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Latino-American Street Gangs


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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:

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MAYAN CULTURE:

 

The Maya civilization (/ˈmə/) was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, and noted for its logosyllabic script—the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in pre-Columbian Americas—as well as for its art, architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system. The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. This region consists of the northern lowlands encompassing the Yucatán Peninsula, and the highlands of the Sierra Madre, running from the Mexican state of Chiapas, across southern Guatemala and onwards into El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain. The overarching term "Maya" is a modern collective term that refers to the peoples of the region, however, the term was not used by the indigenous populations themselves since there never was a common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations.[1]

 

The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and the earliest villages. The Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD) saw the establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish

 

Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.

Classic period rule was centred on the concept of the "divine king", who acted as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was also expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a closed system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the corresponding reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. The Maya civilization developed highly sophisticated artforms, and the Maya created art using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and finely painted murals.

 

Maya cities tended to expand haphazardly, and the city centre would be occupied by ceremonial and administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregular sprawl of residential districts. Different parts of a city would often be linked by causeways. The principal architecture of the city consisted of palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, and structures aligned for astronomical observation. The Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that was the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. There are also a great many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars, and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest instances of the explicit zero in the world. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice.

Mathematics

Main article: Maya numerals
120px-Maya_Hieroglyphs_Plate_32.jpg
Maya numerals on a page of the Postclassic Dresden Codex
207px-Maya.svg.png
Maya numerals

In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system.[313] The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC;[314] the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero.[315] This may have been the earliest known occurrence of the idea of an explicit zero worldwide,[316] although it may have been predated by the Babylonian system.[317] The earliest explicit use of zero occurred on monuments dated to 357 AD.[318] In its earliest uses, the zero served as a place holder, indicating an absence of a particular calendrical count. This later developed into a numeral that was used to perform calculation,[319] and was used in hieroglyphic texts for more than a thousand years, until the writing system was extinguished by the Spanish.[320]

The basic number system consists of a dot to represent one, and a bar to represent five.[321] By the Postclassic period a shell symbol represented zero; during the Classic period other glyphs were used.[322] The Maya numerals from 0 to 19 used repetitions of these symbols.[321] The value of a numeral was determined by its position; as a numeral shifted upwards, its basic value multiplied by twenty. In this way, the lowest symbol would represent units, the next symbol up would represent multiples of twenty, and the symbol above that would represent multiples of 400, and so on. For example, the number 884 would be written with four dots on the lowest level, four dots on the next level up, and two dots on the next level after that, to give 4×1 + 4×20 + 2×400 = 884. Using this system, the Maya were able to record huge numbers.[313] Simple addition could be performed by summing the dots and bars in two columns to give the result in a third column.[323]

 

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AZTEC CULTURE:

 

The Aztecs (/ˈæztɛks/) were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec peoples included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. Aztec culture was organized into city-states (altepetl), some of which joined to form alliances, political confederations, or empires. The Aztec Empire was a confederation of three city-states established in 1427: Tenochtitlan, city-state of the Mexica or Tenochca; Texcoco; and Tlacopan, previously part of the Tepanec empire, whose dominant power was Azcapotzalco. Although the term Aztecs is often narrowly restricted to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, it is also broadly used to refer to Nahua polities or peoples of central Mexico in the prehispanic era,[1] as well as the Spanish colonial era (1521–1821).[2] The definitions of Aztec and Aztecs have long been the topic of scholarly discussion ever since German scientist Alexander von Humboldt established its common usage in the early nineteenth century.[3]

 

Most ethnic groups of central Mexico in the post-classic period shared basic cultural traits of Mesoamerica, and so many of the traits that characterize Aztec culture cannot be said to be exclusive to the Aztecs. For the same reason, the notion of "Aztec civilization" is best understood as a particular horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization.[4] The culture of central Mexico includes maize cultivation, the social division between nobility (pipiltin) and commoners (macehualtin), a pantheon (featuring Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc and Quetzalcoatl), and the calendric system of a xiuhpohualli of 365 days intercalated with a tonalpohualli of 260 days. Particular to the Mexica of Tenochtitlan was the patron God Huitzilopochtli, twin pyramids, and the ceramic ware known as Aztec I to IV.[5]

