Search the Community

This can be considered a guide, an information tab, or a bit of both if you wish to call it that, but the main point of this being created is to dive into the dominant Latino-American street gang politics within Los Angeles County and the surrounding areas around it. This thread isn't going to dive into anything else, except for Latino-American street gang politics in Los Angeles County, so it's not the place to come for an overall street gang guide or information tab. First, to understand the entire scene itself you need to understand the culture behind the people themselves, and not just gang-members. For the most part it might seem like this guide/information tab is most copied and pasted, but I can assure you there'll be a lot of things I've solely written up myself for this, the stuff that has been copied and pasted are important and should be read. I'll quote two things below that will help you understand where I'm going to be going with this: I think the two quotations above are really important and should be read as it'll be somewhat of a golden key to this guide/information tab. So let me get started: MEXICAN - CHICANO & PAISANO I. Mexican-American heritage This is a really important thing in today's day n age, mainly due to the fact Mexican-Americans are known as Chicanos and Chicanos tend to have a really big sense of pride amongst themselves, which is where the Chicano movement started from and when the Brown Pride clothing brand began to pop up and become pretty known within the United States of America. I'll start off by saying that this all dates back to the 1960s when the Chicano Civil Rights Movement started for the sole reason to help Mexican-Americans be recognized by others in the United States of America and be treated equally as citizens and to have their identity as Chicanos be recognized. I'll quote another thing below that'll help you understand where I'm coming from with this: The Wikipedia sections I quoted should be read as I only quoted a few that are important to your character's roleplay and portrayal if you plan to roleplay a Mexican-American character in-game. II. Paisano heritage Paisanos, also known as Paisas for short are people from Mexico or other parts of Latin-America (we'll be sticking with Mexican for this section) that are simply non-Mexican-Americans in the United States of America but has also been adopted by homegrown Mexicans in Mexico too. The word Paisa comes from Paisano which in Spanish means Countrymen/Countryman, the reason Mexicans who came to the United States were considered this is due to how they dressed, moved as a person and more times than not was also a derogatory term overall to sometimes used to insult Mexicans until it was more or less adopted by themselves, and used as a banner for their people. It has even become so embraced by Mexicans that they also have pride for being a Paisano and have made clothing with "Paisa" written on them. A lot of the times, more or less most of these Paisanos in the United States of hard-working individuals but some of them get sucked into gang violence, and in-turn get arrested and deported, which is why you see a lot of native Los Angeles gangs all around Latin-America today. CENTRAL AMERICAN - GUANACO & PAISANO I. Guanaco heritage The term Guanaco is mainly associated with Salvadorans as it's a homegrown term used by people in El Salvador, just like Chicano is for Mexican-Americans, Guanaco was a term that has been around for decades if not centuries and used by Salvadorans in El Salvador as a way to refer to their people. But to understand how the "Guanaco" movement came about, even though it's not as popular as the Chicano movement, you need to look back at the Salvadoran Civil War which I'll quote a bit about down below: Due to the war in El Salvador, many Salvadorans fled El Salvador and came to the United States of America by train, and foot, and then even boats once they reached certain parts of Mexico. But to understand why Guanaco is a thing, you need to look at what happened when Salvadorans arrived in Los Angeles in the mid-late 70s and early 80s. Around these time eras, Mexican-Americans began to terrorize Salvadorans and often kidnapped, raped and beat up women killed fathers in front of their families and killed kids to hurt families, it was due to this that Salvadorans began to use the term Guanacan as a way of saying they were never going to be considered Chicanos or support the Brown Pride movement in Los Angeles at the time. Due to this many other Central-Americans who came to Los Angeles around this time era were also given the same treated that Salvadorans were given, and they also adopted the Guanaco term and it soon turned into a movement that was driven by many Central-American nationalities. II. Central-American Paisanos The reason I've separated the Paisano banner from Mexican to Central-American is for this very reason, unlike Mexican Paisanos, Central-American Paisanos are considered Guanacos as it was a homegrown term that came about in El Salvador and not the United States of America. Alright, so now that I've gotten the main history down on the thread it's time to dive deep into the gang politics and what's what. STREET GANGS - SUREÑOS & SUREÑAS & TAX FREE GANGS Now you might be wondering where does the book-length of information about the Mayan, Aztec, Chicano, Guanaco and Paisano culture tie into a gang-related guide/information tab but you'll see in a moment how everything adds up. I. Mexican Mafia The Mexican Mafia a/k/a known as La eMe or The M is a hybrid