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<div style="display: block;" id="reader-header" class="header"> <b><font
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href="http://sfbayview.com/2016/04/political-prisoner-luis-v-rodriguez-aztlan-warrior-passes-to-the-spirit-world/"
id="reader-domain" class="domain"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://sfbayview.com/2016/04/political-prisoner-luis-v-rodriguez-aztlan-warrior-passes-to-the-spirit-world/">http://sfbayview.com/2016/04/political-prisoner-luis-v-rodriguez-aztlan-warrior-passes-to-the-spirit-world/</a></a></font></b>
<h1 id="reader-title">Political prisoner Luis V. Rodriguez:
Aztlan warrior passes to the spirit world</h1>
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<p>April 27, 2016</p>
<p>Luis Valenzuela Rodriguez left this mortal world on
Thursday April 14, 2016, at 7:28 p.m., surrounded by his
family and friends. He was 60 years old. Songs and
prayers were offered to honor him from the four
directions.<br>
</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignleft" id="attachment_62348">
<p class="wp-caption-text">In addition to all his other
accomplishments, Luis Rodriguez was also an
extraordinary artist. This is a self-portrait.</p>
</div>
<p>Luis was innocent. He fought with determination to
prove his innocence for 37 years. Lies were told about
him; in the media, in the courtroom. Many let him down
and betrayed him, but many more loved him and stood by
him. Despite the great injustice that befell him and
despite all the indignities he was subjected to in
prison, Luis woke up every morning with a prayer of
gratitude, thanking the creator for another day on
earth, even if it meant it would be spent behind bars.
His spirit was never broken. His sovereignty never
compromised. He walked his path with dignity. Always.</p>
<p>Luis was no angel. He had his faults … he was human.
But he was a good man. He was intense but fair in his
dealings with others. He was a man of his word. He
shared what little he had with those who had less. He
gave guidance and encouragement to many. He counseled
the young, hoping to change their perspective on life so
that they would never have to return to prison. (You
know who you are.)</p>
<p>Luis was a loving husband, father, grandfather, great
grandfather, son and brother. His physical body was not
home with us, but he was ever present in our lives. He
was more of a father, of a husband, than many men out
there who get to go home to their families every night.</p>
<p>Luis was Apache-Mestizo. He was a warrior. His medicine
was powerful. He died in prison, then came back to life,
then woke up from a coma and rose in his hospital bed to
dance to the beat of his daughter’s drum.</p>
<p>Who does that? Luis Valenzuela Rodriguez. That’s who!
Luis chose his passing. He gathered us around him to say
goodbye and see him out on his journey. He obliterated
the prison from his hospital room and from his life and
he passed to the spirit world a free man. We are proud
to call Luis our husband, father, grandfather,
great-grandfather, son, brother, cousin and friend.</p>
<h2><strong>Luis Rodriguez – rebel, magazine publisher,
counselor, wrongly incarcerated political prisoner</strong><br>
</h2>
<div class="wp-caption alignright" id="attachment_62349">
<p class="wp-caption-text">“You cannot harm me. You
cannot harm one who has dreamed a dream like mine.” –
Indian Warrior Song</p>
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<p>Luis V. Rodriguez was raised in an atmosphere of
political and social involvement. As a youngster, he
lived in Los Angeles for a period of time with a group
known as the Brown Berets, a Chicano-Native American
militant organization, which formed against racism and
other social injustices.</p>
<p>Luis grew up in the times of the Vietnam War and its
consequent demonstrations which resulted in the Watts
Rebellion and the 1970 Whittier Boulevard Rebellion
after the police killed political activist and
journalist, Ruben Salazar. Rodriguez was a part of that
rebellion.</p>
<p>Luis’s politically active father and his contact with
the Brown Berets helped Luis to place these events into
proper perspective and to bring about his political and
social awareness. He also interacted with the League of
United Latin Americans (LULAC), the G.I. Forum and other
sociopolitical organizations.</p>
<p>Rodriguez worked diligently to help himself and others.
At age 17, he started Aztlan, a Chicano-Native American
news magazine, which focused on politics, history,
culture and ethnic awareness. He was editor-in-chief,
artist and headed a small staff of other youths.</p>
<p>He was a counselor at a program for offenders and
ex-offenders in Sacramento, a counselor in Los Angeles
at the Ayudate program, and a counselors’ aide at the
California Youth Authority Perkins Reception Center. His
goal was to become a California Youth Authority
counselor, a parole or probation officer, or an
attorney, in order to help young people. Until his
erroneous conviction in 1981 for two homicides, he had
never been convicted of a felony (People v. Rodriguez,
1991).</p>
<h2><strong>In prison, Luis faced revenge and retaliation
every day</strong></h2>
<p><strong><em>by Bato Talamantez</em></strong></p>
<p>A sad and tragic life of imprisonment befell Luis
Rodriguez every day while inside. They did it all to him
over a span of long years until his health broke down
and he couldn’t walk anymore. They wouldn’t give him a
walking cane nor wheelchair.</p>
<p>They had him at Pelican Bay when it first opened then
moved him to Mule Creek when a plot at PB was discovered
of guards wanting him eliminated because of a pending
lawsuit and investigation by the FBI, reported by the
Sacramento Bee newspaper.</p>
<p>He was under constant threat by the guards since they
claimed he was responsible for death of two California
Hightway Patrol officers, and the guards constantly
sought revenge and retaliation every day against him.</p>
<p>Orale, LuisR! RIP</p>
<p><em>Bato Talamantez, a former political prisoner, can
be reached at </em><a
href="mailto:batowato@gmail.com"><em><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:batowato@gmail.com">batowato@gmail.com</a></em></a><em>.
The initial statement above was given to </em><a
href="https://sacprisonersupport.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/passing-of-political-prisoner-luis-v-rodriguez/"><em>Sacramento
Prisoner Support</em></a><em> by Luis Rodriguez’s
family. Following the statement is Luis’s bio from the
</em><a
href="http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/luis-v-rodriguez"><em>National
Jericho Movement</em></a><em>, which recognized him
as a political prisoner. The Bay View thanks Petey
from Sacramento for compiling it.</em>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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