Gangs of the El Paso-Juárez Borderland: A History

"The author's fluid writing style and his meshing of the disciplines of criminology and history makes it a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the broader dynamics of gang evolution in the borderlands region."--Mitchel P. Roth, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

"Tapia excels at providing a descriptive overview of different communities and groups, uncovering a lot of unknown information about local gangs in this region of the country."--Robert J. Durán, Latino Studies

"Mike Tapia offers a seminal work on the history and significance of criminal subcultures in the borderlands. . . . Mainstream perceptions of gangs are often negative and one-dimensional. Tapia's book contributes to scholarship that digs deeper to provide a richer sociocultural consideration of these subcultures."--Michelle E. Carreon, Western Historical Quarterly

"The best overview available on street gangs in this region of the country. . . . Tapia deserves high praise for doggedly sifting through a myriad of source material in order to piece together a history to a phenomenon that often escaped much documentation or critical analysis in the early decades of its formation."--Eduardo Obregón Pagán, The Journal of Arizona History

"A nuanced look at gang development, culture, and crime that evenhandedly outlines the causes and consequences of gangs on the border, a force that is neither entirely catastrophic nor wholly benign, but a phenomenon born of complex socioeconomic, geographical, and historical processes and relationships."--Eladio Bobadilla, Journal of Southern History

"Tapia's book is a rare and authoritative look at a unique and complicated subculture."--Yvette Benavides, Book Public on Texas Public Radio

"Explores one hundred years of a defiant, intriguing, and sometimes deadly urban social phenomenon."--El Paso Times

"Very rarely do criminologists get to read an authoritative book by an authoritative scholar on a topic with great interest but little scholarly attention. Tapia's book is a landmark achievement on the gangs of the El Paso-Juárez region in a one-hundred-year time period. You will not be able to put this book down."--Alex R. Piquero, coeditor of Rational Choice and Criminal Behavior: Recent Research and Future Challenges

"Tapia provides a sorely needed supplement to our knowledge of gangs in the Southwest, giving us a detailed history of gang development, cartel and street-gang relations, and the evolution of street-prison gang hybrids in the El Paso, Las Cruces, and Juárez regions."--Christian L. Bolden, author of Out of the Red: My Life of Gangs, Prison, and Redemption