be teachers or librarians have a lot of graduate students and information science to use it, and then we also serve teachers and librarians all over the state. so we may have librarians from the upstate who will come in and say i got my budget for next year. what do i want to purchase, how do i want to use these in the book club? we have public library into one to talk about how to use different methods and outreach and we have teachers come and work with us on curriculum who will say to a unit on poetry. what do you have that isn't the same stuff that we have had for years and years. we also have parents that say you have some interesting things we don't abc of the public school library. they will come and talk about the hesitant leader or my daughter really loves this type of book so we can one on one do the book selection and help them get the right thing.

we have also the research department so we do have a phd students and faculty is doing research. our university has children's literature programs of the part of several different cultures which is interesting. we do teach and research on the information science. the education and the department of english so we have folks across-the-board of using the children's literature then to go into different areas of research. i think the future of the center is exciting. that is a wonderful fit because everything we are doing is also coming out in an e-book format. we are going to be having all of our family literacy programs so we are very excited about that.

we continue to make new partnerships and we are excited about where that is going to take us in terms of an impact for softer line on a very large scale. so that is what is fascinating about that is everything that we do which are quite broad are based on good children's literature and sometimes you don't realize the importance of that joined booktv at the "los angeles times" festival of books to talk about it calls you back. it's a follow-up to the memoir always running about chronicled in the east l.a. gang member. >> used to be joined on the sets

by rodriguez his most recent is book is it calls you back an mas odyssey through love, addictiong tir revolutions and healing.okri it was a national book critics l mr. ro award finalist. mr. rodriguez come in your title what does it refer to? >> mostly i think the madness. if you grew up the way that iupe bew up, addiction keeps callinu you back and it's a struggle tom overcome it, the struggle to git become a father which is arely g really big part of my story, how my kids save my life at the same time i was fractured and broken to be a good father and i had tf learn.owing t t they know that the manners willd always be there and knowing howt to carry your character and have the courage to deal with it when it does.ngel

>> it cannot a year after the pe wots.ow people wanted to know what was th t up.. i was the first to write about the chicano experience even though it's older than any other it has ethnic group but it's important it was a about how i changed my lifeaneti early on and get rid of drugs enol and violence and begin a life ai an activist.exic >> the mexican defendant justope momes to the immigrants -- the e people connect to something thae in the sixtiesth began vibrant m

say that also includes the country. >> how old were you when you the i was the gang? >> i was 11-years-old pit and it got involved in hethe most intensive part of it. the neighborhood gangs. a lot of we had a lot of guys that were in and around it and got in andt out of jail and putting the murders i never could but i was very fortunate people that the,y in november. i ended up leaving the drugs from leaving the gang life and not having to do all the giant state prison terms. but it also compelled me to become really active for a better world, including helping people. having going to prison for more than 30 years to give back to those that did not make it to

working in sobriety in recovery programs. all this by way of giving back toward i think i have been blessed with that i get through. >> you're right at 7i began stealing from local stores and markets. at eight teachers punish me for sticking pins into those students. whenever violence are humiliations' existed at home, took it out against my classmates. and although i have hard-working mexican migrant parents, my childhood and youth have been punctuated by an intense and hazardous street life. your parents stayed together. you raised that to this part of. >> fund relative they actually had issues. but there were crime free, hard-working immigrants. but like a lot of them, that it not have a lot of time to spend with a kid like me, trouble kid apparently needed a little more attention. too much work, not enough connection coming coming from mexico and the culture that we

were in his chair are to connect to kids like that kind was one of those that fell through the cracks. >> added you get out of the life? >> said mentoring. i have no hope. i had people who saw something in me. believe that somebody can help somebody come out as. yet to stand with them, stand by them. don't give up on them. eventually their own development will take them to the next part of the life. >> luis rodriquez is our guest. 202 is the area code. five kayfive 385 for the east and central time zones. 585386 for those of you in a mountain. out here in the pacific times and where we are right now on the campus of usc you can also send a tweet. @booktv is editor and a parody can make a comment on our facebook page. facebook.com/booktv. it i want to read one other thing. this kind of gets into your political activism a little bit. you say that my mother stayed at home taking care of us kids. when she worked it was in

garment industry sweatshops, including doing what was known as ps work. an industrial sewing machine wrangled into our small barrier home rented out for meager pay. she often labored into the wee hours traveling noplace each time her foot pushed the pedal. how did you get into labor activism? >> you know, i guess because of my parents to realize that something was unjust and the way the world. there were people at the bottom. there are people in the middle. and because very few people, and being and rinse nuclearized to this country, mexican got dark skinned, people of color, we were at the bottom, and you knew this. even when i worked in steel mills and the other places there was always somebody at the bottom. there was a battle to get to other places like a skilled trades which were just opening up and i got into it. i was fortunate that i did get some, but it was just barely opening up. so i think it was always, to me,

