Hearts and Hands, Second Edition: Creating Community in Violent Times

by Luis J. Rodriguez

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609805531
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2014 Edition of Hearts & Hands 15

Introduction: What the Craziness Is 23

Part 1 The Violence of Youth-The Absence of Elders

1 Throwaway Kids 35

2 Modern Street Gangs: A History 43

3 To "See" Again 63

4 Being Solid in the World 71

5 Warning: Don't Get Involved! 81

6 The Power of Hanging in There 89

7 Hungers and Angers 101

8 Fear and Fury 113

9 "Don't Give Up on Us!" 123

Part 2 Thresholds and Trajectories

10 Doors, Story, Purpose 133

11 Human to Human 147

12 The Truth of Consequences 157

13 A Handmade Life 179

14 Governance and Gangs 187

14 Hearts & Hands

Part 3 Stretching Out Your Life

15 Abundance or Scarcity 209

16 Dying for Something to Live 221

17 Premises and Principles 227

18 "What You Be About?" 235

19 The Power of Now 245

20 The Way of Discipline 251

21 Looking for the Milky Way 271

22 Be Your Word 291

Part 4 Where Do We Go From Here?

23 Children Whispering 307

24 New Economy, New Outlooks 325

25 Safe and Sacred Spaces 333

26 Between Two Worlds 343

27 Nurturing the Genius 357

Notes 365

About the Author 397

Other Books Luis J. Rodriguez 399

Editorial Reviews

"[A] beautifully written and politically astute account." —Entertainment Weekly

"Rodríguez is a relentless truth-teller, an authentic visionary, a man of profound compassion...[In Hearts and Hands] he acknowledges the lessons we can learn from the social sciences, he scrutinizes what succeeds and what fails in the realm of public policy, but he never allows us to forget that the rescue of young people is also 'a spiritual quest.'" —Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Combining personal memoir, perceptive sociological analysis and astute advice about political organizing, Rodriguez, whose youth included 'drugs, jail, and gang warfare,' writes movingly of how he turned his life around and dedicated himself to working with teens at risk. While attacking the image of teenage males as the primary instigators of violent behavior, R. focuses on the specific problems of young males, 'trying to negotiate their lives' in the face of enormous problems, with little in the way of adult models. Never sentimentalizing or sensationalizing his materials, R. writes honestly and incisively from experience, knowledge and compassion." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher