School of Public Policy

Drugs, Gang Violence, and Resistance in East Los Angeles

 Tuesday, January 28th

HUB 367

With Dr. Randol Contreras, Associate Professor, UC Riverside

About the Seminar:

An intimate portrait of LA gang members turning to drugs, nostalgia, and religion as they age and fight to stay relevant in a new era.

Once celebrated in the gang world as rebels who defied the established prison order, veterano Maravilla gang members now grapple with the consequences of leading violent and drug-ridden lives. At once thrilling and tender, The Marvelous Ones sheds light on how these aging gang members struggle to stay meaningful in the face of addiction, violent trauma, and a rapidly changing East Los Angeles.

Dr. Randol Contreras spent close to a decade studying the legendary Maravilla gangs of East LA, who made waves in the 1990s for their rebellion against the most powerful prison gang in the United States: the Mexican Mafia, or La Eme. These men granted Contreras unique access to their experiences, revealing how family members shun them, how jail and prison worsen them, how the church and drug treatment redeem them, and how their brightest moments lie in their pasts as legends of the California gang world. The Marvelous Ones gives human faces to the suffering and resilience of some of the most marginalized members of our society.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Contreras acquired his Ph.D. from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of the multiple-award winning book, The Stickup Kids: Race, Drugs, Violence and the American Dream, which captures how the transformation of an illegal drug market in the South Bronx shaped and influenced drug dealers to become violent drug robbers. He has also done research in South Central, where he examined the ethnic conflicts between Mexicans and African Americans, especially in how residents interpret ethnic gangs.

His recent book entitled, The Marvelous Ones: Drugs, Gang Violence, and Resistance in East Los Angeles, was published by the University of California Press (April 2024). It is based on field research in East Los Angeles and documents how aging Mexican gang members struggle to matter in the world as they deal with the traumas of violence, substance abuse, and homelessness.

A common theme in his work is the critical intersection of history, social structure, and biography, an intersection that sheds light on how criminal phenomena emerge and how they shape the behavior and meanings of people. His research and teaching interests include gangs, illegal drug markets, and racial and ethnic conflicts in marginal communities.

https://profiles.ucr.edu/app/home/profile/randolc

View the photo album here.