"A members is to share all and everything. To have one leader or boss for all members and to swear their lives to the group with understanding that death is the failure to comply with the codes of the group. Once an inmate is accepted into the group, he cannot drop out."-The Mexican Mafia Creed
The postwar era brought more change to Hispanic After the war, with no common enemy, the frustration and aggression of the gang members was aimed at each other. The Maravilla gangs that formed in East Los Angeles developed the most notorious reputation for being violent and ruthless. As the number of street gangs grew, so did the tendency of these gangs to claim turf, and to settle their problems with action.
Insults against a gang were not tolerated, and intense rivalries formed between gangs. Violence began to increase as gang members began to use guns more often. A new word entered the gang vocabulary: drive-by. The 1950s were to be a decade of rapid growth for Los Angeles
The suburbs became a popular place to live for many Angelinos. Man-made structures, like freeways and major interstate highways helped to define new geographical turf boundaries for many gangs. The new man-made boundaries also subdivided existing gang territories and created new gang clickas (cliques) or subsets of the original gangs.
To further compound the issue, many families were moving away from Los Angeles to the smaller surrounding cities to avoid the ever-increasing inner-city gang violence. The 1950s urbanization also added to the street gang growth. This flight from gang violence became one of the first identified gang migration mechanisms. Families would move to prevent their children from joining street gangs or to save them from further involvement.
For some families, it was too late. The relocated children moved away physically, but brought the gang mentality and philosophy with them. They joined local gangs in their new communities or created new cliques of the gang they were associated with in Los Angeles
Throughout the 1950s, the number of gang-related violent crimes increased dramatically, as did the size and number of Hispanic street Law enforcement agencies increased their response to gangs, and many Hispanic gang members were sent to prison. This caused the demographics within the correctional system to change.
At Duel Vocational Center in Tracy California, at youthful offender facility in California, several East Los Angeles gangs formed the Hispanic prison gang known as La EME, the Mexican Mafia, and the first prison gang in California. Twenty Mexican Americans from East Los Angeles formed the core of the gang. It was originally named the 'Mexikanemi' Temple of the Aztl�n. They were a religious group that worshipped an ancient pre-Hispanic creed (cultural heritage).
Initially, the gang was formed for protection against other inmates and the prison staff. As the organization grew, it rapidly changed into a criminal organization involved in extortion, narcotics trafficking, and murder both inside and outside the prison system walls.
16 gang leaders from East Los Angeles barrios formed a deadly alliance to control the prison narcotics trade. The well-organized gang built its criteria along ethnic lines and a set of rules modeled after the Sicilian Mafia.
The supposed original members-leaders of the group were: Joe 'Pegleg' Morgan (sometimes called Papa Joe) In the movie "American Me" By Edward James Olmos, the charcater J.D. represented "Joe Morgan"
According to Bill Valentine in his book Gangs and Their Tattoos: Identifying Gangbangers on the Street and in Prisonand Jimmy Santiago Baca in his A Place to Stand Rudy 'Cheyenne' Cadena was the original leader of "La EME". Rudy Cedena is portrayed by the character 'Santana' in "American Me" Unlike the movie, he was also killed by Nuestra Familia, not La Eme.
With a set of rules governing its members, the EME has become a fundamental criminal enterprise established for the sole purpose of committing criminal activities in furtherance of the organization�s goals.Some of the gang�s activities include expanding its control of drug/heroin trafficking, drug rip-offs, prostitution, business robberies, contract murders, gambling, debt collection, extortion, and other illicit activities. Most of their criminal activities focused on victimizing black and Caucasian inmates while leaving Mexican prisoners alone.
The California prison system became aware of the Mexikanemi's criminal activity, broke the group up and relocated them to different prisons, but this only helped the group group since active recruitment continued by the Mexican Mafia, as they are now called, and the gang basically took control of the California prisons
Between 1967 and 1968 at San Quentin, a state prison in Northern California, an incident occurred which would forever change California's Hispanic street and prison gangs. LA EME had already gained a reputation for toughness. Other aspiring young Chicano hoodlums became interested in affiliating with the Mafia, and, according to rumor, The Mafia members insisted that initiates murder another prisoner.
This rumor and the actually attacks aroused the consolidated a large number of "independent" Chicanos, who planned to eliminate the Mafia members.
On the planned day, the other Chicanos pursued known Mafia members through San Quentin, attempting to assassinate them, several dozen prisoners were seriously wounded and one was killed in this daylong battle, but the Mafia held its ground. They won many knife fights and were not eliminated. The deceased was allegedly a police informer who gave law enforcement officers information on the drug trafficking activities of the gang. This killing of a brother Mexican-American initially created much unrest throughout the prison population but was generally thought to be justified under the circumstances.
