Santa Ana Gang Members Step Outside Turf, Call for Peace : Violence: Representatives tell others to stop drive-by shootings or face retribution in prison by so-called Mexican Mafia inmates.

About 200 members of Orange County’s warring gangs sought to broaden their peace efforts Friday by venturing for the first time outside of Santa Ana to call for an end to gang violence.

During a meeting in a church parking lot, a man who declined to give his name approached various gangs and warned them to stop drive-by shootings or else they would face the wrath of the so-called Mexican Mafia when they are arrested and imprisoned, gang members said.

Anthony Garcia, a 14-year-old member of an Orange gang, said the man identified himself as a representative of La EME. “He told us that if anybody was in any drive-by, he would be dealt with in jail,” Garcia said. “Not the whole gang, but that one guy.”

A 20-year-old man, who belongs to a Santa Ana gang, said his group received the same warning and will heed it. “You don’t mess with La EME, you don’t mess with those guys,” he said.

The warnings came after recent reports that the Mexican Mafia prison gang--known simply as La EME, Spanish for the letter M--has ordered thousands of Latino gang members to halt drive-by shootings. Under the new rules, gangs are allowed to attack rivals with whom they have a personal grudge, but they have been instructed to do it face-to-face, taking care not to harm bystanders.

La EME’s edict has been delivered in recent months to gang rallies across the Southland--similar to the Anaheim meeting on Friday.

Jessie Arredondo, a leader of the United Barrio Council, which in January, 1992, launched an effort to broker peace among gangs, acknowledged that the Mexican Mafia played a significant role in calling for a truce among Orange County gangs.

“They just thought that if they (broke) the peace, then the older guys in jail would start beating up the (younger) guys in jail who got involved in drive-bys,” Arredondo said. “A lot (of them) got caught and were beaten. We (the United Gang Council) have no control of what happens in the jail system.”

Del Espinosa, another leader of the United Barrio Council, said the group decided to hold Friday’s meeting after a rash of drive-by and gang-related shootings in Stanton, Newport Beach, Orange and Santa Ana during the last two weeks.

He referred to the fatal shooting of a 64-year-old grandmother who died in her Santa Ana driveway a week ago after she was caught in a shootout between suspected gang members.

“What happened to her should not happen anywhere,” Espinosa said. “We have to get the message out that this has got to stop.”

Friday’s gang meeting resembled a pep rally with performances from the Chicano rap group, M.C. Boulevard, and a pep talk by lightweight boxing contender Ernesto Tobias, a former gang member.

The rap group exhorted gang members to “stop committing genocide upon our very own race.”

And Tobias, who drove up to the parking lot of St. Boniface Catholic Church in a stretch limousine, urged gang members to give up violence.

Said Tobias, “I lost my mother, she was a tecata (heroin addict). I lost my brother and my father to gang shootings. . . . I’d rather my son be a nerd than be a cool guy on Death Row.”

The meeting also marked the first time that female gang members joined their male counterparts in a peace rally. About five female members showed up, but they declined to be interviewed.

Several gang members said they supported the call for peace.

“It’s about time we start taking care of our own,” said an 18-year-old youth who identified himself only as Oso.

Gabby Chavez, 17, of Anaheim, said, “I like what they’re doing (because) it’s a lot better than shooting at each other.”

Father John Lenihan, pastor of St. Boniface, said he gave permission to hold the meeting in the church’s parking lot “because this is neutral ground for them. They feel safe because it’s sacred church grounds and they don’t have to worry that they’ll be shot at here,” he said.