Often it is the basic needs to belong to a family, a human need
not provided at home
Robert Rios joined his first gang at the age of 14 when his home
life soured and he turned to friends from similar broken homes.
Later, after he went to prison for the first time he’d get involved
with the violent prison gang, Nuestra Familia.
Like Rios, who was in Hollister last week in support of a
Victory Outreach program, many young people in Gilroy, Morgan Hill
and Hollister see local gangs as a way of life that can provide
more of a family environment than they have at home.
Often it is the basic needs to belong to a family, a human need not provided at home
Robert Rios joined his first gang at the age of 14 when his home life soured and he turned to friends from similar broken homes. Later, after he went to prison for the first time he’d get involved with the violent prison gang, Nuestra Familia.
Like Rios, who was in Hollister last week in support of a Victory Outreach program, many young people in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Hollister see local gangs as a way of life that can provide more of a family environment than they have at home.
But there’s a caveat – violence. A man was murdered in a Morgan Hill shooting last fall, two boys were shot in Hollister late last year, and two weeks ago a man was shot in his car in what police described as a gang-related attack.
The allure is hard to resist. How do you turn away from a family that promises to make you rich and protect you? But it all comes with a price.
The prison gangs recruited Rios because he had experience with street gangs on the outside. They wooed him with promises of power and respect, but in reality, he said, only the guys at the top of the prison gangs have the power; they control everything, including the outside street gangs.
“Because gangs mislead and manipulate recruits with the promise of a rewarding future, they have no problems recruiting members,” Rios said.
Rachel Flores-Zepeda, a Spanish teacher at San Benito High School has developed sound knowledge of “gangers” and “wannabes,” as she calls them.
She said that she has a fascination with subcultures and has a background in sociology. She said that during the 1940s her father was a Zoot Suiter and that growing up a lot of her younger relatives dressed like gang members and got beat up as a result.
She explained in a recent article in California Educator magazine that there are basically two gangs in California.
“The Norteños are Mexicans who have been here longer, or they are first- or second-generation Mexican-Americans,” Flores-Zepeda explained. “They dress in red.”
“The Sureños are new arrivals from Mexico and Central America. They dress in blue.”
Their feud has been traced to the struggle for drug turf between two prison gangs – the Neustra Familia, which sponsors the Norteños, and the Mexican Mafia, which sponsors the Sureños. The gangs in the prisons are organized and control what happens on the outside, Rios said.
“Hypothetically, if you wanted to do something to another gang member you would have to get the OK from the inside,” Rios said.
So the gangs woo wannabes’ inside jail with promises of wealth and power, but by the time a guy figures out that the only guys with the real power are at the top, he’s already involved and for some the only way out is death.
“Gang leaders regularly abuse their authority. They mislead members, who must make hard sacrifices and struggle to meet unreachable goals demanded by the leaders,” Rios said. “When most ordinary members find out their sacrifices for the gang have gone unnoticed or unrewarded, it’s too late. Once someone is a member of Nuestra Familia or La Eme – the Los Angeles based Mexican Mafia – there is only one way out and that’s by death. Most guys stay in for that reason only.”
Rios was one of the original defendants in the ongoing trial of alleged Nuestra Familia members in San Jose.
Rios now works with pastor Lazarus Rios (no relation) of Victory Outreach trying to get kids out of gangs.
Rios said that there are a number of obstacles involved with getting kids away from gangs. A lot of kids that levitate toward gangs are generational members.
“How do you tell a kid to change when his family at home are telling him that gangs are OK, but they’re not all like that,” Lazarus Rios said.
On average, the real gang members, when they hit 30, start wanting to get out, settle down; they see that it gets old, the pastor said. Young people want to belong, Lazarus Rios said; that’s why they join gangs. Often they have no structure at home and feel excluded from broader society.
“It’s sad to see; homes should be a place where kids are taken care of, but that’s not the fact. A lot of these kids, when they get locked up they get three square meals a day, cable TV and an actual bed to sleep in. When these kids are inside they come into contact with the gangs. They’re always looking to recruit,” Lazarus Rios said.
People have different theories about why gangs are proliferating. Some describe it as a cultural phenomenon, with second and third generations of children born into gang families. There are also expansions of gangs into new turf planned by gang leaders, often dictating movement from behind bars.
Gilroy High School teacher Violet Baker has worked with the California Department of Corrections as both an educator and an administrator, and believes there is another reason why kids join gangs, especially in rural areas. Parents in rural areas often leave students home alone for long periods of time because they work long hours or commute long distances to work. The young people turn to the gang as a substitute family.
Enrique Luna, a professor at Gavilan College who teaches historical and sociological roots of gangs, has another theory. He said that from a historical perspective there have been clear periods of increased gang activity. These seem directly related to big social and historical transitions.
During these transition periods, people who feel excluded by society look for a place where they are wanted, accepted and honored. Gangs have often provided this. There have probably always been gangs of some sort, and probably always will, Luna said.
“There are always evil people, but society needs to determine why it is that people turn to gangs,” he said. “One of the main factors is that they are excluded from socially positive arenas. One thing that gangs seem to be really good at is providing a positive, though socially twisted, sense of inclusion.
“We can look to blame groups, mostly in poor neighborhoods, for gang
activity. Or instead see a rise in gang activity as a warning sign that we are socially ostracizing people,” he continued. “Young people need to belong and have a strong self-identity. If we do not help them find an identity that includes them in the larger society, they will find their own identity, sometimes among gangs.”
But it’s not only the gang members themselves who are threatened – neighbors in areas of high gang activity also voice concern over their wellbeing. Sonya S. (who requested anonymity) said that she’s lived on her street, Central Avenue in Hollister, for 30 years. There are times she’s afraid; she’ll hear a noise or she’ll see a car and she won’t go outside.
The same goes for Dan Sanchez, he was walking his pit-bull terrier last Wednesday afternoon in the Central Avenue area. He wouldn’t say where he lived other than “in the neighborhood.” He said he hears gunshots in his neighborhood enough times to know the sound, but he’s never been shot at.
“I don’t understand it. Why don’t these parents just do something to control it,” Sanchez said.
But often parents aren’t aware there is a problem, Lazarus Rios said. One of the situations they face is naïve parents. Young gang members and wannabes don’t necessarily show signs of gang involvement inside the home, but once they get outside, it’s a different story, he said.
Flores-Zepeda and Lazarus Rios both agreed that there are more wannabes’ in this area than gang members, but wannabes are just as dangerous, since many are merely waiting for an opportunity to join a gang.
“We have ‘wannabes; who dress and act like gang members and ‘gottabes’ who have committed crimes, been jumped into a gang or sold drugs,” Flores-Zepeda said. New arrivals from Mexico – especially indigenous people – are often targeted for harassment.
Flores-Zepeda estimates that only a small amount of students – about 3 percent – have gang ties, which is about the same percentage as people community-wide. San Benito High School doesn’t have as many of the hardcore gang members because they don’t attend school or they attend alternative schools such as San Andreas Continuation High School in Hollister, she said. Still, their presence is felt.
Lazarus Rios’ work with Victory Outreach focuses on getting at-risk kids to think independently. When he talks to kids about gangs he tells them what he’s been through and slowly, he says, they open up. He says it’s a cognitive thinking process; he helps them to think a different way. The kids have to see value in life, Rios said. If they see that there is more to life than gangs, they’ll likely stick around.
“People look at these kids and see many of them as throwaways, but a lot of them have talent and you have to reach to that,” Lazarus Rios said.
