God's Gangs by Edward Orozco Flores

Author:Edward Orozco Flores [Flores, Edward Orozco]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Religion
ISBN: 9781479800964
Google: KfY_AQAAQBAJ
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2013-12-11T04:24:47+00:00

Ramon, Victory Outreach, leader

Ramon, a twenty-four-year-old member of Victory Outreach, came to the U.S. with his mother at age seven. He described his mother’s choice to migrate as an ambition for better socioeconomic opportunities. Ramon said Mexico was “real poor, man, that’s why we moved over here, looking for a better future and everything.” In addition, his father had been a drug dealer, and his mother “wanted to take us somewhere where our life was gonna be better.” They settled in the low-income Paramount suburb, southeast of Downtown Los Angeles.

Ramon claimed that his mother was a good mother who valued education, and taught them how to be polite through traditional Mexican customs. He recalled being taught how to greet people when entering a house, as well as to use the Spanish phrases for “How are you,” “Thank you,” and “Good night.” As she raised him, Ramon’s mother told him to respect his teachers and his elders, and to be self-sufficient in cleaning the house and cooking for himself, as well as to take responsibility for chores when she wasn’t around. In addition, he had a stepfather whom he described as “good.” Ramon said that he “worked hard and did everything right.” However, in thinking about his upbringing, Ramon said that he didn’t value the lessons his parents tried to teach him.

When he was fourteen, Ramon started “hanging out with the wrong crowd” and joined a street gang in Paramount. His ideas of manhood began to be shaped by the street: romantic affairs, drug use, and violence. He said, “I was lost in a world that everybody desires to be a dope dealer, to die high, bro, women, money, cars, and all that stuff.” Ramon began selling and using drugs, partying, and getting into fights with other gang members. He held down a job, but as he grew older he developed an addiction to cocaine that escalated.

Ramon held values that were at odds with his behavior, in what David Smilde (2008) has termed “akrasia”; he worried, for instance, what his parents would have thought if they found out he was using drugs. He said, “I’d always think about my mom. … You know, ‘if my parents only knew what I do’ … that would always cross through my consciousness.” Ramon’s guilt over his betrayal of his mother’s support led him to feel uneasy and dissatisfied with his lifestyle. He reported,

At the end … all my check was gone and all my money was gone, and my women were gone. And the homeboys and the drugs were gone, guess what, the reality would hit me. This is where you’re at, man, bro. And inside of me it will be like “I don’t want this no more … I could be doing something better.”

Although he internalized his parents’ values and ambition to succeed in the U.S., Ramon felt helpless in quitting his drug addiction in order to achieve that success. He reported,

Every time I will get my check, every time I get paid,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.