Luis J. Rodriguez, L.A. Poet Laureate since 2014, is a renowned figure in Chicano literature. As a young man in East L.A., he renounced his street gang involvement and drug use to become a political activist, journalist, and poet. His memoir of that early life, Always Running (Curbstone Press, 1993; Open Road Media, 2012) is a perennial bestseller about which the N.Y. Times said "Here's a truth no television set, burning night and day, could ever begin to offer." As founding editor of Tia Chucha Press, Rodriguez has published poets such Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth Alexander, and Patricia Smith, who have since gained national recognition. In 2001, with family members and other poets, Rodriguez founded Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural in Sylmar, a not-for-profit cultural arts center and bookstore whose programs have served thousands of children, teens, adults, and seniors. Winner of numerous poetry honors, Rodriguez continues to maintain an active political voice, running as a third party candidate for California Governor in 2014 and 2022.