From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of dense population and the rise of city-states. The Mexica were late-comers to the Valley of Mexico, and founded the city-state of Tenochtitlan on unpromising islets in Lake Texcoco, later becoming the dominant power of the Aztec Triple Alliance or Aztec Empire. It was a tributary empire that expanded its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica in the late post-classic period. It originated in 1427 as an alliance between the city-states Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan; these allied to defeat the Tepanec state of Azcapotzalco, which had previously dominated the Basin of Mexico. Soon Texcoco and Tlacopan were relegated to junior partnership in the alliance, with Tenochtitlan the dominant power. The empire extended its reach by a combination of trade and military conquest. It was never a true territorial empire controlling a territory by large military garrisons in conquered provinces, but rather dominated its client city-states primarily by installing friendly rulers in conquered territories, by constructing marriage alliances between the ruling dynasties, and by extending an imperial ideology to its client city-states.[6] Client city-states paid tribute to the Aztec emperor, the Huey Tlatoani, in an economic strategy limiting communication and trade between outlying polities, making them dependent on the imperial center for the acquisition of luxury goods.[7] The political clout of the empire reached far south into Mesoamerica conquering polities as far south as Chiapas and Guatemala and spanning Mesoamerica from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans.

 

The empire reached its maximal extent in 1519, just prior to the arrival of a small group of Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés. Cortés allied with city-states opposed to the Mexica, particularly the Nahuatl-speaking Tlaxcalteca as well as other central Mexican polities, including Texcoco, its former ally in the Triple Alliance. After the fall of Tenochtitlan on 13 August 1521 and the capture of the emperor Cuauhtemoc, the Spanish founded Mexico City on the ruins of Tenochtitlan. From there they proceeded with the process of conquest and incorporation of Mesoamerican peoples into the Spanish Empire. With the destruction of the superstructure of the Aztec Empire in 1521, the Spanish utilized the city-states on which the Aztec Empire had been built, to rule the indigenous populations via their local nobles. Those nobles pledged loyalty to the Spanish crown and converted, at least nominally, to Christianity, and in return were recognized as nobles by the Spanish crown. Nobles acted as intermediaries to convey tribute and mobilize labor for their new overlords, facilitating the establishment of Spanish colonial rule.[8]

 

Aztec culture and history is primarily known through archaeological evidence found in excavations such as that of the renowned Templo Mayor in Mexico City; from indigenous writings; from eyewitness accounts by Spanish conquistadors such as Cortés and Bernal Díaz del Castillo; and especially from 16th- and 17th-century descriptions of Aztec culture and history written by Spanish clergymen and literate Aztecs in the Spanish or Nahuatl language, such as the famous illustrated, bilingual (Spanish and Nahuatl), twelve-volume Florentine Codex created by the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún, in collaboration with indigenous Aztec informants. Important for knowledge of post-conquest Nahuas was the training of indigenous scribes to write alphabetic texts in Nahuatl, mainly for local purposes under Spanish colonial rule. At its height, Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as achieving remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments.

Writing and iconography

Main article: Aztec writing
Aztecwriting.jpg
 
An example of Nahuatl writing of three place names

The Aztecs did not have a fully developed writing system like the Maya, however like the Maya and Zapotec, they did use a writing system that combined logographic signs with phonetic syllable signs. Logograms would, for example, be the use of an image of a mountain to signify the word tepetl, "mountain", whereas a phonetic syllable sign would be the use of an image of a tooth tlantli to signify the syllable tla in words unrelated to teeth. The combination of these principles allowed the Aztecs to represent the sounds of names of persons and places. Narratives tended to be represented through sequences of images, using various iconographic conventions such as footprints to show paths, temples on fire to show conquest events, etc.[105]

Epigrapher Alfonso Lacadena has demonstrated that the different syllable signs used by the Aztecs almost enabled the representation of all the most frequent syllables of the Nahuatl language (with some notable exceptions),[106] but some scholars have argued that such a high degree of phoneticity was only achieved after the conquest when the Aztecs had been introduced to the principles of phonetic writing by the Spanish.[107] Other scholars, notably Gordon Whittaker, have argued that the syllabic and phonetic aspects of Aztec writing were considerably less systematic and more creative than Lacadena's proposal suggests, arguing that Aztec writing never coalesced into a strictly syllabic system such as the Maya writing, but rather used a wide range of different types of phonetic signs.[108]

