History
The Nuestra Raza (Our Race) commonly known as NR, is a Northern Hispanic prison and street gang, known as street regiments usually comprised of the Norteño members. The organisation is an extended branch of the Northern Hispanic organisation, the Nuestra Familia, they are subordinate to the dictates and decrees of the "O" (Organisation). They act as lower-level allied forces that carry out the Nuestra Familia's bidding. The analogy would be similar to the NF being your political field in Washington and the NR being the military personnel in the field. The NF created the NR to divert attention from its own illegal activities and to unite the Norteño following enabling the entire movement to function under an organised and strict set of guidelines, similar to those that the NF functioned under itself.
The primary purpose and goals of their cause methodically laid out. They were working for the betterment of the Norteño people, they were striving to attain mutual respect, social status of equality for all Norteños, and they were to work together toward protecting and defending all Norteños from any threats or outside opposition. Most NR members referred to the NR as the cause, the struggle, the movement and the elite circle. They refer to each other as bros, hermanos, brothers or LO's (Loved Ones).
CDCR classified this movement as the "Northern Structure" (NS) for validation and identification purposes, but the NF adopted the title "Nuestra Raza" around the beginning of 1993, following a number of revisions spurned by the 1992 indictments.
Founded under the umbrella of the NF framework, NR also shared the same basic philosophy and ideology as the NF. When making a commitment to the NR all members understood that the Nuestra Familia are the supreme authority and that all NR members became automatic subordinates to any active "C's".
However, they are advised that they were now above the rank of all unstructured or non-affiliated Norteños. Whenever an NR member enters the prison system, their obligations are binding until death, but they are also told that furthering a commitment to the streets is optional. However, this is a catch-22 and a complete farce. In theory, an NR member's option to function on the streets is left to each individual member and that's what their being led to believe. But this is simply not true. If an NR member on the streets is given a directive by an NF member to participate or fulfil a specific duty, that NR member is obligated to carry out that directive or it will have an adverse effect on his status.
NR members that possess leadership potential and intellectual stature were exposed to the more intensive NF training, and are selected to fill leadership positions. The NF wanted to allocate some measure of independence to this movement, and allow them to set their own checks and balances by structuring the leaders to work together under a small counselings system.
Nuestra Familia
Nuestra Familia (Spanish for "Our Family") is a criminal organisation founded in Folsom, or Soledad facilities in the late 1960s. The organisation is comprised of mainly Mexican-Americans from Northern California. Although that is not always the case, the organisation is known to recruit outside of the Norteño structure as long as that individual believes in their cause. The majority of the Nuestra Familia is made up of Norteño gangs, but does not make Norteños a member of the Nuestra Familia, and vice versa for the Nuestra Familia are not considered Norteños, law enforcement believe the Norteños are a spin-off of the Nuestra Familia to divert their attention from their own illegal activities, much like the Nuestra Raza was created for that very purpose on the prison mainlines.
In 1952, the Aryan Brotherhood (AB) was the first prison gang to evolve and organise itself with the ability to threaten the rest of the prison population. They functioned under a no-ethnic boundary policy, basically preying on the weak and vulnerable. They did this proficiently with sheer numbers. It didn't matter if you were black, Mexican, Asian, another race, or even a non-affiliated white, you became susceptible to being attacked and were open game to being targeted. As the majority of other inmates weren't organised and stood alone, they didn't a chance and became effortless victims.
A few years later in 1957, an individual by the name Luis "Huero Buff" Flores from a neighbourhood in East LA called "The Hawaiian Gardens" founded another group who began calling itself "La Mexicana." This was a Hispanic prison gang which formed to protect Hispanic inmates from other prison clicks, such as the Aryan Brotherhood. Huero Buff's vision was to bring all the street gangs in LA together to form a super-gang in prison. Once La Mexicana had firmly established it's presence within the prison system, a symbiotic working arrangement was established amongst them and the AB's. They had full control over all the illegal activities that took place within the prison system (i.e., gambling rings, extortion, prostitution, distribution of narcotics, etc). All the same illicit activities that happen on the streets are also prevalent in prison.
Over the next few years, these La Mexicana members grew in numbers and began turning their aggression toward the non-affiliated Hispanic inmates. They began taking their personal possessions, strong-arming them and taxing them under the threat of violence.
Huero Buff would later change the group's title to the Mexican Mafia. However, some of the hardline members felt as if this title was too closely associated with the Italian Mafia, and in turn, began pushing for a new name. Rudy "Cheyenne" Cadena, one of the group's co-founders, introduced the abbreviated name "La EME." Cadena was also one of the group's prestigious visionaries. The term La EME (Spanish for the letter "M") satisfied the hardliners but the title Mexican Mafia still remained. As the EME's abuse continued, some of the non-affiliated Hispanics grew tired of EME's transgressions and began banding together in Soledad State Prison. They talked about taking a stand in clandestine meetings, but fierce reputations of the Aryan Brotherhood and the Mexican Mafia held them back.
The group eventually grew bolder and began identifying itself as "La Familia" (The Family). The founders of the group were "Lil John" from the Valley, Gonzalo "Chalo" Hernandez from Bakerfields, Huero Morgan from Clanton, Freddy Gonzalez from San Diego, and "Sammy" from New Mexico. Lil John became the group's "Padre" (Father) and Chalo acted as his second-in-command. Lil John and Chalo wrote guidelines for the group but the group remained somewhat clandestine. Small pockets of the group began popping up in other prisons and small skirmishes broke out. But nobody seemed to take notice that this was another group evolving. They waived these sporadic incidents off as isolated incidents but this still became more frequent.
