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Becoming the ‘Baddest’: Masculine Trajectories of Gang Violence in Medellín

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 June 2017

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Abstract

Drawing upon 40 life-history interviews with gang members in Medellín, Colombia, this paper argues that many young men join gangs to emulate and reproduce ‘successful’ local male identities. The accumulation by the gang of ‘masculine capital’, the material and symbolic signifiers of manhood, and the accompanying stylistic and timely displays of this capital, means that youths often perceive gangs to be spaces of male success. This drives the social reproduction of gangs. Once in the gang, the youths become increasingly ‘bad’, using violence to defend the gang's interests in exchange for masculine capital. Gang leaders, colloquially known as duros or ‘hard men’, tend to be the más malos, the ‘baddest’. The ‘ganging process’ should not be understood in terms of aberrant youth behaviour; rather there is practical logic to joining the gang as a site of identity formation for aspirational young men who are coming of age when conditions of structural exclusion conspire against them.

Spanish abstract

Basándose en 40 entrevistas de historias de vida con miembros de pandillas en Medellín, Colombia, este artículo sostiene que muchos jóvenes se unen a estas agrupaciones para emular y reproducir identidades masculinas locales ‘exitosas’. La acumulación de parte de la pandilla del ‘capital masculino’, los significantes materiales y simbólicos de hombría, y el despliegue tanto oportuno como de estilo de este capital, significa que los jóvenes con frecuencia perciben a las pandillas como espacios de éxito masculino. Esto impulsa a la reproducción social de las pandillas. Una vez en una pandilla, sus integrantes se van volviendo cada vez más ‘malos’ utilizando la violencia para defender los intereses de la agrupación a cambio de capital masculino. Los líderes de las pandillas, conocidos coloquialmente como los ‘duros’, tienden a ser los ‘más malos’. El proceso de ‘pandillerización’ no debe ser entendido en términos de comportamiento juvenil aberrante, sino que existe una lógica práctica para unirse a una pandilla como espacio de formación identitaria para jóvenes con ciertas aspiraciones que van madurando de esta forma cuando las condiciones de exclusión estructural conspiran en su contra.

Portuguese abstract

Baseando-se em 40 entrevistas com membros de gangues em Medellín, Colômbia, sobre suas histórias de vida, este artigo propõe que muitos homens jovens juntam-se a gangues para emular e reproduzir identidades masculinas locais de ‘sucesso’. A acumulação de ‘capital masculino’ por parte das gangues, os significantes materiais e simbólicos da masculinidade, acompanhados da mostra tanto estilística quanto oportuna deste capital, significa que jovens geralmente percebem as gangues como espaços de sucesso masculino. Isto promove a reprodução social das gangues. Uma vez parte da gangue, os jovens tornam-se cada vez mais ‘maus’ e prontos a usar a violência para defender os interesses da gangue em troca de capital masculino. Líderes de gangues, coloquialmente conhecidos como ‘durões’ (duros), tendem a ser os ‘mais maus’ (más malos). O processo de constituição e manutenção das gangues não deve ser entendido em termos de comportamentos anormais de jovens; pelo contrário, existe uma lógica prática para unir-se a uma gangue como um espaço de formação de identidade para homens jovens e ambiciosos que estão chegando à idade adulta em momento no qual as condições de exclusão estrutural conspiram contra eles.

Keywords

gangsurban violenceyouth violencemasculinitiesmasculine capitalMedellínBourdieupandillasviolencia urbanaviolencia juvenilmasculinidadescapital masculinoMedellínBourdieuganguesviolência urbanaviolência juvenilmasculinidadescapital masculinoMedellínBourdieu
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 183 - 210
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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111 Dickson-Gomez et al., ‘El remolque y el vácil’.

112 Interview with Pelicorto, non-gang member, 10 June 2008.

113 Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, p. 6.

114 Ibid., p. 5.

115 Ibid., p. 6.

116 Ibid.

117 On commodities and identity formation see Curtis, Pleasures and Perils.

118 Interview with Femina, former gang member girlfriend, 13 Oct. 2011.

119 Zubillaga, ‘Gaining Respect’.

120 Interview with Havana, gang member, 12 June 2008.

121 Cruz Sierra, ‘Violencia y jóvenes’, p. 627.

122 On sexual violence and the gang also see Mo Hume and Polly Wilding, ‘“Es que para ellos el deporte es matar”: Rethinking the Scripts of Violent Men in El Salvador and Brazil’, in Auyero et al. (eds.), Violence at the Urban Margins, pp. 93–111; Totten, Mark, ‘Girlfriend Abuse as a Form of Masculinity Construction among Violent, Marginal Male Youth’, Men and Masculinities, 6 (2003), pp. 70–92 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bourgois, Philippe, ‘Everyday Violence of Gang Rape’, in Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Bourgois, Philippe (eds.), Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 343–7Google Scholar.

123 Baird, ‘Duros and Gangland Girlfriends’.

124 Interview with Jarrón, gang member, 19 June 2008.

125 Interview with Aristizábal, gang member, 15 July 2008.

126 Interview with Mechudo, gang member, 3 June 2008.

127 Interview with Mechudo, gang member, 12 Oct. 2011.

128 Interviews with Mechudo, gang member, 3 June 2008 and 12 Oct. 2011; with Sayayo, gang member, 30 Nov. 2011.