The Hollywood kid : the violent life and violent death of an MS-13 hitman / Oscar Martinez and Juan Jose Martinez ; translated by John B. Washington and Daniela Ugaz.
First published as El Nino de Hollywood, ℗♭Debate 2018.
Contents:
A violent history -- (The end: the death and burial of Miguel Angel Tobar -- The beginning: a child tries to kill a man in the coffee plantation -- The origin: the Civil War and refugees in California -- Welcome to the South: the Sureno Gang rockers -- Assassin's gaze: getting to know an MS-13 traitor -- Tiny wars) -- Shacks -- (Chepe Furia's boys -- To kill a witch -- Mission Hollywood 1: a cleanup in the clique -- Threats from prison -- Mission Hollywood 2: killing eighteens -- The Hollywood soldier -- Chepe Furia's fall -- Here lies the Hollywood Kid -- Blood in the Turin well -- A murdered prostitute, a burned-out car -- The murder of Wendy -- Little pinata -- "There aren't any other options" ) -- Abyss -- (Traitor -- Outlaw -- Truce -- Hell -- Death) -- Alive -- (In search of the Kid).
Summary:
Martinez and his brother Juan tell the story of a violent life and death of a Salvadoran gangster--and of the geopolitical forces that propelled a country into becoming one of the most violent on earth. As a boy, Miguel Angel Tobar fled a small town in El Salvador torn apart by warring guerrillas and US-backed death squads. Still a preteen, he joined a different kind of death squad--the Hollywood Locos Salvatrucha--a clique of the Mara Salvatruchas, better known as MS-13. This international criminal organization began on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s, as Salvadoran children, whose families had fled their country's civil war, banded together to defend themselves from LA gangs. Denied refugee status, the Salvadorans found themselves pushed into the shadows and besieged by violence, and MS-13 itself mutated into a gang. When large-scale US deportations began, violence was exported from the United States to El Salvador, helping make it one of the world's deadliest countries and in turn propelling new waves of refugees northward. Martinez got to know the Hollywood Kid and met with him as he first turned on MS-13, killing gang members, and then in turn was assassinated by other gang members. --Adapted from publisher description.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.