The Marvelous Ones

Drugs, Gang Violence, and Resistance in East Los Angeles
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-0-520-29509-4
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 344 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 224 mm, Gewicht: 454 g

An intimate portrait of LA gang members turning to drugs, nostalgia, and religion as they age and fight to stay relevant in a new era.

Once celebrated in the gang world as rebels who defied the established prison order, veterano Maravilla gang members now grapple with the consequences of leading violent and drug-ridden lives. At once thrilling and tender, The Marvelous Ones sheds light on how these aging gang members struggle to stay meaningful in the face of addiction, violent trauma, and a rapidly changing East Los Angeles.

Randol Contreras spent close to a decade studying the legendary Maravilla gangs of East LA, who made waves in the 1990s for their rebellion against the most powerful prison gang in the United States: the Mexican Mafia, or La Eme. These men granted Contreras unique access to their experiences, revealing how family members shun them, how jail and prison worsen them, how the church and drug treatment redeem them, and how their brightest moments lie in their pasts as legends of the California gang world. The Marvelous Ones gives human faces to the suffering and resilience of some of the most marginalized members of our society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Contreras, Randol

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde
• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kriminalsoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

I · Becoming Greenlighters
1 The Birth of East LA

2 La Vida Loca

3 The Greenlight

II · Mattering in the World
4 In the Name of Jesus

5 The Streets

6 Make East LA Great Again!

III · Dealing with Change
7 Negotiating Race, Aging, and Fatherhood

8 Mattering No More

Final Thought

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Randol Contreras is Associate Professor of Sociology and of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside.