WEBVTT - The Gangs 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:06.600 Warning. This episode contains references to extreme violence. Please use 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:07.640 discretion when listening. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:15.360 Okay, wait to hear others. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:17.000 Please join an audio. 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.320 White Fine, Sorry, I'm a millennial. 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:21.400 What are you? 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:28.920 You're gen x No, I'm not you are Okay, new recording. Okay, 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:29.560 it's on. 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:38.519 Hi. Wendy, Hie. That's my older sister, Wendy. She got 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:40.600 up extra early one morning so that she could drop 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.640 off her three kids at school before getting on a 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.959 zoom with me. For the record, she is technically a millennial, 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:49.600 but I think she acts more like a gen xer. 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:55.920 I wanted to talk to Wendy because we finally got 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:58.080 into a part of the story that I kind of remember. 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.400 Wendy and I are eight years apart, but we both 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:06.640 grew up in La My parents left El Salvador in 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.720 nineteen eighty one, a year when the Civil War was 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.839 at its worst. They ended up in Los Angeles, along 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:16.399 with thousands of other Salvadorans who were fleeing the war. 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:21.240 They slept on kitchen floors and couches until they could 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:25.880 get on their feet. Eventually, they scraped together enough money 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:29.160 to buy an old rundown house, the one that me 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:33.039 and my sister Wendy grew up in But do you 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.240 remember how often we would get rats from the park. 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:40.880 Oh, my god, that was the most disgusting part. Yeah, 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:42.319 the rats and the. 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:46.160 I think you got bit by one one time. 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:47.640 Yeah. 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:49.600 I tried to pet it, but I was scared to 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:51.360 pet it with my hands, so I pet it with my. 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:52.880 Foot and bit my toe. 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:55.560 It bit your I didn't even know what it did, 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.360 but I just remember, like, yeah, you got bit by it. 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.200 Oh. 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:03.840 My family spent the nineties trying to survive in that 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:09.280 beat up old house. It was in south central LA 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.600 on a street that had an hourly motel on one 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:16.239 corner and a crack house on the other. It was 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:21.000 dangerous in more ways than one. My parents had very 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.040 strict rules for me and my sisters. No playing outside 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.519 after dark, no walking anywhere alone, go straight to school 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:33.040 and come straight home. Honestly, it sucked. We ended up 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:37.560 staying inside and playing Super Mario a lot. But there 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:39.440 was only so much that they could protect us from 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:46.640 because the reality of living in the hood was inescapable. Like, 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:48.240 at what point did you become aware that there were 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.400 gangs in the area that we were living in? Right 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:59.239 awayway gangs, mostly divided by race, were everywhere in our neighborhood. 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.000 The Crips and the Bloods, which were mostly black gangs, 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.920 and the Mexican mafia were fighting it out for control 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.320 of the streets of La and in response to the 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.800 gang violence, thousands of Salvadoran refugees that had come fleeing 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:17.720 the war would start to create gangs of their own. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:23.040 I had like a little boyfriend I remember if it 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:27.359 was like seventh grade or eighth grade. I think probably 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.400 eighth grade. It was the one that gave me the 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:34.480 teddy bear that my dad like ripped up to shreds 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:40.440 the second I got home. But he, unfortunately, I ended 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:44.440 up learning like months later like that he had gotten 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.280 like shot and killed because he was like a little 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:52.640 gang member and howen was he was probably thirteen. 