Review by Choice Review
This engaging study of the rise and transformation of Chicano gangs and their criminal subculture along the border enriches a growing body of literature on the borderlands. Focusing on the 130-mile stretch of borderland from El Paso (US) to Ciudad Juárez (Mexico), Tapia (New Mexico State Univ.) carefully delineates the origins of these gangs in the 1920s as poor neighborhood youth gangs or street corner gangs that built cross-border networks and became known as pachucos (immortalized by Mexican writer Octavio Paz and others). Pachucos moved from El Paso to Los Angeles to Chicago, creating their own style, music, and language. Even as Tapia cautions against romanticizing this violent subculture, fueled by rivalry and turf wars, he emphasizes that gangs and gang activities have been a "longstanding feature of social life in Chicano communities" (p. 117), especially within underclass subculture. Although these groups resisted becoming prison gangs for much of their history, the rise of the Barrio Azteca gang as a prison gang with ties to the Juárez Cartel in the late 20th century heralds the beginning of the end for traditional street gangs. This evolving history, Tapia concludes, is a factor of both history and geography. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels. --Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Brown University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review