Latinos in the Urban Context: The Nature and Perception of Violence and Race Relations.

I discuss how the nature and perception of violence by Latino immigrants and their young adult male sons differed in two urban neighborhoods in Los Angeles, one predominantly Latino immigrant and the other Latino and African American. I focus on the role of violence in these two neighborhoods because I find that it structured Latino youth male behavior and peer relations, including race relations and acculturation. Residents in immigrant context understood the nature of violence in there neighborhood was gang related. Parents and youth discussed how this affected there sense of safety and how they navigated the urban context. While Latino residents in the Latino/Black context also understood violence there to be gang related, they often conflated gang violence with Black violence. This reflected, in part, Latinos preconceived notions of Blacks as violent, as well as, the fact that most established gangs there were Black. Latino residents interpreted the decline in violence to the changing demographics in the city, thus, attributing the nature of violence to race. Youth understood the nature of violence as mostly gang related in both contexts. Yet, in the Black/Latino context where armed robberies were reported at higher rates than in the immigrant context, youth, like adults, often perceived these acts of violence to be racially motivated. A such, Latino residents' sense of safety was closely tied to race in the Black/Latino neighborhood. The nature and perception of violence help explain underlying racial tension and the periodic "race riots" that erupt in this mixed urban neighborhood. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]