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was claimed by Los Primos, their graffiti
“tags” spray painted all over. It got so bad,
Barron said, that a group of Salvadorans
tried to form their own gang to protect them
selves against the Mexican Los Primos. The
effort didn’t get very far, Barron said, and
these days the predominantly Salvadoran
trailer park behind Airport Mini Market on
Winterville Road is spotted with “LP” tags.
The point, Hugo said, is respect.
“Like right now, if you say something 1
don’t like to me, I may not do anything, but
I’ll send people after you,” Hugo said. “We
respect people, but if they don’t respect us?
Fuck them. We don’t start fights, but when
other people do, we show up, understand?"
One of the Primos stepped up and said,
“Man, if you want a good picture, come here
“It has the potential to be a very big thing; it’s
just something that’s being keot away from public
eyes. ”
— ACC Police Officer Gene Barron
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Barron estimates Los Primos has at least
50 members and hangers-on.
"There’s probably more than that, but
that’s what I see on a daily basis,” Barron
said. “They’re recruiting heavily right now.”
The group is no longer content to stay in
the confines of poorer Hispanic communities
in North Athens and has dipped into down
town, middle class Hispanic households and
the two local high schools, Barron said
Los Primos is “completely active,” right
now, and all it needs to become a serious
threat is a little more organization and a
more clearly defined leader, Barron said,
adding that “they just need the right guy to
say ‘Hey, let’s take over this town’ — if that
happens, we’re going to have a real prob
lem."
TO CATCH A GANG
Standing in front of the Garnett Ridge
house where many of the members of Los
Primos hang out, Hugo, a heavy-set youth
who first said he was 18, then 21, looked
around last Saturday at his friends and took
a sip of beer. The 10 Primos in the yard
were standing around two parked low rid
ers, listening to the music blaring from their
speakers.
Hugo’s picture is in Barron’s notebook. In
it, Hugo (who asked that his last name be
withheld) has his shirt off and the large tat
too across his chest is plain — “Sur 13” arch
es just under his ribs, underneath which is
“Los Diablos,” the set he “claimed” in San
Diego. He is quoted in the file as saying he’ll
die before going back to “la pinta” — slang
for prison.
tomorrow morning before we go to the car
show in Atlanta. Lots of guns man. a lot of
guns."
WI.en asked about the violent behavior
demonstrated by some of his fellow Primos,
Hugo responded that everyone is capable of
making mistakes.
“Sometimes when you get drunk you’re
like everybody else," Hugo said. “You make
mistakes, you fuck up. It’s ‘mi vida loca,’ no?"
FERTILE HELDS
Athens is, in many ways, easy picking for
gangs like Los Primos. In fact, they are fol
lowing a nationwide trend, said Joseph
Aparicio, a detective with the Los Angeles
Police Department who has worked with the
gang unit in 12 out of the LAPD’s 18 geo
graphic zones.
“A lot of gang members don’t go to the
big cities because there are already net
works there, so they go to smaller towns,"
Aparicio said. “Here in LA. they can control
the corner, but they can’t cross the street."
The move from a place like Lcs Angeles
to a place like Athens can take just another
face in the crowd and make him a powerful
man, Aparicio said.
“You were tough in the city, like every
body else, and now in the small town you
can be a big shot, because you’ve got some
experience, a tattoo and the ability to talk
about things like drive-by shootings."
In most instances Aparicio said, a family
will either move with its child to keep him
out of trouble or send him to relatives in a
safer setting. But that kid often takes the
seeds of gang lift with him, Aparicio said,
“Ya, Los Primos is a gang; what else can it be?”
— Los Primos member Hugo
Hugo, who Barron considers the new
leader of Los Primos, pointed proudly tc his
right hand, which has three dots tattooed in
a pyramid shape. The tattoo is common in
Hispanic gangs and stands for “mi vida loca”
— “my crazy life.”
The gathering was lixe a living gallery of
the pictures in Barron’s notebook. Snapshots
of almost all of the Primos milling in and out
of the house were documented in his files.
“It’s all about the crazy life,” Hugo said. “If
they don’t kill you for doing something stu
pid, when you get old you can look back at
all the crazy things you did.”
Los Primos came together because many
of its members moved here without their
mothers or fathers, Hugo said. The group is
like a family, he added, with its members
looking out for each other.
“Ya, Los Primos is a gang; what else can it
be?” Hugo said. “The tagging is to show peo
ple who come from other cities that there’s
somebody who controls this place."
and it’s not long before ne finds like-minded
individuals.
“L.A. is the No. 1 exporter of the gang
mentality," Aparicio said. “They move away,
and all you have is gang members in new
houses.”
A quick straw count of Los Primos bears
that out, as many members moved here from
either Los Angeles or San Diego.
In Athens, Los Primos has a rapidly grow
ing Hispanic community from which to
recruit new members. Athens-Clarke County
has experienced more growth in its Hispanic
population than any of the surrounding
counties, with an approximate population of
5,000 to 10,000.
The ACC school system more than dou
bled its intake of Hispanic students from
1995 to 1997, as the number went from 138
to 302, according to Barbara Duke, director
of the system’s migrant education program.
Most in the Hispanic community say that fig-
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