Guest Column
Our Own Urban Civil War
By Randy Jurado Ertll- Maybe our next House Resolution would outline a peace agreement or truce for Mara Salvatrucha and Eighteen Street. Now that would truly be historical, just like the 1992 Salvadoran Peace Accords.
- (Randy Jurado Ertll, grew up in South Central Los Angeles and formerly worked as a Congressional staff member in Washington D.C. Contact: randyertll@yahoo.com
In many major U.S. cities, a quiet urban civil war has been occurring for decades between two of the biggest gangs in the United States, Eighteen Street (18 St) and Mara Salvatrucha (MS).
However, the Salvadoran American community is politically maturing in the United States. Congresswoman Hilda Solis, the first Congressional member of Central American descent, proposed a successful House Resolution 721. This Resolution, though symbolic, does recognize the positive contributions of the over one million Salvadoran Americans in the United States. Not all Salvadorans are members of Mara Salvatrucha (MS) or Eighteen Street (18 St).
Despite the positive contributions of Salvadoran Americans, there are a significant percentage of our young people that continue to join MS and 18 St.
We have to get our young Salvadoran American young men and women to resist the temptation of joining gangs. Mara Salvatrucha and Eighteen Street are the mega gangs that continue to recruit our young men and women. Both gangs have tens of thousands of members, yet colleges and universities continue to have low recruitment and enrollment of Central American students.
Colleges and universities should be the main recruiters of our Salvadoran American youth.
Community organizations, businesses, elected officials and community activists have a direct responsibility to help create jobs and other opportunities for our young people. Our young Salvadoran Americans must also have self-determination, personal responsibility, and maturity to resist participating in illicit activities.
House Resolutions such as the one proposed by Congresswoman Hilda Solis is key to begin a real dialogue of what is truly needed in the Salvadoran American community: to prevent our kids from joining gangs.
The community group/s that initiated or supported this House Resolution is irrelevant since what should be a priority is investing in the education of our children. How a community treats its children, is an indicator of how that community will succeed in the future.
The abuse and mistreatment of Salvadoran children, in the U.S., Mexico, and El Salvador, must halt. These societies need to embrace and respect the rights of children.
Children should not seek a family by being brutally beaten up to join a gang. Our young people must learn that attending school and excelling academically must be a priority in order for them to help their own families and communities.
The self-destructive behavior and negative attitudes from our young people will only reinforce negative stereotypes already perpetuated against the Salvadoran community.
We must obtain power through education. We have to prepare our future generations of leaders who will become our Civil Rights attorneys, future Chiefs of Police, CEOs of major banks, doctors, judges, teachers, and elected officials at all levels. Salvadoran American young children must realize that power and respect should not be obtained by joining a gang.
Those young men and women who are or have been involved in gangs, and choose to leave them, should be given opportunities to rebuild their lives through education programs or through job creation programs.
Other ethnic communities have strategically invested in their children’s education in order for their particular community to gain political and economic power. Present and future Salvadoran professionals must provide a lending hand to young people who need entry-level jobs, internships, and permanent job opportunities. Power is rarely given or shared. Therefore, Salvadoran American young people must learn to create their own power through education and the creation of successful businesses.
The Peace Accords were signed in 1992 and the turbulent, bloody Civil War of El Salvador ended. However, the Salvadoran community living in the U.S. continue to carry those painful scars and many continue to relive those memories due to the violence in their U.S. neighborhoods, through the feud between MS and 18 St.
A step forward would be if the Mara Salvatrucha and Eighteen Street gang would sign a Peace Agreement and choose to stop killing each other. The CRIPS and the Bloods have been able to sign peace agreements; therefore, MS and 18th Street can follow their example. Enough bloodshed has already been spilled and we cannot afford to have our Salvadoran American young men and women grow up in the prison system.
The United States, Mexico, and Central America would greatly benefit if our Salvadoran American youth would set the example to adults that peace can be achieved even when it seems as an illusion.
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