Speaker Tries to Debunk Stereotypes of Latino Gangs

All Latino gang members are cholos , but not all cholos are gang members.

There is a difference between immigrants and Latinos who were born in the United States.

And violence is not a hereditary trait passed down through generations of Latinos.

That was the part of the message delivered Saturday by anthropologist James Diego Vigil as he attempted to debunk some of the stereotypes about Latino gangs during a daylong workshop at Cal State Fullerton on multiculturalism in education.

Vigil, an associate professor at USC who has studied street gangs in Southern California, said that police officers, teachers and the news media are among those who fall victim to the “he looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, so he must be a duck” syndrome. Such thinking leads to many Latinos being falsely classified as gang members, he said.

“Even among the ducks, you have Daisy Duck, Donald Duck and Daffy Duck,” Vigil noted facetiously, to make his point that there are many subcultures among the Latino population. Of the scores of minority youngsters he has interviewed for numerous studies, he added, only 4% to 10% actually turn out to be gang members.

Vigil said that cholos --those who are in a cultural transition between their Mexican roots and the new Anglo-oriented society--are often misidentified as gang members.

The factors that turn Latinos into gang members are diverse, but grounded on social and economic conditions, Vigil said. “The immigrants do not come here with a gang mentality from Mexico to do something that’s born in the cities of the U.S.”

New immigrants, for example, move to areas where no one else wants to live, and take low-paying jobs that no one else wants to perform, the anthropologist said.

Considered among the “working poor,” Vigil said they are part of a society that feels “disenfranchised, fragmented, segmented, and really ground up, and in many instances have lost their coping skills.”

Having trouble adjusting, they join the longstanding neighborhood gangs. Other gang members also may have experienced a “breakdown of social control,” such as living in a single-parent household with little supervision and guidance, Vigil said.

But institutions also make mistakes that can further a youth’s involvement in a gang rather than dissuade it, he added.

For example, Vigil noted that if neighbors see a youngster being treated as a gang member by police officers, then the incident affirms his gang membership.

“Teachers are no different than police officers,” Vigil said, pointing to the results of a recent Stanford University study showing that high dropout rates among Latinos are largely attributable to “teacher attitude.”

“If you expect someone in class not to perform, then that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” he said, adding that teachers need to learn more about the backgrounds of their students to help improve class performance.

Two factors that can draw a person out of gang activities are a job and a girlfriend or wife, Vigil said. “A good job and someone who cares for them.”

Vigil praised President Bush for reversing his predecessor’s policy and increasing funding for the Head Start program. But he added that funding has not reached about 30% to 40% of the children who qualify and would benefit from the program.