http://www.suntimes.com:80/output/news/hisp30.html
Gangs ruin dreams of immigrants
May 30, 1999
BY ANA MENDIETA
STAFF REPORTER
On a street in the Back of the Yards last Tuesday, the
Rev. Bruce Wellems administered the last rites of the Catholic
Church to Fernando Rojas.
The 17-year-old was shot to death, the apparent victim of one
of those murky street gang feuds that seem to simmer constantly
in that South Side, mostly Mexican-American neighborhood. But
the drama is not reserved to the Back of the Yards. Gang shootings
and intimidation are part of life in many parts of the Chicago
area.
Chicago had 33,000 gang members in 1995, ranking it third among
U.S. cities and counties in the Justice Department's National
Youth Gang Survey. Among states, Illinois ranked second to
California with 75,226 gang members. More than 100 Chicago
suburbs reported having gangs.
Nationwide, there was a 27 percent increase in gang membership
in 1996 over the previous year, according to the Justice Department
survey. Hispanics accounted for 44 percent of the total. Thirty-five
percent were African Americans, and 14 percent were whites.
From 1990 to 1998, Chicago's homicide rates decreased by 18 percent,
but gang-related murders grew by 72 percent--from 101 in 1990
to 174 in 1998.
Gangs formed out of ethnic solidarity now destroy dreams
of immigrants and ruin lives of the young and the old.
* * *
Juvenal Calderon was a lively 8-year-old on a family picnic
in Harrison Park when he was caught in gang crossfire.
The youngest child of a Mexican immigrant family living
in the Pilsen neighborhood, Juvenal, now 12, was in a coma for
two weeks after the 1995 shooting. He has lost an eye and has
a slight limp. He is still trying to recover mobility in his
left hand and arm. His family has moved to a different South
Side neighborhood.
Reyna and Juvenal Calderon Sr., came here from Mexico in 1988
to provide a better life for their family. And in many ways
they have succeeded. Juvenal Calderon Sr. has a steady job as
a machine operator, and their three daughters have completed
their education and have jobs.
But they live in fear of street gangs.
"We take more precautions when we go out," Reyna Calderon
said. "My husband turns around to see if somebody is following
us. When Juvenal leaves school and sees boys with a gang appearance
staring at him, he thinks they want to hurt him."
The Calderon story is a fragment of the mosaic of violence that
street gangs have created. Children are recruited by gangs and
gunned down by them. Homes and streets are often under siege
from stray gunfire.
Maria Munoz didn't ask for much more than a quiet life when
she brought her children here in the early 1980s from Mexico.
Five years earlier, her husband, Jose, had come here and
landed a job as a machine operator.
But soon they were experiencing a nightmare of arrests and threats,
thanks to the gang involvement of their son Erasmo.
"I was jealous of what [the gang members] had," Erasmo
said. "They had nice clothes and money in their pockets.
I wanted to drive a big car, bigger than the president's."
Today, Erasmo is studying for his GED and has a steady job, thanks
to Wellems' help and encouragement. The priest runs an alternative
school for teens willing to give up the gang life.
Erasmo said he joined the gang because everyone, especially the
police, considered him a gang member. "Just saying `Hi,'
I was labeled a gang member. My mom was on my case. So I thought,
`I may as well join.' There was no alternative."
* * *
Hispanic gangs in the Chicago area are becoming more involved
in drug trafficking and getting more violent, law enforcement
officials say.
"They are leaving their `machismo' type of reasons, like
the need to gain respect [in the neighborhood], and getting much
more sophisticated," said Jack Hynes, supervisor of the
gang prosecution unit at the Cook County state attorney's office.
Vanya Hamrin, clinical nurse specialist in Children's Memorial
Hospital, said in the last two years Hispanic teens have replaced
African Americans as the most frequent victims of gunshots.
"They feel a shorthanded future living in their communities,
showing a total disregard for human life, because they think
they won't live past 18 years old," Hamrin said.
Some families say they felt impotent once the gangs came calling.
Emma Diaz (not her real name) has three sons who joined a Cicero
street gang three years ago. All have been shot at. Two of them
are out of gangs, but Rene, 17, is still in.
"My sons told me the gang gave them respect and protection
from those who would put them down in the neighborhood,"
Diaz said.
Diaz, a deeply religious evangelical Christian, says she has
been praying, but she doesn't know if even prayers can break
Rene's gang ties.
"I am not closing my eyes to reality. But I can't ask for
help if he doesn't have the disposition to change," she
said.
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