Gang Life, Power, and Identity in American Me

Introduction: Belonging, Respect, and the Path to Prison

When Montoya Santana was an adolescent, he and his two best friends belonged to a "strong gang," hoping for respect in their neighborhood. As one of them explained, "Belonging is good, but respect is better." Respect, in this context, meant that nobody could take from them their dignity or sense of self-worth. Sent to Juvenile Hall, Santana is brutalized and sexually victimized, and he kills his attacker. This act, he discovers, earns him some respect — but also a 10-to-25-year sentence at Folsom State Prison.

La Eme and the Drive for Power

At Folsom, Santana becomes a member of La Eme — the Mexican Mafia — because, as he explains, "Power became our game — power to provide everything on the inside that is on the outside. Extortion, gambling, prostitution. Power to make every inmate pay rent. And the biggest money-maker, drugs." The desire for power appears to be the primary motivation for involvement in La Eme, and this should not be surprising among people like Santana who have been systematically disempowered. La Eme gives him a sense of control over at least some aspects of his life, and allows him to enjoy some of the pleasures of the world while incarcerated.

Running the Show: Control Inside Prison

In a covert but real sense, the inmates are running things. Gang membership allows them to enforce their own rules and, to some extent, to control what happens around them. Whatever Santana gains from it, it is worth being thrown into solitary confinement for. "I can run the show from Solitary," he says. Respect is more important than anything else. A member must do whatever is required of him, even if that means killing his own brother whom he loves. No one must ever suspect he is showing weakness. Weakness, in this world, means tender feelings and doubts about the wisdom of a criminal life.

The gang's internal code is rigid and absolute. It provides structure in an environment that strips away nearly every other form of agency. Scholars who study prison gangs have noted that such organizations thrive precisely because they fill the vacuum left by the absence of legitimate social structures inside correctional facilities. For Santana, La Eme is not merely a criminal enterprise — it is a self-sustaining social world with its own economy, hierarchy, and moral code.