Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha

BASIC INFO	LANGUAGE LEVEL	COMPREHENSION-AIDING FEATURES
Book Title Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha (Life and Death in La Mara Salvatrucha) Author(s) Unknown/Anonymous Illustrator(s) n/a Other Contributors (none) Published by Fluency Matters Genre Realistic Fiction Publication date 2010 #Ownvoices Can’t be known with certainty due to the author being “anonymous”; see notes in the “Story” section.	From the author/publisher’s website Level 4 Total Word Count 7600	Illustrations NO Glossary YES Guiding Questions NO Context YES Other

IDENTITIES PRESENT IN THE TEXT		SYNOPSIS
Races, Ethnicities, and Nationalities Mexican-American Salvadoran-American Languages spoken Spanish Sex and Genders Female Male Ages Teenager: 13-18 Social classes Working class	Sexual Orientation Heterosexual (Dis)Abilities and Neurotypes None mentioned in text Religions, Syncretism, and Spirituality None mentioned in text Relationship and Family Structures Heteroparental Extended kin Gang/village Guardian Body Descriptions Not mentioned in text	From the author/publisher’s website This compelling drama recounts life (and death) in one of the most violent and well-known gangs in Los Angeles, La Mara Salvatrucha. Joining MS-13 brings certain gang-related responsibilities, but being born into La Salvatrucha requires much more. Sometimes it even requires your life! This is a gripping story of one gang member’s struggle to find freedom. *Note:* “Although this is not a true story, it is inspired by true events. It neither glorifies gang life nor promotes it. On the contrary, it paints a realistic picture of the pain, suffering and stress that gang life naturally causes and compels the reader to consider the human condition as it relates to our need for love, friendship, belonging and forgiveness.”

ILLUSTRATIONS	STORY	SOCIAL JUSTICE
To what extent do the illustrations present positive and thoughtful representations of identities? There aren’t any illustrations throughout the text, but the chapters all include an illustrated crest with imagery related to the chapter content. At the back of the book, students are invited to analyze the symbolism present in the crests and space is provided for them to take notes.	We understand identities are complex and no single story represents the spectrum of identity-based experiences. Also, a text may address a stereotype, misrepresentation, or generalization without relying on it. *Does any stereotype, misrepresentation, or generalization affect any positive and thoughtful representations of identities in the text?* Problems faced by characters with an identity belonging to a marginalized group are resolved through the benevolent intervention of a white person, a male, a straight person, a body-abled person, etc. The main character wants to leave the gang that he is in, but he knows that the gang won’t allow it. Ultimately, he is “saved” from gang life through the ostensibly benevolent intervention of the Prison Industrial Complex, which serves as symbolic representation of White Supremacy Culture. Characters of color are assumed to have low family wealth, low educational attainment and/or low income. Latinx communities are portrayed as low-income and situated in crime-filled neighborhoods. Female characters are not in a variety of roles that could also be filled by a male character. Female characters are seen in supportive roles such as nurturing grandma, mother, girlfriend. They are not in roles that could also be filled by a male. Social situations and problems are seen as individual problems, not situated within a societal context. The problems associated with gang life are not situated within the broader societal contexts that have led to the formation of gangs (see “Other” below). Characters of diverse backgrounds are represented stereotypically, or presented as foreign or exotic or are tokenized. Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants in L.A. are portrayed stereotypically as belonging to dangerous neighborhoods. Certain people or groups are left out or given roles that don’t enable them to be heard. The principal female character serves to augment the protagonist and is portrayed stereotypically. The Mexican and Salvadoran communities portrayed in the book appear not to be heard “from the inside” but from an outsider’s perspective; although the book’s author is anonymous, we infer that this is an outsider perspective due to multiple anglicisms in the text as well as political perspectives typically associated with White U.S. politics such as “paying a coyote to cross the border wasn’t the right thing to do” (p. 10) and the book’s statement that information about the Mara Salvatrucha was gained through sources like the National Geographic Channel (p. viii) instead of through community testimony. The role of the US in contributing to instability in the regions that were affected (i.e. the war in El Salvador, the reasons for Mexican & Salvadorian immigration, etc) is never explored. The responsibility for undocumented migration is placed on the victims of that circumstance, rather than on the governmental policies that caused it. In addition, the role of the US criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating community instability is not explored but instead glorified as the agents of rescue.	This section is for teachers who are working towards sourcing more texts within the four domains of anti-bias education. We are excited about reading all books and we understand that not all books are written for this specific purpose. *Does this text work toward goals within any of the* four domains of anti-bias education as defined by Learning for Justice? N/A

LLLAB’s REVIEW
*Content Warnings:* *Gun violence*: The book provides a graphic description of how a character is shot and killed in front of the narrator during the story (p. 36). Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha invites the reader into the inner world of the narrator, a teenage boy in California who is a member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang and who remains unnamed in the text. The story fosters compassion and empathy for the narrator as it reveals the narrator’s back story, ethical decision-making processes, motivations and processes of growth. The book also shows how difficult it is for the narrator to leave the gang, which has been his family since his earliest years. The book demonstrates the value of caring for others, as well as seeking and giving forgiveness. Along the way, the book challenges notions of “true masculinity” through the narrator’s personal journey. Near the beginning of the book, he says, “[Una parte de mí] tenía mucho miedo y remordimiento. …Yo nunca le he mostrado esta parte a nadie. Esta parte no era nada de hombre” / A part of me had a lot of fear and remorse. … I have never shown that part to anyone. That part was not manly (p. 14). In the end, the narrator engages in self-reflection and considers his emotions an integral part of his masculine identity (pp. 49-51). The cover page lists the author as “autor anónimo” (anonymous author) with no insight as to the author’s cultural identity. Readers don’t know the author’s personal vantage point except that the author has researched via various sources (see “Note to the Reader” in the preface of the novel). The book portrays El Salvador and Salvadoran immigrants as threats to Mexican-American communities, and Mexican-Americans as gang members who torment Salvadoran immigrants: “Muchos de los mexicano-americanos tomaron a los salvadoreños como una amenaza a la estabilidad de sus trabajos y casas. Por eso, la pandilla mexicana local, La Calle 18 empezó a atormentar a los inmigrantes salvadoreños” / Many of the Mexican-Americans saw the Salvadorans as a threat to the stability of their jobs and homes. Therefore, the local Mexican gang, 18th Street Gang, began to torment the Salvadoran immigrants (p. i). The introductory note to the reader (in English), the prologue and the storyline lack context about the documented role that the U.S. played in creating the MS-13 and other gangs through the interface of the criminal justice system in the United States with the socio-political situations in El Salvador. These themes can be explored via the documentary and book “Harvest of Empire” (2011) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) report on the MS-13. The U.S. role in El Salvador is also well-documented in sources such as the US State Department and in academic literature (see, for example, this article from the Latin American Research Review). While the introductory note to Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha does reference the civil wars in Central America, it does not provide context about the prolonged interventionist, exploitative and deportation-based policies of the U.S. toward Central America which have caused great political and social instability. The role that U.S.-based transnational corporations, prisons, deportations, immigration policies, and other structural oppressions play in creating and exacerbating the situations faced by immigrants is also left unexamined. This is important because the lack of context may reinforce stereotypes and implicit biases about Salvadoran, Mexican and other Central American immigrant communities. It also may implicitly lead readers to conclude that being in the United States “saves” immigrants, instead of showing the roles the United States has played in contributing to the conditions in Central America that have led to emigration. The storyline associates undocumented immigrants with violent gang activity: “[El gobierno norteamericano] empezaron a arrestar a los miembros [de la Mara Salvatrucha] por sus crímenes y notaron que muchos estaban en los Estados Unidos indocumentados” / The North American government began to arrest the members [of the Mara Salvatrucha] for their crimes and noted that many were in the U.S. undocumented (iii). It may be helpful to discuss the dangers of stereotyping with students since otherwise they may erroneously read this as “many undocumented people are violent gang members” instead of “many violent gang members are undocumented.” The anonymous author inserts a negative moral assessment into the main character’s voice about when his parents migrated “al otro lado” (into the U.S.): “En la frontera de los Estados Unidos, ellos le pagaron casi todo el dinero que tenían a un coyote que los pasó al otro lado. Sabían que no era lo correcto, pero pensaban que criar a una familia con la guerra y la violencia de El Salvador no era correcto tampoco” / At the border of the United States, they paid almost all of the money they had to a coyote who helped them cross to the other side. They know that it was not correct/right, but they thought that raising a family amidst the war and violence in El Salvador wasn’t correct either (p. 10). Since the identity of the author is unknown, it is unclear whether this ethical perspective that crossing the border under these circumstances was “not correct” comes from a cultural outsider or from a Salvadoran immigrant family. Teachers may wish to access voices from Chicano/a/x/e and other immigrant communities to add to the perspectives expressed in this section. The book suggests a noncritical pro-police view: “En una calle sin policías, uno de ellos sacó una pistola…” / In a street without police, one of them took out a pistol… (p. 5). This seems to suggest that the Salvadoran community is incapable of self-regulation without state forces, a view that is paternalist and implicitly White saviorist insofar as police represent White structures. Similarly, prison ultimately comes to represent freedom for the main character. This characterization is also paternalist by suggesting that the main character, a Latinx man, needs State control in order to finally grow into an integrated self. There is no questioning of how the U.S. criminal justice system contributes to (and even creates) the conditions that lead to the formation of gangs. In addition, the book contains stereotypical depictions of women. For example, Analía, the narrator’s girlfriend, is described repeatedly as crying (pp. 22-23, 33). When the narrator first meets Analía, she is defending her grandmother’s business against threats issued from the Mara Salvatrucha (p. 18), but in all subsequent appearances in the novel, she is portrayed as crying, at times “llorando histéricamente” / crying hysterically (p. 23), for example, when hearing the narrator recount his family’s trauma. The word choice of “histéricamente” has an association with the patriarchal belief that women’s emotions, driven by the hyster (Greek: “uterus”), are prone to emotional extremes. Later, when the narrator learns of his brother Pedro’s murder at the hands of the rival gang, he also breaks down in tears and is described as “llorando descontroladamente” / crying uncontrollably (p. 31) but not “histéricamente.” Teachers may wish to invite students into reflection on how women are portrayed in the book versus men with regard to the description of their emotions. Perhaps even more significant in relation to depictions of women, there seems to be an “angel & bad boy” trope at play between the narrator and Analía. She is depicted as a “pure” angel: “Ella era una persona pura. Analía nunca tuvo una mala intención con nadie” / She was a pure person. Analía never had a bad intention toward anyone (p. 21). In contrast, the narrator has a history of committing gang-related murders. The narrator’s characterization of her as “pure” suggests that he denies her full complex humanity with strengths and weaknesses. In fact, readers are told very little about her personhood. The narrator describes how Analía defends her grandma; listens to the narrator; tells the narrator to leave the gang and urges him to refrain from violence; cries and dies. Yet the narrator does not describe anything about her life, while being concerned that she should know the details of his life (“Si esta relación iba a funcionar, ella necesitaba saber los detalles de mi vida” / If this relationship was going to work, she needed to know the details of my life, p. 22). The narrator does not reciprocate to ask about or to tell readers about the details of her life but, instead, reduces her: “Para Analía, todo era tan simple” / For Analía, everything was so simple (p. 23). Analía’s ultimate role in the story, then, as a minimally-developed character, is to move the narrator toward a more emotionally-integrated and reflective life by means of her accidental death, as well as to move readers to more compassion for the narrator. The story thus reduces her to an instrument for the emotional benefit of the narrator and the reader. Teachers may wish to explore with readers how this depiction perpetuates gender stereotypes in which the woman is the one who sacrifices for the other and benefits the other by her “purity.” Teachers may also wish to explore the danger of a single story, a phenomenon in which there is an overwhelming disproportion of narratives from a single perspective of a culture. These can sometimes perpetuate negative stereotypes. Vida y muerte en la mara Salvatrucha is an example of a single story that promotes the fetishization of criminalization in the Latinx community. It is difficult to comment on the authenticity of the language in this book without knowing the cultural and linguistic positionality of the anonymous author. Regardless, teachers may wish to be aware that some native Spanish speakers have reported that some sections of this book have reduced comprehensibility for them (ex: vii, 45). If the author is external to the cultures being represented and a native English speaker, then the publication of this language may function as linguistic imperialism–the imposition of English logic and thought forms onto the Spanish language in such a way that it risks transforming Spanish to resemble the patterns of the more globally-dominant language (English). If the author is from the identity of the characters, then these forms may represent a language variety emerging from a hybrid/fusion space of English and Spanish consistent with the book’s setting in Los Angeles, CA.

