The Pachuco Gang Phenomenon

Situated oftentimes between violence and death, being recruited in this criminal lifestyle is a risk that these young adults take everyday. However, for these members, gangs offer a second family, a reliable family, many of them come from broken homes or are seeking the stability found in a family unit.. This is one of the main reasons why the youth are drawn to gangs. Take it from Juan Carlos Lopez known as “Spanky” from “G-Dog and the Homeboys” by, Celeste Fremon. His life is no different from the people who decide to join a gang. He was a runaway teen at the age of

In several cultures, women are seen as archetypes more than men. The proposition of women are instantly idealized and glorified and instantaneously ignore the true complexity of a woman. Countless of these superficial images can be seen across various cultures where the societies within these cultures define what it means to be a female and what type of behavior is and isn’t acceptable within those parameters. The persistent restatement of these stories throughout these generations reinforces the gender system. Women who step out of the norm in these societies are then held punishable for their actions. Alicia Gaspar de Alba pinpoints the three archetypal roles that are given to the women in the Mexican and Chicana cultures. These are,

In Randol Contreras’s The Stickup Kids, Contreras explores the South Bronx through the lens of a sociologist. He describes the lives of the stickup kids such as Gus, Pablo, and other teenagers living in the South Bronx. Contreras uses the research method of ethnography to provide a sociological analysis of the drug trade and business in the South Bronx. His research shows how social factors impact the lives of these stickup kids to become active in the drug trade. Through his field notes and interviews with the stickup kids, Contreras examines in depth of how social factors such as, socialization, social class, the thrill of crime, deviance, and culture affect the individual.

The Latin Kings organization was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1940 after a number of Puerto Rican men and later Mexican men organized themselves into a group that was meant to protect their communities. However, this group, that was meant to protect Latino immigrants against racism and oppression, grew over the years and turned into one of the largest criminal gangs in America. From 1970 the Latin Kings started to commit a large number of crimes: murder, drug trafficking, robberies etc. Since then they started to grow bigger and bigger, and they spread all over the world; especially in Latin America, and Spain (Europe). In the United States they are divided into two factions: Motherland or KMC (King Manifesto and Constitution) and Bloodline who has its home in New York.

They are Mexican-American. Their equality rights do not accept in America society. They and their family always spend the life by examining of American government. Henry Reyna, El Pachuco, the Navy during the World War II. He is the young Mexican-American generation. He lives in the South Central Los Angeles, California. They are a mythical figure, a rebellious, street-smart, young Chicano. They make up their hair style. He dresses a long jacket, a baggy trousers, and a lengthy watch chain. He and his people dance with their girlfriends. They wear the zoot suit, the big pride of Mexican-American about the Mexican male, they make the belief to the rebellious generation for the equality rights struggling. Henry and his gang are the antagonist characters to serve the holistic of the world. He kills the murder, help the media, and fed their headline by the police (Scene 1, Act 5, page). Luis Valdez success to create the danger of the character, El Pachuco is in to Henry and the opposite. The riots break out in the streets. the zoot suiters are targeted, the suspects stripped by sailors and marines based on the racism, the discrimination profile. The author is successful to describe the press, the media communication. The laws use the name to disguise discriminate. They create the dangerous situation for their ruse. Their

              The Chicano way was the way it was during the 1940s in the city of Los Angeles. The title of my book is “Zoot Suit and Other Plays” written by Luis Valdez. This story takes place on the year 1942 in the city of Los Angeles, California. The way the story is that the main character of the story by the name of Henry Reyna, the ringleader of the 38th street gang, is unjustly charged for the Sleepy Lagoon murder of a man  and is sentenced to life in prison. He wasn’t the only one charged a few of his gang members were charged as well. Their lawyer George Shearer and a news reporter Alice Bloomfield worked for several months to get them out and after many protests and petitions the 38th street gang was released for lack of evidence to hold then guilty. The main character Henry Reyna is very prideful, brings a big influence to his people, and very optimistic. .

It is not just the language of the Dominican culture that we find characters struggling to hold onto in Díaz’s Drown. We also find that the characters walk a fine line of defining themselves as newly Dominican American, and it seems they feel pressured to leave behind their old ways and traditions to join their new society. In the short story “Fiesta, 1980,” we find many examples of the family being torn between their Dominican customs and assimilating to their new American life. This story begins with the explanation of Papi’s most prized possession: a brand-new, lime-green, Volkswagen van. Much to Yunior’s chagrin (due to the fact that he gets sick every time he rides in the vehicle), this van means a lot to Papi, because to him, it represents an American family. According to John Riofrio (2008), “it[the van] is the embracing of the American way which has reenabled Papi’s masculinity,” (p. 33). After arriving at their Tia and Tio’s home for the party, Yunior sneers at his relatives’ apartment stating, “the place had been furnished in Contemporary Dominican Tacky” (p. 32). It seems as though Yunior, after only a short period in America, is already feeling embarrassed by his culture’s traditions. This chapter of the book also discusses the betrayal of Yunior’s father to his family, by having an affair with a Puerto Rican woman, whom