In 1965, two La Familia members were attacked and murdered in San Quentin, Phillip Neri and Sonny Pena. This escalated tensions even more. On September 15 1968, an EME member by the name of Carlos "Carlitos" Ortega stole a pair of state boots belonging to a La Familia member by the name of Hector Padilla and gave them to a fellow EME member by the of Robert "Robot" Salas from Big Hazard in Boyle Heights. Salas wore the boots to the the yard and eventually confronted by Padilla. Salas, in turn, stabbed Padilla, paving the way for one of the most infamous prison stories in the two group's histories, known as the "shoe war."
The following day, on September 16, 1968, La Familia decided that enough was enough and launched a full-scale attack against the EME in San Quentin. This was also done in conjunction with the day landing on the Mexican Independence Day.
They launched their assault in South Block's Alpine Section at the final unlock. The full-scale press resulted in seven EME members being stabbed and one killed. More deaths would have occurred but the EME members who were being attacked began running and locking themselves in their cells. The NF's erupted that day and the EME's vulnerability was exposed. This was the beginning of a long standing blood bath, and some of the main perpetrators were being transferred to Chino State Prison where they began establishing this as one of their strongholds. The prison administration had unknowingly facilitated the war throughout the whole prison system by making those transfers. This day was now recognised as the first day La Familia took a stand against the EME and is honoured as the Familias' anniversary, September 16, 1968.
In the late 1960s, Mexican-American (Chicano) inmates of the California state prison system began to separate into two rival groups, Nuestra Familia and the 1957-formed Mexican Mafia, according to the locations of their hometowns (the north-south dividing line is near Delano, California.)
Nuestra Familia were prison enemies of the Southern Latinos who comprised La Eme, better known as the Mexican Mafia. While the Mexican Mafia had initially been created to protect Mexicans in prison, there was a perceived level of abuse by members of La Eme towards the imprisoned Latinos from rural farming areas of Northern California. The spark that led to the ongoing war between Nuestra Familia and members of the Mexican Mafia involved a situation in which a member of La Eme allegedly stole a pair of shoes from a Northerner. This event put into motion the longest-running gang war in the state of California.
The NF operates a no gang banging policy to members of the organisation, instead members on the street make up "regiments", which essentially are the street crews of the Nuestra Familia, these street regiments have influence over the Norteño gangs in Northern California. They distribute firearms and narcotics throughout Northern California, along with extortion rackets in areas of influence.
Street Regiments
As members of the Nuestra Raza & Nuestra Familia are released from prison, they are schooled on how to step up a regiment, members of these street regiments operate a no gang-banging policy, regiments could be as big as 5 to 30 people officially working for the Nuestra Familia, while Norteño's are known to operate in these street regiments, but that does not make them a member of the NR or NF, they are classed as unstructured Norteño's.
One of NF's most notable street regiments is known as the Salinas Regiment, which was ran by Robert "Brown Bob" Viramontes in the late 90s. During the 90s the Salinas Regiment became embroiled in a internal war after Gerald "Cuete" Rubalcaba gave the order.
In April 19, 1999, NF member Santos "Badboy" Burnias and two NR members David "Dreamer" Escamilla and Albert "Beto" Avila stole a Ford Explorer and headed for Palo Santo Drive in Campbell, California where Brown Bob was living. Another NF member Antonio "Chuco" Guillen sat in a separate vehicle was appointed to confirm the killing had taken place. When the Explorer pulled up in front of Brown Bob's home, Burnias & Escamilla approached him and opened fire. As Viramontes hit the ground by several rounds, the two shooters approached and fired several more rounds into his back, chest, arms and legs. This murder sparked a long term war within the Salinas regiment. In 2000 all those involved in the shooting were given life sentences, apart from Albert "Beto" Avila who was murdered by Dreamer, Badboy, Chuco and Niteowl after failing to get rid of the vehicle used in the shooting, which was used as evidence to convict those involved in the Brown Bob murder.
Northern Hispanic Structure
Unlike the Sureños, who all recognise the Mexican Mafia, not all Norteños recognise the Nuestra Familia, which the NF call "unstructured Norteños", Norteño members not officially part of the NR/NF. While the NR protects all Northern Hispanics on the mainline, it is not mandatory for members to become part of the Nuestra Raza, instead the organisation prefers to pick true believers in the Norteño movement. NR members upon release have the option to form under a street regiment, go back to their gang or back to their daily life. While this is true, there is a catch-22, if an NF member calls upon an NR, Norteño or an unstructured Norteño member, they must carry out the orders for that NF member. Below is an example of the structure of the Northern Hispanics:
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Nuestra Raza
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Norteños
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Unstructured Norteños
Other Northern Hispanic Gangs
Known to the CDCR as the Northern Collective, or Norteño collective, there are a number of Northern Hispanic gangs in and out of prison that do not operate under the Nuestra Familia umbrella, most are hermit gangs (drop-out gangs) that have dropped out of the Nuestra Familia program. The most notable gang to do this is F14, now known as the Fresno Bulldogs, which make up various street gangs from the Fresno area, although a drop-out gang, in some states FB and NF have an alliance on the mainline yards. New Flowers, a NF drop-out gang are recognised by tattooing a rose or a flower to cover up their Nuestra Familoa tattoos. Northern Ryders are former members of the Nuestra Familia's mainline gang, the Nuestra Raza. Members of the Northern Ryders use a Playboy bunny that will have a five point star in the eye. Most of these drop-out gangs are transferred to soft yards after the debrief process and end up on SNY (Sensitive Needs Yards).