The image to right demonstrates the use of phonetic signs for writing place names in the colonial Aztec Codex Mendoza. The uppermost place is "Mapachtepec", meaning literally "On the Hill of the Raccoon ", but the glyph includes the phonetic signs "MA" (hand) and "PACH" (moss) over a mountain "TEPETL" spelling the word "mapach" ("raccoon") phonetically instead of logographically. The other two place names, Mazatlan ("Place of Many Deer") and Huitztlan ("Place of many thorns"), use the phonetic element "TLAN" represented by a tooth (tlantli) combined with a deer head to spell "MAZA" (mazatl = deer) and a thorn (huitztli) to spell "HUITZ".[109]

 

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:

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Origins

The Chicano Movement encompassed a broad list of issues—from restoration of land grants, to farm workers' rights, to enhanced education, to voting and political ethnic stereotypes of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. In an article in The Journal of American History, Edward J. Escobar describes some of the negativity of the time:

The conflict between Chicanos and the LAPD thus helped Mexican Americans develop a new political consciousness that included a greater sense of ethnic solidarity, an acknowledgment of their subordinated status in American society, and a greater determination to act politically, and perhaps even violently, to end that subordination. While most people of Mexican descent still refused to call themselves Chicanos, many had come to adopt many of the principles intrinsic in the concept of chicanismo.[1]

Chicanos did this through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated the Mexican American ethnicity and culture practices.

The term Chicanos was originally used as a derogatory label for the sons and daughters of Mexican migrants. Some prefer to spell the word "Chicano" as "Xicano". This new generation of Mexican Americans were singled out by people on both sides of the border in whose view these Mexican Americans were not "American", yet they were not "Mexican", either. In the 1960s "Chicano" was accepted as a symbol of self-determination and ethnic pride.

 

The Chicano Movement also addressed discrimination in public and private institutions. Early in the twentieth century, Mexican Americans formed organizations to protect themselves from discrimination. One of those organizations, the League of United Latin American Citizens, was formed in 1929 and remains active today.[2]

 

The Chicano Movement had been fermenting since the end of the U.S.–Mexican War in 1848, when the current U.S–Mexican border took form. Since that time, many Chicanos and Chicanas have campaigned against discrimination, racism and exploitation. The Chicano Movement that culminated in the early 1970s took inspiration from heroes and heroines from their indigenous, Mexican and American past.

 

The movement gained momentum after World War II when groups such as the American G.I. Forum (AGIF), which was founded by returning Mexican American veteran Dr. Hector P. Garcia, joined in the efforts by other civil rights organizations.[3] The AGIF first received national exposure when it took on the cause of Felix Longoria, a Mexican American serviceman who was denied a funeral service in his hometown of Three Rivers, Texas after being killed during WWII.[4] After the Longoria incident, the AGIF quickly expanded throughout Texas and by the 1950s, chapters were founded across the U.S.[5]

Mexican American civil rights activists also achieved several major legal victories including the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster court case ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954 Hernandez v. Texas ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other historically-subordinated groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.[6][7]

There were several leaders throughout the Chicano Movement. In New Mexico there was Reies López Tijerina who worked on the land grant movement. He fought to regain control of what he considered ancestral lands. He became involved in civil rights causes within six years and also became a cosponsor of the Poor People's March on Washington in 1967. In Texas, war veteran Dr. Hector P. Garcia founded the American GI Forum and was later appointed to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. In Denver, Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles helped define the meaning of being a Chicano through his poem Yo Soy Joaquin (I am Joaquin)[1]. In California, César Chávez and the farm workers turned to the struggle of urban youth, and created political awareness and participated in La Raza Unida Party.

 

The most prominent civil rights organization in the Mexican-American community is the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), founded in 1968.[8] Although modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF has also taken on many of the functions of other organizations, including political advocacy and training of local leaders.

Some women who worked for the Chicano movement felt that members were being too concerned with social issues that affected the Chicano community, instead of addressing problems that affected Chicana women specifically. This led Chicana women to form the Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional. In 1975, it became involved in the case Madrigal v. Quilligan, obtaining a moratorium on the compulsory sterilization of women and adoption of bilingual consent forms.

