Latin Gangs in Spain? Immigrant Youth Groups, Stigma and Symptoms

Abstract

This article explores the criminalized social imaginaries of so-called
Latin gangs in Spain, dismantling stereotypes and proposing different
analysis approaches. The empirical material comes from an
ethnography conducted between 2010 and 2011 in neighborhoods in
the suburbs of Barcelona. The main techniques used were document
analysis, participant observation with various youth immigrant groups
and collection of data from oral sources with diferents types of
informants. The results of the study discuss the social image of these
groups, which stigmatize young people that are involved in them and it
is symptom of segregated reception of immigration, increasingly in
times of economic crisis. We analyze the dynamics of violence
concerning these groups; at the same time, we interprete these groups
as circulation spaces of social capital and as forms of agency, that can
empower the members individually and collectively.