SOCIOLOGY 338: LATINOS IN THE US LECTURE 7: STATISTICAL OVERVIEW OF LOS ANGELES HISPANIC POP As I mentioned before, California is increasingly becoming a "minority state" Particularly a Hispanic State This is not necessarily mean Mex-American as percentage from Central America also increasing. 22% of population is foreign born! (and less than 50% are born in state) 25% of CA is Hispanic (note that large part of foreign born is from Asia) Among the 7.5 million Hispanics only 45% classify themselves as white (compare with San Antonio) 75% claim they speak Spanish at home. Despite its size the state is fairly average in standard socio-economic measures. Problems: Infant health Crime rate Different pictures in Hispanic areas however. Education: 16% of non Hispanics >25 do not have HS 55% of Hispanics 27% of non-Hispanics have college degree 7.1% of Hispanics Income All persons in state: 16.5 K (white number is probably in mid 20s?) Hispanics is 8.5 K roughly 750,000 Hispanic kids under 18 in poverty!!! Los Angeles County almost 9 million people lower socio-economic figures than for state as a whole 37% of Pop is Hispanic (and this accounts for 44% of CA H. pop). (this will get bigger as 50% of school enrollment is Hispanic!) 42% of Hispanics claim to be white (again compare with SA) Education 17% of non H > 25 do not have a HS 61% of H do not 20 % of non His have a college degree less than 6% of Hispanics Income Non-Hispanic 16K Hispanic 8k 32% of non His under 25 k and 18 over75 K 45% of Hispanic under 25 K and only 6 % over 75 K SOCIOLOGY 338: LATINOS IN THE US LECTURE 8: IMMIGRATION illegal or undocumented is really a product of the bureaucracy on the border. Prior to 1924, a great deal of movement across the border-- becomes institutionalized as illegal by creation of INS enforcement. Thus, the illegal of today are the continuing wave that were previously accepted and encouraged--- e.g. they would have been braceros in the 1940s. Flow is seasonal with the lowest number at Chrismastime and significant numbers going back at that time. NET annual number of undocumented being added to US pop is roughly 200,000 p.a. The total is anyone’s guess and was changed by IRCA IRCA: employer sanctions legalization programs border enforcement 1990 Act increases legal ceilings skills emphasized refugee status How many legals? add 700,000 green carders a year a total of about 17 million. How many illegal? 3-3.5 million seems a good guess 40% of this is Mexican The typical undocumented immigrant is a young adult Mexican male who comes across the southern border near a large city. another 20-30% is Central American? but 41 countries have at least 100,000 natives living in the US! California is the lading state with also about 40% What about education and employment? 75% of Mexican and CA immigrants have less than a HS diploma English proficiency is marginal prior to coming, but it increases rather rapidly-- especially in next generation/ unemployment rate is actually lower than for natives Mexican & CA HH income: if entered prior to 1980, 28,800 and post-1980 24,000 recent immigrants have levels of poverty: 25%, but goes down to 16% for longer term image of rural person with little education is not accurate. at least in studies done in 1970s and 1980s, the migrant came from a Northern urban setting, had more than average schooling, and went to work in an industrial setting. qualities of migrants reflect change sin Mexico. History: Figure I: flows Figure II: Foreign Born pop Important to remember that while absolute numbers of migrants may be highest now, as part of the population, nowhere near turn of the century (currently foreigners are 8.5% of the pop). Perceptions of migrants as lazy and (paradoxically) taking jobs away from US is very old and was used against prior immigrant groups. What does change is country of origin and some relationship to perceptions. (From Portes, Sociology of Immigration, Figure 1.4) For data go to Statistical Yearbook of INS Consequences of migration undocumented migrants are paid less than other workers: skills prejudice legal prot. data unclear on this issue very small statistical evidence that undocumented workers take jobs away from natives--- in some isolated cases, may be true but in some surprising ones no--- or low-- 1% displacement low skill populations may be affected most? undocumented migrants not taking jobs away from poor blacks in 1980s LA. may be some wage pressure-- but not that significant fiscal costs for federal government is probably a plus because of taxes and social security local and state level picture may be quite different. Texas studies shows surplus LA studies show deficit---- close to a billion it comes down to how much taxes do you think immigrants pay also important to realize that welfare use among immigrants is lower than some native populations biggest welfare program many immigrants don’t receiver anything: social security but elderly migrants seem to be over-represented among elderly receiving public assistance. but almost all these calculations do not include economic benefits of migrant population for US economy. may add jobs by allowing industry retention in US entrepreneurial activity immigrant spending: $285 billion in 1990 all these figures depend on supporting organization-- correlation between policy position and data direction. in the end, we have to consider the costs of creating a more permanent wall who really wants this? Why do people migrate? 1) "neoclassical": wage differentials-- play son several levels 2) relevant actors are not individuals but families--- look at dispersion of family 3) dual labor market-- secondary job markets enable capital to have great deal of flexibility---- employers attract them. 4) World system sees 3) on a more global level 5) networks 6) previous experience 7) community cultures-- e.g., towns in Mexico with tradition of expat work force 8) different occupational niches attract different people--- in agric., you get more female and child migrants 9) agricultural and income distribution in home country/region. Overall story is that economics begins it and social networks continues it. Four principles: Migration occurs as socially oriented action-- not purely rational pursuit of self-gain embeddedness of decision making social networks social capital Readings; Doug Massey et al. Return to Aztlan, and Alejandro Portes, Economic Sociology of Immigration SOCIOLOGY 338: LATINOS IN THE US THE ECONOMIC CONTEXT OF LOS ANGELES has to be understood in light of major structural change sin US labor market and US economy good source of data: http://stats.bls.gov/eag.table.html part of this is increase in labor supply boomers women (from 42% to 57% working 1969-1989. immigrants--- major factor in Los Angeles as we have seen. part is in change in job supply increasing number of jobs but shift from manufacturing to service manufacturing declined from 1969-1989 while service doubled. manufacturing used to include 29% of all jobs, now down to 19% (1989) services went from 42% to 54% (1989) for California, manufacturing down to less than 16% in 1995 but LA actually saw increase in manufacturing jobs in the 1980s (along with service jobs) in 1990s this may be reversed because of loss of nearly 200,000 defense jobs in any case manufacturing jobs in LA were not standard middle range but involved either high tech or low tech. after 1970s, "core" industries--- the basis for a lot of the jobs in East LA-- start disappearing much as in Rust Belt. from 1978-1982, 70,000 manufacturing jobs lost in East LA area low union presence (down to less than 15% of labor force and even lower fro private sector) in LA, unionization among manufacturing workers went from 32% to 21% in the 1970s increase in involuntary part-time work in LA we see this even in manufacturing since there is a great deal of instability n the particular manufacturing sectors concentrated in So. Cal. suburbanization of jobs--- less of a factor in Latino LA as we will see. to this you have to add increasing importance of global market for production and also imports. major result of this is severe decline sin wages (despite the incredible increase in national wealth) from 1973 to 1990, the average weekly wage declined by about 1/6th (adjusting fro inflation) for those on the bottom, the decline was particularly harsh--- about 2% pa. in the 1980s. over half of the new jobs paid wages that would still not put a family of four over poverty line. meanwhile the income of the top 1% doubled in 10 years. share of wealth of the top 1% went to 42% increases in levels of poverty during early 1980s to levels not seen since 1960s at same time, you have cutback in social services and government supplements these shifts hit minorities, youth and women particularly hard. for Latinos hit by low skills concentration in cities and racism much like African Americans, Latinos after 1970s do not have ready access to the "blue collar aristocrat" jobs that enabled other minorities to climb into middle class but important to note that Latino neighborhoods don’t quite fit the model of Wilson--- e.g. less m-c flight. Latino concentration in low-end jobs particularly true for PR and Mex-Am in 1980s 24% of Latino workers were minimum wage workers lost about $50 a week in 1980s also greater unemployment for Latinos--- in LA , almost twice the rate in the 1980s. worse-- so much unemployment among PR that you start seeing a decline in labor force participation-- people taking themselves out of the job market altogether this resulted in the kinds of poverty figures we discussed in the first week so, clear that Latinos have suffered from structural changes basically unrelated to their ethnic identity is there an ethnic factor in all this-- specifically in LA? part of this we have seen in the case of San Antonio and Texas-- Mex-Am played a historical role as surplus labor to allow greater flexibility and union busting one indication of a specific Latino experience is that the ratio of white male/Latino income which decreased from 1939 through the 1960s, started to increase again in the 1970s this has grown worse in the 1990s as we saw why? is it over-representation of Latino sin particular type jobs? low human capital prejudice as a "functional" part of the economy plus non-rational market barriers sectoral changes from 1940-1960: move away from agriculture to manufacturing and service but in 1970s not bale to make the leap into high end service this is particularly bad because working-class middle rapidly disappearing from US economy--- bottom and top getting bigger in terms of jobs Latinos rarely shift from middle to top this had already been a pattern in Los Angeles manufacturing. craft jobs had been disappearing in 1980, less than 15% of Anglos in manufacturing listed as "operatives"-- for Mex-Am as high as 50% for migrants a lot of work in the Latino neighborhoods-- but sweat shop variety. wage an income polarity very high in Los Angeles even by US standards. inequality much higher in LA than in nation as a whole. why this pattern--- we return to education gap again some conflicting evidence of whether Latinos enjoy the same level of educational payoff in any case the education gap--- the percent of income difference that could be explained by education has remained constant in the 1980s but the gap is still unexplained-- what happened to Latino education? a lot of improvement is in HS graduation (and even that is relative), but less movement into advanced degrees needed for new economy this gap was particular large in Los Angeles the gap can be as high as 5-6 years between NH whites and recent migrants but even with same education, Latinos make less. roughly a 10-20% discrimination penalty. in one study showed that it could be as high as 50% in Los Angeles (largely at lower end jobs) declining from the 1930s, but increasing again in 1980s. what accounts for this? achievement gap in schools but biggest factor is increase in migration a lot of the discrimination is faced by immigrants and non-documented could be English language? could be racism? we will talk about gender in the next lecture) these are all linked: a sectoral change in the economy requiring again a "flexible" work force combined with increasing competition and barriers to labor entry (partly human capital, partly structural). discrimination is a complex creature can be overt, but