LLLAB’s REVIEW

Content Warnings:
Gun violence: The book provides a graphic description of how a character is shot and killed in front of the narrator during the story (p. 36).

Vida y muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha invites the reader into the inner world of the narrator, a teenage boy in California who is a member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang and who remains unnamed in the text. The story fosters compassion and empathy for the narrator as it reveals the narrator’s back story, ethical decision-making processes, motivations and processes of growth. The book also shows how difficult it is for the narrator to leave the gang, which has been his family since his earliest years. The book demonstrates the value of caring for others, as well as seeking and giving forgiveness.

Along the way, the book challenges notions of “true masculinity” through the narrator’s personal journey. Near the beginning of the book, he says, “[Una parte de mí] tenía mucho miedo y remordimiento. …Yo nunca le he mostrado esta parte a nadie. Esta parte no era nada de hombre” / A part of me had a lot of fear and remorse. … I have never shown that part to anyone. That part was not manly (p. 14). In the end, the narrator engages in self-reflection and considers his emotions an integral part of his masculine identity (pp. 49-51).

The cover page lists the author as “autor anónimo” (anonymous author) with no insight as to the author’s cultural identity. Readers don’t know the author’s personal vantage point except that the author has researched via various sources (see “Note to the Reader” in the preface of the novel).

The book portrays El Salvador and Salvadoran immigrants as threats to Mexican-American communities, and Mexican-Americans as gang members who torment Salvadoran immigrants: “Muchos de los mexicano-americanos tomaron a los salvadoreños como una amenaza a la estabilidad de sus trabajos y casas. Por eso, la pandilla mexicana local, La Calle 18 empezó a atormentar a los inmigrantes salvadoreños” / Many of the Mexican-Americans saw the Salvadorans as a threat to the stability of their jobs and homes. Therefore, the local Mexican gang, 18th Street Gang, began to torment the Salvadoran immigrants (p. i).

The introductory note to the reader (in English), the prologue and the storyline lack context about the documented role that the U.S. played in creating the MS-13 and other gangs through the interface of the criminal justice system in the United States with the socio-political situations in El Salvador. These themes can be explored via the documentary and book “Harvest of Empire” (2011) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) report on the MS-13. The U.S. role in El Salvador is also well-documented in sources such as the US State Department and in academic literature (see, for example, this article from the Latin American Research Review). While the introductory note to Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha does reference the civil wars in Central America, it does not provide context about the prolonged interventionist, exploitative and deportation-based policies of the U.S. toward Central America which have caused great political and social instability. The role that U.S.-based transnational corporations, prisons, deportations, immigration policies, and other structural oppressions play in creating and exacerbating the situations faced by immigrants is also left unexamined. This is important because the lack of context may reinforce stereotypes and implicit biases about Salvadoran, Mexican and other Central American immigrant communities. It also may implicitly lead readers to conclude that being in the United States “saves” immigrants, instead of showing the roles the United States has played in contributing to the conditions in Central America that have led to emigration.

The storyline associates undocumented immigrants with violent gang activity: “[El gobierno norteamericano] empezaron a arrestar a los miembros [de la Mara Salvatrucha] por sus crímenes y notaron que muchos estaban en los Estados Unidos indocumentados” / The North American government began to arrest the members [of the Mara Salvatrucha] for their crimes and noted that many were in the U.S. undocumented (iii). It may be helpful to discuss the dangers of stereotyping with students since otherwise they may erroneously read this as “many undocumented people are violent gang members” instead of “many violent gang members are undocumented.”

The anonymous author inserts a negative moral assessment into the main character’s voice about when his parents migrated “al otro lado” (into the U.S.): “En la frontera de los Estados Unidos, ellos le pagaron casi todo el dinero que tenían a un coyote que los pasó al otro lado. Sabían que no era lo correcto, pero pensaban que criar a una familia con la guerra y la violencia de El Salvador no era correcto tampoco” / At the border of the United States, they paid almost all of the money they had to a coyote who helped them cross to the other side. They know that it was not correct/right, but they thought that raising a family amidst the war and violence in El Salvador wasn’t correct either (p. 10). Since the identity of the author is unknown, it is unclear whether this ethical perspective that crossing the border under these circumstances was “not correct” comes from a cultural outsider or from a Salvadoran immigrant family. Teachers may wish to access voices from Chicano/a/x/e and other immigrant communities to add to the perspectives expressed in this section.

The book suggests a noncritical pro-police view: “En una calle sin policías, uno de ellos sacó una pistola…” / In a street without police, one of them took out a pistol… (p. 5). This seems to suggest that the Salvadoran community is incapable of self-regulation without state forces, a view that is paternalist and implicitly White saviorist insofar as police represent White structures. Similarly, prison ultimately comes to represent freedom for the main character. This characterization is also paternalist by suggesting that the main character, a Latinx man, needs State control in order to finally grow into an integrated self. There is no questioning of how the U.S. criminal justice system contributes to (and even creates) the conditions that lead to the formation of gangs.

In addition, the book contains stereotypical depictions of women. For example, Analía, the narrator’s girlfriend, is described repeatedly as crying (pp. 22-23, 33). When the narrator first meets Analía, she is defending her grandmother’s business against threats issued from the Mara Salvatrucha (p. 18), but in all subsequent appearances in the novel, she is portrayed as crying, at times “llorando histéricamente” / crying hysterically (p. 23), for example, when hearing the narrator recount his family’s trauma. The word choice of “histéricamente” has an association with the patriarchal belief that women’s emotions, driven by the hyster (Greek: “uterus”), are prone to emotional extremes. Later, when the narrator learns of his brother Pedro’s murder at the hands of the rival gang, he also breaks down in tears and is described as “llorando descontroladamente” / crying uncontrollably (p. 31) but not “histéricamente.” Teachers may wish to invite students into reflection on how women are portrayed in the book versus men with regard to the description of their emotions.

Perhaps even more significant in relation to depictions of women, there seems to be an “angel & bad boy” trope at play between the narrator and Analía. She is depicted as a “pure” angel: “Ella era una persona pura. Analía nunca tuvo una mala intención con nadie” / She was a pure person. Analía never had a bad intention toward anyone (p. 21). In contrast, the narrator has a history of committing gang-related murders. The narrator’s characterization of her as “pure” suggests that he denies her full complex humanity with strengths and weaknesses. In fact, readers are told very little about her personhood. The narrator describes how Analía defends her grandma; listens to the narrator; tells the narrator to leave the gang and urges him to refrain from violence; cries and dies. Yet the narrator does not describe anything about her life, while being concerned that she should know the details of his life (“Si esta relación iba a funcionar, ella necesitaba saber los detalles de mi vida” / If this relationship was going to work, she needed to know the details of my life, p. 22). The narrator does not reciprocate to ask about or to tell readers about the details of her life but, instead, reduces her: “Para Analía, todo era tan simple” / For Analía, everything was so simple (p. 23). Analía’s ultimate role in the story, then, as a minimally-developed character, is to move the narrator toward a more emotionally-integrated and reflective life by means of her accidental death, as well as to move readers to more compassion for the narrator. The story thus reduces her to an instrument for the emotional benefit of the narrator and the reader. Teachers may wish to explore with readers how this depiction perpetuates gender stereotypes in which the woman is the one who sacrifices for the other and benefits the other by her “purity.”

Teachers may also wish to explore the danger of a single story, a phenomenon in which there is an overwhelming disproportion of narratives from a single perspective of a culture. These can sometimes perpetuate negative stereotypes. Vida y muerte en la mara Salvatrucha is an example of a single story that promotes the fetishization of criminalization in the Latinx community.

It is difficult to comment on the authenticity of the language in this book without knowing the cultural and linguistic positionality of the anonymous author. Regardless, teachers may wish to be aware that some native Spanish speakers have reported that some sections of this book have reduced comprehensibility for them (ex: vii, 45). If the author is external to the cultures being represented and a native English speaker, then the publication of this language may function as linguistic imperialism–the imposition of English logic and thought forms onto the Spanish language in such a way that it risks transforming Spanish to resemble the patterns of the more globally-dominant language (English). If the author is from the identity of the characters, then these forms may represent a language variety emerging from a hybrid/fusion space of English and Spanish consistent with the book’s setting in Los Angeles, CA.

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