Branded In a World Of Gang Warfare

He wants to start a construction company one day but fears that he will face more scrutiny from teachers and employers because of the gangs.

"You feel the pressure," Ludwin said. "You have to prove yourself at what you do . . . to show people you are not a member of a gang."

Alan Barrionuevo, 22, who came from Bolivia to Falls Church as a child, avoids wearing baggy pants or anything else he thinks will be perceived as gangster gear.

"That's the one thing I don't want to be looked at as -- like a Hispanic gang member," Barrionuevo said.

He said his Salvadoran friends are doing the same. Sometimes, if they think they can get away with it, they say they are Puerto Rican, or not Latino at all.

That bothers Flor Alas, who is extremely proud of her country. She listened recently as several of her Salvadoran co-workers ranted against MS-13 brutality and said it was tarnishing the whole Salvadoran community.

They surmised that perhaps Salvadorans were simply more violent people.

"Now they actually talk bad about ourselves," Alas said. "Not all of us are the same, but we can't be criticizing our own people."

It's not just recent arrivals who feel the effects of gang warfare.

When April Olivas, 15, a second-generation Ecuadoran, and her friends went to the Montgomery Mall, a few days after the Aug. 5 stabbings, a group of white teens glared at them the entire time they shopped, she said.

"The first thing that came to mind was it had to be because of my race," April said.

Matthew Fernandez grew up near Baileys Crossroads in an area that he said was safe when he was young. Today, he said, his neighborhood still is, but it is surrounded by apartment complexes where gang activity has flourished.