Branded In a World Of Gang Warfare

Five days later in Langley Park in Prince George's County, two men were killed and a third injured when their throats were slit. A teenage girl was cut in the neck after an argument on Aug. 12, and two days later, a man's hand was nearly severed in a machete assault. Another man died Wednesday, three days after he was beaten and cut by fragments of broken beer bottles. Many of the victims were Latino.

Police arrested 11 men and youths in the Aug. 5 stabbings and believe that members of MS-13 carried out the attacks. Another person was arrested Friday and charged in the death of the man who was beaten and cut Aug. 14.

Authorities do not believe the Langley Park assaults were connected and have not said if they think any were gang-related. But the bloodshed has only intensified fears in Langley Park and other Latino communities, where gang activity has increased. For many residents, the violence, whether or not it is gang-related, is impacting their lives and perpetuating stereotypes.

"It's affecting everybody," said Teresa Martinez, 34, who came from El Salvador in 1986 and is a social worker at the Adelphi/Langley Park Family Support Center.

Proving Who You Aren't

Esteban Carrillo, 16, calls it "a kind of sorrow that covers all of our culture."

The son of an accountant, he and his parents left Ecuador a year ago and settled in Silver Spring. His embrace of the United States was so fervent that he began introducing himself as "Steve." He hopes to go to Harvard University and perhaps someday become secretary of state.

Esteban "battled," as he puts it, to get into honors classes, confronting teachers who viewed Latinos as low achievers.

But his ambitions meant nothing in a Langley Park 7-Eleven on a recent day. Esteban, a gangly kid with a big smile, walked in and asked for a phone card. The non-Latino clerks looked terrified, he said, and immediately told him they had none. Esteban felt angry, then remembered the violence that has occurred in the neighborhood.

Ludwin, a reed-thin Salvadoran who wouldn't give his last name, fearing retribution from gang members he knows, sees the sorrow everyday. Gang members routinely try to lure him, he said, with promises of money, women and power. He understands the alienation that propels them to join gangs.

"Sometimes, people here make you feel like a foreigner. Some blacks and whites say, 'Get out of my country,' " said Ludwin, 19, who has been here five years and lives in Prince George's.

He pays a price for not joining: Whenever he is approached, he said, he hands the gang members as much as $5 to leave him alone.

Ludwin has found his own community at St. Camillus Parish in Silver Spring, with youth groups where he plays games and puts on plays. He feels like he belongs there, he said.