the country when it comes to work in jobs and to gets paid and doesn't. uns of making it doesn't. there are a lot of poor white people. so it is race and class. mostly class because i also recognize that there were white people also at the bottom and a lot of people don't recognize. so it became an issue more of class and actual race and even though race played a bigger role. >> is your story typical american story? >> i think it is far more typical than we may be imagined. a lot more trauma in people's lives, but this connection, lot more families that are broken that should not be. in a talk about the worst, terrible, meet families to my good families that cattle because of the stress of life, going from one job to another, living in the world, the working-class up and down world can put a lot of strain of people, the connection they should have as mother, father, son, and even, you know, addictions that are so rampant now because now it is easy to oet drugs and

but not like today. i think all this is contributing to my story being more of an american stores a lot of people are willing to be a bit. >> one of the things the struck me your book, how many times have you moved to back. >> one hundred times. i can say hundred. and never stay too long in places. only recently in the most recent house now live of the effect of years. as the most of never lived anywhere. it's really did is now i feel, almost 60 years old and there finally getting self. and my kids are already gone. my two youngest was during college. now my fifth grandchild will be born this year. so finely i'm going to settle down because it gets you in the morning. like the set, silver for 20 years and still it comes back. i am better added nine beckham and live better. think, what a waste of life just been so much time behind drugs now call. and it it really is a much better to find peace in yourself and help find peace and others.

>> how many kids you have? >> for wonderful boys and girls. the oldest is 37. as you know, the book was really about what happened with him. he joined a gang. he get into prison, a total of 15 years. he fell into the same madness that i wasn't only the world that he is and is different than mine. now it's easy to throw kids away. no so many, things that i did 30 years ago, 40 years ago people get license for. and so i feel bad that he is in the world, but i also have to say he is doing really good right now. he is trying really hard. crabtree, sober to attract help other kids. lps days like that because you're going to go through something hard, difficult, painful, they can learn and make something good and beautiful of the. >> what is the gang situation currently in l.a.? >> it's interesting. in a working at this for years. lowering game violence. this was the gang capitol of the country. if i ever have to deal what i feel intervention and

prevention, people being involved in the street. and what to give credit to the al qaeda. for the first time since i've known them that work for people like us. it never used to. it never got into it. now they're opening the doors to work with people working for peace. i was the coalition meeting in the san fernando valley in which law enforcement was there. the children and families. artists, nonprofit groups, people like me. would you have that title? so many people bless to the community i'm the in meeting each other and saying, we have to work together for peace. >> luis rodriquez is our guest. foul question before we go to calls. uses a picture of? >> a beautiful picture of my friend, joseph rodriguez. i don't know who this man is. and a steady is a gang member from the bay area. it's perfect. a guy tattooed. conceit is that this tree thing in his face. areas as baby. and with that baby makes a difference. deputy gibson to say, never

going back to that of life college actually said to my promise. still, abandon my kid, as you know, two nephews later both mildest kids, was up there for them i should have been. >> first call comes from derek in emporia, virginia. in afternoon. please go ahead. are you with us? i'm sorry. we are not hearing derek got here in los angeles. let's see if the next caller is available. that is sarah in grand island nebraska. you are on book tv on c-span2. hi. >> although. >> we're listening. these un request in. >> okay. my question is, the that respect. he says that there is a way out, and i was just wondering alkanet

just be a way out when i have a field my cousin had been trying to get out. the further they get in life stepup, stepup commanded to beyond because there always wanting them. you know, i don't see how it's a way out. >> very good question. i think that the way and has to do with developing community. have a book called hearts and hands to create community. yet people the community. they need a careful attainment of adults to have what they're going through. aid to be given skills, knowledge and awareness. agree with her. if you don't have the resources to make the jobs aren't there, trade and education, or going to lose a . really believe that kids are raised by a whole environment of all this and health and people come stepping up, mentors, guides to the teachers. when we see less of this is going to find kids in gangs and ordered to leave that they used

to be. so really feel the committee has to step up. also, we pushes on the kids. you change your life, but you know somebody else. d'agata a data prison after 20 years, complete decent human being and what he had told him, that you have to give back in the is not giving back to others. >> coming on our facebook page. hello. would you ever consider running for elected office in california ? then he goes on to ask would you consider if running with the green party? >> last election for the justice party. a smaller little party. i am not a politician. the only reason that i would ever consider running is to raise the issues. alterra but the big money. no one big money. i want to be in that kind of running, but i do want to deal to say what i think other people are willing to say, how we fill the gaps to malik to talk about that development of everyone to make sure that each one is :