In a scene from the film, Selena, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, a Mexican-American singer, is ignored by a white sales woman. The sales woman judges Selena on the color of her skin, determining her social status as one unimportant to her business, not realizing that Selena was actually a celebrity. Just as the sales woman predetermined a role for Selena rooted by race and ethnicity, Waretown High maintained class, gender, and race stereotypes in determining girl’s futures and outcomes. Julie Bettie’s Women Without Class discusses these stereotypes through expectations set for las chicas and the preps by the school, families, and themselves, the exclusion of hard-living students, those whose families were low income, and the ability for some girls to become upwardly mobile as an exception to the rules.

In my analysis of this novel, The Adventure of Don Chipote or, When Parrots Breast-Feed by Daniel Venegas, I kept in mind that Nicolás Kanellos put great effort into getting this novel circulated in Spanish and in English. Kanellos argues that Spanish-language immigrant novels more accurately present the “evils” of American society such as oppression of the immigrant workers and deconstructs the myth of the American Dream, which permeates in English-language ethnic autobiographies. I believe Kanellos felt so passionately about circulating this particular novel was due to the fact that in Venegas’ novel we see clear representations of the three U.S. Hispanic cultures that Kanellos presents which are the native, the immigrant, and the exile cultures.

Standard and working class English from school, media and job situations (Anzaldúa 472). Anzaldúa compares and contrasts the languages that her culture speaks and where they originate and how she learned them. Pachuco is a rebellion language; it consists of slang words from both English and Spanish. It becomes hard for Anzaldúa to fully take pride in her, not until she takes pride of her language. She has to fully accept her identity of Chicano Texas Spanish, and all the other languages she speaks. The Chicana language she associates herself in combines all the languages others speak; the Chicano language is really a mutilation of Spanish.

As children grow up in a dysfunctional family, they experience trauma and pain from their parent’s actions, words, and attitudes. With this trauma experienced, they grew up changed; different from other children. The parent’s behavior affects them and whether they like it or not, sometimes it can influence them, and they can react against it or can repeat it. In Junot Díaz’s “Fiesta, 1980”, is presented this theme of the dysfunctional family. The author presents a story of an adolescent Latin boy called Junior, who narrates the chronicles of his dysfunctional family, a family of immigrants from the Dominican Republic driving to a party in the Bronx, New York City. “Papi had been with

Wearing odd articles of clothing nowadays has nothing to do with the government. On the contrary, wearing odd articles of clothing in the midst of a world war can get you into a lot of trouble. All that you have to do is tune in on the pachuca crisis that occurred in Los Angeles. The term “pachuco” and “pachuca” was donned onto young Mexican men and women who wore attire unbefitting the American norm. In Escobedo’s article, “The Pachuca Panic: Sexual and Cultural Battlegrounds in World War II Los Angeles,” she thoroughly details the crisis of families and authorities who have had affiliations especially towards Mexican women presenting themselves in a way that resembles a pachuca. The rising problem that revolved around this issue which will be expanded further argues about the identity of what a pachuca is and its involvement to the “panic” of both the Anglo and first generation Mexican communities.

Throughout the play there are underlying theme that suggest different ideas. The themes I will discuss is how Mexican American men are portrayed in relation

The story illustrates the overlapping influences of women’s status and roles in Mexican culture, and the social institutions of family, religion, economics, education, and politics. In addition, issues of physical and mental/emotional health, social deviance and crime, and social and personal identity are

The Mexican Mafia, or “La Eme”, as they refer to themselves, is one of the most powerful and influential organized crime gangs in the United States. The organization has risen through the decades of mass gang wars and violence to become the power it is today. Their control is limitless and they have ventured far beyond the expectations of what was thought that gangs were capable of. They have infiltrated governments and manipulated politics. They have taken over neighborhoods and attempted to ethnically cleanse them. Innocent people have become caught up in the affairs of La Eme throughout its history and many have faced violence and death at their hands. This paper is a continual of the case analysis of the Mexican Mafia and will attempt to provide explanations for some of the crimes committed by this organization. Researching gangs and organized crime is important because of their large influence and control over many aspects of daily life. The significance of attempting to provide causations of their crimes can better provide the criminal justice system a clearer understanding of problems that lead to gang members committing crimes on behalf of the organization. A clearer understanding of problems can help the system to provide solutions to combat situations that inhibit crimes.