Evaristo Salas Jr. (Junior)

It's only later that you kind of realize, you know, what is, you know, the course that's going to take you on.

But that's kind of how it was, kind of just a subtle approach.

And, you know, I ended up being a part of the gang.

And it was a small gang.

It was never more than maybe 30 people at a time, you know.

And so it was very small.

and uh we kind of just protected each other and that kind of stuff you know but at the same time it's strange because when you're that young you're not really it's not really you're going out there committing crimes or you're doing this you're doing that literally you're just hanging out doing stupid things you know and being a delinquent you know yeah and so it was we wore certain colors you know we wore just the gang attire and all that kind of stuff you know but we didn't really actually know what these things meant you know and that's the bad part about it because it's not like they sit there and explain that to you they

you need to be, have a certain amount of ignorance in order to continue this kind of lifestyle, you know?

And so we just kind of loosely, we're just, you know, well, this is my friend.

We hang out together.

So this and that, we don't like these guys.

We didn't even know why we didn't like them or this color or that.

And so at that point, it wasn't that we hated each other yet because we could still see people and talk to them.

The hatred would come later because, you know, then that's when the shooting started, the killings and those kinds of stuff.

And then you started like,

Oh, this guy did this person to my, this person I knew or that person.

That's when it starts to kind of solidify in the community.

And then the violence starts to go up, you know.

And for me, it was like being home alone all the time and that kind of stuff.

You know, I looked at it and, well, these are my brothers, you know, these are family.