healthy. so that is what i am willing to talk about. the green party is a great party. and a lot of people in the green party. the party doesn't matter so much to me. is the issues in the movement to try to make this a better country. ♪ going on to say that your friend from pacoima. >> a bookstore culture space that we opened in the san fernando valley. it is named after my aunt who was a crazy, artistic, political person in my life or learned to love very much. everybody talks bad about people like that, a crazy relative, but she really -- i think she fired a buyer creativity and craziness and a getaway. so we name this fur as well as a bookstore and a culture center. and we are very active and have been there for 12 years. all community has been supportive. all of the arts, writing, dancing, theater.

we have a mural painting project. to me i love and believe in the arts. of course, believe that any political, striving to revive to include the arts and the development of creativity, inventiveness. ♪ well, you talk about a job that you got for painting a mural but did not do. >> a very important part because painting murals became one of those things that helped me think about another imagination, another way to grow, but i was still using drugs. unfortunately i think my connection to the drugs was hurting my ability to dvr this should have been. well laugh tracks and a lesbian, early on. i started my first withdrawals in county jail and continued later, i could not pick up a paintbrush and it's hard to say why except that it was related to drug use. when i was on drugs are dual this stuff. now that i was often and hard time getting back to painting. my heart ended up becoming writing.

that became my focus, passion. in many ways i found it. it just was not in the pending world. ♪ to rick -- who discovered you as the writer? >> i have to say that when i moved to chicago that was the place where they appreciate it when i was doing. there was a great poetry scene. was there when it was coming out. perfect timing. an amazing riders, published my first book myself. such a great audience that by then the press that later simon and schuster, a children's book press, lot of others have come around and build a starbucks. and abcafifteen books. took that moment or was in the right place at the right time with pellets and publish the book which started the press which we have been doing for 25 years. now we publish all these great writers and poets. to me it was perfect timing in place. and then being discovered by people who saw the movement, important new voices coming out.

>> the next call comes from valerie in idaho. please go head. >> hi, mr. rodriguez. can you hear me? >> hello. >> mr. rodriguez taqueria me? hello? >> man, we're listening. please go ahead. i want to say thank you very much for your buck. i really admire you. the fact that you survived alter your childhood and managed to get over all the things you're dealing with. i really wanted to set thank you so much. my husband who is deceased was a return to seven years. he was an alcoholic. he is just amazing. i think your in the same category as him because he was a really great man. i just want to thank you you are now helping others. you are real inspiration. thank you very much. >> i appreciate that. i guess the message is that it is possible to overcome these things. it's just all be easy, we have to recognize that there is a way

to get through all the addiction in the rage in knowing how to turn it into art, beauty, poetry, something amazing, even if your mechanic map you can turn that into an art. people have to of turn their pain and will listen to something that turns out to be beautiful and positive and impact to and the community. thank you for that because i am honored that you put me in the same category as your husband. >> mr. rodriguez, your book is available in spanish. >> there actually always. to so you know, have been working with gang piece. we just started libraries in 13 prisons. that book, it's the first book. the drummer for the doors as the donor. he has given us money to build these libraries. so the spanish version. some of my other books are also in spanish as well. >> right before we started a librarian from santa paula

high-school in ventura county came up to mr. rodriguez and said, your book is the most : but in my library. you think of for that. >> i found out that my book is known as the most : but. what did you say? at thing that people want to read books and they have to steal because there's no place for them to get them, no bookstores in most of the poor communities. where i am mad now, we're the only bookstore for 500,000 people. i get it. another encouraging anybody to steal, i'm honored that people would take this book. were the people wanted to read. >> right here in los angeles. >> everyone to talk a little bit or have your best chocolate that about how gangs can be converted from negative activity to positive activity. and some of the things that came up in my mind, homeboy, the

bakery. if you could just talk about different things, not just hispanic gangs, black gangs, white gangs, how those people, those organizations might be converted to the positive things >> well, let me just add or say that one of the ways to do it is to care. what i do, and what homeboys says is what i call scared straight, not scared straight. you care, open up your hard and show people that there is humanity in them and us. sometimes the kids don't believe that other people care or that the people will stand by them. they test all adults because why should they invest in the motion and adults the walkout when things thereof. what i try to do and what many of us do is hang in there, hang in there. go through rough times to the point that we're actually walking. not ahead of them, not pushing them go walking with them until the point that they can walk on their own. the idea is to give them the

discipline and respect and structure to live their own life, not my life, not somebody else's life. the thing that is out to do it. been doing it for 40 years. part of the game the sentry's the came out of the stellate. i took part of their cribs and bloods, the latino. chicago, spent 50 years working with different things. nl internationally, guatemala, but also of salvador with this peace process which some people know, the most violent country in the world. another is the 60% drop in violence. it can happen. people could care. people could open up doors. weather is sustains itself depends on whether we can get the proper alignment of government, resources, jobs, business, law enforcement, everyone aligned to keep the pace going. >> was he referring to? >> it's what father greg boyle created. good friend of mine. he did in east l.a. a multi-ethnic citywide program.

