Street Roots • May 6-12, 2016
YOUTHS, from page 4
we lived in (Northeast 27th Avenue and
Dekum Street), ;t was like Crips and
Bloods. When we were walking to school,
we would see people stab each other or
shooting.
“I have three sisters and three
brothers. One of them was adopted; she
was my friend, and my mom took her in.
The oldest two had a rare bone disease
and needed special medical care, so my
mom had to give them to this family that
specialized in medical stuff.
“I didn’t have a dad. I’m the baby of
the family, but I was the only one who
had a different dad.
“My oldest brother that lived with us,
he’s like really crazy, and he was getting
into trouble.
“My brother being involved in gangs
kind of made me be involved. But the
stuff I went through with my brothers
when I was little, I didn’t really look up
to them.
“I didn’t really look up to anybody,
because I didn’t have any strong figures
in my family. I didn’t even look up to my
mom; she was my hero, but I didn’t look
up to her.
“My fourth-grade teacher; something
about me, she wanted to help me, I got
involved in the Big Brothers Big Sisters
program, and she was like my mentor
type person. Ever since fourth grade, she
was my big sister. Me and her still
maintain contact.”
MARSEL
Marsel is at Hillcrest Youth Correctional
Facility in Salem. He is a “Hoover, ” a
member of Portland’s Hoover Criminals, a
violent street gang with origins in South
Central Los Angeles.
Marsel grew up “in Northeast Portland,
around Peninsula and the new Columbia
Villa, and Irving Park as well. ”
His mother
worked as a
Special Report
---------- -----------TROUBLE BREWING ----------------------
Riggan is superintendent at
IVI Oak Creek Youth Correctional
Facility.
"Kids need adults. They need to
he loved, they need to be cared
for and have loving, supportive
relationships with people teach«
ing them how to learn self control
"It takes a village to raise a child
brat now that village is disin
Page 5
LUIS
I
Luis said up until eighth grade, his life
revolved around soccer.
“That was the only thing my grandma did
put me in when I was young. I played for a
lot of traveling teams.
“I got steered into a different route, eighth
grade, freshman year, hanging out with my
cousins. There were different things that
attracted me. Now, when I think about it, I
should have stuck with soccer because I
could have been playing in college and all
that. I was traveling places, California, Vegas,
for tournaments. I played for the Nike team.
I got chosen to play for the youth USA
team.”
“Ofie year I just missed (the sign-up
deadline), and a lot can happen in a year. I
was lost at that age.”
■
centered culture, and our kids are
suffering.”
|
housekeeper and his father owned a
janitorial business.
“My mom and dad were split, so it was
kinda hectic dealing with that. Not really
a gang upbringing at all.
“If I couldn’t get it from one parent, I
could get it from the other parent. They
supported me with everything I needed.
“My parents raised me to be basically
like a NBA superstar. That’s what they
embedded in my life, was sports and
school, sports and school, sports and
school. But I wasn’t really good at school,
so that’s how I kinda eventually ended up
in this situation.
“I was just gaming - my parents would
get involved, and I would just find a way
to manipulate it, and just find a way to do
the bare minimum just so I could get
them off my back. I wasn’t really learning
anything.
“I just thought I couldn’t do it. I didn’t
know how to read, so that was tough.
“Around eighth, ninth grade, I started
reading about basketball and stuff like
that. I started sharpening my skills, /
reading magazines, the newspaper, and
getting on ESPN. Then I came to jail,
and I started reading books out of
nowhere. I read my first book coming
into jail. My first full book. Now, I’m
capable, but back then I wasn’t interested
or trying to learn. Didn’t really care.
“I was good (at basketball), but I
lacked discipline. I wasn’t really
coachable. I had skill, but coaches
| weren’t able to develop those skills
I because I had an attitude problem.
“I loved basketball. I still do to
this day. It’s my favorite thing in the
entire world is basketball.”
j
I TREI
Trei said he got his introduction into gang
life in Texas at age 13.
(
“One of my best friends, his dad, he was
like that dude, that dude that showed me the
lifestyle. We was driving down the street one
day and he just passed me one of them
5
thangs (a revolver). It was like, ‘You see that
j dude oyer there?’ And I looked at him and I
| said, ‘Which one?’ He was like, ‘All of them.’
