Mexican Mafia; La Eme: May 2010

Tuesday 11 May 2010

PROGRESS MAP

Monday 10 May 2010

CRIP

BLOOD

Yakuza

Japanese Gang

Russian Gangs

Compare the similarities and differences between The Mexican Mafia and The Russian Mafia;

Gang History,

Culture,

Style.

Gang Tattoos

Wednesday 5 May 2010

AMERICAN ME

'This epic depiction of thirty years of Chicano gang life in Los Angeles focuses on a teen named Santana who, with his friends Mundo and the Caucasian-but-acting-Hispanic J.D., form their own gang and are soon arrested for a break-in. Santana gets into trouble again and goes straight from reform school to prison, spending eighteen year there, and becoming leader of a powerful gang, both inside and outside the prison, while there. When he is finally released, he tries to make sense of the violence in his life, in a world much changed from when last he was in it.'

(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103671/plotsummary)

LOUIS THEROUX BEHIND BARS

'Louis spends two weeks with these inmates and quickly discovers that they inhabit a strange world within a world with its own rules and its own brutal code of conduct.

He meets amongst others David Silva who is serving 521 years and 11 life sentences and is locked down for 23 hours a day. Silva's crimes as he describes them 'would never be forgotten' and he talks of how he faces up to the prospect of never leaving prison.

Louis meets Deborah and Rob a transgender couple who live like husband and wife and how Deborah feels that after 20 years of continual offending, San Quentin now feels like home'

Great documentary to watch regarding San Quentin State Prison, Louis Theroux is one of my favourite TV journalists. But for my own personal research, it didnt answer many of my questions regarding the Mexican Mafia, or even touch on Latino/Hispanic gang culture inside San Quentin at.

READING TIME;

'This memoir describes the many unexpected things that occurred during Ted Davidson's unique research among Chicano prisoners at San Quentin Prison and in the Chicano movement in California, from 1966 until 1997. He reached the depths of the prisoners' own illegal culture via the secretive-deadly if crossed-Mexican Mafia. A very few highlights during those 31 years: Ted was kicked out of San Quentin by prison administrators for revealing staff secrets to the media. He was repeatedly set up by undercover FBI agent provocateurs posing as students, who tried to provoke him into doing things he would never imagine doing. Ted was fired from Cabrillo College for criticizing California Department of Corrections and protesting the U.S. bombing of Cambodia. He wrote a popular ethnography, "Chicano Prisoners: The Key to San Quentin"--in print from 1974 until 2002. Ted lived under a death threat against him and his family for six weeks. He cut his San Quentin and Chicano ties in 1979. Still, in 1997, Ted wisely refused to testify in a case against 12 Mexican Mafia members who were convicted by the U.S. government of racketeering, conspiracy, murder and extortion.'

(http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7960342-danger-and-trust)

San Quentin State Prison

Opened in 1852 in California, is the oldest prison in the state.

Designed to house 3,000, San Quentin in recent years have seen numbers as high as 5,300 in its total institution. California's only death row for male inmates is the largest in the United States.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Quentin_State_Prison)

Pelican Bay State Prison

Opened in 1989, housing maximum-security and high-security risk inmates in the California prison system.

Orginally designed to house 2,250 prisoners, Pelican Bay houses 3,300, nearly all of whom are classified top level maximum security.

(www.commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_shot_of_Pelican_Bay_State_Prison,_taken_27-July-2009.jpg)

"I look like a typical gang member,

but I don't believe i'm a

typical gang member,

I believe i'm a

CUT ABOVE THE REST"...

"As soon as you step into the SHU, it hits you like a wave, the smell"...

"It's the smell of DISPARE,

DEPRESSION, DESPERATION...

a SUBCONSCIOUS THOUGHT, this place is where PEOPLE COME TO DIE"...

"I was SHAMED, SHAMED,

i'm leaving the organisation, something I KILLED for,

DEDICATED my life for,

i'm a DISGRACE now."

"Sometimes I feel like tossing it all away and showing that drunken bum, one lil coward,

one lil kid who's trying to

challenge me and just smash them...sometimes I feel like doing that, but I know I can't

any more,

so I just walk away

- I walk away"

"I feel like I've finally found my place,

I've finally found where im suposed to be, with the person im suposed to be with."

"This is not a bunch of individuals sitting around

wearing head bandanas and cackies...

these

are

GANGSTERS"...

'THE BLACK HAND'

CHRIS BLATCHFORD

THIS IS A BOOK IM CURRENTLY READING ON THE LIFE OF RENE ENRIQUEZ WITHIN THE MEXICAN MAFIA.

Rene "Boxer" Enriquez grew up on the violent streets of East L.A., where gang fights, robberies, and drive-by shootings were fueled by rage, drugs, and alcohol. When he finally landed in prison—at the age of nineteen—Enriquez found an organization that brought him the respect he always wanted: the near-mythic and widely feared Mexican Mafia, arguably the most well-armed and dangerous gang in American history. A young man without fear who would kill without hesitation, Enriquez's loyalty and iron will drove him quickly up the ranks, from mob enforcer to the upper echelons, where he would help rule for nearly two decades. Seeking respect, he dovoted his life to the bloody cause, only to find betrayal and disillusionment.