Boyle Heights Barrios

The gang that is dominant in this neighborhood that I grew up in is Kam and that's Mexican krazee-eyez and I think BBS means bolder street which is one of the clinics that you run into gangs all the time here so it's A bit difficult. when you're a kid not to be a gang member, what's up with this? Yeah, I'm going to, what are you doing now? I'm going to uh, this is my friend, it's Todd, he's eaten up this internet vlogging, so I was just showing him like I was going to take him around the neighborhood and show him some of the historical landmarks of Boyle Heights or whatever.

I am a partner at the moment. Come see what happens. I'm just looking. Hey, is that okay? Park I'll go back right now, but I lived in that house, that's the house I grew up in. I lived at his house before his mom let me stay there. It's nice to hang out here all the time and I. I have lived in this house on the upper balcony. Nice, nice, okay, that devil's drug. I used to pay for those two rooms, they're all old you know, but they're nice. The 2400 block of Cincinnati Street, this is the street I grew up on.

VI D my name is David my sister Tanya put these clothes here the house I grew up in here 24/7 seems fine my friend the best dog there is the gang that is dominant in this neighborhood the one I grew up in his chamber and that's Crazy Mexican and BBS I think means bolder street which is one of the clique members under that's the name of the guys that showed up right there my family was here before the game, so I don't know. No, I'm not a gang member? You know the same thing, but I know how to read the writing on the wall, just be aware of where I'm going.

These are the people on Avenue and there was a meat market, there was a movie theater right there. There was a liquor store behind that there was an apartment. I remember one kid, a lot of the guys from the mortal duplicates of him were hanging out in this out of town and if you remember the colors of the movie, there's a scene where Pac-Man grabs this kid and he. sprays him in the face with green spray paint that was around the corner, right here on that wall, that mural, but now all those people who paid me for it are gone because I think they thought they were going to build the line golden in César Chávez before they built on First Street or not, it was an excuse to get rid of the people you know, business people who generally planted for 30 40 years in the stars of the bank.

I've been here since I was a kid, I remember. I remember being here, this mural is new, although I haven't seen this bear. I don't know who he is, but he's pretty cool. All these vacant lots used to be like houses and apartments and they go from I think it's Picket Street. I realized that there are one, two, three, four, five, six blocks to where De Soto is. This used to be all residential, people living here. Lots of gangsters. I don't know if to see these destroyed, I'm willing to get rid of the gangs. I am King. taco here on the corner of Cesar Chavez and just, from what I know, this used to be a gas station, they sell a lot of food, it's popular, they have two locations, he had the outside location and the inside.

I make it like tacos. like Kentucky we are now on the corner of what used to be Brooklyn Avenue and Soto, this is César Chávez Avenue now they changed it in dedication to César Chávez, the guy who organized the Farm Workers Union here in the United States, he was a big influence for Mexican Americans and here across the street this person owes me this is the Ramírez pharmacy. I first got there at the age of 12. It's just a sweet treat to mop the floors and run the cash register. I worked on it for about two years and they. it really helped me get off the streets and this is titled big enough and it's my paul botello it's from 1992 i was here before they painted this mirror this is mr.

Haiti Ramírez and I worked for him, he is the one who gave me paychecks when I was a child. Here is a tool that people know about. I read someone on the Internet who thought this was César Chávez. This is actually the owner's face. from this pharmacy mr. Ramirez and his wife, a lot of people don't know, but I was here when it was happening, so that's Mr. and the lady, his marriage, he already passed away, you know, but he's a good guy in the community, let's talk about this, he's cha cha, I think he grew up there like in the town of Aliso or in People Gardens, but he's from Boyle Heights, Is he a very, very famous graffiti artist or is he, I don't know, I don't call my taggers video artists, but this is the man, right?

I think he sells t-shirts online that just say Chuck, that's cool, you know? If you're from the neighborhood, you know? You remember the story of him and how you wrote a lot of graffiti from Los Angeles to all of California. I'm talking about he did a lot. You just have to search on Google. Google. Chaka George's burgers now, when he was a kid, he would come. here all the time and get the Georges special or the chili cheese fries at 11:00 at night they were good but they made me sick but you know they are very heavy but very good food.

They're checking the Boyle Heights area. take out George's burgers now we're here on Green Street Flemish we'll show you the gap to show what's one of the oldest Jewish synagogues that was here, they cut down, they closed in 1987, but it's one of the largest synagogues west of Chicago that has been closed. since 1987 due to infrastructure problems like earthquakes, it is a historic building so they can't. I don't think they could take him down as a kid. I was actually a misfit and we went in there, so I've been in there. There used to be a lot of pigeons and graffiti everywhere, but now that I'm an adult I couldn't appreciate it for what it's worth as an architectural landmark for the Boyle Heights community.

