Latino Neighborhoods

Gangsters Without Borders by T.W. Ward is an ethnography about the El Salvadorian gang Mara Salvatrucha. Wards spent years earning the trust of these youth in order to complete his research. Starting out Ward had three broad goals in mind to develop a clear view of gang members and gang life. The second objective of Wards, “To observe how gang members changed over time as they matured into adulthood,” peaked my interest in this ethnography.

Throughout the 20th century, Los Angeles emerged as a place of multiculturalist struggles. One of these struggles, was that of the Mexican population, which is what the book Mi Raza Primero focuses on. In Mi Raza Primero by Ernesto Chavez, Chavez successfully argues how the collapse of the Chicano movement resulted from the failure to identify the multi-faceted and dynamic/heterogeneous nature of the ethnic Mexican community. He argues how this failure resulted in a movement that shared a strong sense of cultural nationalism, yet differed in tactics and goals. Chavez uses the examination of La Raza Unida Party and Brown Beret recruitment literature to help support his argument. Specifically, Chavez focuses on the voting data from the late

My hometown of Tolleson, Arizona is a small city of six thousand, five hundred residents with a predominantly Mexican population, with nearly 78% of the residents declaring themselves as Mexican in the 2010 census (citation). The focus of my research will be on the power of Latino representation in government in Latino-majority cities, like Tolleson, whose city council is majority Mexican. Tolleson has been making great strides to fix up the town and provide more jobs and opportunities to its residents, and in doing so, the city has asserted itself as a major innovator. For example, Tolleson was the only city in Arizona to not lay off employees during the 2008 Great Recession, and the Paseo de Luces, which was created by Mayor Adolfo F. Gámez, who also fought to keep highways such as the Interstate 10 and South Mountain Freeway from dividing the city, is a major project completed by the city in order to attract jobs and create a sense of community and history. Another example is the Home Rule Measure (or alternative local expenditure limitation), in which voters had this measure on their ballots to decide whether to allow Tolleson to continue to spend the revenues it collects. Approval of this measure does not increase taxes, just reallocates them, and in order to ensure the passage of the measure, Gámez and other city council members walked door-to-door to explain the bill and to urge everyone to vote in favor.

For many young Chicanos in America, especially in the Los Angeles area, gang involvement begins at a young age. Many die before reaching adulthood, succumbing to gang violence and those who live past 18 often remain involved until they die. In, Luis “Chin” Rodriguez’ memoir, La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A., Rodriguez walks us through the harsh realities of growing up while being involved in gangs. He expresses graphic memories, leading us through his initial involvement in gang life, what kept him there, and how he was finally able to emerge from them and go on to educate others about his experiences. Although there is no sole answer to why so many young people get involved in gangs and are unable to get out of them, Rodriguez explains that the lack of acceptance of Chicanos in American society and the need for protection pushed many into gang life. Gangs appealed to those needing a sense of belonging and acceptance, making it hard for them to leave once jumped in. Even though many remained involved in gangs until they died,

In the 1900s and now, having a nice home in a beautiful community shows that your family can afford and keep affording to live at a high standard of living, shows power. During this time period for a african american family to own a home that is in a nice neighborhood would be a very big deal. Many white people were afraid that if black people moved into their neighborhoods their houses will decrease in value, crime rates will go up, and they were just scared. For an african american man having a home was a sign of success because they could afford a home and could keep it up. If a black family moved into a white neighborhood many times their white neighbors chased them out. Housing is a great way to show success, wealth, and power and the white communities are willing to do anything to keep their neighborhoods the same.

Now more than ever, pandillas, or street gangs, are raising security concerns for multiple Central American countries, as well as the United States (Bruneau, 152). There has been an increase in the perception of crime among these Central American nations, such as Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador (Bruneau, 152). This is due, in part, to regional homicide rates, which are the highest in the world (Bruneau, 152). Consequently, the current state of crime and security in Central America continues to raise concerns with no policies that will create any positive, long-term impact on pandillos, and their activities (Bruneau, 152; Bruneau, 165).

