Sureños

Sureños ([suˈɾe.ɲos]; Spanish for Southerners)‍, also known as Southern United Raza, Sur 13 or Sureños X3, are groups of loosely affiliated gangs that pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia (a US-based prison gang) while in U.S. state and federal correctional facilities. Many Sureño gangs have rivalries with one another, and the only time this rivalry is set aside is when they enter the prison system. Thus, fighting is common among different Sureño gangs even though they share a common identity. Sureños have emerged as a national gang in the United States.

History

Mexican American street gangs originated in Los Angeles in the early 1900s as a result of various factors, including economic conditions and racial prejudice. In 1957, the Mexican Mafia (or La Eme), California's first prison gang, was established by Luis "Huerro Buff" Flores and other East Los Angeles gang members, at the Deuel Vocational Institution. The Mexican Mafia was formed, in part, for protection from other groups in the prison population, and recruited its members from Mexican American street gangs. A rivalry subsequently developed between Mexican American inmates from Southern California and those from Northern California. The Southern gang members viewed Mexican Americans from rural, agricultural areas in Northern California with contempt and considered them to be unsophisticated and weak, while the Northerners considered those from Southern California to be overly Americanized. By 1967, La Eme was attempting to unify all Mexican American gangs in California, and a concerted effort was made to end rivalries between various groups and amalgamate them into the state's largest prison gang.