Rogelio Marcial Member of the National System of Researchers, Level 2. Doctor in Social Sciences from El Colegio de Jalisco. Professor-Researcher of the Department of Social Communication Studies of the University Center for Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Guadalajara. Works on the issues of Youth Cultures, Social Violence and Cultural Expressions of Sexual Diversity in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara. Professor in undergraduate and graduate programs at the University of Guadalajara. He has been a Guest Professor at the University of Calgari (Canada), at the University of Girona (Catalonia, Spain), at the University of Illinois at Chicago (United States), at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and at the University of Chile (Chile).

Temáticas

Images of the gang body. Representations of identity from a collaborative dialogue

  • Rogelio Marcial

Whe text exposes the general conditions and some of the findings of three investigations with violent gangs in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara conducted between 2013 and 2016, in order to contextualize the identity representations of the gang body by young people belonging to these corner groups. From a collaborative dialogue, carried out through group interviews and jointly constructing the central ideas presented here, issues related to masculinity, emblems of power, physical appearance and gang loyalty are highlighted, as well as those agreements we reached in the joint construction of their conceptions of the body and its use from the gang. It is considered that, although this represents constant danger and aggression, their bodies must always clearly enunciate belonging to a group and cultural adscription, strength for direct physical confrontations, the potential to protect their own, and the demonstration that they are men above all else.