In his 1993 memoir, poet-author-journalist Luis J. Rodriguez encapsulates the trapped feeling of the Latino in East Los Angeles: "It never stopped this running. We were constant prey, and the hunters soon became big blurs: The police, the gangs, the junkies, the dudes on Garvey Boulevard who took our money, all smudge into one." But the enemy was not always on the street for young Mexican Americans like Rodriguez: "Sometimes they were teachers who jumped on us Mexicans as if we were born with a hideous stain. We were always afraid, always running." It was this feeling of persecution, of being the target of others, that led young men like Rodriguez into gang membership.

Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A. was Rodriguez's personal statement, his mea culpa, both a cautionary tale and gut-wrenching personal document. Written two decades after his own gang activity, the book...