Chicano Gang Masculinity

What does Mister Tattoo mean by this “hardness.”(NPR) Is it a commentary on an individual’s violent tendencies? Or a lack of emotion and sympathy that allows for the individual to continue their life of deviance. In order to further to elaborate on the comment made by Mister Tattoo, I found an essay titled Chicano Gang Members in Recovery: The Public Talk of Negotiating Chicano Masculinities by Edward Orozco Flores and Pierrette Mondagneu-Sotelo. This essay puts into perspective the early stages of the tattooing process. It explains the sociological factors at play in the machismo because it gives us an in-depth observation of gang mentality. The author’s discuss the impact of masculine privilege and how this privilege is at the heart of the conflict. The authors suggest, “men who have experienced structural barriers to mainstream society, such as massive unemployment, urban poverty, and institutionalized racism, have typically innovated competing forms of ‘marginalized masculinities.’ In turn, the formation of such gendered hierarchies has enabled the circulation of ‘a legitimating justification for gender inequality”(Flores & Sotelo 477). As they suggest, Chicano Gang members fit the profile of the males with “marginalized masculinities.” Because the authors do a good job at summarizing it is fitting to quote them in length.

Chicano gang masculinity is one type of marginalized masculinity. Chicano men, as marginalized men, have been structurally blocked from resources (i.e., good education and jobs) necessary for the performance of dominant male breadwinner masculinity, and instead they have often relied on aggressive behaviors, such as the use of physical force or the exercise of control over women, in order assert their dominance and masculinty. Chicano gang behvior has been characterized as self-desrtuctive and as part of an addictive ‘machismo syndrone.’ Chicano gang members in Los Angeles are associated with a hypermasculine culture of locura, which involves ‘a type of craziness or wildness’ and ‘the appearance of a lack of impulse control.’ Heavy drug and alcohol use as well as street violence crime, and neighborhood territoriality are part of Chicano gang life. (ibid)

Looking back to the Interview with Mister Cartoon, we see the same themes beginning to show. It appears that the tendencies to resist authority and prove ones machoness is a key component of growing up a Latino. From a young age, the need to prove oneself as a tough or manly leads to the need to impress ones peers. This need to impress leads to an endless cycle of crime and deviance.

While there is still a level of mystery that shrouds the exact reason someone would get a tattoo of La Virgen. The research seems to support that the tattoo is a symbol of power and respect. The pandilleros and cholos tattoo get La Virgen to protect them from violence. It is a way of asking for forgiveness in hopes that in death the sinner may find a place in the kingdom of heaven. They hope that La Virgen will help argue their case in the eyes of God. In another article, the author explains how La Virgen de Guadalupe is respected by everyone as a cultural symbol, it is for this reason, Mexican gangsters tend to have the image engraved in their skins, to show their devotion to religion, despite the deeds they are committing. “A tattoo of the Virgin is a way of showing ones pride for their race and heritage, a way of fighting the oppression of the North Americans”(Gangster Tattoos) This is because of what the Virgen De Guadalupe symbolizes a dark skin clearly Mexican figure. The author states that getting a tattoo of the Virgin gives the gangsters a way of asking for forgiveness for a life of crime, and that they hope the Virgin will help plead their case before the eyes of God. Helping to grant them a peaceful repose after a life filled with sin. Their bodies become their alters of forgiveness, the Virgin as the centerpiece to the their penance. Furthermore, a tattoo of the Virgin is said to help protect the wearer from bullets.

This sinner-saint duality is present in the artwork of Delilah Montoya. Montoya’s work titled La Guadalupana emphasizes this saint/ sinner dichotomy present in the tattoo of La Virgen. Where the back of this “sinner” becomes a type of alter, giving homage to this national symbol. La Virgen de Guadalupe acts as a guiding figure in the lives of Latinos. She is symbolic of all things pure and innocent. It is only fitting that a life long sinner would want to permanently etch her image into his skin. Accompanying the larger photo by Montoya, are several other examples of tattoos of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Each tattoo hold its own significance, adding more significance to the piece.

Scholar Xuan Santos further elaborates on some of the issues Flores and Sotelo explain above. Santos states, “Chicanos, like other colonized groups, constantly struggle with agents of social control who seek to have power over their bodies”(Santos 93). In the case of the gangsters, La Virgen becomes a symbol of empowerment. This however, is not the only place we find La Virgen de Guadalupe as a icon of agency. We have also seen her as symbol for revolution, Her image carefully printed on the banners of Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association. Her dark skin, and native features make it her easily identifiable as being one of the natives.

I was able to find an interview with Raul R. Salinas a Chicano poet and political activist after his time in prison. He too has a tattoo of the Virgen, which he states has less religious symbolism and more of a symbol of revolution. He talks about his time in prison and how it was illegal to get a tattoo in prison. It was considered a form of self-mutilation. He explains, how this illegality made tattoos more meaningful. They were physically incarcerated but their bodies became mediums for resistance. “The ultimate slap in the face to the prison system”(313) and a tattoo of a La Virgen only further empowers this act by claiming ones heritage, race, and at the same time asking for forgiveness for ones sins. As scholar B.V. Olguín states, “The commodification and institutionalization of Tatuajes are limited by the formal and class-specific nature of this vernacular form of writing. The tattooed brown body is not for sale, As such, it militates, almost essentially, against its own commodification, thus preserving the symbolic challenge to the overt and indirect forms of domination”(163). Salinas’ tattoo of La Virgen de Guadalupe rests on his chest, his guardian from evil and from his sins, “La Virgen is a symbol of protection,” Salinas states (Salinas 312). But as Olguín explains his tattoos are carry a deeper meaning one that stems back to the colonial era. The tattoos especially of the Virgin allow the oppressed Chicano a medium for critical commentary on oppression. Looking past the reasons for their incarceration, we can use Michel Foucault’s tripartite project of subordination- police fill prisons so that these institutions may in turn produce and reproduce the deviants and deviancy necessary in any hegemonic relation”(162). As stated earlier, tattoos on the Chicano canvas become as symbolic as the Virgen on the flags of the oppressed farm workers, or on the flags of the revolutionaries. La Virgen’s becomes symbolic of a better life. Whether it be peace in death for the pandilleros following a life of crime and sin, or freedom after a life of oppression for the incarcerated.