Where do gangs come from?

BY DORIS DEPAZ

In Los Angeles, San Francisco, Texas, New York
and Washington, DC, gangs have taken over whole
neighborhoods, committing all sorts of crimes. The whole country is alert to the social instability caused by these destructive elements. Human rights activist Guadalupe Rodriguez talked with Voice Newspapers about this growing problem.

According to Rodriguez, researching gang origins in the United States would lead to an analysis of the roots of poverty in America, a continent stretching from Tierra del Fuego in Chile all the way to the snowy mountains of Alaska. Various newspapers have already written about the origins of gangs: some say it's the lack of parental discipline, an emotional distancing between generations or even a product of the Cold War.

One thing the newspapers seem to agree on, says Rodriguez, is that tougher laws need to be written to deal with juvenile delinquents who threaten social stability on a daily basis. However, they don't realize that the exorbitant sums that this country spends in creating violence in other countries forces thousands of families to leave their homes and seek "refuge" in this great "democracy."

Rodriguez speaks of the hundreds of U.S. corporations that have invaded poor countries looking for cheap labor without contributing to the economic development of these countries. With low wages, families cannot afford to live in humane conditions. Corrupt local politicians along with their shameless supporters leave the majority of the population at the mercy of foreigners who plunder the country's natural resources. Resources that would be better used to benefit local inhabitants. Media here in the U.S. tends to ignore the dreams of low income immigrants to escape from poverty.

The media doesn't recognize the gangs of multinationals committing crimes in so called third world countries, gangs with origins in the U.S., the richest country in the world.

The countries of Central and South America, Rodriguez points out, have suffered wars financed and orchestrated by the same country that looks down on the immigrants arriving here in poverty and ignorance. All they know is the suffering they have experienced. Suffering, says Rodriguez, that no human being should have to endure. Nobody wants to leave their land, their relatives, their culture, but many are forced to because of the economic measures supposedly taken to improve social conditions. The worst part, says Rodriguez, is when fellow Latinos look down on the new arrivals and shun them.

Today the United States is faced with the destruction within that arises from social injustice, greed and corruption, says Rodriguez. Here Congress debates what country to invade next, what social services to cut here for lack of funds.

Rodriguez calls on journalists to look at gang members and analyze what has been denied to them since before birth. Pregnant women in maquiladoras (factories), markets, countrysides devastated by wars.

Instead of seeing gang members merely as delinquents, try seeing them as victims, she says. U.S. society has an enormous debt to the well-being of the desperate young arriving here from other countries.

One local high school student from Central America, Ernesto Pineda, calls on all parents to protect and guide their children away from gangs.

Familiar with gang activity in Silver Spring, Pineda encourages young people to seek constructive activities. "Dance, draw, sing, write, take pictures," he says.

He believes this country does offer opportunities through community centers, but parents and young people have to make the effort to seek out a better future.