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.240 Gang violence that started out in our neighborhood in LA 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:02.000 would transform life for Salvadorans, and not just the ones 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:07.360 in Los Angeles, but in El Salvador too. While the 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.400 war in El Salvador was ending, Salvadoran gangs in La 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:16.760 were forming MS thirteen and Barriodicioccho, two of the most 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:20.480 notorious gangs in the world, were born in my backyard 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:25.840 in La These gangs would rule the next thirty years 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.880 of Salvador in life and cause more death than the 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:31.840 entire Civil War put together. 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:35.480 Tonight we take you inside one of the most dangerous 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.800 countries on Earth, a place where criminal gangs control entire neighborhoods, 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.800 and these gangs from El Salvador are now operating in 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:52.279 nearly every corner of America. 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:57.120 I'm Jasmine Romero and this is Sacred Scandal, Nation of Saints, 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:06.920 Episode nine, The Gangs. We'll be right back after the break. 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:17.080 If you ask the average American what they know about 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:20.200 El Salvador, they will probably answer you with one of 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:26.400 two things, either one ubusas and to be fair, they 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:33.440 are delicious, or two gangs. Since the end of the 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.640 Civil War, Al Salvador's gang problem has been the number 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.000 one news item about the country. 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.880 El Salvador has long been plagued by stratospheric levels of 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:44.720 gang violence. 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:47.960 Like tens of thousands of people who grew up in 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.359 the shadow of the Civil War perpetuated the cycle of 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.920 violence by joining the street gangs. In twenty fifteen, there 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:57.359 were more than six and a half thousand murders in 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:01.279 El Salvadore the worst murder rates in the world. But 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:04.560 these gangs, they didn't just spring up out of nowhere. 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:10.040 They came out of the US, specifically California, from families 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.960 like mine who came fleeing the war and found that 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:18.000 California wasn't the peaceful paradise they were hoping for. 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.640 They started off as young stoner kids who, out of 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.839 immigrant lowliness, would come together to smoke pot listen to 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:31.240 Ronnie James, Dio, Metallica and Cumbia's and other music on 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:32.320 their boomboxes. 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:39.800 That's He's a Salvadoran American journalist, professor, and writer who 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.520 grew up in California. He was one of those lonely 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:48.680 immigrant kids. In the late eighties, while the war in 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.040 El Salvador was at its peak, he was in California 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:55.760 working with an outreach group for recent migrants and he 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.000 started noticing some strange patterns. 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.240 But they started going to schools like in the San 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:08.239 Fernando Valley and other places in Sherman Oaks, and they 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:13.720 were facing crips, bloods, and Mexican kids who were linked 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:14.840 to the Mexican mafia. 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:19.920 Now migrants coming into low income areas were easy targets 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:25.160 for the more established gangs that already existed. So these 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:29.400 Salvadoran migrant kids, they start banding together and creating little 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:30.160 gangs of their own. 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.920 So these Savadorin kids found themselves being threatened by crip 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.400 gang and Mexican mafia, and so to defend themselves, they 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.600 started taking on machettis that I would see them buy 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.480 at a store like at Liborios in Pico Union. Turns 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.880 out that we're using them to defend themselves against heavily 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:49.640 armed gangs. 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.520 Barrio Disiocho and MS thirteen get their start as small 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:59.120 street gangs, but as the violence in La escalated, more 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.360 and more of these on immigrant gang members started being 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:08.240 sent to California prisons, prisons where long established gangs were 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:13.360 in charge. And these little disorganized Salvadorn gangs, when they 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.000 start taking notes, they begin to transform. 