ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we reflect on fifteen years of researching and working with Latin Kings and Queens of Ecuador, the only country in the world to “legalize” street gangs. We draw a number of substantive and theoretical conclusions about this experience and the extraordinary changes that this group underwent in search of nationhood, socio-political empowerment and cultural self-expression. This chapter deals with the problems and history of this organization from five fundamental aspects: formal recognition and the achievement of legal status; the political and social context in which the organization arose; its history and institutional memory; the conditions of transnationalization (US-Ecuador-Spain/Europe relations); and, finally, the current situation, roughly twelve years after the creation of the Corporation of Latin Kings and Queens in Ecuador, where we analyze this process from a political and reflective perspective, considering progress and future challenges.
