ABSTRACT
Latinos/as in the United States have become publicly targeted for elimination despite reaching a status as the largest minority group in the country. Historical conquests of indigenous lands shifted Spanish colonialism to the United States framework of settler colonialism. Surviving colonization has required adjusting to the stigmatization and treatment of Latinos/as as bandits, criminals, and gangsters but at the same time not passively accepting a subordinated status. In the contemporary era, the term “gang” has become highly politicized and used alongside terms such as “illegal aliens,” “unaccompanied minors,” “build the wall,” and “transnational gangs.” This chapter provides a snapshot of the Latino/a experience in the United States, in particular the Southwest, and how indigenous groups, both old and new, organized for self-preservation only to become socially constructed as a bigger threat. Over time, levels of segregation resulted in urban landscapes targeted with aggressive police saturation, militarization, and increasingly high levels of incarceration, deportation, and state violence that has allowed the gang label to become a tool of oppression. Despite the negative rhetoric, policies, and legislation created by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, towards the Latino/a population, strategies of resistance continue to provide avenues for decolonization efforts that provide greater humanity and social justice.
