Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California

By James Diego Vigil

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0292711190
• ISBN13: 9780292711198
• Release Date: October 1988
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

compassionate and astute insights into "la vida loca"

Barrio Gangs is an excellent exploration of the reasons young people gravitate toward street gangs, as well as an accurate, empathic view of the day-to-day reality these young people face. It has enhanced my understanding of the "at risk" children with whom I work, and I recommend it frequently to others in the field of counseling. It is scholarly, yet reflects the author's clear committment to the need to understand these youngsters. A fine source for all those interested in the culture of streetgangs. (I believe that many of the insights the author shares with regard to Latino streetgangs are also applicable to streetgangs of different ethnicities.)