Homies and Hermanos: God and Gangs in Central America

Abstract

As he began research for this project, sociologist Robert Brenneman wanted to know why evangelical religion provides “a widely recognized refuge from the gang — a way out for weary gang members” (p. 236). Does evangelical Christianity simply provide a means of getting out of violent gangs alive? Or do these conversions constitute legitimate emotional investments conscientiously made by young people acting on their own behalf?Previous scholarship on gangs in northern Central America depicted these youth as “helpless victims” of social ills or “sociopaths . . . driven by a particular set of innate psychological circumstances” (pp. 72 – 74). However, depicting them as helpless victims fails to help explain why belonging to a gang might actually appeal to a young person and why later in life that same person might convert to evangelical Christianity.To ascertain the appeal of gangs in northern Central America Brenneman interviewed 63 former gang members. Surprised by “the long pauses and quiet weeping of these so-called hardened criminals,” Brenneman writes, “I knew I needed to pay careful attention to the role of emotion in the lives of these youth.” He turned to the “sociology of emotions” as a methodological “toolkit for making sense of these emotions” (p. 83). The author concluded that shame “pushed” some of his subjects to join gangs — the shame of grinding poverty, dysfunctional families, physical and emotional abuse, difficulties at school, and perpetual unemployment. Joining a gang offered the “pull” of solidarity, drugs, money, violence, sex, respect, and a sense of belonging that had eluded Brenneman’s subjects for much of their young lives.As his subjects described joining gangs and their subsequent conversions to evangelical Christianity, Brenneman noted a number of similarities in their stories. Similar to the shameful alienation they had experienced earlier in their youth, some of his subjects now expressed shameful remorse for the violent acts they had committed as members of gangs, and they longed for things the gang could not provide: the normalcy of family life, parenthood, the respect of neighbors, the peace of mind that comes with law-abiding lives, and the satisfaction of legitimate employment.The conversions to evangelical Christianity described by Brenneman’s subjects frequently involved expressions of this shame in “an intimate, emotional ritual” wherein weeping openly in the presence of others — an act that violated the gang’s hypermascu-line code of pride and respect — represented “an open acknowledgement of weakness” unprecedented in the lives of those he interviewed. Crying in the presence of other evangelicals constituted “a bridge-burning event . . . [that] went a long way toward spoiling . . . [the subject’s] identity as a macho homie” and in the process “laid the initial groundwork for establishing his credentials as an evangelical hermano” (p. 179).Labeling such demonstrations of raw emotion “a ‘clue’ signaling important inner change,” Brenneman determined that such experiences constituted “reintegrative shaming” (p. 181). Profound shame pushed his subjects away from the gang and toward evangelical religion, replacing one highly visible source of identity with another. Structural similarities between gangs and evangelical congregations provided an additional “pull” factor that helped galvanize these conversions. Like gangs, evangelical churches can require exhaustive time commitments from members, pressuring them to abide by a very strict code of conduct, and closely monitoring even the most intimate details of their personal lives while simultaneously providing them with support and a sense of belonging.Homies and Hermanos would benefit from more comparative context. The author notes that drugs “became locally available” in the 1970s and 1980s, causing an influx of illicit cash along with new weapons and heightened levels of violence (p. 29). Comparing this to the same phenomena occurring among Andean youth during the same period, for example, would accentuate Central America’s place in a hemisphere-wide problem. Also, the book’s too-brief segment on Catholicism (pp. 217 – 34) is impersonal and less poignant than the remainder of the text because the author did not interview any Catholic former gang members. Efforts earlier in the text to explain this gap fail to offset the glaring absence of any effective comparative analysis, and on this issue the book leaves the reader feeling a lack of closure.Despite these minor issues Brenneman’s work respectfully humanizes his subjects and their life decisions. This book should be read by anyone interested in modern Central America, not merely by specialists more narrowly interested in evangelical religion or gangs.