TROCHEMOCHE means helter-skelter in Spanish, and this book expresses the turmoil of the barrio and the various themes that drive Luis J. Rodríguez's poetry. Drawing on more than ten years of poems, Rodríguez writes powerfully and passionately about urban youth, family, and the plight of neglected communities, while exploring the rich cultural roots of his Chicano ancestry.

Luis J. Rodríguez has published fifteen books of poetry, children's literature, fiction, and nonfiction. He is best known for his 1993 memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. His awards include a Finalist for the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award, a Lila Wallace Readers Digest Writers Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, a Paterson Poetry Prize, a Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and fellowships from the Sundance Institute, the Lannan Foundation, the City of Los Angeles, the City of Chicago, the California Arts Council, and the Illinois Arts Council, among others. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 chose Luis J. Rodríguez as Poet Laureate of the city. Luis is also Visiting Scholar at California State University, Northridge.

“[Rodríguez] takes street-tough rhythms and a flair for self-dramatization, and imbues them with a lyric sensibility, forging lines best read aloud: "I am capitalism's angry Christ, techno Quetzacoatl, toppling the temples/ of modern thievery, of surplus value in word-art/—exploited, anointed, and perhaps double-jointed."—Publisher’s Weekly

“While filled with the heart and words of Chicano culture, Rodríguez’s poems transcend the scope of race and ethnicity. The topics he addresses in this book—relationships, justice, love, and the irony of daily life—are, or should be, the subjects that envelop us all.”—Aaron McCarroll Gallegos, Sojourners