Gangs of the El Paso–Juárez Borderland: A History by Mike Tapia

Abstract

Reviewed by: Gangs of the El Paso–Juárez Borderland: A History by Mike Tapia Eladio Bobadilla Gangs of the El Paso–Juárez Borderland: A History. By Mike Tapia. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2019. Pp. xiii, 188. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8263-6216-2; cloth, $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8263-6109-7.) Mike Tapia's Gangs of the El Paso–Juárez Borderland: A History presents a sociohistorical and criminological look at the gangs of the region mentioned in the title, describing the dozens of mostly Chicano gangs who have historically inhabited the area, as well as their roots, cultures, and transformation over time. First appearing in the region during the 1910s and 1920s, gangs began as ethnic subcultures engaging in petty crime, seldom soliciting much attention from law enforcement. By the 1930s, these gangs had entered a new phase as expansive criminal networks, though they still posed little more than a "nuisance" to the public, as Tapia explains (p. 14). In the decades that followed, criminal operations became more sophisticated—and splintered—with gangs fighting one another for territory and economic power, often using weapons such as chains, brass knuckles, knives, Molotov cocktails, and even rocks. By the 1950s, "zip guns" (single-cartridge guns) came into fashion, and over time, the degree and frequency of violence intensified, peaking in the 1990s (p. 25). In more recent years, Tapia notes, gang culture has declined, though it has not disappeared entirely. Although focused on the twin border cities of El Paso on the U.S. side and Ciudad Juárez on the Mexican side, Tapia sidesteps questions about migration and border security, choosing instead to focus on the street-level criminal gang networks and the relationship between geography and their development and [End Page 930] transformation. The author expertly describes the intricacies of gang culture (often rooted in symbols), structure (generally decentralized), and tactics (largely opportunistic). Organized into six concise chapters, Tapia's book relies on oral histories, newspaper accounts, archival materials, and on-the-ground fieldwork to document the numbers and geographical affiliations of dozens of gangs, some of which, like Barrio Azteca, are made up of almost a thousand members, while others, like One Nation Alone, are only thirty-eight individuals strong. Tapia pays special attention to geography, mapping out the contemporary and historical "gang landscapes" that have defined the region for one hundred years (p. 8). He finds that, unsurprisingly, the region's proximity to the criminal networks active in Juárez have deeply influenced the history of gangs and gang culture north of the border, although paradoxically, El Paso has been one of the safest cities in the United States. One of the weaknesses of the book is that Tapia alludes to this paradox several times, but he does not offer a definitive explanation for it. Similarly, there is scant discussion of the roots and meaning of the intraethnic violence that defines this history, or a discussion of the possible reasons why gangs, present in El Paso and across the country for almost a century, have seemingly changed since the late 1990s. In his writing, Tapia also sometimes slips into anachronisms—using the terms Chicanos and Latinos interchangeably, for example. These quibbles notwithstanding, Gangs of the El Paso–Juárez Borderland is an excellent monograph, one that will be of use not only to sociologists but to historians as well. Readers will especially appreciate the thoughtful and nuanced way that Tapia explicitly avoids glorifying the culture of violence that defines gangs while simultaneously illustrating how moral panics and overreactions emerging from fear of gangs have played an important role in the development of over-policing and the modern "homeland security" state, an issue that is especially important in the borderlands (p. 9). What results from this approach is a nuanced look at gang development, culture, and crime that evenhandedly outlines the causes and consequences of gangs on the border, a force that is neither entirely catastrophic nor wholly benign, but a phenomenon born of complex socioeconomic, geographical, and historical processes and relationships. Eladio Bobadilla University of Kentucky Copyright © 2020 Southern Historical Association