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Transcription: [00:04:51]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
We were talking a little bit about the "Sociedad de la Esquina" and I actually had a question for Alonso,
[00:04:59]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
and that is: What were the conditions? What made you start to organize? Cuales eran condiciones alla en Cuidad Juarez? Porque se animaron para formar este conjunto?
[00:05:18]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Bueno pues mas bien para levantarse evitar la violencia entre los barrios principalmente.
[00:05:29]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
There is a major problem in Cuidad Juarez, as in many other metropolitan areas, of violence between youth groups from various parts of the city,
[00:05:39]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
so this was conceived as a constructive way to channel the tremendous energy into more creative types of activities.
[00:05:49]

{SILENCE}
[00:05:55]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Well, maybe we can turn for a minute to the other side of the border; to the El Paso side.
[00:06:00]


{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
And we've got a similar kind of activity; very much based on the community, with a lowrider car clubs in El Paso.
[00:06:14]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
I think that Romy is probably a lot more articulate about it than me, so maybe I'll hand the microphone to him, and try to ask him a question, and ask anybody in the audience, as well.
[00:06:26]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
You know, you can feel free to jump in with a question, and we'll try and answer it.
[00:06:34]

{SILENCE}
[00:06:38]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Just for starters, why don't you tell us a little bit about how you got involved in "slow and low" and with the whole "low rider" scene in El Paso,
[00:06:45]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
or maybe, why don't you start by saying a little bit about what low riders are, and that would probably be a good place to start.
[00:06:51]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
Sure Mike. About three years ago I was coming on out of high school and there was a lot of gang activity, a lot of youth violence; gang violence in the city of El Paso.
[00:07:02]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
It's like a plague to me and to my brothers down in El Paso. It's exactly that. A disease. It spreads down from all over.
[00:07:12]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
It's not just a California thing. It's not even just a United States thing. It's a violence thing.
[00:07:16]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
And too many times, a lot of gangs capitalize on the fact that the youth of our country, the youth of our world: they grow up in a situation were they don't feel needed,
[00:07:29]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
they don't feel apart of a group, or they lack that sense of belonging, and they lack that self esteem inside of them.
[00:07:37]


{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
This was a case with me. My parents very traditional, Spanish parents; I love them both, and they did everything they could,
[00:07:46]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
but somewhere inside of me, I lack that belonging, and God knows it's not their fault.
[00:07:51]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
God knows they did everything they could to make me feel as part of the family. But maybe, just among my peers, I didn't feel like I was good enough. I didn't feel like I had what it took to be part of the in-crowd.
[00:08:02]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
So I turned to the gangs. And, right away, I saw where that was gonna lead me. And fortunately for me, there was a group of friends involved with this Car Club, which was established approximately two years earlier.
[00:08:14]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
These friends had also been gang members that turned away from the violence, and they invited me to turn away from the violence with them.
[00:08:21]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
And I got involved. Year after year, getting deeper and deeper into the club. You create something. You create a brand new family, so to speak.
[00:08:32]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
You got a bunch of buddies, a bunch of friends, your age. You can see it; you can see people your age creating something that they can be proud of;
[00:08:40]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
creating a life, a way of life. rather, that they can be proud of; and that they can find a lot of self-esteem and a lot of belonging in.
[00:08:49]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
And right away, right away from the start, I knew that I belonged. I knew that I had a bunch of friends that I could count on. And to this day, I can continue to count on.
[00:08:57]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
There's nothing, like, they won't do for me, and there's nothing I won't do for them. It's a lot of the same mentality that the gangs like to claim.
[00:09:04]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
But in the Car Club, it's for real. It's for real, because again, a lot of gangs capitalize on illegal money; dirty money.
[00:09:13]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
There's a lot of drug dealers, there's a lot of prostitution, a lot of gangs; it's just ugly, dirty money. And they want to create a lowrider.
[00:09:20]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
And it's not a money thing either. It's about getting together with your friends. It's about helping each other out.
[00:09:27]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
So I can't afford a two, three thousand dollar paint job that somebody else can. But you know what, I can do it myself. I learned how to do it through the Car Club. And in that same way, I can turn around and offer those services to my friends within the club.
[00:09:38]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
So before long, we're all rolling along on just that same paint job with at at less than half the price.
[00:09:45]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
Just as good as any gang member, drug dealer, as a matter of fact, better, because we did it ourselves. Clean.
[00:09:50]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
In all of our cars, all of our cars every month are subjected to exactly that; street legal. We have what we call, "our inspections," and they have to be street legal.
[00:10:00]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
There's no way we can harm anybody on the street. We take, we take pride in being drug free, alcohol free, and we take pride in being gang, completely apart from the gangs.
[00:10:10]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
Any kind of criminal involvement, you can't roll with "Slow 'n Low."
[00:10:14]

Transcription Notes:
SPEAKERS WERE NOT DESIGNATED, EXCEPT TOP TWO ENTRIES. THE TEXT NEEDED TO BE BROKEN DOWN A BIT, TOO. The announcer is Mike. The spanish speaker is Alonso. - Speaker 2. Speaker 3 - Romy Frias of El Paso, TX.