 

These steps were necessary because many Hispanic women who did not understand English well were being sterilized in the United States at the time, without proper consent.[9][10]

 

With the widespread immigration marches which flourished throughout the U.S. in the Spring of 2006, the Chicano Movement has continued to expand in its focus and the number of people who are actively involved within the Mexican American community. As of the 21st Century, a major focus of the Chicano Movement has been to increase the (intelligent) representation of Chicanos in mainstream American media and entertainment. There are also many community education projects to educate Latinos about their voice and power like South Texas Voter Registration Project. SVREP's mission is to empower Latinos and other minorities by increasing their participation in the American democratic process. Members of the beginning of the Chicano movement like

Faustino Erebia Jr., still speak about their trials and the changes they have seen over the years.[11][12]

 

The movement started small in Colorado yet spread across the states becoming a worldwide movement for equality. While there are many poets who helped carry out the movement, Corky Gonzales was able to spread the Chicano issues worldwide through "The Plan Espiritual de Aztlán." This manifesto advocated Chicano nationalism and self-determination for Mexican Americans. In March 1969 it was adopted by the First National Chicano Liberation Youth Conference based in Colorado. Adolfo Ortega says, "In its core as well as its fringes, the Chicano Movement verged on strivings for economic, social, and political equality." This was a simple message that any ordinary person could relate to and want to strive for in their daily lives. Whether someone was talented or not they wanted to help spread the political message in their own way. While majority of the group consisted of Mexican-Americans many people of other nationalities wanted to help the movement. This helped moved the movement from the fringes into the more mainstream political establishment. The "Political Establishment" typically consisted of the dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. Many successful organizations were formed, such as the Mexican American Youth Organization, to fight for civil rights of Mexican Americans. During the early 1960s in Texas many Mexican-Americans were treated like second class citizens and discriminated against. While progress has been made for equality immigrants even to this day are still a target of misunderstanding and fear. Chicano Poetry was a safe way for political messages to spread without fear of being targeted for by speaking out. Politically, the movement was also broken off into sections like chicanismo. "Chicanismo meant to some Chicanos dignity, self respect, pride, uniqueness, and a feeling of a cultural rebirth." Mexican-

 

Americans wanted to embrace the color of their skin instead of it being something to be ashamed of. Many Mexican-Americans unfortunately had it ingrained on them through society that it was better socially and economically to act "White" or "Normal." The movement wanted to break that mindset and embrace who they were and be loud and proud of it. A lot of people in the movement thought it was acceptable to speak Spanish to one another and not be ashamed of not being fluent in English. The movement encouraged to not only discus tradition with other Mexican-Americans but others not within the movement. America was a land of immigrants not just for the social and economically accepted people. The movement made it a point not to exclude others of other cultures but to bring them into the fold to make everyone understanding of one another. While America was new for many people of Latin descent it was important to celebrate what made them who they were as a culture. Entertainment was powerful tool to spread their political message inside and out of their social circles in America. Chicanismo might not be discussed frequently in the mainstream media but the main points of the movement are: self-respect, pride, and cultural rebirth.

 

Chicanas in the movement

Main article: Chicana feminism

While Chicanas are typically not covered as heavily in literature about the Chicano movement, contemporary literature written by Chicana feminists have begun to re-write the history of women in the movement. Chicanas who were actively involved within the movement have come to realize that their intersecting identities of being both Chicanas and women were more complex than their male counterparts.[13] Through the involvement of various movements, the main goal of these Chicanas was to include their intersecting identities within these movements, specifically choosing to add women issues, racial issues, and LGBTQ issues within movements that ignored such identities.[14] One of the biggest women issues that the Chicanas faced were that Mexican men drew their masculinity by forcing traditional female identity on women and expected women to bear as much children as they could. [15]

 

Sociologist Teresa Cordova, when discussing Chicana feminism, has stated that Chicanas change the discourse of the Chicano movement that disregard them as well as oppose the hegemonic feminism that neglects race and class.[14] Through the Chicano movement, Chicanas felt that the movement was not addressing certain issues that women faced under a patriarchal society, specifically addressing material conditions. Within the feminist discourse, Chicanas wanted to bring awareness to the forced sterilization many Mexican women faced within the 1970s.[14] The film No Mas Bebes describes the stories of many these women who were sterilized without consent. Although Chicanas have contributed significantly to the movement, Chicana feminist have been targeted for betrayal to the

 

