Luis Rodriguez Keynote Speaker at Los Angeles Benefit

Los Angeles, California -- The keynote speaker at the 2005 Los Angeles benefit was poet and activist Luis Rodriguez, who as been a friend of and resource speaker for Facing History for over a decade. The author of the acclaimed Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., among many other works, Rodriguez is one of the most influential Chicano writers in the nation. The son of Mexican immigrants, he spent much of his youth as a gang member in East L.A., until he discovered writing as a life passion and means of escaping the violence and desperation that had claimed so many of his friends.

Below are excerpts from his speech:

Good evening. My name is Luis Rodriguez, and I am extremely honored to be here. I think it's just wonderful that we could hear the voices of these young people. Just great, great, beautiful stories. To me, that's what Facing History and Ourselves represents. They understand the immense necessity of paying attention to young people and their lives, and to bring reality back into the classroom, because it's very important for us to confront some of these past terrible, horrible things that happen in humanity so we can become better human beings.

I do a lot of work with kids. I go to schools all over the country. I am able to visit some of the best schools and some of the worst schools. I get a chance to interact with them, to hear their stories and then tell my story. I read poems to them. And my story is like a lot of young kids, because I came to the United States when I was two years old, I'm the son of immigrants, and I got into a lot of trouble growing up. A lot of the kids want to know, how did I get out of trouble, because they're in trouble now. It's important for them to know that there is a way. And Facing History and Ourselves does this by bringing history to life in the classroom. It allows the young people to know that they themselves can make history, that they themselves can make choices, and they themselves can make a difference.

People keep saying, "We can't come together," but it can happen. Words and books and poetry and literature and beautiful history can do it. I've seen it happen over and over again. I know that this is what I've learned from being part of Facing History and Ourselves. The teachers that are there taking that brave, courageous step to unite and connect people to their history, to others, and to find that commonality and that cooperation that we need to go further into this world and further into a better world that all of us came here to do.

Before I end, I want to do a little poem about history. It goes like this:

"When history is stolen,
Its heart wrenched from the meat of time,
It is like an orange-red mango missing from a stained fruit bowl,
A still-life of bruised apples, squashed grapes, and brown bananas left behind.
History becomes that old DeSoto out in back with peeling blue paint
And the parking lot bondo job coming apart in chunks,
Weeds and foxtails hugging flattened tires,
The big brother who you admire,
But who only comes around to wrestle you to the ground.
History becomes a lost love in an old photograph,
Still smiling, still with that look,
But fading like the colors, like the eyes, like the smile.
But when history is found--
Because it may be stolen but nobody can destroy it--
It is a shiny new excaliber,
With a cloister of ivory horses on the handle,
Beckoning like a gem in clear water,
To be held, to be strung,
To render as it rises, taking with it the dreams of humankind
As a weapon of chained time set free."

Thank you Facing History and Ourselves. Thank you for bringing life to history, for making it a living, breathing thing. Thank you for allowing young people to have their voices heard, to speak to you. And thank you for arming teachers with a way to get to young people. We definitely need a community in which young people and adults and mentors and teachers come together. That's what community is. And Facing History and Ourselves has proven it in the classroom and proven it in the community.