Founded | 1900 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] |
---|---|
Founding location | Boyle Heights, Los Angeles California, United States |
Years active | 1900 – present |
Territory | East and West Los Angeles, Hollywood, Las Vegas, El Paso, Florida, Mexico and Central America |
Ethnicity | Mexican American |
Allies | Mexican Mafia Sureños (some other sets) [6] |
Rivals | All Maravilla sets, Varrio Nuevo Estrada, Armenian Power, [7] others flats gangs, Florencia 13 [8] [9] |
White Fence (also known by the acronym WF [10] [11] ) is a predominantly Mexican American street gang in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles.
White Fence is one of the oldest gangs in Los Angeles. The gang itself claims its history goes back as far as 1900, [12] although the gang did not emerge until the 1910s in the form of the all-male sports team associated with the La Purissima Church. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The group was originally referred to as La Purissima Crowd, but gradually changed its name to White Fence, after the white picket fence that surrounded La Purissima Church. The gang's name has also been interpreted as a "symbolic barrier" between the white residents in the area and the Hispanic residents of the neighborhood, at a time when racism plagued the area. During the 1950s and 1960s, White Fence was considered one of the "most violent and powerful gangs in East Los Angeles." [13] [12] The rivalry between the gang and another Hispanic gang, El Hoyo Maravilla, is one of the longest, ongoing feuds in all of Los Angeles, a rivalry going back to the 1930s. [12] [14] White Fence was the first gang in East Los Angeles to use firearms, chains and other dangerous weapons. [15]
White Fence is an old established gang territory in Boyle Heights adjoined to East Los Angeles. [3] [16] [ self-published source ]
East Los Angeles, or East L.A., is an unincorporated area situated within Los Angeles County, California, United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, East Los Angeles is designated as a census-designated place (CDP) for statistical purposes. The most recent data from the 2020 census reports a population of 118,786, reflecting a 6.1% decrease compared to the 2010 population of 126,496.
Boyle Heights, historically known as Paredón Blanco, is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, located east of the Los Angeles River. It is one of the city's most notable and historic Chicano/Mexican-American communities and is known as a bastion of Chicano culture, hosting cultural landmarks like Mariachi Plaza and events like the annual Día de los Muertos celebrations.
Echo Park is a neighborhood in the east-central region of Los Angeles, California. Located to the northwest of Downtown, it is bordered by Silver Lake to the west and Chinatown to the east. The culturally diverse neighborhood has become known for its trendy local businesses, as well as its popularity with artists, musicians and creatives. The neighborhood is centered on the eponymous Echo Park Lake.
The Mexican Mafia, also known as La eMe, is a predominantly Mexican American prison gang and criminal organization in the United States. Despite its name, the Mexican Mafia has no origins in Mexico and is entirely a U.S. organization. Law enforcement officials report that the Mexican Mafia is the deadliest and most powerful gang within the California prison system.
The Eastside is an urban region in Los Angeles County, California. It includes the Los Angeles City neighborhoods east of the Los Angeles River—that is, Boyle Heights, El Sereno, and Lincoln Heights—as well as unincorporated East Los Angeles.
Edward Ross Roybal was a Mexican-American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first Latino American to be elected to the Los Angeles City Council, serving from 1949 to 1962. He later served 15 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1993, representing portions of Downtown and East Los Angeles.
The Crips are a primarily African-American alliance of street gangs that are based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips began as an alliance between two autonomous gangs, and developed into a loosely connected network of individual "sets", often engaged in open warfare with one another. Its members have traditionally worn blue clothing since around 1973.
Varrio Nuevo Estrada, also known as VNE13, is a Chicano criminal street gang founded in Boyle Heights, California, in the Estrada Courts housing projects. VNE is one of 34 gangs in a 15-square-mile area east of downtown Los Angeles.
The 38th Street Gang is an American criminal street gang in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Hispanic-Americans. The 38th Street Gang is one of the oldest street gangs in Los Angeles and has been occupying its territory since the 1920s. They engage in many criminal activities. The Mexican Mafia controls and routinely uses 38th Street gang members to carry out their orders.
El Modena is an unincorporated community and neighborhood surrounding El Modena High School and within the city of Orange, California and the surrounding unincorporated county area. It is located near and east of the intersection of Hewes Street and Chapman Avenue. Much of the area was annexed by Orange in the 1960s and 1970s, but there are still enclaves of unincorporated county land to the east of the high school. The neighborhood is named after Modena, Italy, plus the Spanish article el.
Luis Javier Rodriguez is an American poet, novelist, journalist, critic, and columnist. He was the 2014 Los Angeles Poet Laureate. Rodriguez is recognized as a major figure in contemporary Chicano literature, identifying himself as a native Xicanx writer. His best-known work, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., received the Carl Sandburg Literary Award and has been controversial on school reading lists for its depictions of gang life.
Mariachi Plaza is a plaza located in the Boyle Heights district of the city of Los Angeles, California. The plaza is known for its history as a center for mariachi music. Since the 1950s, mariachi musicians have gathered there in the hopes of being hired by visitors who are looking for a full band, trio, or solo singer. The plaza resembles Mexico's famed Plaza Garibaldi both in form and function, and it also serves as a historic gateway to the neighborhood.
South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as a 16-square-mile (41 km2) rectangle with two prongs at the south end.” In 2003, the Los Angeles City Council renamed this area "South Los Angeles".
Sureños , also known as Southern United Raza, Sur 13 or Sureños X3, are groups of loosely affiliated gangs that pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia while in U.S. state and federal correctional facilities. Many Sureño gangs have rivalries with one another, and the only time this rivalry is set aside is when they enter the prison system. Thus, fighting is common among different Sureño gangs even though they share the same common identity. Sureños have emerged as a national gang in the United States.
The Logan Heights Gang, also known as Varrio Logan Heights or LH, is a Sureño street gang based in Southeast San Diego.
Playboys 13 Gang, also known by the acronym PBS13, is a predominantly Mexican-American street gang founded in the Los Angeles County, California and extends to areas in South Central Los Angeles and Orange County, California. The gang also goes by the Spanish term "Conejo" which means "rabbit" or Rabbit gang to identify itself. They align themselves with the prison gang known as La EME or the Mexican Mafia, Because of their affiliation with La EME, while in prison, they set aside their rivalry with other Southern California gang members known as Sureños.
The Phillips Music Company was a music store in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, that operated from 1935 to 1989. It was situated at 2455 Brooklyn Avenue. The store was run by musician William "Bill" Phillips, who was born in 1910 as William Isaacs. It was a store of many parts: it sold records, sheet music, an assortment of instruments, radios, televisions, electronic appliances, phonographs, and at one point in time at one point in tim even sporting goods, the store brought music to a community populated with Japanese, Mexican, and Jewish Americans. The store introduced its own soundtrack to a world not yet familiar with multiculturalism. This introduction allowed the outside community to create their own music, introducing a homogeneous world to multiculturalism over the airwaves.
Rafael Cardenas is a Mexican-American photographer based in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights.