Identity is a core theme in Always Running. Luis’ earliest sense of identity is about what he is not, rather than what he is. As the child of Mexican immigrants in a racially divided Los Angeles, Luis is constantly made to feel as though he is not really an American or a legitimate resident in his own home. “Don’t speak Spanish, don’t be Mexican—you don’t belong” (19). Luis’ identity isn’t being Mexican so much as it is being a non-American living in America. His identity is also tied up in what he does not have. His family is impoverished, and when he receives new, shiny Christmas toys from a local charity, he proceeds to break them all. “I suppose in my mind it didn’t seem right to have things that were in working order, unspent” (22).

With his childhood identity centered around what he lacks—American citizenship, money—it seems inevitable that as he grows, Luis goes searching for a different sense of belonging. He finds it in his elementary and middle school friend groups (clicas) that serve as a sandbox version of gangs. “It was something to belong to—something that was ours” (41). The clicas age and obtain flashier symbols of identity and membership, like “jackets…their own colors…identification cards” (43).