Chicano movement overall as well as seen as anti-family and anti-man.[14] By creating a platform that was inclusive to various intersectional identities, Chicana theorists who identifies as lesbian and heterosexual were in solidarity of both.[14] With their navigation through patriarchal structures Chicana feminist, through their intersecting identities, added to the Chicano discourse: political economy, imperialism, and class relations. Enriqueta Longeaux and Vasquez discussed in the Third World Women's Conference, "There is a need for world unity of all peoples suffering exploitation and colonial oppression here in the U.S., the most wealthy, powerful, expansionist country in the world, to identify ourselves as third world peoples in order to end this economic and political expansion."[16]

 

Political activism[edit]

200px-Mural_Chicano_Movement.jpg
 
Casa Aztlán. A mural in Pilsen, Chicago for the Chicano Movement

In 1949 and 1950, the American G.I. Forum initiated local "pay your poll tax" drives to register Mexican American voters. Although they were unable to repeal the poll tax, their efforts did bring in new Hispanic voters who would begin to elect Latino representatives to the Texas House of Representatives and to Congress during the late 1950s and early 1960s.[18]

 

In California, a similar phenomenon took place. When World War II veteran Edward R. Roybal ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, community activists established the Community Service Organization (CSO). The CSO was effective in registering 15,000 new voters in Latino neighborhoods. With this newfound support, Roybal was able to win the 1949 election race against the incumbent councilman and become the first Mexican American since 1886 to win a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.[19]

 

The Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), founded in Fresno, California came into being in 1959 and drew up a plan for direct electoral politics. MAPA soon became the primary political voice for the Mexican-American community of California.[20]

 

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:

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Guerracivilsv.png

The Salvadoran Civil War was a civil war in El Salvador fought between the military-led junta government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) (a coalition or "umbrella organization" of left-wing groups) from 15 October 1979 to 16 January 1992. A coup on October 15, 1979, was followed by killings of anti-coup protesters by the government and of anti-disorder protesters by the guerrillas, and is widely seen as the start of civil war.[23]

The fully-fledged civil war lasted for more than 12 years and included the deliberate terrorizing and targeting of civilians by US-trained government death squads including prominent clergy from the Catholic Church, the recruitment of child soldiers and other human rights violations, mostly by the military.[24] An unknown number of people disappeared while the UN reports that the war killed more than 75,000 people between 1979 and 1992.[25][26][27] The war ended with the Chapultepec Peace Accords, but in 2016 the El Salvador Supreme Court ruled that the 1993 amnesty law was unconstitutional and that the El Salvador government could prosecute war criminals.[28]

 

The United States contributed to the conflict by providing military aid of $1–2 million per day to the government of El Salvador during the Carter[29] and Reagan administrations and provided significant training. The Salvadoran government was considered "friendly" and allies by the U.S. in the context of the Cold War.[30] By May 1983, US officers started to take over positions in the top levels of the Salvadoran military and were making critical decisions and running the war.[31]

 

Counterinsurgency tactics implemented often targeted civilians with the United Nations estimating that the FMLN guerrillas were responsible for 5% of the murders of civilians during the civil war, while 85% were committed by the Salvadoran armed forces and death squads.[32]

In 1990 the UN began peace negotiations and on January 16, 1992, a final agreement, The Chapultepec Peace Accords,[33] was signed by the combatants in Mexico City, formally ending the conflict.

Coup d'état, repression and insurrection: 1979–81[edit]

JRG coup October 1979[edit]

With tensions mounting and the country on the verge of an insurrection, the civil-military Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) deposed President Gen. Carlos Humberto Romero in a coup on October 15, 1979. The U.S. feared that El Salvador, like Nicaragua and Cuba before it, could fall to communist revolution.[48] Thus, Jimmy Carter's administration supported the new military government with vigor hoping to promote stability in the country.[49] While Carter provided some support to the government, the subsequent administration significantly increased U.S. spending in El Salvador.[50] By 1984 Reagan would spend nearly $1 billion on economic aid for the Salvadoran government.[51]

 

Under pressure from the military, all three civilian members of the junta resigned on January 3, 1980, along with 10 of the 11 cabinet ministers. On January 22, 1980, the Salvadoran National Guard attacked a massive peaceful demonstration, killing up to 50 people and wounding hundreds more.[52] On February 6 US ambassador Frank Devine informed the State Department that the extreme right was arming itself and preparing for a confrontation in which it clearly expected to ally itself with the military.[53][54]

 