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.800 And so that's where MS thirteen starts taking on the 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:29.080 structures and culture and practices like jumping in for thirteen seconds, 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.439 getting beat up to join the gang for thirteen seconds, right, 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:38.040 And so then the language, the tattoos, the violence, and 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:47.040 the very structured nature of these gangs comes from California. 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.319 La Maras a ra Drucha, also known as MS thirteen 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:53.360 becomes the hardened and sophisticated gang we know today. Within 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:57.640 those California prisons, they learn how to run extortion rings, 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.520 how to exert control over territory using violence and fear, 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:09.160 how to turn a gang into a business. And in 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:12.600 the early nineties, the US decides that it doesn't really 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:16.040 want to deal with these gangs anymore. Just as the 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.440 salvador In Civil War is coming to an end, the 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:25.280 US starts deporting thousands of migrants, especially those with criminal records. 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.120 We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:33.920 a nation of laws. That's why our administration has moved 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:35.720 aggressively to secure our borders. 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:36.000 More. 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.360 We will try to do more to speed the deportation 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:41.480 of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes. 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:46.800 The mass deportations really get started in nineteen eighty six 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:51.560 under President Bill Clinton. His administration passed a law that 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:54.800 made it easier to deport immigrants with criminal records. 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.000 And pretty soon this country that's just coming out of 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.760 the war in the early nine nineties has all kinds 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:06.120 of guns everywhere because they were left over. Nobody not 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.760 all of them were destroyed. So these kids, who are 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.800 already exposed to Mexican gang cultures and structures, start implanting 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.920 where the violence gets put on steroids. Because of the 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.439 availability of guns. 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:26.160 It was like an infection meeting an open wound. Not 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.400 only was Alsavador still full of guns left over from 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.760 the war, it was also full of people who had 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.600 been in that war. Children who had grown up traumatized 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.400 by extreme levels of violence, kids who had one or 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.480 both parents killed in the war, or kids that were 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.960 left behind by parents who had immigrated to the US, 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:56.280 kids looking for a family. By the late nineties, alsavor 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.480 was one of the poorest countries in the world. The 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.960 economy never truly recovered after the war, and young people 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:07.080 had very few opportunities to advance. So these newly deported 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.920 gangs move in and they solve two societal problems for 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.800 thousands of angry young people. They provide a sense of 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:20.120 family of community, and they provide a job by charging 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:25.800 rent to regular Salvadorans a fee for living within gang territory. 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.880 By the mid two thousands, what had started as little 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:36.800 cliques in La had become one of the world's most 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:41.480 deadly and organized criminal organizations, and it became the only 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.360 story that the world knew about Ol Salvador. 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.600 In l Salvador, these days, there's one murder an hour 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.520 for a pretty small country, only six million people. It 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.320 doesn't take long when you're, you know, going out at 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:56.720 night to stumble upon a scene like this with a 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:58.840 body laying dead in the streets. And that's that's pretty 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.559 much what people here are living with. These just constant 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:06.640 shootings and murders. Right now, El Salvador is on track 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:08.679 to be the nation with the highest homicide rate in 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:09.160 the world. 