIS J. RODRÍGUEZ’s bestselling autobiographical account, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. (1993) has been followed by numerous other books. He has written for The Nation, Grand Street, Los Angeles Weekly, and Americas Review, among others. Winner of a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry, Rodríguez is also the founder of Tía Chucha Press, publishing emerging, socially conscious poets. He lives in San Fernando, California, with his wife, Trini, and their family. Luis is currently a candidate for the Green Party nomination for Governor of California.