Modern Chicano Street Gangs: Ethnic Pride Versus “Gangsta” Subculture

Abstract

This article examines the subcultural characteristics of modern Chicano street gangs, using San Antonio, Texas, as a case study. It is informed by archival material, police data, and multifaceted fieldwork with gang members and police in that city. The result is a broad sweeping analysis of the role of various social forces in shaping the form of contemporary Chicano gangs. I find that gang migration, the social mimicry of Black gangs, and the weakening of ethnic pride have all profoundly affected modern street gang subculture. However, ethnic pride norms have not completely faded away, presenting an interesting bifurcation among modern Chicano gangs. Profiling the most violent and reputable gangs from the early 1990s to 2015 in San Antonio drives this analysis of barrio longevity versus cultural succession. This study concludes that there are “period effects” that are not well accounted for in the current literature on youth gang subcultures.

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“…Young people who have entered subcultural group associations receive the psycho-physiological positive reinforcement that allows them to raise their self-esteem, their social status, and gain popularity (Crowe & Hoskins, 2019;Goldstein & Golan-Cook, 2017;Savickas, 2009) to activate the attitude towards national differences (Tapia, 2019;Figgou et al, 2019). Within the subculture, its own heroism and its own theme of creativity are developed.…”

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“…Similarly, there is no one proscribed set of beliefs that conventional street gangs adopt, and each group's political activities can also vary. Furthermore, the integration of ideology into a gang's identity does not make it less of a gang as scholars of conventional street gangs have revealed that political ideology and/or ethnic/race-based pride is not limited to only members of Alt-Right gangs (see Cureton, 2011;Tapia, 2019). The marginalization of Latinx/Chicano and Black youth has even prompted some conventional street gangs to incorporate a political ideology Cureton, 2011;Hughes & Short, 2006;Montejano, 2010;Short, 1974;Short & Moland, 1976).…”