prison street gang/organization that rules the majority of the Latino-American street gangs in California, or in this instance it'd be San Andreas. Now, the Mayan and Aztec culture plays a huge part in a Sureño's lifestyle as in prison the communication via kites also known as letters exchanged by inmates are often written in Nahuatl which is the language that was primarily used by the Aztecs back in the day, now Nahuatl is commonly used amongst Emeros and other Sureños in the SHU, but is sometimes used in gen-pop too. A lot of the kites that aren't in Nahuatl aren't like how a lot of prison factions portray them to be, in-fact although they might be written in English; words are normally backwardly written and positions swapped with coded words being written a certain way to point out what's writing, for example: "Love to all my fellow Southsiders on the tier, I want you to keep programming as normal every day and keep your head down". Now, that simple and seemingly harmless kite/letter could translate to something much bigger, and mean that there's a war starting or a riot might happen: "I want you to keep programming, and keep your head down" could translate to what I've stated. I'm not a prison roleplay expert but coded kites/letters that aren't in Nahuatl are normally written like that or something along the lines. You'll never really see a kite/letter written with upfront words about what's what in case of a Correctional Officer who isn't corrupt, obtaining the said kite/letter. In-fact there have even been instances with Aztec related symbols being tattooed on Sureños both in prison and on the streets, this is also where the Mayan culture comes into play as the Mayan number symbols are used by Sureños to often refer to the number they claim whether it be 18th Street, a gang that flies 13, MS-13 for 1319; M - 13 and S - 19 or whether it's 38th Street, 36th Street, Compton Varrio hoods, you get the point. The Mexican Mafia's reign over all Sureño gangs is to this very day, still known to be quite powerful and dominant due to the enforcement of fear and respect on the streets, and in prison. Every Sureño gang pays tribute to the Mexican Mafia in return for protection in prison and sometimes it can stretch to even being supported depending on the occasion at hand. II. Sureños & Sureñas Street gangs under the Mexican Mafia are referred to Sureño gangs, also known as Southsider gangs in English. Southsiders, for the most part, claim the number 13 but depending on the hood's politics, they may claim a different number or not even claim a number at all, the examples I'll give of this are: 18th Street, Compton Varrio 155, East Side Clover and Varrio Nuevo Estrada. Now, I'll give two examples of even more complex politics down below: Some hoods may not even claim to be Sureños even though when thrown into a category they are, three examples of this are: 18th Street, Mara Salvatrucha 13, and East Side Clover. This is why a lot of people get confused by street gang roleplayers on servers and sometimes rush to assume they aren't roleplaying the gang properly when it might just be that the gang has different hood politics on the outside than others. The thing I will point out is that whenever a gang member goes to prison, even if he doesn't claim to be a Sureño if his hood by right pays tribute to the Mexican Mafia then he will be considered a Sureño on the inside. Now, this is also where the Paisano perspective comes into play, a lot of Paisanos when they go to prison side with the Southerner Car which is what the Mexican Mafia rules in prison, where every Sureño is thrown into a single prison car and expected to follow a bunch of rules, regulations, and guidelines. But also, there's a lot of Paisanos who come to Los Angeles when they are young and get sucked into gang violence, or come to Los Angeles when they're older and have kids whose kids then get sucked into gang violence, making it a rinse and repeat non-stop cycle of gang volence that spreads down south towards Latin-America when immigrants are arrested and don't have citizenships and are therefore sent back to their home country, with a lot of the times they form their gang/clique/set in their old neighborhood. III. Politics A) This is split into separate parts due to how complex it will be, so I'll begin. Alright, so I'll quote what I've said above before diving into this in a more complex manner first: "Now, I'll give two examples of even more complex politics down below: Some hoods may not even claim to be Sureños even though when thrown into a category they are, three examples of this are: 18th Street, Mara Salvatrucha 13, and East Side Clover. This is why a lot of people get confused by street gang roleplayers on servers and sometimes rush to assume they aren't roleplaying the gang properly when it might just be that the gang has different hood politics on the outside than others. The thing I will point out is that whenever a gang member goes to prison, even if he doesn't claim to be a Sureño if his hood by right pays tribute to the Mexican Mafia then he will be considered a Sureño on the inside." Gang politics tend to be the most confusing part of gang roleplay, and even researching different things can take months if the information isn't on Google, and you need to use social media sites to find out the information for what you want to roleplay so I'll make your life ten times easier by saying this, and this alone... the most overdrawn part of Latino gang roleplay is the slang. A common misconception is the use of the words: "Ese/Esa/Vato/Holmes" etc, eg