Hearts and Hands: Creating Community in Violent Times (Paperback)

~ Luis Rodriguez (Author)
Key Phrases: increase the peace, brown berets, prison nation, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago Tribune (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rodriguez (Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.) here takes a long, hard look at the endemic violence and the "cultural malaise of isolation and meaninglessness" that he sees as defining swaths of U.S. culture. 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, Rodriguez 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. (The group dynamics of gangs give members "the empowerment that other institutions including schools and families fail to provide.) Rodriguez urges the conscious creation of a "holy space" as a "temporary sustainable community" from which to fight violence. Always conscious of the role of poverty and behavior learned in prisons, Rodriguez warns of the persistent problem of adults overreacting to child violence, as when a five-year-old girl was arrested and fingerprinted "for allegedly `assaulting' a fifty-one-year-old school counselor." Never sentimentalizing or sensationalizing his materials, Rodriguez writes honestly and incisively from experience, knowledge and compassion.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Hearts and Hands is a timely call to restore communities by an acclaimed writer who quit the gang life. Luis Rodriguez grew up in the grip of gang brotherhood but ultimately was able to turn his life around. His work as a peacemaker with gangs in Los Angeles and Chicago informs this book, a combination manifesto and memoir that offers both inspiration and a nuts-and-bolts approach to the issue of youth violence. He writes of the young people he has met and offers models for change based on the work of Joseph Campbell and Buddhist thinkers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583225641
• ISBN-13: 978-1583225646
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #516,032 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, August 13, 2002

By	Jonathan Stith Jr. (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hearts and Hands: Making Peace in a Violent Time (Hardcover)

This is a must read for youth workers who get (or need to get) the political and social justice context of their field. It was written by someone in the trenches and not the ivory tower of foundations, university or some nonprofits. It is well written and thought provoking.