‘EAST LOS’  is made in close collaboration with Luis J. Rodriguez, whose generous gift of his poem “THE EASTSIDE OF ALL EASTSIDES” became the foundation for my journey through the East of Los Angeles. Inspired by his words, I took long and short walks, had in-depth and short talks.

Luis J. Rodriguez, who also has a Mexica (Aztec) name of Mixcoatl Itztlacuiloh, is one of the best known Chicano writers in the United States and beyond. He has seventeen books in poetry, fiction, children's books, nonfiction, and memoir. He's best known for the bestselling memoir "Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A." and its sequel "It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing." He has been a revolutionary thinker and organizer for over 50 years. He took part in the 1968 East Los Angeles "Blowouts" in which thousands of high-and-middle school students, with some teachers and parents, walked out of schools for decent education. Unfortunately, he became a teenage gang member, homeless, and a heavy drug user, in and out of jails and juvenile hall. In 1970, at age 16, he was arrested and beaten for taking part in the Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War--the largest anti-war protest in a community of color at the time. In three years, he left "La Vida Loca" (The Crazy Life) of the streets. He became a steelworker, construction worker, a pipefitter, welder, and carpenter. By 1980, when de-industrialization was in full swing, Luis worked as a journalist and literary writer, including when he lived fifteen years in Chicago. His notoriety grew around the country but also in the world, having been invited to speak and read poetry across the U.S, as well as Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Japan, and throughout Europe. He is founding editor of Tia Chucha Press, now for almost forty years, and cofounder with his wife Trini of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the northeast San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles. He's also does creative writing classes and readings in prisons, jails, and juvenile lockups in the U.S., Latin America, and parts of Europe for close to forty-five years. From 2014-2016 he served as Los Angeles Poet Laureate.