can be transformed into more "invisible" structural barriers what are hopes for change? we saw that education is not getting much better this is going to get worse with cyber-education only 9% of Latino households have a PC as opposed to 30% of pop. schools ar eincreasingly Latino and poor less money an dless atention bi-lingual education seems safe but implementation is weak few Latino teachers helath is increasingly a problem AIDS/HIV drug addiction immigrants community structure also makes a difference note that this also applies to politics less stable communities lower level of grassroots political activity this has been accompanied with significant success at county and city level problem is that with less money, not sure benefits of this will be for the community. less stability because of different migrant patterns and also repatriation poverty an low education make for difficulty in networking out of barrio contacts knowledge imagination of potential you do have the development of sweat shops and low end manufacturing in Latino neighborhoods--- to what extent can they represent a viable alternative for Latinos? problem is that increasingly retail and commerce not owned by Latinos--- development of mini-malls with chains and these replace mom-and-pop huge informal economy in commerce and services Mex Am in LA are facing a particularly nasty combination of race and class barriers. on top of that we can add gender to which we turn next. SOCIOLOGY 338: LATINOS IN THE US FAMILY AND GENDER As with previous comments on the nature of ethnic identity, I will be speaking today about the context in which to understand the development of particular forms of familial relations. Definition of family the standard view of the Mexican family is that it extends beyond the nuclear family more familiar to Anglo households. la familia is like an extended social network encompassing generations and cross parenting links a household cluster also includes concept of compadre and comadre. note also wider acceptance of common-law marriages-- barranganía maintained through regular attendance at a set of rituals baptisms weddings quincena’s what one source calls familism serves many of the support roles found in wider society may include employment financial help shared housing negatives those w/o may find themselves isolated when family becomes dysfunctional for individual, it may be difficult to escape also possible source of conflict Important to realize that "familism" is not an inherent cultural attribute but may reflect a strategy of dealing with uncertainty. for example greater poverty as late as 1929, infant mortality was 2.5 higher for Mex-Am families. it is also important to be aware that differences of arrangements within larger concept of la familia. big differences for example found between Mex-Am and Mexican born migrants. it is no longer possible to describe a single type of Chicano family (if it ever was possible). idea of a "Chicano" family also goes against the large degree of exogamy found. in Los Angeles, in he late 19th Century 10% of marriages were mixed. in 1964 Albuquerque, 32% of marriages were mixed. by 1970s 40% of Mex Am marriages were exogamous. changes since 1945 consumerism possible decline in central role of church ditto for extended family by 1970 one study found that: only 3-4 % lived in extended family households compadrazgo was dying little difference between Mex-Am and others ethnics in terms of familial help high proportion of broken homes patriarchy challenged educational goals for boys and girls not that much greater. some values may remain: prolongation of childhood especially for males? cultural fear of female control of sexuality? support for education Role of gender for many years analyzed as a static characteristic with little change images of submission and machismo. but new research indicates that gender relations are socially and historically constructed machismo, for example, may be partly a function of class position it may have also reflected race fears and need to maintain basic control by state and church. reflect contexts in which the family finds