This is the second one. The elementary school I attended was called Sheridan when it came out of the Matrix school, nowadays we already have a gang member mentality, we couldn't even wear the Raiders jersey as the school needs to make those jerseys backwards. There is a different era back then. that's the Sheridan Street Elementary School logo, but I saw, I remember I always wanted to sell chocolate bars and I couldn't because we don't have money to know, so you have to pay for the candy in advance and then I would give it to you, but the beginning in At that time I think his name was Mr.

Baker, he wanted to keep me out of trouble and he said, "You know what, here, I can't, these boxes of candy." I used to hang out on the corner of Brooklyn and Soto and I remember selling like 350 chocolate bars in twos. days and I was probably like 11 years old and they were impressed with that so that's a lot of candy to move in two days, but those are active corners, but yeah, I don't know if it's a memory that I have of coming to school and then. This is also for those of you who know that I rap.

This is the first place where I was introduced to rap music and hip-hop. One of my friends came and rapped the Beastie Boy song. The next day I came to school and I was like, I was able to do that and I found a tape and I memorized it and I took it to the schoolyard the next day and I started rapping and I was in second grade when I did it. This is Malabar Street Primary School and on this one the logo is a bear, see the bear with anyone who remembers if they came right away, remember to see the bear with the sweatshirt on the M, that's another bar, a helicopter circling around the area, to see, there are some police officers here, this is it, this is the limit of Boyle Heights.

In East Los Angeles we are already here, following Lorena, but I wanted to stop here. If you're familiar with the movie Blood in Blood Out, this is a pine tree this big and letting out blood, they call it the pine tree and it was. It was a famous piece in the movie that made the character remember that she was home when he saw her. It was like a landmark on East LA oil, yes sir, that's on the edge of the East LA boy lights, it's actually Larina Street dividing the two. areas, but it's really cool, a lot of interesting Mexican culture, there's a lot of Mexican music, as you know, special Mexican sweets, they make urns, a lot of leather work there and then I'll also take you to the cemetery, you can see.

That here is the Evergreen Cemetery, it is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles. I'll enjoy talking about it because this is the neighborhood I grew up in, so you're proud of it. This is another. There is one more Reiter gang that says gage and. I guess I don't know what handi means, there's always a lot of tagging teams in these neighborhoods and then they end up getting incorporated into gangs and then I see the writing on the wall that says huh, that body sense, oh, big danger. that's where we're going to come in right now, we're just going to circle around and go through their projects real quick, but this is the Hazzard Park area.

I've been here for years, but they're, you know, a big white wall and it says danger and old English I don't know big I rented it all, be careful in the past, there must have been a big sign saying it on the wall right there, you'll probably get that sign. I care, I'll stop like in front. It was a great sweep in his hair. I didn't stay here or take that much risk because look, you got a tan on the 101 right here, you know, so I didn't really cross here, the freeways work like imaginary ones. borders, you know, that's where separate things are found.

I think you know this side of the ten is better than the south side of the 10 is like south central or this side of the 110 is better than this side of the 110 and you can see it. This is a guess here like a Catholic school on the corner of Evergreen and Winter Street and my dad went here when he was a kid and we're going to go here on a peak here too, which is right up the street so the story is that when my dad he was a child he stole a soft drink from Tepeyac and this was in the 1950s and the nun tasted it so the nun took him back to his yak chapter and told the owner the owner said okay, come back here when after school I leave you to put to work so he can pay for this soda that you stole so after school he came back he thought he was in trouble and the owner told him to give him a burrito and another soda and don't do it.

Worry about that, you know, since then my dad always wanted to come to eat at Tepeyac and his name was Manuel and the owner was named Manny, so he felt like there was that connection there for him in that photo that is the former owner when Te I say we are here in Tepeyac and well, today we are going to have breakfast, this is something that we built on our tour of Boyle Heights to come eat some Mexican food and we will bring you some. plate or whatever you know and you don't take it to go either or whatever go to Monte Plaza and then from there we will go to my column back mark those are quite close to each other this is the first neighborhood of apartments on the street and for the psi man on the floor especially this building was famous this is where they filmed American Meet this is where they almost ruled and then this is where they stayed this is where they had the party and this is the building he lived in in the movie this is a paper posted on your graffiti so this is VP F and then audio through metal floors and that's the first street gang here in Boyle Heights and it's like a big roll call and then that's probably their clip right there and then this is me, this is Ciego fresco and then it's also cloudy right here in the Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights at First Street and Boyle Avenue.

