THE MARA SALVATRUCHA A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE MS 13 MS 18

CROSSING BORDERS THE MARAS APPEARS IN MANY COUNTRIES  FROM EL SALVADOR, USA AND EUROPE (the beginning )

More and more the groups of young people or not so young, that they are united as forms to look for a social identification increase, the only thing who often in those cases, the crime is the source of the union of those groups. One of the cases that can be seen is the one of the MARAS.

In the early’80s, in the zone of California, but exactly in Los Angeles, due to the Salvadoran migratory slope, group of young people was creating agupaciones that were called MARAS, the name comes from the ants marabuntas in reference to the expansion form that they have, invading and devouring everything what they find in his way.
Gangs that were formed in those years, had two main aspects: the “Mara Salvatrucha” (MS 13) and Mara 18 (MS 18).

The word salvatrucha, comes from two: El Salvador and ” trucha” , that is defined thus to the capable subject, astute to escape of the police.

Although in principle the gangs were formed by Salvadorans, youth from all regions of Latin America, were increasingly joining.
The idea was in principle as Organization for the Protection of street or neighborhood in which it lived, so that bands from other areas, took over the control or domination of the area.

What happens is that many young people without family, without employment, leisure time, not knowing what to do, which is often not suited to a country different from theirs, were joining, making the group grow, as well as giving them some importance, namely the status belong to this group is part of this elite, they created an identity.

The neighborhood, the “CLICA” with their way of life called “La Vida Loca” became a reason and a slogan: “For my mother alive, I die by the District.” In many cases there was a sort of identification of members of the gang-the “Homeboys” or “hommies” – among them, as belonging to the same “family”, which gave them links of “brotherhood” similar to those of criminal mafias. In turn, the solidarity among members of the mara meant a total disregard and even contempt for the rest of society.

The criminal activities that realised went from offering protection like the aggression to rivals or to those who did not accept the protection, happening through the drug consumption, and the traffic of the same like of arms, assaults, the drug trafficking has been its main source of financing.