Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California

James Diego Vigil

Published by University of Texas Press 1988

Barrio Gangs

Street Life and Identity in Southern California

James Diego Vigil

In the series CMAS Mexican American Monograph

https://doi.org/10.7560/776135

Overview
Contents

About this book

Within the Mexican American barrios of Los Angeles, gang activity, including crime and violent acts, has grown and flourished. In the past, community leaders and law enforcement officials have approached the problem, not as something that needs to be understood, but only as something to be gotten rid of. Rejecting that approach, James D. Vigil asserts that only by understanding the complex factors that give birth and persistence to gangs can gang violence be ended.

Drawing on many years of experience in the barrios as a youth worker, high school teacher, and researcher, Vigil identifies the elements from which gangs spring: isolation from the dominant culture, poverty, family stress and crowded households, peer pressure, and the adolescent struggle for self-identity. Using interviews with actual gang members, he reveals how the gang often functions as parent, school, and law enforcement in the absence of other role models in the gang members' lives. And he accounts for the longevity of gangs, sometimes over decades, by showing how they offer barrio youth a sense of identity and belonging nowhere else available.

Author / Editor information

James Diego Vigil is Professor of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine.

Reviews

This book is a major contribution to understanding Chicano gangs, and the multiple marginality framework will prove helpful in understanding other Chicano subcultures in very different contexts.

— American Anthropologist

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Ecological and Socioeconomic Background to Emergence of Street Gangs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
3. Sociocultural Factors in the Choloization of the Mexican American Youth Population Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
4. Four Life Histories—Wizard, Geronimo, Freddie, and Henry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
5. The Gang Subculture as a Lifeway: Structure, Process, and Form Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
6. The Notorious Side of the Gang Subculture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
7. Psychodynamics of Gangs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	150
8. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197

Language: English
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 220

eBook

Published: July 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780292757202