Wishing to project a populist image, the JRG enacted a land reform program, which restricted landholdings to a 100-hectare maximum, nationalised the banking, coffee and sugar industries, scheduled elections for February 1982 and disbanded the paramilitary private death squad ORDEN on November 6, 1979.[52]

However, the land reform program was received with hostility from El Salvador's military and economic elites, which sought to sabotage the process as soon as it began. Upon learning of the government's intent to distribute land to the peasants and organize cooperatives, wealthy Salvadoran landowners began killing their own livestock and moving valuable farming equipment across the border into Guatemala, where many Salvadoran elites owned additional land. In addition, most co-op leaders in the countryside were assassinated or "disappeared" soon after being elected and becoming visible to the authorities.[55] The Socorro Jurídico documented a jump in documented government killings from 234 in February 1980 to 487 the following month.[1]:270

Aims of the Junta's violent repression[edit]

"The immediate goal of the Salvadoran army and security forces—and of the United States in 1980, was to prevent a takeover by the leftist-led guerrillas and their allied political organizations. At this point in the Salvadoran conflict the latter were much more important than the former. The military resources of the rebels were extremely limited and their greatest strength, by far, lay not in force of arms but in their "mass organizations" made up of labor unions, student and peasant organizations that could be mobilized by the thousands in El Salvador's major cities and could shut down the country through strikes."[56]

Critics of US military aid charged that "it would legitimate what has become dictatorial violence and that political power in El Salvador lay with old-line military leaders in government positions who practice a policy of 'reform with repression.'" A prominent Catholic spokesman insisted that "any military aid you send to El Salvador ends up in the hands of the military and paramilitary rightist groups who are themselves at the root of the problems of the country."[57]

"In one case that has received little attention," Human Rights Watch noted, "US Embassy officials apparently collaborated with the death squad abduction of two law students in January 1980. National Guard troops arrested two youths, Francisco Ventura and José Humberto Mejía, following an anti-government demonstration. The National Guard received permission to bring the youths onto Embassy grounds. Shortly thereafter, a private car drove into the Embassy parking lot. Men in civilian dress put the students in the trunk of their car and drove away. Ventura and Mejía were never seen again."[58]

Motivation for the resistance[edit]

As the government began to expand its violence towards its citizens, not only through death squads but also through the military, any group of citizens that attempted to provide any form of support whether physically or verbally ran the risk of death. Even so, many still chose to participate.[59] But the violence was not limited to just activists but also to anyone who promoted ideas that "questioned official policy" were tacitly assumed to be subversive against the government.[60] A marginalized group that metamorphosed into a guerilla force that would end up confronting these government forces manifested itself in campesinos or peasants. Many of these insurgents joined collective action campaigns for material gain; however, in the Salvadoran Civil War, many peasants cited reasons other than material benefits in their decision to join the fight.[61]

 

Piety was a popular reason for joining the insurrection because they saw their participation as a way of not only advancing a personal cause but a communal sentiment of divine justice.[62] Even prior to the Civil War, numerous insurgents took part in other campaigns that tackled social changes much more directly, not only the lack of political representation but also the lack of economic and social opportunities not afforded to their communities.[63]

In addition, the insurgents in the Civil War viewed their support of the insurrection as a demonstration of their opposition to the powerful elite's unfair treatment of peasant communities that they experienced on an everyday basis, so there was a class element associated with these insurgencies.[64] They reveled in their fight against injustice and in their belief that they were writing their own story, an emotion that Elisabeth Wood titled "pleasure of agency."[65] The peasants' organization thus centered on using their struggle to unite against their oppressors, not only towards the government but the elites as well, a struggle that would soon evolve itself into a political machine that came to be associated with the FMLN.

 

In the early months of 1980, Salvadoran guerilla groups, workers, communists, and socialists, unified to form the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN.)[38] The FMLN immediately announced plans for an insurrection against the government, which began on 10 January 1981 with the FMLN's first major attack. The attack established FMLN control of most of Morazán and Chalatenango departments for the war's duration. Attacks were also launched on military targets throughout the country, leaving hundreds of people dead. FMLN Insurgents ranged from children to the elderly, both male and female, and most were trained in FMLN camps in the mountains and jungles of El Salvador to learn military techniques.