all old school terms used by Chicano gangs in the 80s and 90s. What I'll say right now is that it depends on the hood, you can argue it's the location but it's not even that... for example: a gang from West Los Angeles might talk like African-Americans and use Blood or Crip slang with their words, but another gang also from West Los Angeles could be so driven on Chicano culture and tradition that every second word you hear is "Ese", alright maybe that's an over-exaggeration but you get my point. The majority of East Los Angeles gangs still talk like this, but the reason I say it's hood related and not geographic related is that it all depends on the big homies of the hood... if a big homie is using blood slang then obviously his younger homies will use that too, the same goes for "Ese/Esa/Vato/Holmes". B) Another misconception is the color banging aspect of hood politics in Los Angeles. Now, I'll start off by saying that the majority of the gangs in Los Angeles couldn't care less if you rock red, blood, purple, orange, green, or hell... even pink. But there is still some hoods that will check you on it if you're flamed/blued up, but that depends on the hood and I won't really dive deep into that as this guide is for overall politics and not for "what gang wears that, this and the third woopty woop". Now, what I will say is there is a lot of red ragging Southsider hoods in Los Angeles, there are gangs that rock purple, green, etc. But color banging isn't popular, and never will be again, a recent thing that came into play in the late 90s early 2000s is clothing brand banging; hat banging, sports team banging, jewelry banging, etc. The reason I put hat banging into its own category and not sports team banging is not every hat donned by a gang member is a sport-related cap and it still may correlate to their hood. The sports team banging normally relates to a letter donned by the sports team and relates to the hood that dons the sports team, the hat banging is the same but it also might have for example: "WESTLAKE", "COMPTON", or "LYNWOOD" written on its front and a gang from any of those three areas may don that cap. Jewelry banging is the same, and a recent trend is where gang members who have money tend to get their hood names custom made for jewelry, or a letter relating to it. I'm not going to tell you how to roleplay your character around jewelry as this guide isn't for that, nor is it my place to do so but I'm just pointing out that it happens. Another thing with gang politics is the misconception that a "race war" is happening, although there may be tension between certain groups and ethnicities there has never been a "race war" and never will as that would get you a terrorism charge, if not something similar. Now, there are racist gang members but as for the misconception that entire hoods are racist, that's untrue. The only thing close to this would be if a big homie doesn't like a certain ethnicity and always talks about it, then his younger homies would more than likely fall victim to that and be influenced by it but even at that a lot of the times the negative big homies in hoods are normally overridden by positive big homies who set the younger homies' minds on a straight path to positivity and prosperity. IV. Tax-Free Gangs A) This will be split into two for the sole reason of me explaining Maravilla's in-depth and deeply confusing clique divide. Just as the title says, these do exist. Tax-free gangs are normally street gangs who don't pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia and are nine out of ten times greenlit, but not all of the times are they greenlit. Now, what I mean by this is for example: Maravilla in East Los Angeles. The gang itself is categorized as a tax-free street gang, but there are cliques who pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia and in return ended up in an internal feud within the Maravilla gang, now you might be confused and asking yourself: "What? That makes no sense, if they goto prison the tax-free clique would be able to fly under Eme for protection then!" Incorrect, that's not true, in fact when a Maravilla gang member goes to prison the same thing happens for them just like 18th Streeters, someone rings up someone on the outside and gets confirmation of who the person is and sometimes tattoos also give away their clique, and it's settled. Not to mention, most tax-free gang members tend to PC up anyways, also known as going into protective custody whilst serving your sentence. B) Now, to explain the situation with Maravilla you need to understand its roots... it's a street gang born on being tax-free and not wanting to bow down to the Mexican Mafia whilst also being proud of their Chicano heritage. Although some cliques do pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia, there's still quite a few who don't. I'm making this simple, but straight to the point so people aren't confused. This guide/information tab is liable to be updated at any point in time when it is I'll reply with a notification saying it's updated as it'll follow the modern-day Los Angeles gang politics on the street, and sometimes prison depending on the situation. Keep in mind, this guide is for Latino-American street gangs only, specifically the ones that are in Los Angeles so Bulldogs and Norteños won't really appear on this thread, so don't get mad or confused when there's nothing relating to those gangs or white or African-American or Asian gangs as I'm purely making this with my own knowledge from what I've been roleplaying for the last several years.