-
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS
THESIS SIGNATURE PAGE
THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
MASTER OF ARTS
IN
SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE
TI IESIS TITLE: Keep Trucha: Commendation Project for Chicana/o Youth.
A UTI-lOR: Jose Stalin Plascencia-Castillo
DATE Or SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE: 05/05/2016
THE THESIS liAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE THESIS COMMITTEE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE.
5· 5·/~ DATE
5' -5-[ 0 DATE CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY OF
SAN MARCOS
Keep Trucha: Condemnation Project for Chicana/o Youth
A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the
Requirements for the degree Masters of Art in
Sociological Practice
by
Jose Stalin Plascencia-Castillo
Committee in charge:
Dr. Juan (Xuan) Santos
Dr. Christopher Bickel
Dr. Karen S. Glover
May 2016
1
Keep Trucha: A Condemnation Project for Chicana/o Youth
Copyright © 2016
by
Jose Stalin Plascencia-Castillo
2 TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER PAGE………………………………………………………………1 COPYRIGHT PAGE……………………………………………………...…2 TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………3-4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………...5-6 ABSTRACT……………………………………………………….………...7 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….8-9 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM……………………………….…10-11 SECTION ONE………………………………………………………..11-19 Literature Review……………………………………………………11 Hyper-criminality and Hyper-surveillance……………...…...11-12 The Youth Control Complex…………………………..…12-13 Identity Formation: Resisting and Conforming to the YCC……13-15 Inequality through Criminalization and Resistance……………15-16 Theory………………………………………………….16-19 Racial Formation Theory …………………………………….17 Disciplinary Society/Panoptic Surveillance…………………18-19 Connecting the Theory………………………………………..19 SECTION 2………………………………………………………19-27 Methodology…………………………………………………….19-27 Setting/Context……………………………………………..21 Gaining Entry……………………………………………..22-23 Sampling………………………………..………………23 Face-to-Face Interviews…………………………………….23-24 Ethnographic Fieldwork/Field notes…………………...….24-25 Informed Consent………………………….…………………25-26 Reflexivity……………………………………………..26-27 SECTION 3……………………………………………….27-50 If Officers Don’t Get You, We Will………………………………..27 Las/os Chicanas/os and Their Stories……………………….28 Criminalization in Barrio Progreso…………………………….28-29 We Have to Deal With Them Somehow……………………29-34 People Here Don’t Like Us………………………………..…34-38 Strategies of Resistance……………………………...... 39 Responding as a Family to External Threat……………….……39-44 Individual Survival………………………………...…44-48 It Just Isn’t Fair………………………………………………….48-49
3 Inventing Hope………………………………………………49-50 CONCLUSION………………………………...... 50-53 APENDIX A (Informed Consent)………………………………...54-55 APENDIX B (Interview Questions)………………………………56-57 REFERENCES………………………………………………………58-64
4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The process of earning an M.A. degree and writing a thesis is long and arduous— and it is certainly not done singlehandedly. First and foremost, I would like to thank my mother and sisters for putting up with an absentee son and brother during this process.
My mother Sofia has been unfailingly supportive—and has borne burdens that have fallen in her lap as I spent my time and energy pursuing goals that took me away from the
family. It is credit to her that I have been able to both work a full-time job and go to
school. Without my family’s constant support, encouragement, and understanding, it would not have been possible for me to achieve my educational goals. I wish my diploma displayed the names of my “supporting cast,” my mother Sofia and my sisters Karen and
Alexandra.
I would certainly be remiss to not mention and sincerely thank Dr. Xuan Santos, professor, mentor, thesis advisor extraordinaire, and academic father. Without his help, advice, and expertise this research project would not have happened. Dr. Santos has been instrumental in the development of what once was an oppressed scholarliness and for that
I will always be thankful, gracias Carnal. I would also like to thank Dr. Christopher
Bickel for his guidance, encouragement, and patience over the last two years. Thank you so much for helping me improve my writing, to understand research as a service to others, and for opening my mind. Your help in every aspect of my research was imperative to my completion of this degree, thank you for forming part of my council of elders. I would also like to thank Dr. Karen S. Glover for shaping my vision of the social world. Dr. Glover, I cannot tell you how many times looking at your work inspired me to
5 continue working on this project to completion. Thank you for your unconditional
support and for helping me bring the thoughts in my mind to a reality. My appreciation also extends to Sandra Carrillo, a great friend and a true ally. Sandra, thank you for providing life support when the burdens of the academy presented themselves in the form of economic complications. I mean it when I say, “your work does not go unnoticed.”
I would also like to place on record sincere words of love to those who will forever compose my extended family. To Aaron Fitzpatrick, thank you for revising my work and for always reading it back and out loud to me, I love you. To Oscar Soto, thank
you for instilling in me a sense of, “si se puede” and for being my closest ally in our new journey, the PhD. To Erendida Hernandez, I have nothing but love and admiration for
you. Thank you for all you’ve done for me, academically and personally. To Diana
Garcia, thank you for tackling graduate school with me, I wouldn’t have wanted it to be
any other way. Thank you for uplifting me whenever I felt like giving up, gracias, mi
compañera. To Freddy Villafan, thank you for filling my graduate school experiences
with deep academic moments and most importantly, thank you for all of the
conversations that helped me distress during this journey.
Most importantly, thank you to all of the young Chicanas/os who participated and
made possible the construction of this thesis. It was an honor to amplify your voices and
to present your stories. The importance of your collaboration reminds me of Tupac’s
Dear Mama, “If you can make it through the night there is a brighter day.” We are
warriors and survivors, keep resisting unjust methods of control.
6 ABSTRACT
This ethnographic study examines how the youth control complex creates hyper- criminalization in marginal communities. This study interrogates how the lines between the left arm of the state (the nurturing arm of the state) and the right arm of the state (the criminal justice system) are increasingly becoming blurred as both structures share punitive practices that impact the lives of young Chicanas/os who live in the shadows of
Barrios in Southern California, that is, in communities such as Barrio Progreso. The following methodologies were utilized: ethnography, semi-structured and face-to-face interviews, and shadowing. The findings reveal that identity is directly impacted when formal and informal sanctions are deployed to criminalize and control adolescents. Barrio
Progreso’s criminalization practices involve major components of social control, which keep young people in their place through selective criminalization, that is, a classed and racialized criminalization practice. In the case of barrio progreso, the state, especially in the form of police, gang units as well as community members, criminalize the activities of young people while ignoring the excessive police presence in this community. As a consequence, young people developed creative responses at the level of their individual and collective agency in order to challenge hyper-criminalization and hyper-surveillance.
Finally, this ethnography suggests we must refine existing theories in the area of gangs and adolescents subcultures.
7 Introduction
I am walking through the streets of my old neighborhood (Barrio Progreso) one evening and notice a police vehicle stopped with his lights flashing. As I get closer to where the black and white Ford Crown Victoria police car is parked, I notice two white police officers talking with two young males in a community center parking lot. The two boys look young standing in front of the two robust officers. Shortly after my arrival, several police vehicles pull up, the officers exit their vehicles and begin to observe the area. There are now five officers on the scene. One of the officers has asked the young men to lift up their shirts and begins to take pictures. Toward the end of the stop, the two young males exchange some words with the officers, pick up their basketball, and head over to the basketball courts.
A middle-aged Latina comes out of an adjacent apartment complex, frustrated, and begins yelling at the officers to keep an eye on the youth. She says, “Why are you letting them go, you need to do your job.” The white police officer responds, “Ma’am, we are doing all we can but there are more of them than there are of us.” She responds, “We are tired of these damn kids, if you don’t get them, we will.” The officer replies, “Have a good day,” and calmly leaves the scene. The woman looks in my direction and loudly states, “This ain’t right, they are not doing their job right.”
As a Chicano male, who grew up in barrio progreso, a working-class neighborhood in San Diego County, I witnessed plenty of events similar to the one described above. In barrio progreso, police, local merchants, community centers, and even family members tend to turn adolescents away based on appearance and language
8 that links young people to perceived notions of criminality. In the barrio, some young
people tend to travel alternative routes to their destination, even if this means a longer
walk, because they fear being stopped and questioned by police. Scrappy recalls,
I remember my first day of school, I was excited. I had my bag and all my things but, bro, it was crazy. I remember being stopped for no reason. The officer opened my bag and messed with all my things, I hated it. As I think back to my days in the neighborhood I am constantly reminded about
conditions that shaped the everydayness of friends, my family, and my community as a
whole. As a group, my friends and I were constantly hyper-criminalized 1 by police,
merchants, and other community members. Even when we engaged in constructive activities, we experienced punishment and negative commentary—“You kids are good for
nothing, go home and leave the park, normal people want to use it”. These type of
interactions resulted in a conflict with community members as these attitudes threaten our
identities.
Having experienced what I would come to understand as hyper-criminalization in
barrio progreso, fostered in me a sense of concern for those whose lives are still being
shaped by assorted measures of control. This has led me to ask, “How does living in a hyper-criminalized and hyper-surveilled community affect the identity of Chicana/o
youth? I will now provide a foreground for the intricacies of this socially-situated
problem.
1 Rios, Victor M. Hyper-Criminalized. “The Hyper-Criminalization of Black and Latino Male Youth in the Era of Mass Incarceration. “Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society 8(2): 40-54.
9 Statement of the Problem
My work’s main purpose is to uncover how hyper-criminalized and hyper-
surveilled communities affect the identity of Chicana/o youth. I analyze how the criminal
justice system as well as merchants and community members criminalize and constantly
surveil Chicana/o youth. I ask, “How is Chicana/o identity shaped by criminalization and
surveillance?” by examining how identity is constructed in criminalized and surveilled spaces, I offer a nuanced explanation of how community members tend to associate
young black and brown bodies with crime. Rios (2006) suggests that even when young man of color do not want to commit crime, be seen as delinquent, or act like “thugs”, they are already rendered as suspects by many in the community, they develop identities that they often wished they could renounce.
Leiber (2002) suggests that youth of color are dramatically underrepresented in
California institutions of higher education while disproportionally over-represented at every major decision point in the juvenile justice system. Leiber’s argument shines a light on how Chicanas/os identities’ are perceived to be criminal. This becomes a problem as the over representation of Chicanas/os in the juvenile justice system permits schools, community centers, local stores, and even family members to construct youths’ identities as criminal. Once an identity has been constructed around stigmatization and racist thought, systems of control such as the criminal justice system work against the labeled population
Today, Chicana/o youth who live in hyper criminalized communities face a reality that is composed of punitive practices and negative interactions with police and fellow
10 community members. Scholars have begun to analyze structures of punishment that extend beyond offenders to systematically damage family, friends, and community. They have termed this concept the “collateral consequences of mass imprisonment” (Rios 2006
& Chesney-Lind & Mauer 2004) if it is true that collateral consequences damage family, friends, and communities than existing research fails to answer: “how is the captives’
(Bickel 2010) identity shaped in criminalized and surveilled communities?” this study
provides a much needed micro-level analyzes focusing on the effects of hyper-
criminalization and hyper-surveillance on the identity of Chicana/o youth.
SECTION 1
Literature Review
Although both the state and non-criminal justice structures share processes that
criminalize young men of color, it is important to separate the two and to analyze the
experiences of young men as they interact with representatives of the criminal justice
system and members of the community.
Hyper-criminality and Hyper-surveillance
Hyper-criminality and hyper-surveillance is defined as criminalization processes that occur in multidimensional layers and in multiple social settings. Youth of color not only experience hyper-criminalization and hyper-surveillance from criminal justice
institutions but also from non-criminal justice structures traditionally intended to nurture:
the school, the family, and community centers (Rios 2006). When youth of color are criminalized, collateral consequences arise. Youth often feel that on an everyday level, their lives are being defined and controlled through discourses and practices related to
11 crime even when they are not committing crime (Rios 2006). Youth who are
criminalized, experience surveillance from institutions that are obsessed with what
Jonathan Simon (1997) calls “governance through crime,” that is, the everyday impact that citizens experience from encounters with a society obsessed with punitive penal
practices.
The constant criminalization and surveillance of youth of color is, in part, the
result of a form of panic against the youth. In 1990 John J. Dilulio coined the term “super predator”, indicating that urban youth of color were an emerging criminal risk to society.
He indicated that serious policies had to be created in order to “deter” and “incapacitate”
these youth. He states:
Try as we might, there is ultimately very little that we can do to alter the early life experiences that make some boys criminally "at risk." Neither can we do much to rehabilitate them once they have crossed the prison gates. Let us, therefore, do what we can to deter them by means of strict criminal sanctions, and, where deterrence fails, to incapacitate them. Let the government Leviathan lock them up and, when prudence dictates, throw away the key (Dilulio 1995)
Dilulio’s statement highlighted the thinking of a society obsessed with punishing and controlling brown and black bodies. Furthermore, his argument encourages the incapacitation of youth of color. Through this commentary, he encourages practices of hyper-criminalization and hyper-surveillance.
The Youth Control Complex
The youth control complex is a phenomenon that becomes visible in this era of mass incarceration. The control complex is created when a network of racialized criminalization practices and punishments are deployed from various institutions of
12 control to manage and incapacitate Black and Latino youth. Rios (2006) argues that
interconnected institutions have formed to brand, further degrade, and contain youth of
color. This youth control complex controls the everyday lives of youth of color, it has
taken a devastating grip on the lives of many. Youth experience and explain this massive
structure that surrounds them as a unified and uniform criminalizing system whether in
school, at home, or on the street.
Rios (2006) represents the trends of the current research and in this study I
acknowledge that the youth control complex explains the criminalization of youth of
color outside of the criminal justice system. Victor Rios’s concept can be used as a
framework to help future research expand the body of knowledge in the area of youth of
color and criminality. My study will build on Rios’s work and fill the gap in the research
by looking at identity formation in hyper-criminalized and hyper-surveilled communities.
In order to further understand the lives of Chicana/o youth who must negotiate living in
these communities, it is important that we closely examine how youth resist and conform
to the youth control complex.
Identity Formation: Resisting & Conforming to the Youth Control Complex
Examining identity formation processes of criminalized and surveilled youth of
color will allow me to understand why young women and men are funneled into a lifestyle that has been ascribed to their social location. Environment is a significant indicator in affirming or confirming various aspects of an adolescent’s identity (Farmer
2010). An adolescent’s identity is shaped to mirror the collective thoughts of the people
who share the same experiences, commonalities, and location. Identity is not something
13 an adolescent reaches when they become a certain age; identity is a process that continues to develop throughout life (Farmer 2010).
The lack of research in the area of identity formation in criminology illuminates the urgent need to amplify the voices of hyper-criminalized youth. Scholars and most theories of delinquency, suggest that adolescents’ “delinquent” behavior is often an act of rebellion and resistance against adult norms and dominance (Turjeman, Mesch, and
Fishman 2008). Marginalized Chicanas/os who navigate the centrality of the youth control complex appropriate cholo/a styles to contest social invisibility and command respect in the public sphere (Miranda 2003; Rios and Lopez-Aguado 2012), and may resist the abandonment of identities they see as empowering even when fitting the racial profile of a gang member will subject them to stops, detainments, and enhanced sentencing (Santos and Romo 2007). In California, police use this display of identity to designate youth as criminal gang members in the state’s CalGang database and list them on gang injunctions (Parenti 2000).
Gang injunctions are civil lawsuits against neighborhoods based on the claim that gang behavior is a nuisance to nongang-involved residents (Muñiz 2015). Injunctions then restrict the physical movement of young people labeled gang members. If alleged gang members are listed on an injunction they are not allowed to engage in behavior that is otherwise legal, including—but not limited to—congregating in groups of two or more, standing in public for more than five minutes, wearing certain clothes, and making certain gestures (Muñiz 2015). Consequently, I ask, imagine yourself as young women or men living in a community were a judge has deployed a gang injunction; can you picture
14 yourself being surveilled because you decided to walk to the local store to buy refreshments while wearing a Padres or San Diego Chargers jersey? .
Research indicates that one’s identity can be used as a tool of social control, a tool to criminalize and monitor Chicana/o youth. Messerschmidt (1997) argues, “Crime is employed to produce and sustain a specific race and class masculine identity.” This suggests that minorities’ identities are shaped exclusively by crime and not criminalization from structures outside of the criminal justice system; it also silences the mechanism that constructs identity for Chicanas, as it suggest that crime only produces a masculine identity. Narrow perspectives of identity formation fail to recognize the constant struggle to conform to social expectations and the negative space that Chicana/o youth navigate when they resist the social norms.
Inequality Through Criminalization and Resistance
Glover (2009) argues that communities of color have been historically denied access to the law enforcement realm and have suffered as a main target of law enforcement practices. Descending from her work, I argue, youth of color in hyper- criminalized and hyper-surveilled communities must deal with what Michael Omi and
Howard Winant (2012) call “racial projects,” that is, an interpretation, representation or explanation of racial dynamics and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines.
As theorized by Glover (2009) a strategy of resistance is the rejection of white supremacy ideology and the assumption that whiteness equals authority, knowledge, power, and truth. As Glover (2009) explains, covert forms of resistance emerge when
15 conditions are too perilous to make direct confrontations with power. This includes, for
example, a young men or women finding alternative routes to school and/or shopping for
groceries outside of their community for fear of negative police interactions. Next, I will
address two schools of Sociological understanding.
Discerning from Glover’s (2009) interpretations of Patricia Hill Collins’
monumental work on Black Feminist Thought I examine how resistance is manifested
both in direct and indirect confrontations with power. Patricia Hill Collin’s work is
important because it helps to understand and theorize on less obvious forms of resistance
in what she calls, “struggle for group survival.” A guiding research question in my
analysis is how is living in a hyper-criminalized community central to identity formation
in the lives of youth. As proposed by Glover, this guiding question permits the researcher
to “personal troubles” as “politically constituted.” That is, this type of theorizing helps to
understand the central and systemic practices affecting the lives of out in barrio progreso,
today.
Theory
To get a fundamental understanding of hyper-criminality in the normal and
everyday operations of barrio progreso, I engage two schools of criminological thought to get insight into the effects of constant hyper-criminality on Chicana/o youth and their identity. I begin by examining Racial Formation theory according to Michael Omi and
Howard Winant. Secondly, I explain the idea of panoptic surveillance by considering the
critical works of Michelle Foucault. I connect racial formation theory and the concept of
16 panoptic surveillance to examine the principal claim that racial projects are deployed in
order to facilitate the punishment of brown youth.
Racial Formation Theory
Stemming from Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s (2012) theoretical perspective on the social construction of race, racial formation theory provides a sound
explanation to why Chicanas/os experience hyper-criminality and hyper-surveillance.
Under racial formation, Omi and Winant (2012) highlight two main points that help in
understanding a whole range of contemporary controversies and dilemmas involving
race. First, they argue that racial formation is a process of historically situated projects in
which human bodies and social structures are represented and organized. Second, they
link racial formation to the evolution of hegemony, the way in which society is organized
and ruled. Racial projects are explanations of race dynamics; these projects connect what
race means in a particular discursive practice. This process explains the meanings people
attach to race. The experience of racism by Chicanas/os in the United States can be
understood both historically and currently, as a racial project where the hyper-
criminalization and hyper-surveillance of this group is fostered.
I use this theory as an attempt to partially explain the motivation behind the
hyper-criminalization and hyper-surveillance of Chicana/o youth. Criminalizing,
oppressing, and controlling a group permits for hyper-surveillance of specific members of
society. Understanding the concept of “disciplinary society” and the connection with
Foucault’s concept of panopticism further illuminates the hyper-surveillance of
Chicana/o youth.
17 Disciplinary Society/Panoptic Surveillance
With a sense of what racial formation theory consists of, analyzing how
Chicana/o youth are surveilled is also of imperative importance. Foucault (2012)
introduces the theoretical concept of “disciplinary society”. Discipline is understood as a
way of controlling the movement and operations of the body. In his work, Foucault
expands on Jeremy Bentham’s conceptualization of the panopticon. Bentham proposed
the concept of panopticism as a circular building with an observation tower in the center of an open space surrounded by an outer wall; this wall would contain cells for occupants. The design would increase security by facilitating more effective surveillance.
Bentham's panopticon is for Foucault, an ideal architectural model of modern disciplinary power. At the core of Foucault's picture of modern “disciplinary society” is the idea that regulation occurs through the organization of space, time, people's activity, and behavior.
What is most important to note about the panopticon model is that it achieves hyper-surveillance in two ways. First, the panopticon surveils members of society whether or not a human monitor is actually watching them. Second, the surveillance mechanisms of power produced by this design are reiterative: individuals never know whether they are being observed and thus must always assume and act as if they are being monitored. As a result, control is achieved as much by the physical constraints of architectural space as it is by the internalization and self-regulation of one’s self. For example, Chicana/o youth can experience surveillance in settings such as a classroom. A classroom is a modern day example of Michel Foucault’s definition of the panopticon,
18 based on the type of arrangement in the classroom there can be different sets of powers that can be established between the teacher and students. The theoretical concept of the panopticon allowed Foucault to explore the relationship between systems of social control and the power-knowledge concept. In his view, power and knowledge comes from observing others; it marked the transition to a disciplinary power, with every movement supervised and all events hyper-surveilled.
Connecting the Theory
These theories support and guide my research in significant ways. In looking to understand how living in a hyper-criminalized and hyper-surveilled community affects the identity of Chicana/o youth I use two different lenses. First, using racial formation theory I explain political and social processes that criminalize and further oppress
Chicana/o youth. This theory allows for the critical deconstruction of race as it exists today in the United States. Second, using the theoretical concept of a “disciplinary society” allows for a broader understanding of the mechanisms that are employed to hyper-surveil Chicana/o youth. Next, I will examine the methods I used to obtain my participants.
SECTION 2
Methodology
For this project I interviewed (N=8) Males and (N=2) Females who live in barrio progreso. The participants self-identified as Chicanas/os, and were between the ages of
18-24 years old, thus no parental consent was required. I used the following two-fold methods to help me with gathering data: semi-structured interviews and participant
19 observations. The semi-structured interviews allowed me to fully participate in the
interview process, genuinely engage questions and topics, and probe for more in-depth
answers. All interviews were conducted in two different safe spaces2; a community center
located in the local park and a study room inside the local library. The dates and times for
the interviews were chosen based on the ability of my participants. The interviews I
conducted had an average time of one hour and ten minutes; my longest interview was
two hours and thirteen minutes, while my shortest one was under 40 minutes long. The
length of the interviews varied primarily because some of my participants had in-depth recollection of events while others focused on one specific narrative.
Although I did not compensate my participants, I did offer information about how to apply to the local community college as well as a know your rights workshop where
young men and women learned about their rights and what to do and say when they
interact with police in their barrio. The process of carrying out the workshop took place
with the collaboration of the local community center and only after all interviews had
concluded.
For the protection of my participants and the space where they live, I asked them
to provide me with a pseudonym of their choice, which I used in this research to identify
them and I also named the local community as barrio progreso. I will know explain the
setting and context where I conducted the interviews with my participants, how I gained
2 Safe spaces – A place where young people from barrio progreso were able to relax and fully express, without fear of being made to feel uncomfortable and unwelcomed.
20 entry into the space where my research was conducted, and a reflexivity statement related
to my relative privileges.
Setting/Context
Barrio progreso is a predominantly working-class Mexican immigrant
neighborhood. It sits on the edge of North San Diego, a county that includes some of the wealthiest cities in the country. There are lively activities, particularly in the afternoons.
People rush to walk their dogs before the sun goes down, young men congregate to play basketball, handball and attend the community centers’ events, older vendors sell fruits and paletas de hielo (ice-popsicles), and people irrigate their trees and talk to one another
across their fences.
The local community center was a great space to interview participants as it is
within a walking distance for all people I interviewed. The local center provided a sense
of protection and shielded my participants from local police, gang unit officers, and/or
family member backlash. Most of my participants were comfortable interviewing in this
space, as it tends to be a place they frequent. For participants who felt a need to step away
from barrio progreso in order to share their story, I suggested a study room inside the
local library. The library is relatively close to the barrio and it tends to be used by young
men and women to work on homework, rent films, and use the computer room. Aside
from providing safe spaces for participants to share their stories, I reminded participants
about their freedom to withdraw from the study at any time. I will now speak about
gaining entry within a community of young Chicanas/os who live in barrio progreso and
experience hyper-criminalization and hyper-surveillance in this context.
21 Gaining Entry
My identity as a Chicano male, who once lived in barrio progreso helped me
avoid the position of researcher-as-stranger (Clifford 1986). I was familiar with cultural norms and meanings that are common to Chicanas/os. I was also aware of differences based on age, education, and police interactions between the youth and myself. As a non- member of the barrio, I was not seen as an insider, a barrio progreso resident who knows how to navigate the community. These differences highlight how one can be an outsider even when conducting research with one’s own racial group. In large, my insider status as a Chicano male could only open but a few doors. An example of my insider status and how I broaden my relationships with some of the young Chicanas/os who live in the community was demonstrated during the time I spent conducting fieldwork. Upon arriving to the local park, a young man asked, “Hey we need one more person in our team, want to play? It was these types of interactions that helped me build connections in the barrio.
To help me gain entry, I also maintained a “key partner” in barrio progreso. While ethnographers have traditionally used the term “key informant” to describe their closest research allies, I decided to adopt (Duran 2013) term “key partner” to signify both the cooperative and empowering association I forged with my closest helper in the field and to indicate his/her contribution at my side in a shared enterprise of investigation.
My key partner helped me gain access to young Chicanas/os who otherwise would have been difficult to contact on my own. Before starting my interviews I informed all participants about my childhood upbringing and some of the structural struggles I faced
22 as a young man while growing up in this community. The fact that I grew up in this
community, have witnessed police and local community members punish young people, and was able to explain to my participants why I now seek to expose unfair practices of hyper-criminalization, allowed them to trust me enough to participate in the research and share their stories. I will now describe the sampling technique that was used to conduct this research project.
Sampling
In addition to using a key partner to obtain most of my interviews, and build connections at the local park, I also relied on a snowball sampling technique. My aim was to have the connections I built while visiting the Local Park, basketball courts, and
community center open up a system of communication with other young men and women
who deal with assorted issues of hyper-criminalization and hyper-surveillance. This
method was useful because it allowed me to do two things. First, as it was the case with
one of my participants, Demonio (devil), a young men who I met one afternoon while
playing handball in the park and who introduce me to another one of my collaborators,
Jewels, this method allowed me to come in contact with young Chicanas/os and their
networks. Second, this sampling frame minimized participants’ unwillingness to come
forward and share their stories. Next, I will describe the two-methods I used to collect
data from the population sample.
Face-to-Face Interviews
Semi-structured open-ended interviews helped me to tailor questions in
accordance to the participant’s answers as well as providing me with the ability to revisit
23 responses and probe. Because this study focused on the lives of young Chicanas/os it was
extremely important to make participants feel comfortable and willing to contribute.
Stretesky and Pogrebin (2007) analyzed this method, “This technique allows participants
to identify and elaborate important domains they perceive to characterize their life
histories” (Stretesky and Pogrebin, 2007; 93). Structured interviews would have hindered
this study because the method would not allow flexibility for interviewees to freely express themselves in an informal way. During my interviews, I recorded participant’s responses with a digital voice recorder and discretely annotated the body language of my participants. I observed the body language of my participants to ensure that they understood each question I asked them. I followed a guide consisting of nineteen thematic questions (refer to APPENDIX B) to discuss, including demographic identity, people’s experiences with merchants, experiences with the criminal justice system, neighborhood, family, and community. Although I kept a set of questions typed and at my disposal during the interviews, no specific order was followed as I treated all of my interviewees as knowledgeable experts and did not judge the order in which they presented their stories. Also, all participants were asked the same questions, maximizing fairness and allowing participants to be presented with the same information. Next, I will describe the ethnographic fieldwork I conducted while conducting this research.
Ethnographic Field Work/ Field Notes
Before conducting interviews, I spent two months in the local park, a central location of barrio progreso. I chose this approach because it allowed me to comprehend the lives of young Chicanas/os on an intimate basis, within their own social
24 environment—an environment maintained through lived experience and impression
management portrayals (Goffman 1959, 1963; Duran 2013). My direct observation of
youth living in barrio progreso involved playing basketball, grocery shopping in the local
market, and even cutting my hair in the local barbershop. This level of immersion allowed me to see form the inside how youth lead their lives, how they carried out their
daily rounds of activities, what they found meaningful, and how they do so. As Emerson
et al. (2011) describe, “Immersion gives the fieldworker access to the fluidity of others’
lives and enhances his sensitivity to interaction and processes.”
My observations during this time helped me to draft questions as this process
provided crucial information that allowed me to build on the interview scheme for this
study. These witnessed direct observations revealed a few occasions of police contacting young men as they played basketball and/or engaged in activities such as walking to the bus stop, or washing their cars. It was during these observations that I also witnessed merchants sanction youth’s presence by displaying signs that read, “Groups of two or more are not allowed.” My observations of this space gave me a nuanced ability to understand formal and informal rules of institution(s) that have the ability to impact the lives of youth who live in barrio progreso. Next, I will describe the measure I took to protect my participants.
Informed Consent
Before commencing each interview, I provided each participant with a consent
form that explained the purpose of this research project. Since my participants live in
neighborhood marked by heavy police presence, I made sure that I received all
25 participants’ verbal agreements to participate in this research project. I explained to
participants that they had as long of time as they needed to read the consent form and ask
questions about this project, I also provided my Thesis committee chair’s work phone
number and e-mail address. Although the consent form explained that participants would
not be identified on documents, I verbally communicated to my participants that they
would be untraceable.
I also received verbal consent from participants agreeing to be recorder during the
interview process. After recording each interview, I transcribed all information to my
personal computer. The transcribing process took an average time of six hours and thirty
minutes per interview. All transcripts were stored in a secured folder and were deleted
after I had analyzed all of my data collection. The secure folder and field notes have been
permanently deleted, ensuring the safety and confidentially of my participants. Lastly, it
is important for me as someone who is not experiencing hyper-criminalization and hyper-
surveillance at the level(s) that my participants experience, to be reflexive of my
privileges.
Reflexivity
It is important I maintain a reflexive agenda where I acknowledge my relative privileges. Reflexivity is a term that is used to describe the capacity of self-awareness that affects how we understand who we are (Taylor and White, 2001). As a Chicano who has the privilege to leave barrio progreso after conducting observations and/or after interviews have concluded, I have to understand that many of the dynamics that affect the everydayness of my participant’s navigation of the barrio do not affect me. Being
26 reflexive is a foundational aspect of critical research, it involves being aware of how we interpret actions, perceptions, and responses (Fook, 2002; Redmond, 2006).
Even though I do not experience hyper-criminalization and hyper-surveillance in the same manner that my participants do, I will amplify their voices in this study, to the best of my abilities. One participant said the following statement that made me reflect on my outsider status, “Stalin, you should not be wearing baseball gear when you come to kick it, no logos, man. Cops have been looking at you, they’re probably wondering who you are.” Because I am an outsider to this space, I was not aware that I was being observed, which is why I relied on a key partner to help me gain access. In the next chapter, I will examine and discuss my findings.
SECTION 3
If Officers Don’t Get You, We Will
This seems to be the general experience(s) of the young men and women of barrio progreso. I am standing outside a local market located in barrio progreso when suddenly I hear a loud siren approaching my location. A brown-skinned young man wearing a black hooded sweater, shorts, and a baseball cap appears form around the corner and rushes inside the store. Then, the sound of a woman’s loud scream is heard, “He is hiding in here, come get him.” Three officers move quickly, locate the young man, and proceed to handcuff him. What happened to elicit collaboration between a merchant and police officers? In this research project I explore how representatives of the state and community members hyper-criminalize and hyper-surveil young Chicanas/os from barrio progreso.
27 Las/os Chicanas/os and Their Stories
I analyze fieldwork and ten interviews with my participants: (1) How formal and
informal regulations impact the identity of Chicana/o youth. Formal regulations are
understood as criminalization processes that are enforced by representatives of the state, whereas informal regulations are criminalization processes deployed by community
members, (2) An analysis of resistance and the strategies youth deploy to challenge state
imposed identities from both representatives of the state and community members, and
lastly, (3) an examination focusing on the inequality reproduced through criminalization
and resistance
Criminalization in Barrio Progreso
In barrio progreso young Chicanas/os experience a two-fold criminalization
process: criminalization from the state and criminalization from non-criminal justice structures. I contextualize my participants’ responses by highlighting both of these
structures and the effects these have on the youth who live in the barrio were I conducted my research. By interrogating how criminalization processes unfold in barrio progreso, I hope to show how the lines between the left arm of the state (the nurturing arm of the state) and the right arm of the state (the criminal justice system) are increasingly becoming blurred as both structures share punitive practices that impact the lives of young Chicanas/os who live in the shadows of barrios in Southern California, that is, in communities such as barrio progreso.
Barrio progreso’s criminalization practices involve major components of social control, which keep young people in their place through selective criminalization, that is,
28 classed and racialized criminalization of a community that is victimized by formal and
informal agents of social control. In the case of barrio progreso, the state especially in the
form of police and gang unit officers, criminalize the activities of young people while
ignoring excessive police presence. As a consequence, young people developed creative
responses at the level of their individual and collective agency in order to challenge
hyper-criminalization and hyper-surveillance by engaging resistance crimes. Next, I will
highlight participant responses’ relating to the criminalization processes that exist in
barrio progreso: representatives of the state and community members.
We Have to Deal With Them Somehow
The youth I interviewed expressed two ways in which barrio progreso displayed
processes of hyper-criminalization. Although some described policing from formal
representatives of the state like, police officers, gang unit officers, and city workers,
many of them did not have any problem with the large number of police who patrol the
streets of their barrio. In fact, many participants said, “Nah, I mean it is whatever, I do
not complain, it is a job, you know, at the end of the day the pigs do keep things safe
(Nacofresa, 19). I found that many of the youth who did not feel threatened by the presence of local police and did not have formal encounters with officers who patrolled their neighborhood, have normalized the overt presence of law enforcement in their community to the point where it is no longer acknowledge. Hanney-Lopez (2003:127) has suggested that the ideology that condones inequality and maltreatment has become so taken for granted that it has become common-sense racism: acting in a discriminatory
29 manner has become so ordinary and pervasive that few people give it any thought (Duran
2013).
Chaparro is a tall, slim male of only eighteen years of age, who has been living in
the midst of heavy policing the majority of his adolescent life. Out of all of my
interviews, Chaparro’s interview was the one that most attentively highlighted
interactions with officers based on style of dress. I asked him to describe his barrio,
Chaparro immediately began talking about his experiences with police. He highlighted
one time when he was stopped and questioned simply because he was wearing a popular
NFL windbreaker (Oakland, Raiders),
I went to private school, everyone in the hood made fun of me. The shit was perfect because I would hide shit and always had a school uniform on. Cops didn’t suspect anything. I was freezing one morning though, so I threw my raiders jacket on, bad move, homie. As soon as I did that I was stopped. I rather freeze, haha, I used to wear that uniform from sunrise to sunset, even if I was not in school.
Throughout the entire interview, Chaparro’s eyebrows would come close together and he
often clenched his fist as he described his experiences with local police, during the
interview, he often would roll his eyes every time the subject was brought forth. He also spoke about leaving home extremely early, to avoid local police. Chaparro’s daily routines highlight how young people counteract harassment from officers who patrol their neighborhoods.
Chaparro was very reflexive and critical of his experiences as well as those of other young people who he knew personally. According to Chaparro, his experiences with police have been less problematic than that of other young people. He went as far as to mention the following about his friends, “My uniform saved me, my friends who dressed
30 like cholas/os were always harassed, fuck, even on game day, I think it was an excuse to
stop us.” Most of his focus during the interview centered on his experiences as a young man who has witnessed hyper-criminalization but has not experienced negative interactions with police. For Chaparro, there was a clear difference in police stops based on dress style that, according to him, allowed him to navigate his community with less complications. Chaparro made it clear that certain dress styles are seen as problematic and, according to him, the reason why police often stop many young people. My next participant, Pelon, who has lived in barrio progreso all of his life detailed some of his experiences.
Pelon has not been as fortunate as Chaparro. His experiences with representatives of the state are informed by their mistreatment and harassment. I asked Pelon to describe his experiences with police in the neighborhood, Pelon responded:
People think cops are cool, and I guess I get it but honestly, when it’s them and us all alone they treat us like shit. They insult us and even talk smack, it’s like, they want to fight, you know? But if we do something, then that’s when it’s like, there, right away, arrest us or even hit us, I’ve had officers throw me up against fences for no reason, but see, no one was looking, what do we do.
Mirande (1987:153) argued that “perhaps the most persistent overriding concern expressed by Chicanos is that police treat them with less respect and courtesy, and with less regard for their rights.” Mastrofski et al. (2002) reported that minorities experienced disrespect at twice the rate of whites. Pelon struck me as a pensive young man, as his tone of voice and pitch conveyed a message of methodical thinking, all of his words were carefully chosen. This was one of the interviews that took place outside the community center. I conducted this interview on a bench often used by young people to socialize.
31 Pelon’s experience with police demonstrate the way that officers understand young people in barrio progreso, that is, as stagnant and powerless people who have no way to voice abuse such as harsh physical force. Unlike Chaparro who had limited contact with officers, Pelon had formal contact with law enforcement at least once a week. Unlike
Pelon whose intonation was meticulous, Scrappy my next participant was just the opposite.
Scrappy, a robust, bald male in his early twenties who showed up to our interview in khaki shorts, long socks, and black moccasins has lived in the neighborhood all of his life, Scrappy was not methodical in his speech like Pelon. Scrappy spoke his mind about his experiences in the barrio, he often would comment without being asked, “What the fuck man, how long are you going to ask me questions for, do you think you and I seating here will help me not get arrested.” I asked Scrappy the same question about the police I asked Pelon. Scrappy immediately responded:
We are trash to them. They even want to buy us with food. Fuck that! I have pigs telling me they’ll buy me in and out; they do it to get information. I can tell you their names; they are pitting us against our own people. For me, cops patrol the neighborhood because they know it’s easy to pick us up, who is going to believe us? It’s all a game, man.
I probed into his statement by asking, “Really? How do you imagine that people from this neighborhood feel when they know, you are easier to be “picked up” by police? Scrappy responded, “Well, come on, you know, we don’t have money, fool. It’s like the dog pound picking up stray dogs, who gives a fuck about strays, same thing.” Scrappy’s answers were significant in two ways. First, scrappy has come to understand the role of police as an oppressive one, he does not see officers as sources of help. Second, he has
32 come to learn that officers have no respect for young people in this community and that
too often, officers treat young men and women as stray dogs, as savages with animalistic
features, that is, as less than human. A large number of researchers (Acuna 2000; Bayley
and Mendelsohn 1968; Duran 2013; Escobar 1999; Mazon 1984; Mirande 1987; Moore
1991; Morales 1972; Rosenbaum 1981; Vigil 1988) have reported a large level of police
harassment within Latina/o communities, which, in Scrappy’s case translates to
harassment for information about his friends in the barrio. I proceeded to ask about his
relationships with friends given how he had mentioned that officers intervened by way of
creating conflict between young people. Scrappy answered,
I mean, I feel that officers think we create problems for our neighborhood, but look, most of us love our neighborhood, we know everyone here, shit, if anything they create problems, not us. But it’s like, if we know cops are asking questions, we make sure everyone knows to stay under the radar, you know, don’t say shit.
As reported by Bayley and Mendelsohn (1968:109) “the police seem to play a role in the life of minority people out of all the proportion to the role they play in the lives of the dominant majority [whites].”
Here I presented the experiences of young people as they are informed by their interactions with representative of the state. Scrappy and Pelon have been living in the neighborhood all of their lives, while Chaparro lived in the neighborhood during his childhood, moved to a nearby city and came back after his family experienced economic obstacles. Another factor that informs negative interactions with representatives of the state is the race of the participants. Anderson (1990) found that police officers become
“willing parties” to “color-coding” that entails making race a presupposition as to who
33 commits crime and who will be perceived as dangerous. Young men of color, not only in
in barrio progreso but also outside of this microcosm, are often seen as conduits of crime
by merchants, community members, and police officers, and when you add heavy
policing into the equation the chances for hyper-criminalization rise significantly.
People Here Don’t Like Us
The other side of hyper-criminalization that exists for young people in barrio progreso
involves informal processes carried out by community members. As Rios (2006) demonstrates, mass incarceration has created solidarity in society around the notion that
young adults who commit small acts of deviance will inevitably return and commit a severe maybe even violent act. This leads community members and even some parents to treat all youth as criminal suspects. The three participants that I will use to describe the interactions that exist between young people in the barrio and community members have lived in this community for quite some time. Demonio (devil), is the oldest of my participants. I interviewed him shortly after he had acquired a new job. Demonio has lived in the neighborhood all of his life and just recently found an apartment outside of the barrio, three blocks away to be precise. My second participant was Jewels; Jewels is a
Chicana who has lived in the neighborhood for 6 years. Finally there is Rana. Rana has been living in this space for 10 years. All three of them have experienced sanctions from community members and local storeowners, in their barrio.
I begin with Demonio, the oldest of my participants, a young man who once had to spend a few months in a juvenile facility for breaking into a local barbershop. He experienced harassment for many years from community members who knew about his
34 past. From being kicked out of local liquor stores and being threatened by merchants, to
avoiding public facilities such as the local park, mainly in part because community
members would threaten to call police even when he used this space to play basketball or
a game of handball. My key partner had previously spoken to me about Demonio and his
many interactions with the community so I had a sense about pre-interview themes I
wanted to focus on. I opened our conversation by asking him to describe his experiences
and interactions with local businesses and merchants, Demonio stated,
I think people know what I did so everyone is always watchful. I can’t even go a la marketa, you know. It’s like that with everyone, though. It’s just that I always think about it. It’s probably cus’ we live here, you know? But yeah, if you look like us, for sure these fools are going to be watchful, they act like they are on the phone but always have an eye on you, too much, you know.
Rios argues (2006) that youth often feel the lack of support from community members
that instead of providing support programs, adults from various institutions in the
community managed them as risks. Demonio went on to describe the power the
community has on young people and made it clear that some members of the community
function similarly to police officers, explaining that young people are controlled from
both entities. Demonio stated, “They act like cops, always watching you, always ready to
call you out. I always tell the young homies, don’t fuck with the businesses around here,
they’ll get you, easy way to get caught up.”
I proceeded to ask him about his experiences at the local park, a place where young people convene to play sports. He mentioned how it is complicated to share public space with other members from the community. Demonio stated, “Man, we are unwanted, people fear us, I am telling you.” He mentioned how people who use the park smile or
35 nod their heads as a sign of acknowledgement but as soon as they walk away, they make
hurtful comments. Demonio stated, “People nod their heads, you know, like they say
what’s up, but you see them from a distance you know they are taking shit. To me is
funny, because they get fucked with too, like cops always taking cars away, they fuck
with them and us but they judge hard, get it.” He made it clear that not all community
members that live in the neighborhood are bad, however, his focus was with people who
talk bad about youth who use the park. I noticed he became frustrated about the issue of
how some community members avoid them and have even called police on them, even
when their actions were simple and innocent,
Some people treat us well, they will say hi and will go out of their way to shake hands and all. But some, it’s like, they hate us, or I don’t know. Sometimes we kick it in the benches in the basketball court and right away, fucking cops show up, they talk to us but not the people playing? Bullshit, I know they probably called them on us.
Demonio made it clear that many of the community members chose not to establish a
relationship with him and his group of friends. Duran’s (2013) gang research found that
families in communities with a gang presence provide pressure for youth to stay away
from gangs because of the consequences from rival gangs and the police. Pressure
exerted from community members can impact how youth are treated in the barrio. For
example, the lack of a relationship between young people and community members can
impact how police come to see young people, that is, police officers who patrol barrio x tend to be informed by community members about everyday operations in the barrio and not the young men and women they patrol.
36 Jewels has been affected by the conflict between members of this community and
youth, which ultimately led her to a major physical altercation with a woman who walked
to a local store. A large number of researchers (Krivo and Peterson 1996; Krivo, Peterson and Kuhl 2009; Kubrin and Weitzer 2003; Phillips 2002; Sampson and Wilson 1995) have found that socioeconomically disadvantaged communities experience higher rates of interpersonal violence. I asked Jewels about her relationship with community members.
Jewels stated,
People here are all against us, they want to trip us, you know? I always catch it from people, this woman one day was in front of me and I was just walking, she turns around all crazy and was like, “Leave me alone or I am calling the police” I was like what the fuck. We got into a fight, by the liquor store, I didn’t let her disrespect me, but to me, it was about teaching her, like, if you are going to be afraid, well, here is a reason. It’s like that all the time though, people always think we are up to something, I don’t know why. But yeah, people trip out when they see us. I try not to react but sometimes it’s a problem.”
Jewels mentioned that she doesn’t like to be out much, she prefers to stay at home or travel away from the community in order to avoid the constant harassment from community members. Witnessing violence increases aggressive behavior and depression
(Gorman-Smith and Tolan 1998; Moses 1999). Jewels, reported, “I mean, do you think if she would have hit me first, I could have called the cops? Nah, huh? It be cool to be on the other side for once.” I asked, “How do you think officers would react? She said,
“Look it, who would they stop if they came to help me, haha.” It was clear that Jewels’ experiences have been informed by years of negative interactions with community members. Jewels has decided that she will save up enough money to one day move away
37 from the neighborhood and into a space where she believes she will not experience
constant pressures from community members.
Lastly there is Rana, a young man who has experienced many forms of informal
punishment from community members. Rana’s life has been impacted by the vast number
of negative interactions he has endured with community members from the barrio, from
being ashamed to get a haircut from the local barbershop to feeling like an outsider in his
own community. Unlike Jewels, Rana has never been involved in physical altercations
with community members and unlike Demonio, Rana has never engaged in behavior that
could potentially inform a negative relationship with community members, regardless of
his somewhat passive behavior, Rana mentioned, “I don’t even go to the barbershop, it’s
embarrassing, if I tell them I want to buzz my hair, the barbers make faces and shit, I
rather just do it on my own.” Rana makes reference to the fact that, if you present
yourself with a deviant demeanor, you must obviously be engaging in criminal activity.
All three participants have seen and experienced both channels of punishment and control, that is, control from representatives of the state and from community members. I
have come to realize that young people, who live in barrio progreso and are affected by
these constant measures of hyper-criminalization, develop strategies to ease their
navigation of this social space. I will now describe the individual and collective steps
young people from barrio progreso employ in order to resist the two-fold hyper- criminalization process they experience.
38 Strategies of Resistance
I present participants whose collective experiences illuminated forms of
resistance. Specifically, I introduce three participants whose stories I have come to
identify as forms of collective resistance. Also, I will present how two young males
employ creative tactics to navigate their barrio. Some of my participants have invented
creative techniques to resist hyper-criminalization in their Barrio more than others. On
the one hand, you have Demonio, who speaks about peer empowerment and the sense of
family his carnales3 bring to him. On the other hand, you have Seria and Trips who speak about individual resistance techniques and have learned how to deal with hyper- criminalization from police and community members at the level of their individual agency. I will stay with this central idea of resistance and highlight four participants who have I have identified as collective resisters of hyper-criminalization.
Responding as a Family to External Threat
Demonio’s story, one that I will briefly revisit was perhaps one of the most
interesting interviews that I was fortunate enough to conduct, Demonio, the young male
that had once spent some time at a juvenile detention center for breaking into the local
barbershop mentioned that everyone knew him in the neighborhood and that unfortunately for him, everyone still remembered the events that unfolded when he broke into this local establishment. Today, he endures the stigma of law enforcement and his
community, “I do not go out much, but it’s because I do not feel comfortable, if I need
anything I know my friends got me.” Demonio mentioned that everyone always makes
3 Carnales – A word of endearment that can be translated to, “Brother”
39 covert comments about his past and that the barbershop incident has marked him for life.
He talked about how his experiences have forced him to elicit help from friends and family, thus easing the constant and damaging judgment from community members.
Demonio elaborated,
I do not like going to the store because the lady who owns it knows me and is always talking shit. So it is way better if I go with a group of friends, even like wait in the car, or, just send someone you know, I tell the homies, you fly? I buy!
Although Demonio has experienced multiple mechanism of control, his friends and family often alleviate some of the repressive tactics employed by both the state and the community. Demonio stated,
The thing I like is that, if I walk with the homegirl, well, she has a baby, so I don’t get harassed as much, you know? Every time I kick it with her I ask, or she will tell me, hey, push the stroller, haha.
It was fascinating to hear how Demonio and his friend design tactics to ease the
navigation of their social world. Demonio highlighted how he depends on his friends and
family to ease the constant levels of harassment which he endures, Demonio explains, “I
wouldn’t be able to live here if it wasn’t for my friends, I can’t leave, I don’t have the
money to leave, so it’s cool to know people have my back.” I asked Demonio how he and
his friends have adapted to the constant harassment from the community and to describe
how they go about their persistent struggle. He responded,
It all depends, man. Look, people see us coming and they assume shit, so I know that if I am going to go to the liquor store is best to walk with a big group, you know? Like, look, to me is like this, we have to be here, no choice, so, we do all we can to be comfortable, like what I told you about the barbershop, I don’t go there, homie, we cut each other’s hair, it’s better and we don’t have fools breathing down our necks.
40 As far as navigating the community is concerned, Demonio’s group of friends is always willing to assist him and ease his navigation of this social space. I asked him, how he feels about his group of friends and how they are always willing to help him out. He said,
“Bro, look, we are a family. See, we have to watch out for each other. Like, if I know the cops might want to talk to one of the homies, I let them know right away.” He continued by mentioning that his group of friends is well aware of all that takes place in the community. Demonio explained,
Look, I see it like this, when I am at home, all I need to do is text a homie and done. I know better, some of the younger homies blend better, you know? They don’t get asked as much questions. So they know what’s good, we always have a group message or message each other to know what’s happening before we even leave the pad.
For Demonio, his group of friends is not a substitute for his family but rather an extension. Overall, seeing close friends as family made it much more difficult for
Demonio to refrain from supporting his friends with assorted issues of resistance.
My next participant was Trucha, a young father who lives in the barrio. I opened his interview by asking for his opinion on how the community interacts with him and his family. He said,
Good question man, for real. It is fucked up; I am not going to deny that. It’s like, I have a son and I don’t even get a break, you know? But I think that we do get dirty ass looks. I always tell the homies to be visible and to be respectful, I tell them to say “buenos dias” and buenas tardes”, to me it is all about respect. I tell them to respect people, this way they all know who we are.
I then asked Trucha to describe the idea of respect, Trucha responded,
It is all about coming together and being respectful. I know I am young but there are a lot of younger fools here. And I have to teach them how to
41 deal with other people who also live here; it is not just about us, homes. Respect just means, knowing that some people are not all that bad.
I noticed that Trucha consider himself a mentor to younger generations of Chicanas/os who are growing up in the same community where he has grown up. Every time he spoke about respect, and teaching younger people how to navigate the barrio, he would point to the ground and raise his voice indicating pride. I proceeded to ask Trucha to describe what trust means to him. He stated,
For me, trust is all about looking out for the people who you love, that is it. I love my homies and they love me, I know they love me because if they didn’t they wouldn’t be risking it for me. I know how it is here, and they do too, we deal with the same shit, we deal with cops and even our own neighbors, but honestly, look, “no hay de otra” (there is no other way) we do it together, you know.
It was very clear where Trucha stands in regards to mentorship and how he has come to understand and create techniques to address heavy police presence as well as vigilantism from community members. I then proceeded to ask Trucha about his opinion on informal forms of sanctioning from community members, I made sure to provide a few examples of how informal sanctioning might take place. Trucha mentioned,
Oh, look, people who live here have a good idea about who is who, they know us, some are scared and some are cool. But again, what we need to do is show people some manners and they will see that we are cool, it’s not our fault the police makes people think we are bad, but if we are cool with people, it will be better for all.
I quickly responded, “Does the police influence how people see you?” He said,
Yes, that’s what I see. If they stop me in front of the liquor store, of course the owner is going to think I am a troublemaker. That’s happened before. Sometimes we have to have each other’s backs and try to clean each other’s names. I had a homie tell the clerk that I wasn’t all that bad, he basically explained what had happened the other day, now I am comfortable, the vato even says what’s up, we are good now.
42
Trucha briefly mentioned conversations he constantly has with his friends, conversations where he encourages everyone to help each other out. He said,
Well, to me is like this, we are a big ass family, if someone think and talks shit about me, we have to have each others backs, that’s what families due, you feel me? I think that people might think we have beef with each other but no, I do not feel threated by anyone, I feel threated by the cops, haha, shit, but my own people, come on, homes. But they do talk shit, so, the best way to deal, is to come together and defend each other.
Trucha’s interview provided the most passionate reactions from any of my participants. At one point he began to raise his voice and became teary eyed as he spoke about his experiences in the Barrio. He mentioned that he does not want his child to ever have to experience the dirty looks and harassment from “your own people”. He shared the following story, “I did not want to grow up to be a regular worker, and all I wanted was to grow up to be a lawyer. I tried so hard to get good grades I don’t know what happened.” It was an emotional time for Trucha. However, when he was done sharing this story, he firmly said, “Everyone wants to be someone big, and for my child, I mean, come on bro, do you think I want him on the sidewalk being questioned? I want him to become a Doctor, I know he is going to do it, I will teach him about respect and to be a good boy.” Trucha learned that there is power behind collective thinking and organizing and today he uses all of his learned techniques to carve a path for his son. Next, I will bring forth the experiences of Jewels, a participant who I consider to engage the practices of collective resistance.
Jewels’ interview also centered on the idea of collectively resisting hyper- criminalization from representatives of the state and community members. She briefly
43 talked about her opinions on resistance and about some of the strategies young people
deploy to navigate their community. One of the more in depth answers Jewels gave me
resulted from the following question, “How would you describe friends? Close friends or
acquaintances?” She answered, “My friends are my family, and we stick together and
know everything about each other.” She then turned her attention to her relationship with
her best friend. Jewels describes,
If I ever need money for rent, or my mom is in deep shit, I can always call my homegirl and she has my back. We are there for each other, there is no bullshit, no questions asked. People don’t see that, though. But I told you about the fight, when they found out, they were all worried cuz’ the cops could show up any minute.
Jewels body language as she shared how close she is to her friend was very thoughtful,
almost like all of her lived experiences make her reflect on the cultivated solidarity and
undivided commitment that hyper-criminality has produced for her small group. Jewels
close relationships with youth from the barrio provide both negative and positive
outcomes. On the one hand, her close friends (family) will provide monetary relief and
help with her mother. On the other hand, and as Duran (2013) describes, family members
will provide protection for one another even if this protection includes being criminalized
by police and community members. I will now turn my attention towards two participants
that I consider engage the practice of resistance at the level of their individual
capabilities.
Individual Survival
Two young people in this inquiry spoke of moments that highlight resistance at an individual level. Seria and Trips have lived in barrio progreso for some years and shared
44 their experiences with individual methods of resistance. I begin with Trips, who talked
about his personal experience with methods of resistance. I asked, “How does wearing
chargers or padres clothing/gear impact your daily activities or daily routine?” Trips
replied,
I do not know, man. I do know that I cannot wear blue around the neighborhood. If I wear blue, I am for sure to get stopped. What I do is try to wear normal jeans, not baggy and maybe a collar shirt. I think about what I wear all the time. But I try to avoid dressing like Cholos dress in the movies. No one wears the long socks around here that was back in the day.
The fact that Trips has to think about abstaining from presenting himself as a cholo is very telling of structural conditions that point to the formation of an identity that is informed by resisting hyper-criminalization based on appearance and styles of dress.
I proceeded to ask Trips about his opinion on what freedom should be. Trips replied, “I hear people say we live in the land of the free, but nah, that’s not true. I should be able to shave my head during the summer and be cool.” I asked Trips about his experiences with local establishments such as the liquor store, the barbershop and the local indoor swap meet. He responded,
It depends where I go, if I go to the stores, I normally wear my soccer gear and I am cool. For some reason no one minds soccer around here. The swap meet is not as bad, the ladies there know us, and I buy dickies there and white t-shirts. I actually cut my dickies now and don’t do a crease. It’s more casual and doesn’t stand out.
As I was about to ask another question, Trips described his experiences with the local fast food restaurants:
You know what though, most of the people who work at Burger Kings also live here, so they know who we are and are always scared to help us,
45 or I don’t know if they are just shy. So that’s not cool, I always just, if I can, I use the drive-thru.
Next, I asked Trips to give me his opinion on park amenities. He responded:
I do not go to the park as much as I used to when I was younger. I like the park, I play basketball so I like going to the park. But honestly homie, to avoid all the bullshit, we just play basketball in the backyard, I hooked up a rim and we kick it there, no one bugs.
I commented, “So you’d rather do your own thing.” Trips replied,
Hell yea homes, I rather kick it at the pad and do me, that’s why I went out and bought the basketball board, we even have a pool table, we got it on sale, but no one bugs us here.
I asked, “Will you ever go play basketball or visit the park?” he responded,
Nah, for what? I hate going to the park, the other thing too is that cops kick it there and hand stickers to the kids, so stupid. Like is said, I rather do my own thing, I draw too so, sometimes I bust out my pens and draw, it keeps me busy.
After having experienced hyper-criminalization for many years, it is clear that Trips has invented very unique refuge to avoid contact with police and/or community members who have the ability to complicate his life. For Trips, it is better to be secluded from the community, the interview with him showed how young people are pushed away from maintaining positive interactions. This type of individual resistance method showed that, on the one hand, Trips is avoiding conflict with police. And on the other hand, Trips social mobility is jeopardize. This dilemma highlights how criminalization blocks pathways to mobility.
My second participant is Seria, although Seria was talkative and upbeat she also spoke about isolation and highlighted how she has come to avoid hyper-criminalization. I
46 asked her the following question, “How would you describe your everyday activities?”
She replied,
I keep to myself. I do not want to get in trouble. I have friends and we kick it, but I rather kick it outside of here. I love my make up, so we go to the mall a lot, I like it when the girls and I go to San Diego, I go alone sometimes, just to walk, I really don’t mind it there.
I followed up with her response by asking her to explain how it is that she leaves the community. Seria explained, “I feel more comfortable in a place where people do not know who I am, it’s a fresh start almost.” She than explained some of her daily activities
within the context of her community,
I do not know, when I am home I stay in the house and practice my makeup skills, I am good, I want to go to beauty school. I just do me, I go buy queso and carne and all that when my mom sends me. But see, the girls and I used to bring our things and practice in the park, but people would look at us funny, we would get in trouble. Now I just stay home and do it on my own.
Seria, like my other participant also felt that isolation prevents negative interactions with
both police and community members. Seria continued this statement by commenting that
she is now more comfortable than ever but that she misses her friends. Seria stated,
I used to get in trouble a lot, for dumbshit too. And just got fed up, I am tired, everyone here talks, I want to be someone someday, I know I can own a hair studio if I really want to, but I have to do it alone, that’s why I like to practice, I clean my brushes. Do shore around the house, listen to music, but mainly stay inside.
Although Seria stated that she has goals and aspirations, I noticed that most of our
conversation centered on giving up relationships in order to avoid negative interactions
with community members and/or the police. Similar to Trips, Seria’s method of
resistance has potential to affect her upward mobility. Her dreams to become a licensed
47 cosmetologist and one day open her own hair studio required networking with people and
not isolating from the community. I will now move on and analyze how my participants’ unique methods of resistance create inequality for them in barrio progreso.
It Just Isn’t Fair
Practices of hyper-criminalization and surveillance have a powerful and direct
impact on the lives of young people who live in barrio progreso. Young Chicanas/os are faced with a dilemma; they resist the damaging practices that criminalize their being or
comply with punitive measures exercised by both the community and the criminal justice system. Nacofresa’s interview highlights how this dilemma unfolded in the everyday interactions between young people, community members, and police officers. Nacofresa, a young male who lives in the barrio believed that officers have a job to do, he mentioned,
Bro, check this, I know that we misbehave, everyone knows that, but I also think that we are not that bad. But here, it is easy to get in trouble; everything we do is bad, so yeah we get in trouble. The other day I went for a run and almost ran into a lady and she got super upset, calling me names, a fucking accident, damn.
I quickly asked, “Just for running? He responded,
Yes, running got me in trouble with this lady. I started running to the beach instead, is not that far. I saw one of the officers who makes a visit here and he was like, “what are you doing here, go back home” so, you know, I try to do regular things but, nope.
Rosenbaum (1981) argued that the preferred tactic to colonization for the majority of
Méxicanas/os from 1846 to 1916 included spatial and social separation from the Anglo
community. In barrio progreso the barrio is spatially segregated from whites, and since
criminality is synonymous with brown bodies, young Chicanas/os are controlled even
48 when they leave the barrio. Nacofresa’s experience was important as it demonstrated the collective and informal participation between police and community to criminalize young
people even when they attempt to “come correct” as many of them say.
Nacofresa’s interview presented how young people who resist the power structure
are faced with deeply rooted criminalization practices. This young man, a resister, found
it proper to avoid interactions with the community. He resisted by way of removing himself from the space only to be corrected by a police officer who forced Nacofresa
back into a criminalized space, that is, barrio progreso. This interaction shows how a
culture of hyper-criminalization is currently in full effect in the daily operations of the
barrio.
Inventing Hope
Young men and women who live in barrio progreso struggle to navigate the
community, as they constantly feel the pressures of hyper-criminalization employed by
both representatives of the state and from non-criminal justice structures. Although the
majority of my interviewees highlighted how navigating the community is difficult and at
times depressing, it was interesting to listen to them and to learn about techniques they
have developed at and individual and collective level in order to overcome some of the
central causes affecting them in their living space.
After listening to my participants talk about hyper-criminalization, it is clear that
the lines between the state and non-criminal justice structures are increasingly becoming
blurred. Demonio said it best, “La Doña de la tienda just needs a badge, fuck, and she is
way strict, I don’t even feel comfortable in her store.” My participants indicated that they
49 constantly experience punishment from community members and that past experiences tend to mark the path of young people who live in barrio progreso, creating tension between young people and the community.
Although I have identified how the community employs similar control tactics like the criminal justice system, I want to make sure I state that the community-at-large is equally impacted by the measures deployed from the criminal justice system. Defacto agents of law enforcement who live in the barrio and are able to exercise power have developed techniques to punish and control young people. Many of these techniques are informed by the interactions between young people in the community with representatives of the state. Individuals who live in the barrio learn to criminalize certain bodies by way of observing some of the central tactics deployed by the aforementioned structure of punishment. I will now address the central meaning behind these findings and what they represent in the sociological body of knowledge, whether these findings present a culture of hyper-criminalization, as well as how this research can be taken further.
Conclusion
This study investigated how hyper-criminalization impacts the identity of young
Chicanas/os who live in a Barrio in Southern California. This research brings forth the
stories of young people who experience mechanism of hyper-criminalization. Young
Chicanas/os discussed how they experienced hyper-criminalization from the criminal
justice system and from community members. Some of my participants invented unique ways to resist some of the oppressive practices embedded in their everydayness.
50 Collectively, young people advised each other about policing and even assisted one
another in order to avoid formal and informal punishment. Individually, two of my
participants create refuge to stay away from interactions that they consider problematic.
My participants also provided me with nuanced perspectives detailing practices of
hyper-criminalization employed by the state and the community. Institutions that are
traditionally intended to nurture (i.e., schools, families, community centers) showed
similar punitive practices as the criminal justice system. That is, young people in barrio
progreso experienced punishment and control from both structures. Perhaps an
unintended consequence, hyper-policing has created a punishment machine that is
internalized and deployed informally by members of the community to criminalize and
control young bodies.
My findings suggest three things about hyper-criminalization in barrio x. First, young people who experience hyper-criminalization and live in barrios marked by a
heavy police presence learn to develop unique techniques to avoid formal and informal
punishment. Participants, such as Seria explained how she has come to find ways to stay
“under the radar.” Seria mentioned, “I like staying in, I don’t have to deal with anyone
who doesn’t want to deal with me, we are all good.” This type of response to hyper-
criminalization is a problem for young people who live in the barrio. While isolation
helps people remain “under the radar” it also blocks youth’s chances of mobility. Second,
community members tend to display learned techniques from representatives of the state regarding control and punishment. These practices include harassing young men and
women who live in the barrio and displaying signs in local markets that limit young
51 people from shopping. And lastly, resisting hyper-criminalization creates unequal
treatment for young people who live in the barrio. The young men and women, then, are faced with a dilemma. Comply with the demands of authority figures, and become
pleasantly obedient, and suffer the accompanying loss of identity and self-esteem. Or,
resist this hyper-criminalization in ways that further criminalize them. My interviews
with young men highlight how this very dilemma figures prominently in not only how
they come to view themselves, but also the world in which they find themselves trapped.
I will now address how hyper-criminalization deployed from community members is a
process informed by the interactions between the state and young people.
My findings suggest that members of the community have adopted similar
punitive styles to those used by police officers. The literature suggests that non-criminal
justice structures heavily police young men and women. In the case of barrio progreso
however, the community has come to learn how to incapacitate young people by way of
observing the interactions between police and the community. Demonio’s testimony
about the incident that unfolded in the barbershop highlights how young men are aware of their surroundings particularly when they have acquired experiential knowledge about
a subject matter. Demonio is a prime example of how a negative interaction with
community members marks the life of a young person, permanently.
Knowledge produced by this research can be further analyzed in a detailed
account where the experiences of community members and police are examined and
critically deconstructed. As I mentioned in the introduction, I have lived experiences that
highlight how our communities are continuously pushed towards a culture of hyper-
52 criminalization. I am reminded of a quote by Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy
Industries, “Sometimes resilience arrives in the moment you discover your own unshakable goodness.” Resilience to an unjust power structure comes in many forms, we must collectively seek to alleviate the damages done to our communities and improve the human condition.
53 (APPENDIX A)
INFORMED CONSENT
Sociology Department California State University San Marcos 333 S. Twin Oaks Valley Road
Consent to Participate in Research
Invitation to Participate
J. Stalin Plascencia, a Graduate student in the department of Sociology at The California State University of San Marcos (CSUSM), is conducting a study that seeks to better understand the concept of identity in Chicana/o communities. This study has one principle objective: 1. To explain and understand the concept of identity in communities that are hyper-criminalized and hyper-surveilled.
Description of Procedures
I will administer a series of questions that will help me tell a meaningful story about the lives of Chicanas/os who live in the community that I have mentioned. The interview process will take about one hour to complete. Once the interview is completed, you will have every right to ask the researcher questions. After this has occurred, you will be debriefed; the debriefing process will include complete details about the study as well as an opportunity for the participant to ask questions.
Risk and Inconveniences: There are minimal risks to participating in this study:
1. Loss of personal time necessary to complete the interview. 2. Recalling traumatic or distressing events could be a distressing activity, causing some level of suffering for the participants. 3. A breach of confidentiality may occur if the information is not safeguarded properly.
Safeguards: Risks and inconveniences will be minimized as follows:
54
1. You will be provided with enough time to set aside one to two hours of the day in order to carry out a significant interview. 2. The interview will be carried out as a fluid conversation in regards to the topics at hand. The study does not function within the parameters of right or wrong, lived experiences are valuable and will be regarded as such in this study. 3. You may choose not to answer a specific question or stop the interview at any time with no consequences. 4. Data will be protected inside a safe and will only be available to Dr. Xuan Santos and myself. Upon completing the research project all data and documents will be destroyed. 5. Pseudonyms will make it possible to safeguard important information. 6. Confidentiality will be maintained and you will not be traceable.
Voluntary Participation
Your participation is voluntary, and you may withdraw from the study at any time. If the interview is too long, you may withdraw at any time. If you choose to withdrawal from the study, there will not be any negative consequences.
Benefits
Your participation will help me construct a positive narrative about Chicana/o who live in areas that are criminalized and surveilled. Your participation will also contribute to the research of this field by facilitating an examination of the effects of hyper-criminalization and hyper-policing on ones’ identity.
Questions/Contact Information The California State University San Marcos Institutional Review Board (IRB) has approved this study. If you have any questions in regards to the project, you may direct those to the researcher, J. Stalin Plascencia-Castillo, [email protected], (760)637-4317, or the researcher’s advisor, Dr. Xuan Santos, [email protected], (760)750-8031. Questions about your rights as a research participant should be directed to the IRB office at (760) 750-4029.
□ I agree to participate in this research study
______Participant’s Name Date ______Participant’s Signature ______Researcher’s Signature
55 (APPENDIX B)
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. How would you describe your barrio/neighborhood? 2. How do you feel about the rules in your neighborhood? a. How would you describe those who enforce the law? b. How would you describe your experiences with them? c. How do you imagine others feel about the police? 3. Describe how the police interacts with people in your community? a. How do they speak with people in the community? b. How would you describe the police? c. How do they look? d. How do they treat people you know? 4. Have you ever had experiences with an officer? a. How would you describe this experience? b. How were you feeling when you were stopped by the police? c. How did the situation ended? 5. Some argue that certain communities have “gang” problems and that it makes sense to pay close attention to these communities. How do you feel about this? a. How would you describe your community to others? 6. How do feel about the marijuana shop that opened in the neighborhood? 7. How do you feel the police treat non-gang members or their friends? 8. How do you think youth are treated in this neighborhood compared to others such as Encinitas and Carlsbad? 9. How does the police affect people who live here? a. How do you know? b. How do you feel about them? 10. How do these experiences influence your attitudes towards other people who live in the community and/or police officers? 11. How would you describe how the police treats you, and communicate with you on the streets? 12. How does the community feel about police presence? 13. In your opinion, how can people’s attitudes of the police change or remain the same? 14. How would you describe your group of friends? 15. How would you describe trust? 16. How do you and your friends feel you are treated by local businesses? 17. How do you imagine people from other places describe your neighborhood? a. How are people influenced to think this way? b. Can you give me an example?
56 18. How do you and your friends feel about events sponsored by the police department in the neighborhood? 19. Is there anything that you feel I should have asked you or is there anything else you want to add?
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