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.640 The gangs were the warnings of the murdered Jesuits come 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:20.360 to life. Father Ignacio Martin Barot had theorized that the 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.440 trauma of war would leave the Salvadoran society with a 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.240 militarized mind, that violence would become the default solution for 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:31.200 all of society's problems, and that was true not just 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:38.520 for the gangs, but also for the government. Over the years, 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:41.640 the Salvadoran government has tried to handle the gang problem 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:46.960 by meeting violence with violence. In two thousand and three, 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:50.960 the Arena led government put in place it's blan Manodura 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:55.640 Plan iron Fist, a police crackdown on these gangs followed 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.280 in two thousand and four by the creatively named Blan 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:04.000 super Manodura sup Iron Fist, and these crackdowns led to 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:09.359 the rise of an old tactic death squads, police officers 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.960 going out in the dead of night to kidnap, torture 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:20.079 and kill, but this time targeting the gangs. And though 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:24.439 there have been attempts to rehabilitate gang members too, overwhelmingly 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.480 the plans that have received the most funding and support 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:32.520 in El Salvador were ones led by the military and police. 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.360 For most of my life, the gangs have been the 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.200 only story told about Al Salvador, and it's one that 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.920 I know really well because my family has lived at firsthand. 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.760 We've had people in the gangs, and we've had people 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:54.120 killed by the gangs. It's a cycle that's best explained 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:55.640 by someone you've heard from before. 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:09.840 Mitievilma Mala mala poor ky Lo loke. 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:20.480 Ma fel. 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:24.320 I've known a lot of people in the gangs, she says, 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.960 like the ones who killed my son. That's after the break. 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:43.320 Me nores Will says, so the Salvador San Miguel Oriente. 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:52.080 Ute yo sooi and relations and so dia, so you Natiya. 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.120 That's my Tavilma. You might remember her from previous episode. 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:06.800 She's the aunt that takes no ship. She's little, about 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:09.280 five four, but I've seen her cuss out men that 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.440 are twice her size, which is why it was always 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.560 so strange that her son, Tulio, my cousin, was such 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:33.160 a sweet kid. 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:33.880 Bienko to para black. 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.200 Julio was small like his mom, but with a big mouth. 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:43.800 I remember hanging out with him when I was a 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:47.280 kid on our yearly trips to Olsavador. He was about 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.240 my sister's age, eight years older than me, with cocoa 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.920 brown skin and dark eyes that were crowded with thick eyelashes, 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.360 and he always had this sly smile on his face. 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:07.000 Into into in pre. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:25.040 Yeah, yeah, just like with my Tia Margarita, my Tia 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.920 Vilma had a real soft spot for Tulio. Tulio was 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:31.240 always the one telling her not to be so loud 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:38.080 or crass, chastising her with a mommy. Toulu grew up 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.000 in San Miguel, and because he was small for his age, 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:43.760 he was able to get through most of his childhood unscathed. 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.880 But when he turned fifteen, he finally arrived at a 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:52.520 right of passage for suv Orn boys, and. 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.920 Marie Juel del Piero be. 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:12.879 Did he He was jumped beat up by some boys 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.119 at school, boys that wanted him to join their gang. 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.320 This was pretty typical. Once the boy was of a 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:23.080 certain age, he was expected to join the gang that 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.159 controlled the territory that he lived in, and for Tulio 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:31.679 that meant Ms thirteen. When he came home from school 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.199 covered in bruises, Matia Vilma got her machete off the 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.280 wall and told Tulio to point out the kids that 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:52.320 had beat him up. Matia Vilma whooped their asses. She 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.720 went straight over to those kids' houses and in front 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.440 of their moms, whooped their asses with the flat side 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.800 of her machete. And she told them that the next 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.480 time they jumped her kid, they wouldn't be dealing with her, 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.600 they'd be dealing with his father, a colonel in the military, 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:13.120 which is totally not true, but the lie worked. 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:14.560 They left Julio. 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:19.919 Alone for a while, but when he turned seventeen, the 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:41.119 beating started again. But worse, Mila, these weren't just kids 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:45.639 jumping him in anymore. These were grown men sending Tulio 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:50.879 a message. Mitia realized that if Tulio stayed in San Miguel, 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.440 he'd either end up in one of the gangs or dead. 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.199 She had watched my other cousin, Chico, join m S 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:05.159 thirteen and watched him slowly cover himself with tattoos. Eventually, 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:10.399 Chico landed in a salvador In prison for life. It 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.160 was a future that she didn't want for her son. 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:20.600 Mitiavilma decided to send Tulio north to the US. Another 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.240 one of my aunts was planning on crossing over, and 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:27.639 Vilma asked if she would bring Tullia along. Tulio crossed 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.280 the border in nineteen ninety nine. For a while, he 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.760 stayed with an aunt in La Then he stayed with 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:38.480 another cousin. But there's a saying in Spanish about guests 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.840 and the dead that they both start to stink after 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:47.439 three days. After CouchSurfing with various family members, Duliu had 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:51.040 to find his own way. He ended up working odd jobs, 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:55.840 delivering newspapers, packing boxes at a juice factory, and sending 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:58.000 money back to mythea whenever he got a chance. 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:13.960 Almes Conlin Tamamil Lobi. 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.920 And my Tia Vilma needed a lot of help because 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.879 back in San Miguel, m S. Thirteen was extorting everyone, 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:32.680 charging rent for living in their territory, even someone like 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:35.280 Vilma who didn't have a lot of money and was 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.240 still loading baskets full of chilate to sell in the market. 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:41.760 She came home one day to find that her neighbor 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:42.919 had a message for her. 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:47.439 Mediela vecina a. 0:20:55.800 --> 0:21:05.800 Yo a Manila envelope. The neighbor said that she didn't 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.440 know who it was from. Inside the envelope was a 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:11.480 flip phone and a note. 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:21.879 Yela Senora senoras e Liz Damoselando di la. 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:37.440 The note said, miss Vilma, greetings from MS. Thirteen. At first, 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:40.440 my Thea thought it was a joke or something, but 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:44.119 she quickly realized that this was serious. The note was 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:48.399 full of details about my Tia Vilma's life Don. 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:51.440 De Villa Familia doos. 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:58.439 The note warned her that if she wanted to stay alive, 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:01.040 she would have to start hang rent to the gang. 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.760 Within minutes of her opening the envelope, the flip phone 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:26.520 that was inside started ringing capasom it was a gang 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:31.280 member calling to get her response to the note. As 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:33.640 my Thea was telling me this story, I could feel 0:22:33.720 --> 0:22:35.479 the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:38.960 If it was me, I probably would have lost it. 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:44.720 But my Dea, well, she's made of tougher stuff. 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:57.760 Quin Quin gris. 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:12.320 She got on the phone and she told him, listen up, 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:14.719 you little ship. I don't know who you think you are, 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:17.920 but I'm not paying you a dime. I've got two 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:20.200 sons who are higher rank than you and the gangs, 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:22.639 and if you don't leave me alone, I'll have them 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:27.320 take care of you, which was completely not true, but 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:31.000 she did have my cousin, Chico, the one who was 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:34.800 in prison. She called the prison that my cousin was 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:37.439 in and asked him if he would back her up 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:41.760 and get the gangs to leave her alone. She said 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:43.719 the whole time that she was on the phone, her 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:46.639 legs were shaking so hard that it rattled the table. 