8 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, February 7, 1997
Award-winning fiction writer visits A2
Accomplished and acclaimed'
fiction writer Lorrie Moore,
author of "Like Life," "Self-
Help" and "Who Will Run the
Frog Hospital?" will give a
rare public reading in Ann
Arbor this afternoon. Moore
Is one of the top fiction writ-
ers in America, and she was
recently named by Granta
magazine as a "Top Young
American Novelist." Luckily,
the will join the University's
creative writing faculty next
fall. Catch her at Rackham kIs,~
Amphitheatre today at 3
p.m. Like all other University:
Visiting Writers Series
e v e n ts, a d m issio n is fre e.
SUNDAY EVENING FOR UM
"Who Cares?
A Christian Response to Welfare Policy"
Speaker: Dr. Wendell Primus
Economist who resigned his office in the Department of
Health and Human Services in protest of Pres. Clinton's
signing of welfare reform bill.
Sunday, February 9
Supper 6:00 pm
Talk and discussion: 7:00 pm
Campus Chapel
1236 Washtenaw Ct.
668-7421 /662-2402
one block south of CCRB
Parking in the Church Street parking structure
Rodriguez urges
youth to dream
By Eugene Bowen
Daily Arts Writer
Continuing the weeklong Chicano
History Week celebrations, University
student organization Movimiento
Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan
(M.E.Ch.A) sponsored a visit by distin-
guished poet/author Luis Rodriguez.
Well-known for his
two books of poet-
ry and his painful R
autobiography Lu
"Always Running:
La Vida Loca Gang East
Days in LA,"
Rodriguez capti-
vated his audience
of hundreds of University students and
faculty - as well as dozens of visiting
Detroit middle-school students - with
stories of his personal experiences,
poetry readings and interactive discus-
sions.
"Stories are the most critical things
we can give to people," Rodriguez said.
"It's what connects our young people to
something larger."
The focus of his talk was American
youth. A former gangbanger from the
age of 11 and now a peacemaker among
Chicago gangs, Rodriguez connected
with his audience through a both acad-
emically sound and emotionally tug-
ging discussion.
"I really feel that when young people
are honored and the elders are respect-
ed and honored, then you have commu-
nity," Rodriguez proclaimed. "The
E
iz
H
problem with society today is that
we've lost that meaning of community."
And when community is lost and
society turns a blind eye, the children
are the ones who truly suffer.
"Our kids are being set up"
Rodriguez warned. "We're telling them
that if they get an education, they'll be
successful. But
V E Ewe're wrong, and
we know that. All
Rodriguez our children want
to learn. We all
all Auditorium have this innate
Feb. 5, 1997 need to know. But
it's hard when
everything in the
schools doesn't relate to you.
"In school, I was made to believe that
being Mexican means nothing because
nothing was being said in the books
about my history, my customs. And
those textbooks are still being used in
schools, still teaching our children that
we're a history-less people.
"All our kids are gifted, but our soci-
ety is saying that only a few of our kids
have gifts," Rodriguez continued. "The
government is, in short, punishing chil-
dren for the failure of the system. So
now, too many of our kids are having to
do things they should not have to do to
survive. I'm telling you, there's nothing
more devastating than youth with
dreams crying out to be something, yet
with every door of opportunity closed."
Currently, Rodriguez's 21-year-old
son - also a former member of the
Luiz Rodriguez, author of "Always Running: La Vida Loca Gang AJA EKLE VA-
Days in LA," spoke to students on Wednesday night.
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Chicago gang culture - is incarcerat-
ed, fighting for one more chance in a
period of "three strikes" popularity.
"Whatever mistakes my son has
made, he doesn't deserve to have his
life taken from him. That's how our
society is. Society says if you make a
single mistake, you must pay for it with
your whole life."
But Rodriguez's disdain for the
United States prison system extends far
beyond his familial hurt.
"Prisons redirect social energy. It's
like what the guy said in 'Field of
Dreams:' 'If you build them, they will
come."'
Rodriguez reminded the audience +
that, in California alone, which has the+
largest prison system in the world, more
than 60 percent of all inmates are of
Latin American heritage. He talked
about Chicago's overcrowding school
system, which forces more than 20,000
youths to not have a classroom in which
they can learn. Yet the city recently
spent millions on a new prison facility,+
including an atrium, an inside garden
and a new juvenile detention wing.
"This is where our future leaders are
being taken," he warned. "And of
course the rest are African American.1
I'm telling you, those prisons are for
our children.".+
And yet Rodriguez's message was far
from being one of despair. In fact, he+
informed the crowd that what hurt him
most was not the suffering that many
endure daily, but rather the hopeless-1
ness the suffering causes.
"We have a sense that we can"t-
change things - that it's the way it's
always been, so it's the way it's always1
going to be. I've made it a point to
fight this type of hopelessness. You
see, I am a revolutionary; I've bee
one since I was 13. And when I say
revolutionary, I'm talking about
myself as someone who sees further
and deeper, who sees change is neces-
sary and who devotes his life to that
change."
As a writer and poet, Rodriguez
knows the spiritual healing that
comes from immersing oneself in the
arts.
"Everyone needs to have a metaphor-
ical life," he said. "I'm talking about a*
inner-life. Through art, you can bring
out your pain and your hurt, so that you
can deal with them without hurting any-
one else.
Most of our greatest artists are
behind bars now," Rodriguez continued.
,What is it about hip hop, breakdancing,
graffiti that makes so many youngsters
with painful lives turn to them? It's the
constructive creativity that draws thenf
Creativity is the one thing that distir
guishes us as human beings. It's what
connects us with our Creator."
Rodriguez explained that individual-.
ly the ability to overcome the still-
prevalent problems of racism and clas-
sism lies in people's abilities to hold
onto their biggest dreams.
"You must have big dreams," he pro-
claimed. "That's the only way to live. If
you're going to die for something, die
for the big mountain, not for the litt*
hill.
"I'm willing to die for my people, for
our children, for our hopes, for our
future. And if I die for my people, my
life would have been great."
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