Blog #9

In this excerpt from Always Running  by Luis J. Rodriguez, the reader notices a shift in Luis Rodriguez's life. He begins to turn away from his old gang life into a more productive and better lifestyle. He gains power like he always wanted, but uses that power to lead a group of Chicanos to engage in their society, through ToHMAS. Rodriguez emphasizes his change in lifestyle through the use of concrete and colloquial diction. For example, he writes, "When I entered, Mr.Humes, with graying hair, short-sleeve striped shirt and tie, stood in front of the blackboard, addressing a scattered row of students,". Luis J. Rodriguez uses concrete diction to help the reader visualize the characteristics of Mr.Humes, who called Cha Cha, a "chola whore". Rodriguez uses words like "graying hair" to show how Mr. Humes is perhaps an older man, and he addresses his attire with, "short-sleeve striped shirt and tie". Also, Rodriguez uses concrete detail to explain where Mr.Humes was standing with "in front of the blackboard". Rodriguez uses concrete detail instead of saying something like, Mr.Humes was standing in front of the board because he wants the reader to visualize how Mr.Humes look likes and what was he doing at the time of his encounter with him. Rodriguez uses concrete detail to help the reader picture in their mind what he saw. Lastly, Rodriguez uses colloquial dialogue to reflect how authority figures saw Chicanos during his teen years. He highlights the moment where Mr.Humes calls Cha Cha, a "chola whore", because it shows how teachers felt toward Latinos, in this moment, Latinas. Mr.Humes labeled Cha Cha because he assumed she was late for a whole other reason than dropping off her brothers to the babysitters. Throughout this novel, we see the constant theme of racial stereotypes, and how Latinos were labeled and treated unfairly, due to this negative image society portrayed them as.