Latina/o Youths Gangs in Spain in Global Perspective

Abstract

On 28 October 2003, 15-year-old Ronny Tapias was gunned down in the late afternoon outside his school in Barcelona, Spain. News of his death sent Shockwaves throughout the Catalonian city and beyond. Alarmed about the growing skirmishes involving youths in the region, the press dubbed it a gang-related killing. The public, in turn, became incensed about the crime, attributing it to the recent waves of Latin American immigrants to Barcelona specifically and Spain generally. Ronny Tapias, you see, was not a native-born Catalonian or Spanish youth, but rather a “Latino” youth of Colombian origin.¹ Reportedly, the Ne tas, a gang in Barcelona with ties to Latin America and the US, killed him because they believed he was a member of los Latin Kings, a rival Latino and Latina (or Latina/o) gang originating in the US, specifically in Chicago and, later, New York City. Tapias was not a member of either group, however. His murder, the police reported, was a case of mistaken identity.²