Gang History of Boyle Heights

The first car shows up, that's your turn, the second car is my turn, so that's what was going on, what was keeping people out on the curves, was that kind of drive-up drug dealing, but come on to put A success for that was that you know it was not a good idea, at the same time you know that you were not an enemy, you show up acting like you are going to bite dope and the moment that guy approaches the car, it was you me too. let him have it hey, what's up guys? It's not a beautiful day in Los Angeles.

I've seen a lot of people asking me to show lights to kids and I finally had a chance to get you guys who are actually from Boyle Heights to talk about it. My name is Ronan Gray and I'm from Boyle Heights, I was born and raised and I've been here for 43 years. See what we can tell you about our

history

. So what is the oldest story? How long ago can you remember the

gang

s being here? The Chicano

gang

s were here, boy. I think I was born, my older brother got into it and grew up around here seeing all the older friends that the lowriders had and some even some of the great-great-grandparents that were around during the pachuco era, which was the Zoot Suit riots, right?

You know? That's kind of back in the '30s, which brings us to like our oldest gang here and it was probably one of the oldest gangs in our entire nation's cops, which is 1939 and that's why the fence and that would be the white picket fence on the east side when the project started appearing. Some other gangs started to emerge, one of them of course is being and we have another older gang, they are quite meta flats and then from there there is another project session which would be the village of Pico, we had some gangs old there, four floors as a group.

The gang that was there was Clarence Street was big for a while, I'd only think it already existed, another old gang was third, said I passed by there, Sarah or your rank order and the Zoot Suit riots, many of us are having many. Problems with I guess I'm going to say that we Caucasians would sometimes cross paths and the way we were, I guess the minority would sometimes attack them or abuse them and things like that, so I'm sure that's one of the ways we did it. . We started forming groups because you know there's power in numbers and a lot of times, in a sense, to just protect our neighborhood from other elements, even within our own neighborhood, you know that people stealing in our neighborhood was a bad thing.

Are you going to leave yet? It's not good either, but it's still going somewhere else. Yeah, I'm still four months old, so a lot of that had to do with protection and just a sense of community, you know, and later on, I think what started to change. Probably a lot of drugs came into that element and changed that scene which hit it pretty hard here, especially a lot of the guys who came back from Vietnam who came back with that habit, you know, and kind of flooded the community for a while. and they kind of set us back as far as you know, just thriving has two extremes, there's a user and there's the one that's trying to take advantage of the situation and it's not necessarily in an evil way, it's just that sometimes it's out of necessity, when we were kids, everyone was friends, you know, and we started sitting around in elementary school, everyone was friends once you started getting to high school, everyone started expanding into their own neighborhood, so I'm from one and you are from another and, suddenly, We were very good friends in elementary school, well, because we are from the neighborhoods that we were in now, whether it's where we live or whether they are family members, because you have to understand that in this neighborhood there are people who have been from the same neighborhood for six generations. be your neighborhood, yeah, so there are cases where you meet good friends and they ended up becoming enemies, you know.

I know of a case where two brothers slept in the same room and wandered into different neighborhoods. A brother woke up, he didn't wake up. but pretending he was asleep when the other brother wasn't sleeping, he got up and stabbed them, you know, and that's how difficult the separation was in some cases because the neighborhood became a high school, if you even made it to high school. , which many of us didn't know that many of us some didn't make it to high school some dropped out of high school but they had already made it to high school at that time if they were still around you know in high school now we had They were introduced a lot of guns in the eighties, you know, I had a lot to do with the drugs that came here.

More adults, more money, more money, better guns, you know, we went from six years, from little six shooters to full six shooters. -on things where you know I was a great soldier, but one of the first people they went after were the people they knew where they lived, do you know if there was any if they didn't have that hard connection with each other from the In the past You were going to be one of the first victims, you know? And just because I know where you live and this awkward target, it's like I know where the fish is that's going to go get that fish.

You know, so that's a junior primary impact. High school is where everyone joined neighborhoods, you know, you weren't already in a neighborhood in high school, like in my case, we joined the neighborhood. I was 12 in high school, people who weren't, you know, they started by putting together neighborhoods and in some cases they created a neighborhood just a group of friends that weren't really in their area there wasn't a neighborhood so they created one in some cases they tagged teams and something happened later in the 90s we all took teams, we had to join the gang or break it up, remember x3, they actually became a neighborhood and they actually became a because there were many young people, because there were many young people, it was They turned into a strong neighborhood that they started.

