Teerz, a 40-year-old LVL veterano and the tattoo artist who does most of the gang's work, grabs a reporter and sweeps his hand at all the families. Several of the middle-aged fathers have prominent LVL gang tattoos. "You didn't think it would be like this, did you? See, people think the barrios are only about young dudes walking around in bandannas, packing guns, but it's one big family.
"We're poor Mexicans, but that doesn't mean we don't care about our kids getting shot. Everyone here knows we need to stop the madness. And that's why we support the football, because the lines of communication between barrios have to open somehow."
Teerz's friend Kelcher, 30, gets his licks in: "One more thing--the young guys from the barrio won't tell you this, but last year, the veteranos, me and Teerz, and some other old guys, we played them in football and we won. No shit."
A thunder of yells sounds off inside a nearby house, where the living room is crammed with LVL members watching the ASU football game. The Sun Devils have beaten USC 48-35 in double overtime.
Munoz comes out of the house smiling. "Ah, what a good day," he says. Ten minutes later, just after the keg runs dry, a fight breaks out. Evidently, a brother-in-law visiting from Orange County, California, started "talking shit" about La Victoria, and got into it with Loco Bird, a gawky white youth who lives in the barrio. A second fight starts between the brother-in-law's family from La Victoria and other LVL members, then a third, then a fourth. From the center of the action, it looks like a hurricane of fistfights. Munoz is still smiling. "See what happens when alcohol is involved?" he says. "Don't worry, this isn't that bad. No one's really going to get hurt here."
Payaso's mom charges out of her house and gets between two scrappers. "Stop fighting!" she yells. They obey, but already more fights are breaking out, for no readily apparent reason. "A lot of this stuff is old family shit from the neighborhood," Joey explains later. "It's complex."
A police car cruises by the fracas. The officer starts to get out, then gets back in and turns on the car's loudspeaker. "All right, everyone inside, now." Payaso's mom was much more effective. No one listens to the cop, although the fights taper off. The Orange County brother-in-law is pushed into a car and drives away. The cop pulls to the end of the block, where he's joined by another officer. They wait and watch for about ten minutes, then leave.
Another ten minutes go by, and the Orange County car comes back. The brother-in-law and his LVL friend get out, looking for more. They get it, and within minutes several more fights are beginning, the brawlers going through the ritualized bravado of tough talk and shoving that seems always to precede actual blows in this neighborhood. "Yo, take this shit away from my house," Payaso yells, sitting barefoot in a chair on the sidewalk in front of his yard and nursing a sore knee. "Take it to the park."
The combatants move to the basketball court, where Mahoney scoops up the brother-in-law and body-slams him to the pavement. After one more fistfight in the grass, the orgy of pugilism seems finally to be over. Back in his yard, Payaso laughs it all off. "That's just La Victoria, man. It's happened before, it will happen again. There was no danger of death, you know? None of these guys was going to shoot the other. Everyone was just fired up from the game, drinking beer. They'll all be friends tomorrow."
Payaso winces a bit as he shifts his left leg. He says his knee was severely injured in a game two years ago when Manuel fell on him scrambling for a fumble, and it hurts like hell whenever he plays. "See, we have heart. We play hurt. I'm just trying to do some good here. I'm tired of going to the mall and having people look at my tats and think of me as just some fucking lowlife gang member. I'm a human being. I want to have a barrio football championship game, and play it somewhere nice, with bleachers and lights. We'll charge admission and give all the money to charity. We'll buy some toys and take them to the kids at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital. I'll dress up like fucking Santa Claus and go down there on Christmas, you know what I'm saying? I'll make a good Santa Claus."
Brendan Kelley also contributed to this story.