itself. we have to be careful with myths about traditional Mexican family and the permanence of particular forms of gender relations. historical evidence indicates that even in 19th century, stereotype of submissive and powerless women was not necessarily accurate. Spanish colonial law allowed "loopholes" for women that may have given them greater autonomy than Western European equivalents. in some towns in New Mexico, women maintained a great degree of autonomy spouse abuse was a punishable crime. interestingly, it may have been the of Protestant missionaries and anglos social workers that led to an increase in greater submissiveness and more "traditional" roles. process of migration has helped a great deal to transform these traditional roles again, the point is that all gender relations including patriarchy have to be understood contextual. Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo’s work change from patriarchy may have little to with an "acculturation" process in the US and may simply reflect changes forced by migration itself. Lets go over her argument in detail. while migration may be best understood as a family strategy, the decision to migrate does not occur without conflict. men often leave in opposition to spouses who do not want to be abandoned two fears: survival in village w/o husband remittances can be sporadic husband remains in control fear of abandonment once husband is in the US separations can range from 1 to 16 years. respondents reported praying that their husbands would be caught by the migra. but being left behind forces women to adopt new roles and learn new skills this does not automatically translate into greater power, but does provide a potential future base for such claims. women used kin networks and families to force husbands to bring them to US--often fraught with conflict. respondents also reported using female networks to go "around" husband’s disapproval and got North anyway. what is interesting is different responses to patriarchy depending on wave. earlier groups reported most dramatic change in attitudes-- partly because husbands were now doing a lot of housework partly because women doing more "male" work. circumstances force reciprocal movement toward opposite gender’s social role. for those families with less time of separation, patriarchy remained stronger. Female headed households this is not a new phenomenon in 1880, one study found nearly a quarter of Mex-Am women in LA heading households. this goes along with greater employment opportunities with increased industrialization also commercialization of household work opens up "opportunities" all these increase capacity of women to survive without men. Contemporary anthropological work in some barrios in LA, found that females head of household was not as big a problem as in AA community-- 80% of families with children had a couple. nevertheless, some indication of increasing problems particularly problematic for Mex-am families since when female head of household 46% under poverty line Women in the Economy Historically larger percentage in the workforce than among white NH women they participate in a dual labor market with obstacles based on gender and race Data would indicate that despite educational gap between white NH women and Latinas, the ethnic gulf was not as large as for men anglo women in LA made 10,000 while Latinas made 7700. anglo men made 23,000 while Chicanos made 14 more than half of chicanas and over 80% of recent immigrant females made less than 8K a year. slightly less made less than $4 p.h. (in 1979-1980) Latinas have suffered more discrimination as women than as latinas per se but don’t forget that HH income gap mean that latinas are getting access to less money also that Latina women are having children earlier marrying earlier both of these tend to reduce educational performance increasing scholarship on women in manufacturing jobs facing obstacles from pure prejudice to sub-standard availability of vocational training to conflicts with more mainstream feminist organizations. e.g. Patricia Zavella’s work on women in cannery factory they’re in the "manufacturing" sector, but occupy the worst jobs deemed appropriate for Latinas. moreover work outside home does not necessarily mean less of a load at home second shift prevalent among the women studied by Zavella. as tough as this work may be, women might still find it preferable to agricultural work and also enjoy the relative freedom and autonomy provided. also important female presence in "invisible economy" documented in Mary Romero’s Maid in the USA at times this relationship uses images of submissiveness and transforms them into class relations. textbooks on how to deal with Mexican maids. but even here, traditional images may be changing Romero finds that her respondents in Denver were trying to transform a "servant" relationship into a more contractual one involving the exchange of a service. for example--- shift from hourly wage or retainer to pay for specific services. In short, Mexican-Am family is a product of both culture and history. Next we turn to a different kind of family and a problem in many of the Latino communities: gangs. SOCIOLOGY 338: SOCIOLOGY OS LATINOS IN THE US GANGS IN LA TODAY WE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT GANGS. NOT BECAUSE THIS IS A SPECIFICALLY LATINO OR CHICANO PROBLEM INCREASINGLY WE SEE GANGS IN ALL ETHNIC COMMUNITIES INCLUDING ASIAN AMERICAN, AFRICAN AMERICAN AND ANGLO WHITES NOR IS THE PROBLEM ONE STRICTLY ASSOCIATED WITH THE INNER CITY INCREASINGLY WE SEE THEM IN THE SUBURBS-- INCLUDING IN ORANGE COUNTY BUT GANGS APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN PARTLY BORN IN MEX-AM NEIGHBORHOODS "IT WAS THE CHOLO HOMEBOY WHO FIRST WALKED THE WALK AND TALKED THE TALK AND THEY DO REPRESENT A GROWING PROBLEM IN THESE GANG RELATED HOMICIDES REPRESENTED 68% OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT HOMICIDES IN LA COUNTY THERE WERE 7300 GANG RELATED HOMICIDES IN 1979-1994 ROUGHLY 100,000 MEMBERS IN LA (BUT NO WAY OF TELLING HOW MANY OF THESE ARE "HARD CORE" OR PARTICIPATE IN CRIMINAL ACTIVITY VERY INVOLVED IN DRUG SALES AND ALSO PROTECTION BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THAT INTER-GANG CONFLICTS MAKE FOR A GREAT DEAL OF DAILY VIOLENCE IN AFFECTED NEIGHBORHOODS MORE IMPORTANTLY FROM THE VIEW OF THIS COURSE, THE TOPICS OF GANGS ALLOWS US TO ANALYZE SOME OF THE THEMES WE HAVE BEEN DISCUSSING THE ROLE OF CULTURE (INCLUDING GENDER ROLES) GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS SOCIO-ECONOMIC PRESSURES YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT I AM NOT PARTICULARLY SYMPATHETIC TO GANG VIOLENCE MY BIAS (AND IT IS THAT) IS NOT TO SEE THEM AS EXPRESSIONS OF FREEDOM OR REBELLION I HAVE NEVER THOUGHT GRAFFITI WAS AN ART FORM I THINK PART OF THE PATHOLOGY OF GANGS HAS TO DO WITH WHAT MAY BEST BE CALLED THUG BEHAVIOR I THINK IT IS ALSO DANGEROUS TO WRAP POLITICAL LEGITIMACY AROUND FORMS OF VIOLENCE THAT DISPROPORTIONAL HURT THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM THEY ARE SUPPOSED OT BE FIGHTING. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED DIN READING THEM IN DETAIL I CAN RECOMMEND LUIS RODRIGUEZ, LA VIDA LOCA GANGS CAN INCLUDE EVERYTHING FROM LOOSE GROUPINGS OF YOUNG MEN (SOME FEMALE GANGS) WHO DO LITTLE BUT BLUSTER AND HAVE SEMI-ORGANIZED FIGHTS THESE ARE THE COMPONENT UNITS OF GANGS (KLIKAS) TO MULTINATIONAL CRIMINAL GANGS SUCH AS THE "EME" OR MEXICAN MAFIA. THE LATTER (AS DEPICTED IN JAMES EDWARD OLMOS’ AMERICAN ME ARE WIDELY SEEN AS CONTROLLING LARGE PARTS OF THE CALIFORNIA PRISON SYSTEM BEGUN IN PELICAN BY PRISON IN THE 1950S CURRENTLY, THE LEADERSHIP IS ON TRIAL IN CALIFORNIA GANGS ARE CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH A PARTICULAR CULTURAL STYLE. THIS STEMS FROM THE PACHUCO STYLE OF THE 1940S. (GANGS DEVELOPED SIMULTANEOUSLY) THIS STYLE IS MORE CONTEMPORANEOUSLY CALLED CHOLO INTERESTINGLY SEEMS TO BE CONCENTRATE DIN 2ND OR 3RD GENERATION MEX-AM INVOLVES DRESS: PENDLETON SHIRTS OR IRONED WHITE T-SHIRTS KAKHI’S OR PRISON JEANS A STREET LANGUAGE (ESE CARNAL, LOQUERO)--- COLO, OR CHOLO FORMS OF WALKING A STYLE OF SPEECH HAND SIGNS TATTOOS GRAFFITI DEFINITION OF IDENTITY BY TERRITORY DRUG USE INCLUDING DRUGS THAT