 

Much later, in November 1989, FMLN launched a large offensive that caught Salvadoran military off guard and succeeded in taking control of large sections of the country and entering the capital, San Salvador. In San Salvador, the FMLN quickly took control of many of the poor neighborhoods as the military bombed their positions—including residential neighborhoods to drive out the FMLN. This large FLMN offensive was unsuccessful in overthrowing the government but did convince the government that the FLMN cannot be defeated using force of arms and that a negotiated settlement with the FLMN would be necessary.[66]

Assassination of Archbishop Romero[edit]

In February 1980 Archbishop Óscar Romero published an open letter to US President Jimmy Carter in which he pleaded with him to suspend the United States' ongoing program of military aid to the Salvadoran regime. He advised Carter that "Political power is in the hands of the armed forces. They know only how to repress the people and defend the interests of the Salvadoran oligarchy." Romero warned that US support would only "sharpen the injustice and repression against the organizations of the people which repeatedly have been struggling to gain respect for their fundamental human rights."[67] On 24 March 1980, the Archbishop was assassinated while celebrating Mass, the day after he called upon Salvadoran soldiers and security force members to not follow their orders to kill Salvadoran civilians. President Jimmy Carter stated this was a "shocking and unconscionable act".[68] At his funeral a week later, government-sponsored snipers in the National Palace and on the periphery of the Gerardo Barrios Plaza were responsible for the shooting of 42 mourners.[69]

On 7 May 1980, former Army Major Roberto D'Aubuisson was arrested with a group of civilians and soldiers at a farm. The raiders found documents connecting him and the civilians as organizers and financiers of the death squad who killed Archbishop Romero, and of plotting a coup d'état against the JRG. Their arrest provoked right-wing terrorist threats and institutional pressures forcing the JRG to release D'Aubuisson. In 1993, a U.N. investigation confirmed that D'Aubuisson ordered the assassination.[70]

 

A week after the arrest of Roberto D'Aubuisson, the National Guard and the newly reorganized paramilitary Organización Democrática Nacionalista (ORDEN), with the cooperation of the Military of Honduras, carried out a large massacre at the Sumpul River on May 14, 1980, in which an estimated 600 civilians were killed, mostly women and children. Escaping villagers were prevented from crossing the river by the Honduran armed forces, "and then killed by Salvadoran troops who fired on them in cold blood."[71] Over the course of 1980, the Salvadoran Army and three main security forces (National Guard, National Police and Treasury Police) were estimated to have killed 11,895 people, mostly peasants, trade unionists, teachers, students, journalists, human rights advocates, priests, and other prominent demographics among the popular movement.[46] Human rights organizations judged the Salvadoran government to have among the worst human rights records in the hemisphere.[72]

Murder and rape of US nuns[edit]

On December 2, 1980, members of the Salvadoran National Guard were suspected to have raped and murdered four American, Catholic church women (three religious women, or nuns, and a laywoman). Maryknoll missionary sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline sister Dorothy Kazel, and laywoman Jean Donovan were on a Catholic relief mission providing food, shelter, transport, medical care, and burial to death squad victims. U.S. military aid was briefly cut off in response to the murders but would be renewed within six weeks. The outgoing Carter administration increased military aid to the Salvadoran armed forces to $10 million which included $5 million in rifles, ammunition, grenades and helicopters.[73]

 

In justifying these arms shipments, the administration claimed that the regime had taken "positive steps" to investigate the murder of four American nuns, but this was disputed by US Ambassador, Robert E. White, who said that he could find no evidence the junta was "conducting a serious investigation." [73] White was dismissed from the foreign service by the Reagan Administration after he had refused to participate in a coverup of the Salvadoran military's responsibility for the murders at the behest of Secretary of State Alexander Haig.[74]

Repression stepped up[edit]

Other countries allied with the United States also intervened in El Salvador. The military government in Chile provided substantial training and tactical advice to the Salvadoran Armed Forces, such that the Salvadoran high command bestowed upon General Augusto Pinochet the prestigious Order of José Matías Delgado in May 1981 for his government's avid support. The Argentine military dictatorship also supported the Salvadoran armed forces as part of Operation Charly.

 

During the same month, the JRG strengthened the state of siege, imposed by President Carlos Humberto Romero in May 1979, by declaring martial law and adopting a new set of curfew regulations.[75] Between January 12 and February 19, 1981, 168 persons were killed by the security forces for violating curfew.

 

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. 

Edited by bidi bidi bom bom
Updated & Grammar Fixes.
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