Norteños
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The Norteños (Spanish: [noɾˈteɲos] meaning Northerners)—Norteñas for females, are the various, loosely affiliated street gangs that pay tribute to the Nuestra Familia while in US Federal and State correctional facilities. Norteños may refer to Northern California as Norte. Their biggest rivals are the Sureños from Southern California. The statewide north-south dividing line between Norteños and Sureños has roughly been accepted as the rural communities of Delano and Bakersfield, California. The gang's membership primarily consists of Mexican Americans, but has members of other Latino American groups (in most cases Salvadorians) and some African American and very few Caucasian members.
In 1968,Mexican American inmates of the California state prison system separated into two rival groups, Norteños (northerners) and Sureños (southerners), according to the locations of their hometowns. Norteños, affiliated with the Nuestra Familia, were prison enemies of the Southern Latinos, who are composed of members and affiliates of La Eme, better known as the Mexican Mafia. While La Eme had initially been created to protect Mexicans in prison, there was a perceived level of abuse by members of La Eme towards the imprisoned Latinos from rural farming areas of Northern California. The spark that led to the ongoing war between Norteños and members of the Mexican Mafia involved a situation in which a La Eme allegedly stole a pair of shoes from a Northerner. This event put into motion the longest-running gang war in the state of California and the founding of Nuestra Familia.
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