New publication from the Ethnography and Anthropology Collection of our Department

Once a year, the most feared gangs in Mexico City gather at midnight at the altar of Los Ojos Rojos and walk for four days to visit Jesus de Chalma. During these days, as they themselves say, “we are neither enemies nor friends, we are brothers.” God knows that they do evil and that, in this world, He is the Boss of Bosses. They carry weapons and drugs. They try not to steal or fight, but they do laugh and celebrate together. Their families send them divine providence. They give thousands of gifts to the poor they meet along the way. They help carry a cross for a brother who, in other circumstances, they would kill. And in Chalma they pray to the Lord before returning to business, as usual.

But one year was different. In Chalma they met their arch-enemies, the Tenochtitlan 40 gang, and formed what would become the first organized crime cartel in Mexico City. This book attempts, for the first time, to analyze the events of these pilgrimages that ultimately facilitated the formation of the La Unión Tepito cartel.