Magazine With a Message : Magazine: Barrio Warriors seeks to counteract gangs by raising self-esteem and community pride while emphasizing college and career.

The front cover of Barrio Warriors is the first hint that you won’t find light reading in this new community-written magazine.

It pictures eight young men, all staring unflinchingly into the camera. Some are carrying rifles, the others schoolbooks. And at bottom are the words: “Weapons of Wisdom Over Weapons of Death.”

This stark theme runs through the entire 52-page Barrio Warriors, a privately supported, nearly advertising-free publication making its debut in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The magazine is aimed at school-age Latinos and is being distributed largely by members of the college and high-school student organization MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan).

“We see this as a special magazine with a very special personal message,” said publisher Gus Frias, 33, who long has been active in crime-prevention education projects in both counties.

The overall message of Barrio Warriors is a classic one for ethnic-minority activists: Raise self-esteem and ethnic community pride, set sights squarely on college and a career.

In this, Frias has mixed more down-to-earth goals: Steer young people away from potential crime, deglamorize gang involvement, and point out what he calls the self-destructive nature of gangs.

The quarterly magazine, which Frias characterizes as a “strictly grass-roots” volunteer effort, includes short commentaries, poems and essays written by Latino educators, professionals and community activists throughout the state. The project has been launched with $20,000 in private donations; the first-issue run is 10,000 copies, Frias said.

Although the regular per-copy price is $5, Frias said most of the debut issue will be given away to ensure maximum outreach to the magazine’s prime audience. He expects that, while later issues will also be given away or sold at sharply reduced prices to many barrio youths, the magazine will become self-supporting as various organizations buy it in bulk.

“The timing for this magazine is really crucial,” said Frias, noting that gang membership has increased to an estimated 100,000 in Los Angeles County and 10,000 in Orange County.

“We know that young people join gangs for many of the same reasons they join other groups. They seek identity, respect, belonging and support,” said Frias, who since 1987 has managed a drug and crime prevention program under the Orange County Department of Education. (The magazine is not connected to his county job, he said.)

The attraction of gangs is often reinforced by the glamorizing images of them on television and rock videos, he said. This shows up in the fast-growing number of “gang emulators”--youth groups not involved in criminal activities but that have adopted gang-like dress and other customs. The danger is that many such groups may escalate to criminal behavior, Frias said.

For these reasons, Frias said the need is more urgent than ever for more preventive educational projects aimed at the high-school age population.

This is where a magazine like Barrio Warriors comes in, Frias said--”a no-nonsense, straight-talking” format that underscores the dehumanizing, unheroic aspects of gangs.

The style is pure staccato: short bursts of highly intense, ethnically proud language that speaks directly to barrio-raised readers.

There is an essay, “Please God, I’m Only 13,” that depicts a boy, shot to death in a gang clash, speaking from the grave.

And the poem “Run Homeboy Run,” penned by Frias, opens with this warning:

Don’t let the (gang) madness catch up to you,

Run homeboy, run!

Don’t let death get a hold of you,

Run homeboy, run!

The magazine is written only in English, which Frias said was intentional:

“We’re aiming at the youths--almost all of them born and raised here. Even so, one purpose is to provide another publication to reinforce using and reading English, not Spanish.”

Frias maintained there is no other magazine like Barrio Warriors--one devoted solely to the gang issue and written and packaged in a street youth-oriented manner: “All you have out there, for the guys to read, are ‘low-rider’ (car) magazines.

“We’re talking the same (street) language, but with an entirely different purpose. . . .

“Hey, we don’t expect the guys to read it right out there on the streets. We’re hoping they will take it home with them, mull it over, let it sink in.”

In Barrio Warriors, the gang-connected dark side is profusely illustrated. There are charts displaying the mounting gang-related homicide rate and depictions of funerals and grieving families. There is a photograph of a slaying victim in his casket.

“We figure what’s going to catch the attention of these guys are pictures, and more pictures, with people and families they can identify with--and maybe even feel a sense of the grief and tragedy of these senseless deaths,” Frias said.

But as the dramatic counterpoint, Barrio Warriors also presents an unmistakably hopeful side: sketches of Latino achievers in education, business, government and community service and other career fields.

“What we’re telling (readers) is that they do have a choice--and a very clear one,” Frias said. “They can find those same things--identity and group belonging--and much more away from the gang environment. They can become true leaders in their community.”

It is a far from impossible dream, as Barrio Warriors likes to show.

“Some of the role models (in the magazine) have been to hell and back,” Frias said. “But they survived. They changed. They made it--in college and in careers.”

The second issue, due out in February, is already in the works, Frias said, with articles that will also discuss role models for African-Americans and for Asian immigrants. He said he is confident that enough private underwriting will be found for future issues.

It’s too early to gauge the impact of the new magazine, which is just now making the rounds of the neighborhoods and other areas, Frias maintained.

In a recent attempt to get on-the-spot reactions, Frias distributed free copies to several Anaheim gang members, who said they have been involved in shootings with rival gangs.

As the youths stood around a neighborhood street corner, scanning the magazine, most seemed engrossed by the contents but remained noncommittal about the publication.

“It’s interesting, OK?,” said Philip, 18, who asked that his full name not be used. “It gives you a lot to think about.”

Alex, 18, said he agreed with the emphasis on education.

“Yeah, a lot of us dropped out, but some of us have gone back (to continuation high school). We know we need that diploma to get the jobs,” said Alex, who hopes to land a job with one of the federally supported job programs.

Paul, 18, glanced at the magazine and then said: “You can’t stay out here (with gangs) forever. You have to do something else with your life, right?”

Then Paul, who said he served 8 months in prison for shooting at members of a rival gang (no one was hit), added, “But you can’t wait too long. You can’t wait until you’re 6 feet under--when you’re no good to anyone.”

For a moment, he stared at the pallbearer funeral scene on the magazine’s back cover. “I didn’t want to put (my parents) through something like this. I didn’t want to have them grieve like this.”