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:03.679 The relationship with my cousin Chico is complicated. He had 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:06.439 lent his name to the family before offering them protection 0:24:06.640 --> 0:24:10.920 through his connection with the gangs, but we also suspect 0:24:11.080 --> 0:24:14.119 that he's responsible for some shootings that have happened around 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:19.600 my family, including one that killed my uncle Chico agreed 0:24:19.640 --> 0:24:23.200 to cover Mathia, and after that phone call, the gangs 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:27.080 left Mathia alone for the most part. But that's just 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:31.240 how it was in Alsavador. There was no escaping the gangs. 0:24:32.440 --> 0:24:36.760 They were a part of everyday life, and every day 0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:40.440 Mythia was thankful that my cousin Thulia was in the US, 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:45.800 far away from that life. But about eight years after 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:49.680 Thulil left to live in California, he suddenly appeared on 0:24:49.720 --> 0:24:52.360 her doorstep back in San Miguel. 0:24:53.160 --> 0:25:02.440 Iporkiseviotulio dess no Stella el medj Here. 0:25:03.840 --> 0:25:06.280 He told Mitya Avilma that he'd come back to visit her, 0:25:07.240 --> 0:25:12.240 but the truth was he'd been deported. While in the US, 0:25:12.840 --> 0:25:14.720 he and a bunch of friends had started an illegal 0:25:14.800 --> 0:25:18.119 street racing ring. He was one of the organizers, and 0:25:18.200 --> 0:25:20.159 he got arrested in two thousand and seven for his 0:25:20.280 --> 0:25:24.080 part in it. When he got back to Olsavador, he 0:25:24.160 --> 0:25:26.159 told Matievilma that he was only going to stay for 0:25:26.280 --> 0:25:30.320 six months until May tenth, Mother's Day so that he 0:25:30.359 --> 0:25:34.120 could celebrate with her. Then he'd figure out a way 0:25:34.160 --> 0:25:36.520 to get back across the border and get back to work. 0:25:38.200 --> 0:25:43.040 Gestavarresim Benilo Taos. He saw Louja Pasarda de la madreco 0:25:43.119 --> 0:25:45.359 mio querl dias de mayu. 0:25:46.320 --> 0:25:51.760 Yeah, there is de Mayo il dia de la Cruzieki. 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:55.240 On the afternoon of May third, he went out to 0:25:55.280 --> 0:25:57.359 play soccer with some other guys in the neighborhood. 0:25:58.320 --> 0:26:14.800 I mean, memo, beat you a ya mami javengko you know, 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:17.280 he said. 0:26:18.880 --> 0:26:20.479 My tia told him not to go out for too 0:26:20.560 --> 0:26:24.320 long because she was making him lunch, his favorite tomato stew. 0:26:26.040 --> 0:26:28.560 A few minutes later, a kid from the neighborhood came 0:26:28.600 --> 0:26:29.640 running up to my aunt's door. 0:26:31.240 --> 0:26:43.720 Mammy, Mammy, mammy, miss yo, you can't see. 0:26:44.960 --> 0:26:48.359 She thought they were kidding. At first, the words didn't 0:26:48.359 --> 0:26:52.840 even register, but they kept yelling at her. They killed, 0:26:53.800 --> 0:26:58.359 they killed. She ran to the playground where he'd been playing, 0:26:59.480 --> 0:27:04.360 and she found her son crumpled on the floor Guano. 0:27:08.040 --> 0:27:09.119 Lanco to. 0:27:14.760 --> 0:27:19.600 What startled her most was the color, the bright white 0:27:19.760 --> 0:27:26.160 color of Tulio's skull. He'd been shot three times, once 0:27:26.240 --> 0:27:29.639 in the chest, once in the back, and once in 0:27:29.680 --> 0:27:33.560 the back of his head. She knelt down beside his 0:27:33.640 --> 0:27:36.160 body and cradled her son in her arms. 0:27:38.840 --> 0:27:49.280 You gotta the moment the vaster. 0:27:48.680 --> 0:27:52.000 She prayed over him, told him how much she loved him. 0:27:53.320 --> 0:27:56.680 She asked God to take care of him. She doesn't 0:27:56.720 --> 0:28:00.880 know how much time passed. The next thing she remembers 0:28:01.520 --> 0:28:04.920 as a policeman asking her to step away from the body. 0:28:17.840 --> 0:28:22.560 Carr Porte. 0:28:41.880 --> 0:28:45.560 The details around Tulio's death are uncertain. I spoke to 0:28:45.640 --> 0:28:48.240 a lot of family and people who knew at the time, 0:28:49.080 --> 0:28:51.600 and they all have different theories about why he was killed. 0:28:53.040 --> 0:28:55.160 Some say that a couple of days before his death, 0:28:55.680 --> 0:28:58.120 he'd gotten into an argument with a security guard who 0:28:58.160 --> 0:29:02.080 had connections to the gangs. Others say that Tulio had 0:29:02.120 --> 0:29:05.760 witnessed a gang murder and that's why they came after him. 0:29:07.240 --> 0:29:09.560 But the thing that everyone I spoke to agreed on 0:29:10.880 --> 0:29:14.200 was that Tulio wasn't in a gang himself, and that 0:29:14.320 --> 0:29:16.920 he was killed by m s thirteen. 0:29:18.200 --> 0:29:25.440 Mi vinti sulo mataro hey turo is doro solo cannos 0:29:25.480 --> 0:29:30.760 have it unserqurido de la manu to. 0:29:32.480 --> 0:29:33.000 Pandias. 0:29:34.680 --> 0:29:38.120 In the aftermath of Tulio's murder, Matia Vilma was asked 0:29:38.160 --> 0:29:40.920 to go to the police station to look at mugshots 0:29:41.160 --> 0:29:44.640 and try to identify his killers, but she never did. 0:29:46.320 --> 0:29:49.959 The fact is everyone in the neighborhood knew who had 0:29:50.000 --> 0:29:53.960 done it. MS thirteen did little to hide their responsibility 0:29:53.960 --> 0:29:58.360 for Tulio's murder, but to identify them would have been 0:29:58.360 --> 0:30:02.160 a death sentence. They just come and kill you next, 0:30:03.280 --> 0:30:05.680 and your family too, just to prove a point. 0:30:06.960 --> 0:30:29.160 USI the local, I l lay de la lay de la. 0:30:36.520 --> 0:30:37.600 You have. 0:30:43.920 --> 0:30:47.920 I don't believe in man's justice, she says, it's corrupt, 0:30:49.200 --> 0:30:52.760 but you don't play with God's justice. Whoever did this, 0:30:53.760 --> 0:31:01.720 they'll have to answer to the Lord. I don't know 0:31:02.600 --> 0:31:06.200 if they'll ever answer to the Lord or not. All 0:31:06.280 --> 0:31:07.880 I know is the suffering that I see on my 0:31:07.960 --> 0:31:13.480 aunt's face, the loss first of a sister to the 0:31:13.520 --> 0:31:23.840 death squads, then of a son to the gangs. As 0:31:23.920 --> 0:31:27.040 of this recording, seven of my family members are in 0:31:27.160 --> 0:31:31.320 prison for gang related crimes and six have been killed 0:31:31.400 --> 0:31:41.600 in gang related violence. I'll be honest here. For most 0:31:41.640 --> 0:31:45.240 of my life, Al Salvador felt like a place beyond saving. 0:31:47.160 --> 0:31:49.280 My parents have always talked about it with a love 0:31:49.360 --> 0:31:54.800 and affection that I didn't understand, like Al Salvador was 0:31:55.040 --> 0:31:58.840 the one that got away when they would talk about 0:31:58.880 --> 0:32:02.280