Taking over another name was like taking over an old neighborhood called Picket Street, yeah, its color, Fickett petals, those guys took it in like a week, you know, so there's a lot of young people, but with a lot of heart, you know, and willing. to move forward and do the job that they had to do and they fought against a lot of the older, you know, a lot of the older neighborhoods fought against them and gained ground. Michigan was 43 yards and it's called double vision. Michigan is called double vision and then double vision became a party team, you know, not so much like a disco group or more like an MC, that's where you got the MC, it was the strength of the MC and it was a force of simply seeing.

I had a couple of rappers. I can't really remember many of them but there was a group of rappers and it was like a party crew and in one case you would go to parties they would give you some money and you would go ahead and get involved in the parties and then it became a gang later, the little boys, that's another kind of little boys, it was kind of a neighborhood that started like inside a boys club, really, it was just a group of boys hanging out and they were calling that little voice because the older kids, the older guys called them little kids, you know, and they took that name and called themselves, you know, they called them little kids, but that's another neighborhood that was kind of it's just kind of not.

It was really a gang, but the elements around it formed it into a game and became a gang and they are still in this neighborhood, they are not as spread out as other areas here. in this neighborhood it's a few blocks, you know, we have one, two, three, four blocks up, this way, you'll have one neighborhood, do the same thing here, two, three, four blocks, that way, you'll have another. kind of areas like the 3/4 block range, you know some neighborhoods have a larger area and a lot of that has to do with they've been here longer, you go to other states, other areas, you know you're going to see groups of people right here here's a thing called a gang injunction it came much later anyway it wasn't really going to make a difference but what it was was the city was trying to stop groups of people by hanging but the groups of people were already gone stopped and you know, the reason this area is here was so active with gang violence that if you were smart enough to know that being on the corner and a group of you was like a fish in a barrel, you know it wasn't a good idea to be in the corner, you were just making it a lot easier for the guy that came here, he would try to get you, you know, so people started to be wiser about it, so out there. here in this neighborhood you're not going to see you're not going to see a lot because right here in this neighborhood there are real people, all of them here, you know, there are people who go out hunting every day and yet, even how it is.

Now, even if the violence has decreased but they're still active, there are still people that go out and they're hunting and every day and you're hunting and you know there's a group of thirty guys on the corner, it doesn't have to be a good shot. to go ahead and you know, hit some, so that's what killed the king of the city much later with that idea that it wasn't really going to have an impact here because the people here were already taking their stuff in the houses in the backyards in the air in an area where you're not as hurt or brought to the streets, you know, but in the '80s there was a lot of that and they had a lot to do with the drug trade. you have ten guys on the corner they're all trying to dog, you're going to take turns and it's literally a line, you know, the first car comes, that's your turn, the second car is my turn, so that's what was happening and that prevented people from entering. on the corners there was that kind of drug dealing that was going on, well what kind of crush it was, you know, that wasn't a good idea, at the same time, you know you weren't a hater, you roll up acting like you were going to bite the moment that guy walks up to the car, he was you and I let him have that kind of drug dealing that went down as well, you know?

So at the same time that that's coming now, the pages are coming out. So now you know that you don't have to hang around as long and you know that now it's more like, go ahead and call me and I'll see you in this neighborhood. You know you were raised one way. and that's what really brings you up in this mentality of not giving yourself a mentality of knowing that you are you're you're not you don't care to know anything you're not really understanding about your future you're not getting an information about your life, you know, if you're getting a piece of information about your life, that means you're scared, you know, and if you're scared and you're useless, no one wants someone in your neighborhood, they'd be scared, you know? you are out there putting you can't be afraid you can't be afraid of time you can't be afraid of moving forward and having your life taken away you know that hundreds of people think like that there will be no respect for the law They are not educating you to respect the law and Not only are they raising you without much respect, at the same time you have seen how the law works and the law is very disrespectful to your people and in some cases to your own family, you know that you are seeing your dad being beaten by the police or mistreated even your mother because you know that they are rejecting her because something is happening here and they are rejecting her, but she a man who has animosity towards the law, you know that you begin to not have your own parts of the law and why it makes sense to You know the police, you know and that's what I think you would say for the police. you need it is like this man, you give respect, you get respect, it's very simple and it works like that with law enforcement and I have police friends, you know, and many of them know directly that they weren't police officers because they didn't have anything. other things going on in life they had a clean record they didn't like where they were working someone suggests doing it once you go and you're a cop you know you'll make so much a year if you sign up you know the same reason why a lot of the homebodies around here , the young people they face, I know from the army because nothing happens and you don't have anything brighter, so this doesn't seem like what you want to do, but at least it seems like something safe and it seems like something stable and you know that you don't you'll get caught up in this right here, but when it comes to the police, I think a lot of it has to do with disrespect and now and before you.

