It’s always been hard to say whose gangs were first in California—the Latinos, the African Americans, the Asians, the whites—or first in the publishing world. But as for best, it’s no contest: the Latinos win it, for the early-’80s arrival of Teen Angels magazine: spitting out a fantastic world of cholo and pachuco style—and printing—that continues with such gems as the recent Cholo Style: Homies, Homegirls & La Raza, by Reynaldo Berrios.

Lifted, at least in part, from the pages of Berrios’ own Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life) magazine, this is not the genre’s The Grapes of Wrath, and Berrios is no Faulkner or Fitzgerald. A former gangster who went on to graduate from San Francisco State, this book is as rough around the edges as its subjects and his life—and that’s the way it should be.

For style, we don’t have Cholo Style; we have Lowrider or Teen Angels—which almost immediately became part history lesson (custom cars, vintage pedal cars, lowrider bikes) part bulletin board, part amazing. For true story, there’s Luis Rodriguez’s excellent Always Running/La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. And for the the-way-it-is, there’s Berrios.

His Style isn’t about slammed Impalas on Astros or those bitchen striped polo shirts that cholos wear. That stuff is in there, but Berrios takes an activist approach to a broader look at his people, reaching out to include 19th century California bandit Tiburcio Vasquez, Prop. 187, Pelican Bay Prison, and the fallacy of gang life that even some of the youngsters see: “How do you young gentlemen view yourself?” Berrios asks members of the 15 St. set. “Future cholos confused. I think of what I want to be and whether I’m going to make it,” a member answers. “Future gangster,” says another, “and right away I think I’m going to jail.” Style reads like a letter-from-lock-up, and as such, it could be the call to arms this generation needs.

“Carnalito, you have stopped being a part of what was not only holding you down, but what perpetuated the nothingness that gang warfare is about,” Berrios begins. Cholo Style should be required reading for everyone on the way out.

Tags: cholo style, San Pedro, teen angels, under the bridge