“To truly love L.A…. you have to see it with different eyes.”

“Always Running,” Rodriguez’s best-known work.

So said Luis Rodriguez last week upon accepting his post as L.A.’s new poet laureate, a term that will last two years and have him bringing poetry initiatives to the most far-flung corners of the city.

Rodriguez saw L.A. through gang-member eyes growing up in South L.A., the San Gabriel Valley and East L.A. Then, after a six-year stint in prison, he changed his outlook. Rodriguez became a Chicano activist and prolific poet and author, penning about a dozen books and launching the Tia Chucha cultural center along with Tia Chucha press to promote other writers. A fixture in Southern California’s Chicano literary landscape, Rodriguez has also dipped into politics, most recently with a bid to become California’s governor representing the Green Party.

Hear more of Rodriguez’s comments in a story from Annenberg Radio News: