- 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.