We know that the city has been designed mainly for the car and this auto centricity has created

In my opinion, I think that raids occur in poor black neighborhoods because law enforcement knows that these neighborhoods are known for distributing narcotics. However, I don’t think this fair because they never raid the white neighborhoods and they’re known to sale drugs as well. In my opinion, reason the law enforcement raid black neighborhood is because they want to keep blacks incarcerated. They know one of the easiest ways to imprison black is through the use of drugs. This type of tactic has existed since the war on drugs in 1971. The law enforcement has always had it out for minorities, which is why we have the highest incarceration rates. In addition, when local law enforcement conduct raids, some of the effects of the criminal justice

There are many kinds of neighborhoods from quiet to loud, poor to rich, and dangerous to safe that have an effect on shaping our identity. In the novel “The Minutemen” by Michael Azerrad, he takes us on a journey to the neighborhood that shaped The Minutemen in their own unique way. The Minutemen came from the neighborhood of San Pedro, California which was known to be diverse, rough, and mostly made up of the working class during the early 1980’s to the early 1990’s. Although things were not easy back then with so much controversy about punk rock music going on The Minutemen brought their own unique twist to it due to the neighborhood they grew up in they and eventually succeeded. Azerrad states, “A lot of what they knew was the oppression of

You have lived in your dream home that you designed for over twenty years. It is in a middle class tree lined family neighborhood. You have raised five upstanding children, two who are still living at home. You find out that a drug and alcohol rehab center has bought your neighbor’s home and plan on putting 16 people who are recovering from drugs and alcohol in this home. What is your reaction? Do you have any say in the matter? What do the laws say? Most of us do not worry about this situation or ever think it can happen to us. It can and it does. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act or the ADA guidelines a drug user who is currently participating in a

Living in a Section 8 neighborhood my whole life, I’ve learned a lot about struggles that most kids at my school haven’t even come to see. In my neighborhood, everybody has something working against them and statistically speaking, most of the kids here will never go to college, will never have a stable career, and will end up in prison, if not dead. I know myself growing up without a father and my mom working day and night to support the family, I often didn't get the support I needed growing up and a lot of the kids here are in the same position. We’ve have had to take care of ourselves and fill the position our parents can’t.

“Another day. Another murder. In the Mexican Drug War, such violence has become so common that the slaying of five police at a stoplight was a brief tucked in local crime sections” (Grillo pg.154). These crime rates have force many people to move to other places to escape the daily killings that happen. “I keep hearing about friends who have been killed out here” (Grillo pg.168) and for some people it isn’t just friends but families that get murdered. Some people even resort to getting involve in these crimes because “his bloody money has taken him and his family out of the ghetto” (Grillo pg.159). It’s not something that people enjoy our would like to be involve in but unfortunately it is the only way that they can afford to feed their families. Therefore, some people to avoid these situations by move to the U.S. to find a decent way of making money and living

This mistrust of American society promotes a sense of isolation and alienation from the community. Authority figures, such as police and other first responders, may unwittingly strike fear into the hearts of these children because they have been conditioned to believe that these figures have the power, as well as the mandate, to destroy families. This mindset tends to discourage assimilation into mainstream American communities and promote instead the tendency of these families to cluster into small, ethnically concentrated barrios, or neighborhoods. Within these barrios, the culture and lifestyle of Mexico is recreated, which often reinforces psychological and physical isolation from mainstream American culture. Alliances are formed with others in similar circumstances, where commiseration often leads to a rising sense of resentment. It is not uncommon for angry groups to rise up in opposition to the society that is viewed as the oppressor. Evidence of this can be seen almost daily as senseless gang violence permeates our news broadcasts, plagues our communities, and terrorizes our citizens.

I see my hometown: a suburban hub for Latinos, a buzzing hive of frustrated parents driving too far for work, a busy intersection of dancing teenagers struck by cars; I also see a community of people who appreciate the smoggy view of our nearby mountains, one that collectively graffitis the rocks, marking territory, challenging the world. I see gossiping students, their homes, locked rooms of painful misunderstanding shared by young siblings. I see parents return home late, sighing. I do not despair in what I see: my long-separated parents, my five siblings divided by state lines. I do not wallow in words of comfort, in subtle cinema. I instead embrace the manifestations as a writer, journalist and film director, capturing what I see: a world

When a city decides to create an expansion of roads, highways, buildings, and homes, by cutting through low-income neighbourhoods, it reshapes the area and causes division and creates disadvantages for low-income neighbourhoods. For instance, Jacksonville, Florida built two highways (Route 95 and the 295 beltway) and it as cut off the black neighbourhoods by using the river and bridges (McKenzie, 2016). This as cause business in the black neighbourhoods to be destroyed, homes to be lost, which as create poverty in the community, with the loss of jobs.