This is a historic place here because it shows the Mexican-American influence here in Boyle Heights and how the community's influence changed from being multi-ethnic. to be more than 95% Chicano Mexican American, so there you see some of them are actually guys that are getting ready, they are here to hire you, so you could come here, like if you have a party today, you can come and negotiate with them. and have them come play at your party. Mariachi music originates from the Jalisco state of Mexico and that show just shows the influence of what part of Mexico was predominant here in Boyle Heights so guys we're here at Hollenbeck Park this The park is where you're famous and It has a similar history to MacArthur Park when I was a junior.

People come here all the time and get into fights after school because as far as I know this park is predominantly like the Four Flats neighborhood, we're going to get to know it here. Who is claiming this park just by looking at the graffiti? There is writing on the wall. This is MC Force. Then it's Michigan Chicano Force, which is across First Street. I don't know, they're reclaiming this neighborhood, but they have graffiti there. The walls here grew up in the neighborhood since there are many different streets, like there is a Chicago street, I think there is a Houston street.

I grew up on the street in Cincinnati, there is a street in Michigan. You would identify certain people from what gang or neighborhood they were from. the sports team t-shirts with shirts that the gangs would wear like I knew New York the gangster guys at V&E would wear a lot of New York clothes the kids at H Street would wear whatever shirt the kids had to hate The ones on the floors would wear things from the Falcons because there's a head that figures out, you know what I'm saying, things as different as that and when we were kids, that's how we identified which subgroup they were associated with, there's anotherlabel and say a target.

The fence we have, so I don't know if this park right now is tied between different neighborhoods, you know, but I don't see them crossed out and then on this side, we have Michigan Chicano force again, so I don't know, maybe They are sharing the park. I don't know at this moment. We are at the back of Pico. Gardening projects would be like forestry projects. This is Clarence Street. on Clarence Street and we're passing right under this one, the old 6th Street Bridge in Boyle Heights, the Isis guy is just east of downtown Los Angeles, so there are about six bridges that will cross the Los Angeles River and connect Boyle Heights with downtown Los Angeles and this is One of the new bridges they are building and completing new designs so that people can walk and run across.

It will be like a beautiful jewel that connects downtown to the east side or on Glass Street. Now if I remember correctly, this is the mod team. TMC's area I don't know how active they still are this is still the mafia team never until you see the vtm to see that okay there is another different gang Neru they are here they just don't see any TMT that the team of the mafia here for the first TMC street emoticon that they are quick village projects and they are all redone and new, they probably were, I don't know, they were probably built in the 30s and then redone like in 2000, this is home.

On the first three floors, there used to be the East Coast Crips and there was some blood at least in the town's Bloods a long time ago, but as they became more and more Chicano, those gangs ended up moving out of this area, a gang in the middle. between the two floors they don't get along with each other, so they're kind of in the middle of their rival enemy, so it's a bit of a tricky situation, you know, you can't leave your little two-block radius before he shows up. and then they moved to Cincinnati Street, they used to live here closer to Prospect Park, but in the '40s they were building the highways at the 5, 10, and 60 interchange, so they ended up buying the house on Cincinnati Street and moved, but he He was telling me that when he was a kid, most of the Mexican community congregated here around the Prospect Park area, it's all open water energy, this used to be Brooklyn Avenue, this is Chicago Street st.

Louis, this is more of a little kids neighborhood on the next block of Bridge Street, all the projects are well built state facilities, so when you go to prison you feel at home because they use the same light fixtures, they use some of the same doors , same cinder block look, you know? What I'm saying so you feel like I felt comfortable in prison, you know, I felt like I was living in projects again and some of the schools here in Los Angeles are built the same way that we were having. a conversation about how big the fences are around this school and how some of these schools can feel like prisons and maybe it's to protect the people inside from the people outside.

This is a Theodore Roosevelt High School and it is a very famous high school. The school in the 1960s was famous for Roosevelt's strikes. A lot of Chicano history came out of Roosevelt High School and Boyle Heights High School. I didn't go to this high school because I got in trouble and went to authority, but this. It's where I would have gone. I went down the street to Hollenbeck High School. I'll go there later. This is right next to Rose above the high school. This is Boll Heads continuation school, so for people who maybe had to leave school and our girls.

I got pregnant and they couldn't finish school. This is a place where they came and had the opportunity to earn their high school diploma or GED again. I came here when I was a kid because when I went to Hollenbeck I was running. with the program called the students arrive late to run the Los Angeles Marathon, so that was my experience when arriving at school, the students arrived an hour late. The show was based on the Boyle Heights continuation school, the gang problem was so bad here in the mid 90's when I was a kid going to high school there was a guy here named Harry Shabazz Ian who was the head of students at a program in Los Angeles wouldn't even allow me to shave my head, they say if you want to run you have to let your hair grow because of the time when you were a young Hispanic man with a bald head I could almost identify you as a member of a gang and you could end up, you know, we knew a lot of guys who would get shot and hurt and attacked, so you know he was. looking out for my well-being, this is Hollenbeck High School or High School.

I attended this in 1996 in 97. Hollenbeck is also related to Hollenbeck Park, the same guy who donated a lot of property here to the Boyle Heights area back in the day, so then you have the Hollenbeck Police Station, later will pass by him, it's very exciting where he is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. I want to talk about other graffiti here, you can see how it's a troubled neighborhood, you have a lot of different ones, you have a BST I think its Brain Street, then you have some white fans here in silver, a lot of different gangs that meet on a corner right here because all these kids come to these schools in this general area and there's so many different gangs and everything else.

Couples flock, so when I was in high school here, there were guys right here from the corps or from Boyle Heights, which was also a gang at the time, you know, they were. I remember them hanging out in this general area. I think in high school it's like the time when they got kids into gangs, you know, when I was here in high school, it was Sixth Street here and I would live there in Cincinnati, a black man past Brooklyn Avenue or Cesar Chavez, like that who walked home every day. From school I go with these Boyle Heights kids and then you go by the Fourth Street kids and then you go to the First Street kids, then you go to the East LA Dukes kids and then you meet some of the Kam kids, so here you run into gangs all the time, so when you're a kid it's kind of hard not to be a member of a gang.

If you grow up in this environment, there were five to ten kids on every corner. Trying to recruit new members for your gang, because that's how you keep your gang alive, you keep it strong by recruiting new blood, getting new members, and the people in elementary and high school are the most impressionable and the easiest to influence when those older guys are able to catch us and were able to manipulate us to get money to sell drugs or join their gangs or whatever. That's high school police. We're in an area called the hole here and Boyle Heights, this is predominantly here now, this is the white picket fence neighborhood. with the older gangs and the Boyle Heights area, someone visited some cool fairs and then did a roll call of all the different members that are active in the area right now, when I was in high school this was the area that They would stand here and wait for us to come up this hill and they would beat us up and you know, they would try to get you here too, so this is where the H Street gang was mainly, outside of these apartment complexes, here they almost look like projects, but they're not the cheapest, only it's probably at least nine hundred dollars or even more.

I was actually looking to rent something here last year or two years ago and it was a pretty high price in Boyle Heights, it's still going up. and more expensive suctions are common, yes they are, so this price will continue to go up. I think the main problem they have here is that I don't think many people have assigned parking, so you have to do it. They find parking and a lot of times people break into other people's cars or spend the night and stuff and they still had shootings and stuff here, these apartments were right across from the projects, you know, the projects are right on the other side. of the street and these projects are road courts and are mainly for the V&E gang bodies and the water level in Tirana.

They have a couple of clicks all over the place, but I'll zoom in so you can see the project sign, the name is here yes These also look older, like we saw them when we were at Ramona Gardens tonight. Here's Eastside comes and those are their labels on the wall. I showed you the other side of these projects at Olympic, so you saw those mirrors. on the other side, it should be able to be there, so that's really worth it. Estrada, this is good Sears building one of the first big retail stores here in Boyle Heights Hills, like the mall back in the day, everyone who grew up in this community.

I know you would go to Sears especially to get your work clothes, you know, because in the Mexican community there are a lot of people in the workforce that saw a lot of you, you know, orange and blue, yellow, reflective clothing, you know. , but most are not even busy but the shops are still open. This is the corner of Olympic and Soto Street and the border line look at those guys, they look cool and the border line towards Boyle Heights runs for a mission all the way to Lorena in the east to Marengo in the north and Washington in the south, that's the general city boundary of Boyle Heights, but I believe Ramona Gardens is also considered part of Boyle Heights, but the freeway is separating that small enrollment area, so this is an evergreen import.

You can see some labels, for example. so this is Evergreen Ford over here and we go to the Evergreen Cemetery and this is their territory this is their neighborhood over here is the entire Japanese section over here there are a couple of well-known and notorious people who are buried here I can't list everyone, but this It's an old cemetery, this is Hollenbeck right here, this is your big left, the guy named after Hollenback junior High and Hollenbeck Park and the Hollenbeck police station languishing in Van Nuys and those are the guys that the San Fernando Valley was founded after a big THANK YOU to the runners for taking their time because we actually meet early in the morning; big thanks to him for doing this for you guys, showing his neighborhood and stuff, because he could have been doing something else right now.