I also have to understand that before most law enforcement was white recently, it's like starting to see your own people in that uniform and it's a little complicated when you find that person who is brown and doesn't act like you. I know they come here trying to I think it was really nice, I said trying to show off to the white cop, you know, and you get it from time to time, but there's one thing about the fact that we're seeing our own people with those suits and those non-suit people, some of them like Ronan said some are good cops and some of them really want to be a good cop, someone won't really want to serve and protect most of them and this is what I say because I can say this and I say it because I have seen it with my eyes and I have experienced it myself some of them do not give two you know they are not China, they are not You try to protect and serve and you see that the Friends, right here, were shot and it's dyingand you wonder, do you know why you ask the stupidest questions like that?

They could be answered later. You know, we're not going to know where these people aren't going. these people, but meanwhile, this guy here is, you know he's bleeding out, so when you see scenarios like that, yeah, it's a challenge, it has an effect on you and it changes you and you know as an adult you understand some of that, but when you are a child and you are seeing that you know it is having a negative effect on you and you start to receive the seed planet in you or it is just growing the tree of resentment towards the police gentrification that is happening right now, how do you do you think? that has affected the gang culture in Boyle Heights they are bringing people here now that are not afraid to call the police they are not afraid of being snitches you know they don't know that code you know it's a whole it's a code that they don't understand, so which will affect a lot because there will be people willing to witness many things, so when that happens, yes, it will start to put many friends in jail and at the same time it starts, it will end up calming the area down a lot and not only that many Of the friends who live here are tenants, that will drive them out, you know, in the end, if you do it.

You're a homeowner, you're a homeowner, you're a property owner here, this is going to benefit you, you know? And if not, you'll find a way to get out of here because you won't be able to afford it. to live here maybe he'll go crazy, you know where he is, he'll start to look like the people who used to live here or the people who now live in the perfect district and those same guys are going to have to wait to see what they did or Fairfax is just going to happen here while I was growing up here.

I could see a lot of Jews here, we had three Japanese families on this block and we had some Jewish families, but you know, I got to 70 in the 60s. 70 was mainly it wasn't the raw Mexicans Mexican families polished a Russian they were both Jews They were like the last of the Mohicans in this neighborhood yeah look they were still here in the '90s we didn't expel the Jews a lot of that it's like The bad thing is not many people think like that because you would just think no, I I had nothing to do with it, it has a lot to do with the banks, they weren't lending their money and stuff like that, so it's like you know where we go where we can.

You know, borrow and borrow money from the bank to keep going and make our things work. You know, that's the real reason why a lot of them left here when this was Jewish. neighborhood and things like that there was a sporting goods store and a music store as you know, you literally wanted to buy an instrument, you know there was a music store and next door there was a sporting goods store, a perfect example of what happened is that sporting goods and the music store are pawn shops, that tells you, you know pretty well that music programs in schools disappeared, you know there was no reason for sports programs to be affected.

I mean, obviously, if a sports item went out of business, that means a lot of sports programs when when when they thrived I guess you know and a lot of that had to do with young people were coming into the neighborhoods also coming into the neighborhoods and at the same time you know that to sell drugs there is no age limit to sell drugs well. You see, if people are struggling, you need shoes, you know, you can't go and ask for a nice one, you have to get yours, you know and it's something simple, You know it's there, you can get it, no one will ask you.

Yo, no one's going to touch your ID, none of that, you only have 50 bucks, I need $50 and that's it, you know, no one cares what you're going to do with it, you're going to smoke it like a kid you want. accept it as a kid, so as far as you know, that started to affect a lot of other people in this neighborhood instead of joining sports programs, music programs that schools were already lacking, you know, they started taking to the streets because the streets had something to offer you in terms of having good jobs around here, people had good jobs, maybe people that your father, you know, somehow came to town as a janitor, you know, but you had a I work in the city, that means I had benefits and certain things like that, whereas the majority here is the workforce, you know you're there, a lot of the parents whose parents are in construction or some type of landscaping or it's the workforce that that kind of thing, the jobs that other people don't want, this is the big difference in the generation gap, also since your Mexican parents were workers, you know that you are growing up here as a Chicano.

