Greeley – The toughest kids are not wearing gang colors but carving out their own lives in school or sports, a national gang expert told 300 middle-school students Thursday.
“Gang members don’t make any choices on their own, so they go with the herd,” said James Diego Vigil, a professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California at Irvine. “But you don’t want to be a puppet.”
Vigil, an author and chairman of the National Center for Gang Policy, spoke during the third annual Latino Youth Leadership Conference at the University of Northern Colorado. Sponsored in part by the Latino-based Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity and UNC’s C sar Ch vez Cultural Center, the event seeks to steer young Latinos toward schoolwork and good jobs and away from gang violence.
Each of Greeley’s six murders in 2004 were linked to gangs, which makes the message delivered by Vigil even more important, said Juan Valdez, president of the local chapter of Sigma Lambda Beta.
“It’s just a small step,” Valdez said. “But it’s important for them to see successful men like (Vigil) and others and how school helped them.”
Most Latino kids are not involved in gangs, despite what is portrayed in the media, said local activist Ricardo Romero. Still, the period between elementary school and high school is the time to step in and prevent youths from taking the wrong path, he said.
“It’s this time that they think they have to achieve their manhood in the streets,” Romero said.
Vigil said most boys join gangs because they are looking for an identity and are willing to let someone else define their personality.
“Nobody has cultivated them at home,” Vigil said.
So they buy into a group and accept the hazards of gang life, including violence and often prison.
“But once you are in prison,” he said, “you can no longer define how you can be. … You die socially.”
Vigil grew up in Los Angeles in the 1950s and belonged to a gang. But he also got interested in sports and reading and blossomed into a full-fledged “nerd,” which led to a career as a professor and writer.
He encouraged the Greeley students to also embrace the world of the nerd.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a nerd,” Vigil said. “That just means you are embracing something like books or sports and you are not being defined by someone else.”
Student Stevie Limas said Vigil’s talk inspired him, especially when Vigil outlined the heritage of the Latino culture.
“It makes me feel more proud of my background,” said Limas, 14.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 303-726-8674 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