MAY HEIGHTEN VIOLENCE--- GLUE CHAVOS BANDAS IN DF A VENERATION OF VIOLENCE INITIATION RITES FOR EXAMPLE INVOLVE MASS BEATING LOCOS ARE VALUED NOT ALL WHO PRACTICE THESE ARE GANG MEMBERS IN FACT MUCH OF THIS CULTURE HAS BEEN ADOPTED (OR IS INHERENT IN) MEX-AM LA ADOLESCENT CULTURE ONE PROBLEM IS THAT SINCE THESE "SIGNS" ARE TAKEN TO BE FOR GANGS, YOUNG MEX-AM MALES TEND TO BE HASSLED BY THE POLICE WHEN THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH GANGS SO WHAT IS BEHIND GANG BEHAVIOR A BIG DEBATE IS THE EXTENT TO WHICH THESE HAVE TO DO WITH CULTURE OR WITH WHAT WE MIGHT CALL CLASS DYNAMICS. ON THE FORMER SOME HAVE CLAIMED GANG BEHAVIOR HAS A LOT TO DO WITH FORMS OF MALE HONOR VIOLENCE IS LINKED TO FEAR AND NEED TO CONTROL IT USE OF VIOLENCE AS A FORM OF CONTROLLING DANGER ALSO LINKS TO COMPRADAZGO SYSTEM WHICH CREATES DEEP BONDS BETWEEN DYADS. PALOMILLA (AGE-COHORTING) TRADITION SOME ALSO SPEAK OF CONFLICT BETWEEN MEXICAN AMERICAN CULTURE AND "AMERICAN DREAM" PART OF THIS IS FRUSTRATION OF CONSUMERIST VALUES WITH LOW LIKELIHOOD OF BEING TO OBTAIN GOODIES LEGITIMATELY. THEY MIGHT THINK LIKE MIDDLE CLASS AMERICANS BUT LIVE IN A SOCIO-ECONOMIC THIRD WORLD IN ANOTHER GANGS COME FROM THE FRUSTRATIONS AND ALIENATION OF THE HYBRID OR MEZTISAJE CULTURE GANGS REPRESENT A WAY OF RE-STABILIZING AN IDENTITY THAT IS BEING PULLED TOO MANY WAYS GANGS THEREFORE SERVE AS SOCIALIZING AGENTS WHERE OTHER ALTERNATIVES ARE NOT AVAILABLE. NOTE THAT AL LOT OF THESE CHARACTERISTICS CAN BE ASSOCIATED WITH SIMPLIFICATIONS OF THE MEX-AM CULTURAL EXPERIENCE VERY EASY TO BLAME A PARTICULAR FORM OF VIOLENCE ON SOME NOTIONS OF "ALIENESS" IN LATIN CULTURE ANOTHER VARIATION OF THIS EMPHASIZES NOT "LATINONESS" BUT A YOUTH CULTURE MAINTAINED BY "THRILL" OF DOING EVIL OR GOING AGAINST RULES CLASS ANALYSIS SEES GANGS AS A PRODUCT OF CLASS POSITION THAT MEX-AM YOUTH FINDS ITSELF FEW JOBS AND THOSE ARE DEMEANING ACCORDING TO ONE AUTHORITY, THE LACK OF RESOURCES PRODUCES A GREAT DEAL OF CONFLICT IN THESE COMMUNITIES BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF RESOURCES, ‘PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION" THROUGH VIOLENCE BECOMES ONLY WAY YOU GET CONFLICT AS DIFFERENT CLAIMANTS TO WHAT FEW RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE GANGS IN THIS VIEW ARE ALMOST A FEUDAL SYSTEM RESPONDING TO BOTH POVERTY AND VACUUM OF POLITICAL POWER I THINK A MORE SOPHISTICATED VIEW SPEAKS OF MULTIPLE MARGINALITY THIS COMBINES: PRESSURES OF URBANIZATION--- LOW SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS CULTURE CONFLICT IMPAIRED PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT FAMILY STRESSES ARISING IN A PARTICULAR ENVIRONMENT WE BEGIN BY UNDERSTANDING THAT GANGS ARISE IN AN ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH THE HOST CULTURE HAS A GREAT DEAL OF PREJUDICE AGAINST MEXICAN CULTURE. THESE YOUTH FIND THEMSELVES IN SEGREGATED COMMUNITIES UNDERCLASS ECONOMIC CONDITIONS WHICH SIGNAL LOW LIKELIHOOD OF CONVENTIONAL SUCCESS DEVELOPMENT OF A PARTICULAR CULTURE WHICH IS TWICE REMOVED FROM "ACCEPTED NORMS-- BOTH FROM MEXICAN AND ANGLO VALUES ABNORMALITY BECOME NORMAL FEW ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS ACCEPTANCE AND REAFFIRMATION BY GROUP THE BEST SIGNS OF THIS MAY BE THE NAMES THAT GANGS GIVE THEMSELVES AND NICKNAMES GIVEN TO MEMBERS IN THE END, IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT GANGS TEND TO ARISE IN SITUATIONS WHERE: SOCIOECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES ARE MISSING AUTHORITY VACUUM E.G. RWANDA OR YUGOSLAVIA THESE PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR A HOBBESIAN VIOLENCE TO BECOME THE NORM TWO POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS IMPOSITION OF ORDER FROM ABOVE BUT THIS CAN ONLY BE TEMPORARY AND ACCOMPANIED BY A GREAT DEAL OF INJUSTICE RESOLUTION OF STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS THAT LEAD TO VIOLENCE APPEARING AS A "RATIONAL" THING TO DO. THIS WILL BECOME MORE APPARENT WHEN WE STUDY A PLACE THAT HAS DEVELOPED A PARTICULAR FORM OF POLITICAL GANGSTERIMS BUT WITHIN A MUCH MORE BENIGN SOCIO-ECONOMIC SETTING: CUBAN MIAMI.