Listening to What the Streets Say

Based on 10 years of ethnographic fieldwork in Latino/a communities in northern Illinois, this article discusses violence and vengeance among mostly youths and gang members. Four points are made. First, violence and vengeance are attempts to establish order over escalating disorder. Vengeance often relies on a conviction regarding some higher moral order. Second, vengeance can operate as a kind of counter ideology when the values and beliefs of a legally based society seem hypocritical or unreliable. Third, when we consider vengeance as a kind of ideology, we acknowledge the power of language to create a sense of what is real. Moreover, we acknowledge that ideological language always hides something from view. In short, vengeance hides pain, fear, and other vulnerabilities that lie at the root of violence. Fourth, in acknowledging these roots, the possibility of another ideology begins to take shape, that is, trust.