South Central:

South central LA is a community within the greater Los Angeles area California. South central is united through a diverse cultural makeup, similar to that of a quilt, where each patch represents a different living spirit. SOMETHING and Art both grew up native to LA and just two miles apart. Despite their close proximity Art and Calvin have different experiences living amoung south centrals gang culture, violence, economy, school system, and family life. Here they talk about how determinate the south central environment has been to their past and future.

Where did you grow up?

Um, I grew up where they call it south los angeles. My neighborhood was poor lower class, working class people. A lot of apartments, really didn’t look, wasn’t the picture perfect neighborhood. Um, a lot of immigrants, uh you know a lot of lower class gang activity. And definitely a lot of crimes, so I think that maybe, well obviously the poverty did definitely have an effect.

Could you briefly describe your life in South Central?

Tough, rough and violent. Just constantly, just constant violence. It was due to, I mean there was gang violence all around, just like when you grow up all around its kinda hard not to follow it if your family is apart of the gang life. You are exposed to it and lowered into it. Its kind of hard to say no, especially when you are young.

How violent would you say your neighborhood was, your community was?

You know I would say honestly from my experience, I never really experienced any violence. I don’t want to say that it wasn’t violent. Combination of my experience that I never really seen or heard about, you know about anyone getting killed, even though im from there I feel like I don’t really have a connection. I mean its where I grew up, but I never really had any attachment or did anything around there. Like I said I went to church over here, went to school over there. SO you know, I got accustomed to being in a lot of types of neighborhoods. And growing up, you know in different types of neighborhoods. So you know I feel like I don’t really have an attachment.

About how much violence was related to gangs in your community?

My community, where I grew up in. Was umm, was pretty much 100% of it. If you knew somebody who got shot you knew it was gang related, it wasn’t somebody who got mugged or anything like that. Or maybe somebody got killed because it was an accidental death because they were caught in a cross fire. But, everything was gang related, if it was violence it was gang related.

How many family members, your immediate family members involved with gangs?

Nah.

What do you think kept you away from them, you or your family members when they were present in your neighborhood? I think we were, well like I said I mentioned earlier, I have three brothers, ah excuse me two brothers. Three of us. I think our parents sheltered us, shielded us away from a lot of the stuff that was going on. We weren’t really allowed to interact with a lot of people who lived like around. Like I made friend with the neighbor who was immediately next door, and you know an older gentleman who lived across the street. And that was pretty much our family, those are the people that our family mostly associated with on the street. Didn’t really have too many, I didn’t really have any neighborhood friends, um didn’t hang out with a lot, wasn’t allowed to play outside of the gate. A lot of the kids neighborhood kids got together and see them roaming the streets and going to the store together, going this place, going that place. Wasn’t allowed to do that. Our family didn’t really do anything around our neighborhood except for just live, sleep. I didn’t attend the public school system, so I know that’s where a lot of, I know its where a lot of kids tend to get pulled into the gang, the gang activity. We didn’t go to church in the area. We didn’t do anything, we didn’t even grocery shop, my dad did the grocery shopping when he came home from work. So I think everything that we did wasn’t in the area, so we didn’t get to do a lot of interacting or get exposed. Not exposed, but not get affected by a lot of the things that happened in the different areas aspects, or the different things that went on in my neighborhood.

Did you have any family members that were involved? That actually brought you into the gang?

Well I had an uncle that exposed me to the gang life. He showed me what gang I was supposed to go in. He was a gang member so, he was a hard core gang member.

So he was like the foundation of it?

Yea pretty much. Yea he was. Well yea he was.

Was he the only one?

My other uncles, they were close to it and maybe hung around my uncle. And hang out with gangsters, but were not necessarily gangsters. My uncle was pretty much the one who introduced the whole family to the gang life. And all this stuff, you know. Pretty much was close to him. Well I was pretty much with him all the time.

What do you think of when I say “gang member?”

When I think of gang member I think of a person who is lost. I think of someone who doesn’t have any guidance, or family member they are seeking to be apart of a family to be apart of a certain group. But, it sometime occurs that that group that they seem to be apart of, or belong to, aren’t doing positive things. They are doing negative things, that are negatively effecting and impacting the surrounding neighborhood and their own families. I think these people really don’t have a family to call their own, don’t have a strong family structure. Umm… A lot of kids that grow up in school and don’t really fit in, who don’t find a place to fit in, try and find a place to fit in. Things like gangs and such. So I think a lot of people at the surface join gangs because obviously a lot of people do things for a lot of different reasons but some people are just troubled or just crazy.t I think jus at the surface people who don’t really fit in anywhere else are looking for a sense of acceptance. So they will go find it anyway they can. So what do you think the cause for him, and you actually joining the gang?

I was young, dumb, and naïve. You know, so its almost like brainwashing. But at the same time I’m not going to blame everything on him. I guess there’s no good way to say it. Form hi joining, like honestly I don’t have an answer for that. All I know it that he grew up in Mexico in poverty, you know, and coming here to the states, you know its like. I guess he just fell into that. And then you know, I was pretty much close to him so he started showing me and teaching me and one thing led to another and then I joined up. I guess I thought it was cool, you know to be a gangster. You know, for people to respect me because I was a gang member. SO people could fear me you know. I would be pretty much a bad ass.

Did your gang life affect your family?

Yes. Yes it did. My mom and dad especially, you know they would tell me all the time to not to do it, stay out of trouble. And of course I didn’t listen, I thought they were dumb and didn’t know what they were talking about. And I would never listen to them. But, I wish I would have you know? Because now its too late. But, yea it affected my mom and dad. It almost caused them to break up you know. And it was just constant drama at home, pretty much an everyday thing.

Where are your parents from?

My parents are from Belize which is from central America.

Do you think that that had something to do with the way they raised you compared to other people?

Yea I think that did have a lot to do with how I was raised. One being, my parents strong value when it comes to marriage. Growing up with a mom and dad definitely offered stability, both financially and with thing that were going on in my life. As far as schools, goals, asperations. I think those things definitely kept me on a positive path because of how they were raised and the values, strong values that they grew up with. You know, their work ethic and being immigrants from another country and coming here and working and building up something for themselves and for their children. So they wanted to make sure that we would be able to have a better life than they did when they were growing up.

So why do you think your parents wanted you to stay so close to them and not hang out in the neighborhood so much?

Like I said before I think they just wanted to make sure that we are set up in the right path. Even though you have guidance, a lot of people are still products of their environment. I think that by the time I was 5 or 6 not my immediately family, but my cousins and aunts they had already moved out of the LA area. More so for the same reasons, and um they moved into the inland empire. SO there was less things for them to fall into.

During my time in ****, that means you have to get jumped in. meaning get uh beat up by certain number of individuals, for a certain amount of time. And sometimes, uh well I was allowed to fight, but sometimes you aren’t allowed to fight back. So after you took that beating that means pretty much welcome to the gang.

Did being involved in a gang actually affect you education?

Yea it did. Well first of all I didn’t like school to begin with. And being there and people found out you belong to a gang they will think that you were and even at school you have to watch your back because you could get jumped you know? When I went to school first day of highschool I got jumped the first thing.

What high school did you go to?

I went to Mary Star of the Sea highschool.

And where is that located?

San Pedro, California.

So how, what was it like going to a school that was so far from where you lived?

It was different, umm. Definitely a growing experience for me. Um, for one, it was a neighborhood that I didn’t grow up in and it was a neighborhood that contained you know, the majority of people who didn’t look like me. And people who I didn’t think I could relate to, I don’t think that I would have had the same motivation and challenges to tbe the bes person I could be. If I didn’t go to the high school I went to. I feel like I would’ve been very stagnant and just very non‐motivated. That experience was probably unique to that high school.

And you don’t think you would have found that in LAUSD?

I don’t know too much about LA unified school district, but from things that I have heard, I don’t think I would have gotten that from that type of school. I don’t think so.

I actually got my education when I was incarcerated, than I was out in the streets. The only thing that you can do is workout and educate yourself. You know? You have so much time there, that um, you have so much free time that you have nothing else to do. My people well Hispanics and everything learned how to, we learned how to speak Aztec recently. We learned that language recently. When we would communicate with each other through the cells, you know, I could be in one cell and I could have another friend that could be a few cells away.

Was your gang based on ethinicity? Like was it mostly just Hispanics?

It was all Hispanics.

It was all Hispanics that’s it? Yea it was. We didn’t have any blacks, or Asians, or whites, or anything like that. Umm it was all Hispanics.

What was the reason for that??

Well it was an all Hispanic gang. We weren’t allowed to mix races you know? Or anything like that you know? It was pretty much a hold, it was a, we didn’t necessarily have a rule book but it was just the way.

I felt like I didn’t have to base my attendance of school or my enjoyment at a school based upon how many people I looked like. There was so much more to school than just how many black people were there. I didn’t wanna base my whole experience on that. So that’s something that my high school definitely prepared me for, before I got to UCLA.

Do you work?

I do work.

How long have you been working?

Since I was 15‐16 years old.

What do you do?

I do IT consulting.

And how long have you been doing that?

I’ve been doing that for 2 years. Almost 3 years now.

So you think it was easier back then to get a job? With your status than it is now?

It was easier back in the day yea, it’s a little more rough now. Cause you know they see your record and do the background check on your record. You know they see that you have been in prison, and this and that. And when I was younger I got busted, but it was like petty stuff. And now its a lot harder than it was before.

The difference between now and then, is that back in the day it was more organized, more respect. Now there is no respect. You know? People end up getting killed for no reason. Especially now ewhen peopl join gangs they have to an initiation kill. And like we wouldn’t do that. I mean that’s crossing the line. And its just like you can get killed by any kid out there. Its like they don’t respect our elderly anymore you know? Its not even about that. Its always been crazy but now its just less respect than it was before.

What do you think about your neighborhood now? Looking back?

I think its better now. Things always get better. I think as a whole its pretty much the same people been there on my street my whole life. I think people as a whole are doing better. Both you know, financially and things like that. So I don’t hear about as much things going on. Would you live there again, and like buy a house there?

I would not.

Yes I would.