After this unsuccessful attempt, some of the formerly independent Chicanos, particularly from inmates from the northern rural areas and towns of California, who had been in conflict with Los Angeles Chicanos for decades, and the �Texas Syndicate� which was made up of inmates from Texas, formed a counter group: "Nuestra Familia" (NF), meaning "our family" to defend themselves against the violence-prone EME.
Aligning with the EME against the Nuestra Familia is the white supremist group known as the Aryan Brotherhood, (Caucasian White Supremacist Gang) who also assists the EME in conducting various criminal activities such as drug trafficking, robberies, and contract killings both inside and outside the prison walls. Members of the Texas Syndicate migrated back to Texas from California and were eventually arrested and re-incarcerated in the Texas Department of Correction.
There are at least two versions of how it started.
Another version of the incident says that Robert "Robot" Salas was the roommate of Padilla, rather than �Pie face�.
In this version, Salas received the shoes as a gift and returns to his cell, which is of course shared with Padilla, and the fight occurs in the cell.
Whichever version occurred the murder solidified the rivalry between northern and southern Hispanics, both in the prison system and on the street. The Hispanics from northern California formed Nuestra Familia (NF), another prison gang, in response to the conflict. NF was formed to protect the northern Californians from La Eme, whose membership was made up primarily of southern Californians. As a result of this incident, several members of the NF ambushed and stabbed seventeen EME members, killing one of them.
Warden Louis S. Nelson of San Quinten first made public acknowledgement in September 1968 that they existed. He went on television saying the a chicano inmate had been killed by the "Mexican Mafia." He discussed the group, noting that it composed of Mexican-American "gunsels." He concluded saying that his staff had "eliminated the Mexican Mafia," which was in fact un-true. (Source: Chicano Prisoners: The key to San Quentin by R. Theodore Davidson)
Since the 1968 incident, the EME has been in an all-out war with the Nuestra Familia (NF), which has resulted in the murders of over 30 prisoners. Over the years The "EME" recruited some of the most dangerous and violent Mexican inmates. Penal institutions responded by transferring gang members from one institution to another which only served to expand the membership of the gang from the California prison system to the Federal prison system.
Through murder and intimidation, the Mexican Mafia has grown to be the most powerful and influential prison gang in the system. Recruitment of local Hispanic street gangs extends the Mexican Mafia grip deep into the neighborhoods of Southern California communities. La EME also taxes
Local Hispanic Street gangs who peddle narcotics.
The NF and La EME fought and prison administrators attempted to segregate the gangs, designing two prisons, San Quentin and Folsom for the Mafia and Soledad and Tracy for La Nuestra Familia. When Chicano enter the California prison system, they are asked gang affiliation; if they are to be sent to those 4 prisons, they are sent to the one dominated by their gang. Gang recruitment and taxation combine to make the Mafia a dangerous force in the underworld of prison gangs.
A recent split in the leadership of La EME has caused prison officials and jail staff to closely monitor the internal struggles to insure safe housing and double celling of gang affiliates. The wrong placement of cellmates could lead to more violence in a prison system already exacerbated with gang warfare. Some gang experts attribute the leadership split to a recent successful federal prosecution of the La EME leadership. The shake-up has led to several Mafia leaders being scattered throughout the vast federal prison system. In the ensuring years, the conflict between the Chicano gangs increased and spread even to the outside, where the gangs have tried to penetrate outside drug trafficking.
Today, the Mexican Mafia has spread to at least seven other states, with an estimated membership of 600.
Receipt of inmates on interstate compact and the current membership in groups with Hispanic/Latino supremacy ideology and Latino street gangs lend to the threat. The EME uses killing as a means of discipline or gaining respect. EME killings are extremely gruesome and calculated to establish fear and intimidation.
The current Mexican Mafia of Texas was formed in the Texas Prison System in 1984 to protect the Hispanic inmates of the Texas Prison System from the Texas Syndicate. EME's philosophy centers on ethnic solidarity and control of drug trafficking. It is said that no EME member may practice any form of Christianity. EME is the Federal Bureau of Prisons' most active gang, in terms of incident frequency rather than severity. Ordinarily, each prison has a separate leadership.
Identifiers/Symbols/Insignias
Initials "EME."
Enemies/Rivals:
The La Nuestra Familia is the EME's chief rival. They are said to have a "kill on sight relationship," which has resulted in Federal Bureau of Prisons adopting an absolute separation of confirmed members.
Other rivals include:
Allies: The EME has a very active working relationship with the Aryan Brotherhood. The EME often provides protection for imprisoned La Costa Nostra (Italian Mafia)members.
Other allies include:
Recruitment/Initiation: Members are Mexican-American/Hispanic male inmates. The wives, girlfriends, and relatives of the EME are held in extremely high regard. Why? because of the due to their support of drug transactions, financial activities, and mail-forwarding operations.
The EME is generally considered a "blood in, blood out" organization, meaning one must kill to join, and one must be killed to leave.