Latino Minorities Research Paper

1. Latinos as biggest minority in the US

According to Juana Bordas “the Latino population in the United States grew by 43 percent in the last decade, accounting for more than half of the population gain” (IX). As a consequence the Latinos represent one of the largest and most diverse groups in the USA (cf. Saenz 352).

The word Latino is often mistaken with the word Hispanic. Any person with an Latin American origin living in the United States can be defined as a Latino but being Hispanic refers to people who have their roots in a country whose primary language is Spanish (cf. Garcia-Navarro n.p.). Rogelio Saenz found out that the Latinos started as a minority with slightly more than 500,000 citizens in 1900 (cf. 352). But CNN shows that “as

History of Latino gangs

Gangs are defined as 'any ongoing organization, association, or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, having as one of its primary activities the commission of one ore more of the criminal acts […], which has a common name or common identifying sign or symbol, whose members individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity. ' whereas a gang member is defined as 'any person who actively participates in any gang with knowledge that its members engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity, and who willfully promotes, furthers, or assists in any felonious criminal conduct by members of that gang. ' (Hoover n.p.)

Latino gangs began forming in California during the early 1920s and started as loose-knit groups1 for unity and socializing in the barrios2 where everybody had the same culture, customs and language. Potential gang members were male youths with the age of 14 to 20 committing crimes such as burglary, strong-arm robbery, and vandalism. Later the order for committing a crime became a way of gaining status within the

4). New potential gang members can be found everywhere for instance in schools, on the street, in fast food restaurants or at parties. Sometimes new members have to go through ceremonies in order to be accepted in the gang. These ceremonies can be very diverse and often include being physically assaulted by gang members such as “Catching a Rag” or “Catching a Flag” where the task is to fight through a group in order to grab a rag or flag that is placed on the other side of them. A fraternity pledging could also be connected with committing a crime such as “Blood In” which means committing a gang assigned murder in order to join the gang. “Russian Roulette” is another way to join the gang but this has nothing to do with courage or strength, only with luck. Aiming a gun that has one bullet in it and five empty chambers to one 's head and pulling the trigger is how to do it. If the player wins, he is in the gang otherwise he is dead. There are also people who are “blessed in” to a gang. These people can avoid a ceremony because they have relatives who were already in the gang (cf. Carlie