Gangs of the El Paso-Juárez Borderland - by Mike Tapia

About the Book

This thought-provoking book examines gang history in the region encompassing West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico.

Book Synopsis

This thought-provoking book examines gang history in the region encompassing West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico.

Review Quotes

Gangs of the El Paso-Juárez Borderland provides an encyclopedic 'inventory' of the region's gangs, including city-by-city and gang-by-gang profiles of membership and organization.--Jeffrey S. Adler, Great Plains Quarterly

Explores one hundred years of a defiant, intriguing, and sometimes deadly urban social phenomenon.--El Paso Times

Mike Tapia offers a seminal work on the history and significance of criminal subcultures in the borderlands. . . . Mainstream perceptions of gangs are often negative and one-dimensional. Tapia's book contributes to scholarship that digs deeper to provide a richer sociocultural consideration of these subcultures.--Michelle E. Carreon, Western Historical Quarterly

Tapia excels at providing a descriptive overview of different communities and groups, uncovering a lot of unknown information about local gangs in this region of the country.--Robert J. Durán, Latino Studies

Tapia provides a sorely needed supplement to our knowledge of gangs in the Southwest, giving us a detailed history of gang development, cartel and street-gang relations, and the evolution of street-prison gang hybrids in the El Paso, Las Cruces, and Juárez regions.--Christian Bolden, contributor to The Encyclopedia of Theoretical Criminology

Tapia's book is a rare and authoritative look at a unique and complicated subculture.--Yvette Benavides, Book Public on Texas Public Radio

The author's fluid writing style and his meshing of the disciplines of criminology and history makes it a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the broader dynamics of gang evolution in the borderlands region.--Mitchel P. Roth, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

The best overview available on street gangs in this region of the country. . . . Tapia deserves high praise for doggedly sifting through a myriad of source material in order to piece together a history to a phenomenon that often escaped much documentation or critical analysis in the early decades of its formation.--Eduardo Obregón Pagán, The Journal of Arizona History

This engaging study of the rise and transformation of Chicano gangs and their criminal subculture along the border enriches a growing body of literature on the borderlands. . . . Recommended.--E. Hu-DeHart, Choice

About the Author

Mike Tapia is a criminologist and native of El Paso, Texas. He is the author of The Barrio Gangs of San Antonio, 1915-2015.