I hate to say it, but I don't. I know what it is, but it's those bums, you don't have the same work ethic that your parents had even though they try to instill it in you, you know, but here in this neighborhood, the streets call to you, you know, they call to you and just without meaning to it's almost like a moth to a flame and you just go to it, you know, and you get caught up in it, yeah, I remember growing up and seeing friends and a white shirt wasn't white. shirt, you know, the white shirt had three pleats in the front and in the back, you know, the Pendletons, you know, it was all just the shoes, you know, you know the Hush Puppies and the Stacy Adams, you know people who wear Stacy Adams and you don't even know the light of day. going to church, you know, but just standing there looking at, you know, they used to say Bonnaroo table, which today would be like watching g-dub, you know, and it's just that it was a feeling that they didn't have much, but they took pride so they had, you know, your khaki pants, you know, you always try to keep them clean, you know your hushpuppies, Imperial Stacy Islands, I don't know, the house always looks polished all the time, you know, and then I came back. then also and some of them still wear the hats, you know, and it was just a sense of pride knowing that you're coming now and this is what you know, this is what you want to look like, that and that came a lot from the pachuco era that the era pachuco were the big suits and I'm not sure if you remember or are familiar with that, but the pachucos are like it was kind of a dress code in a sense that it was for Mexican-Americans where it was just, but I know that in the state black they had some of that too, you know where they had that zoot suit look, you know from what I know about zoot suits, those guys wore those baggy clothes because in wartime everything was shorthanded. so it was kind of like using more fabric, so everything was like, you know, unpleasant, oh, and all that stuff was hard to get because it was there, it was just hard to have like, like, something that you liked, brag about your fashion. wear baggy clothes because then it's like you have more money and you're wasting more fabric, that's where I read about it, that's where, that's how, that's why their coats were too long and they're wrong, that's where they were baggy with the chains but you know that whole image you see growing up as if those young people were looking at the pachucos looking at them in suits you know why where they were the only guys in the neighborhood wearing suits you know with the chain and all that and of course that attracted The ladies, you know, the pachucos had the ladies, why? because they, you know, they had to blow up the clothes, you know, the car, so you grew up that you, you want, you know, you want, you're going to be what you see, you know and that's what you're seeing, so that's what you want to be and you know, you see what you're seeing, you're liking it, it looks cool, it has a pretty girl, it has a car. you know, so you start, you start trying to become what you see and that was little by little, of course, that coat and tie was too much, you know it was 30, 40, it started to change in 50, you know you're working with what's coming in that era and but that's one thing is that I remember he was when he was a kid and growing up he got to a certain point in the '80s, he started to go down, you know, but I remember the '60s and '70s, you know, people just take pride in that and that look and you know, the lowriders.

I would say it started, I would probably say in the '60s and like the first in the '20s that the lowrider came about, lowriding was one of the ways. They would do it because obviously hydraulics and stuff didn't exist, you know, so friends would put heavy things in the trunk, you know, bags of cement, you know, whatever heavy stuff you could find to make that car, you know. , lean back. I know and it was and then people started getting help in the hydraulics game and that's when the hydraulics and then the new paint jobs was when it really started so I would say probably like by the end of the year.

The '60s is when you started seeing really nice paint jobs and the food really had real hydraulics, you know, but in the '70s it was food, blood, it was packed, you know, people would do it and Whittier Boulevard was one . from the scenes where you know when you were a kid, even when you were a kid, people would just go out and stand on the street just to watch friends cross, you know, because they were on them, they were crossing the boulevard and they were all dressed up to perfection. You know everyone agreed on the car, you know it was like it was the place to be on Friday and Saturday nights, you know, and if you couldn't be in a car, you were next to it and if you couldn't be next to it side, then. you were looking at it, you know, I mean, but you wanted to be there, a lot of things came from a culture like cruising, you know, that also came from low riding, you know, because it's like it's a Lowrider, so you're not speeding up, it's slow, you know you're just cruising, so the cruise ship stuck to this area too because there were cruise ships until the '90s and Whittier Boulevard was the place. it just went further down in Whittier because they started closing this down, so the cruise went further east further east and the cruise finally ended up in Pico Rivera that cruise was for a good 30 years, you know, and the cars change little to little, but there were always those classics, you know that everyone loved to see them, that they were the lowrider, and even today you know that everyone loves to see a lowrider, yes, you know that it is something that this culture is very like.

I guess it's something that came from here and now. It's part of the culture, you know, and I guess now it's two cultures because you have a Mexican culture and now you have a Chicano culture which, of course, the gangs and the pachuco look and the lowriders and the music, the old guys, that that's all. part of which is now a Chicano culture that branched out from a Mexican culture well guys, that's it for today's vlog, thanks for watching, thank you so much for running for doing this. I hope you enjoyed the vlog and got some good information.