I He was like, ‘Shoot,’ and ever since then, it’s
J just been off the hip.
'
“I had to. It was them or me. We ail called
j him pops. He was an older homie.”
|
|
|
'
JOSEFINA
“I started getting into trouble around fifth
| grade. I started baking troubles in school. Up
i until sixth grade I got As and Bs.
I '
“Maybe the fact that I didn’t have a father
| figure, my dad died before I was born, and
I my brothers, they were the only male figures
| that were there, and having them abuse me,
I physically, mentally, emotionally, like I think
| that was my biggest thing when I was
[ younger.
“When I was 12, my cousin - she was the
| leader of this gang - and I hung out with
| them, but I wasn’t really in one. But a couple
| months before I got locked up, I actually got
J jumped into my cousin’s rival gang, which
| was kind of like a dis on her because I didn’t
| really like her.
“The motivation was, my co-defendant (her
I boyfriend), he told me, ‘We need a ride
j somewhere,’ and the leader of that gang was
! like, ‘I’m not going to give you a ride unless
Tiny (her nickname) gets jumped in.’
Because they had heard about me, my
reputation and stuff, and they wanted me in
their clique, and they knew my cousin was
the leader of their rival gang. I didn’t want
to, but we needed a ride, so I did what I did,
which I guess is kind of a stupid reason for
getting jumped into a gang.”
MARSEL
Marsel’s infatuation with gangsters began
when he was 5 years old.
“I grew up watching cartoons and stuff, just
like a normal kid, but there’s this movie called
‘Menace II Society,’ and my mom never let
me watch it, but she always had it in her-
room, and one day I took it, and put it in my
PlayStation 2, and I watched it One of the
first scenes, dude got his head blown off, and
after that I was scared. But then they were
starting to hang out and chill, and I was like,
‘Oh, that’s pretty tight,’ and the whole movie,
they had guns out, and stuff like that.
“I wanted to be a gangster. I want to be
hanging out and having guns.
“I never gave my mom the movie back. I
kept it until the time I came here.
“I felt Eke I was brainwashed. My whole
life, those characters were kinda real to me,
until my last two years of being in the
community, and I was like, hold on: These
dudes are playing in other movies, and they’re
like comedians and other stuff like that. 1 was
like; they’re not really thugs'.
“I knew that they were actors, because it
was a movie, but I thought that was more of
their personality, their culture than just an
entertainer.
“I’ve been getting into trouble since I was a
little kid, second grade. That’s when things
started getting documented and stuff, at
school,
“In fifth grade I had a fantasy that I wanted
to get shot at one point in my life, like in my
arm, to have that wound, to have that as a
badge of honor, and then I wanted to go to
prison. Then as I hit freshman year I was like,
what the fuck? That was dumb.
“My mom would discipline me, take stuff
away, spankings and shit like that, but (I’d
always) have the essentials.”
“The second half of my freshman year, I
started skipping, and then I didn’t gain any
credits after the second semester of my
freshman year.
“I was fascinated with guns. So like just
knowing shit was going on in the streets, it
just like intrigued me a little bit. When I left
(an after-school program where he would hang
out and sometimes study), I was like, ‘OK son,
now it’s starting to get dark.’ That’s when shit
like basically gets fun.”
See YOUTHS, page 7
Oregon Youth Authority has cultural
hristina Puentes,, the gang conflict
programming to help youths discover
resolution coordinator for youth
more positive facets of their cultural
correctional facilities statewide, said
many gang members see gangs as a big heritage.
■
part of their cultural identity.
Trei, a Gangster
Disciple, is serving a
Month sculHtceJm
slabbing a man in th,
chest during a robbery.
PHOTO BY JOt «UJUt
"For a lot of these youth, what they
see on the media, what they see on
social media, that's who they iden
tify with - that's who African-Amer
icans are, or that's who latinos are,
and we teach them that it goes way
beyond that, and have them see that
bigger picture."
"Yo® can even watch March Mad«
ness or college football, and yon see
Oind signs thrown left and right.
You see celebrities doing it. It's al
most like it's the 'in' thing, like it's
become OK.... And then yon have
'Gangland,' and all those shows,
which jnst adds a whole other layer
because 'Gangland' gives oar guys
so many ideas."