eighty tattoo removal, mental counseling, treatment, drug treatment, give you jobs. seven industries that they get into. running their own restaurant, learning how the set their own businesses. they try to provide opportunities, but also knowledge and a connection that allows them tough to do something really meaningful. but just what people think they might need to do, but also not end up in the presence of the juvenile all and the drug life that most of these kids do. >> please go ahead with your questionnaire comment. >> thank you. before i ask, i have two questions. please, the computer graphics people, please leave the telephone numbers up on the screens much longer than you do. not only on the weekends, but also on the weekday morning washington program. here are my two questions. i'm awfully sorry that i am neither hispanic or a former gang member.

i hope you can relate to these questions. i am a former -- i was an artist as a teenager myself. [inaudible conversations] going back to my toddler years, i had a career in graphic design and disney type cartooning as well as modern art. and i thoroughly believe but also had to mental illnesses as a teenager. so i spend a lot of time among the members after-school -- i mean, and a program in birmingham's university of alabama birmingham quarterback power. speaking of that, there is a program in east birmingham called studio by the tracks which provides after-school arts programs and opportunities for troubled teenagers and children with various united way type needs. as concerned as i am --

>> could you get to your question please. >> i'm sorry. i cannot seem to make these people about gun rights and gun ownership and so forth who in the debates ever since, you know, the shooting in connecticut in november realize that criminals getting their hands on guns and firearms comes from a completely different cause blowing up without their fathers and without other significant male role models as children. we have had decreased federal and state dollars for united way agencies and public school boards after-school programs. -- >> you know what, we got your point. we appreciate your calling in. and louise rodriguez, if you could take what she was saying. >> i think what he's saying is you need every resource par rounds. you need to have proper connections mentoring.

there is not enough money. most of the money seems to be on the back end. i say the back end, law enforcement, prisons, the criminal things. i think we're being disconnected and the traumatized. families and broken up, and we're not properly handling this i think it takes mental health assistance, a treatment. had nothing drugs, for example, should decriminalized. at the people need a help. it is costing billions and billions of dollars. so in many ways i'm saying, yes. it's extremely helpful. have a book called rushing waters to rising dreams, how to transform community. i believe the chance for lies in communities. healing, art as finding a full person, the passion that everybody has in getting them to find the self discipline to meet that challenge of their own particular art. that is the work that i do. i believe in it, and that thing that is the resources.

we will have less problems with guns and drugs and people building on the front-end. more the prevention actual intervention and to adjust to the end. >> to other current issues. gun-control and immigration. when you look at the gun-control bills that are being proposed the measures, those reduced gun violence among gang members to back. >> and not sure i care from the gun control laws of being put up. i really don't think it is addressing the issue. i'm not saying there should not be a reasonable, peaceful, rational man policy. there should be. but i think it is the wrong end of it, again, the back end of it. what are we doing to connector youth, redoing that parents help guide and support. other returning about people who

don't have jobs, need trading. new industries, the digital arts world. what are we doing preparing people to be whole and healthy. if it's not guns, ill use knives. if it's not my style use sticks. violence comes from broken is. what better address that and there should be reasonable, rational gun policy of and not sure that just criminalizing it, more people being put away. our community real ones that pay for it. a lot of people get involved with violence, but it is a poor community it ends up paying mostly for this. i get tired of the gun laws. >> in it calls you back the rights to my can hardly wait to have a funeral like this come to have mothers crying, mommy's having girls missing the. all this love. that would be the best day of my life. >> a suicide connected to kids in this world. suicide, homicide. i was afraid to die. i was afraid to get a prison

because that was just so cultures and me. everything that people think this experience with texaco on guard for. what we do is address why yang people are so willing to sacrifice themselves for very little. so willing to sacrifice their world and life and to be seen in this place of glory. i would rather die in this blaze of glory. there is no glory in it. what young people except that? that is what i want to address. why young people want to die. and i want to address why we're not there. our proper sacrifice as adults to give time to kids. is not a big sacrifice to mentor somebody, to reach out and just somebody instead of knocking and out of the time. so i think that is what that is. ..