The 38th Street gang is a Chicano

Mexican people

Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....

 street gang from South Central

South Central

South Central may refer to:* South Los Angeles , an area in Los Angeles, California* South Central Alaska, a region containing Anchorage metropolitan area* South Central Railway Zone , a part of Indian Railways...

, Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. The 38th Street gang is one of the oldest street gangs in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.
Founded in the 1920s, the 38th Street gang dates back to the pachuco

Pachuco

Pachucos are Chicano youths who developed their own subculture during the 1930s and 1940s in the Southwestern United States. They wore distinctive clothing and spoke their own dialect of Mexican Spanish, called Caló or Pachuco...

s and zoot suit

Zoot suit

A zoot suit is a suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. This style of clothing was popularized by African Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Italian Americans during the late 1930s and the 1940s...

s and was formed in the borderline between South Central and the city of Vernon

Vernon, California

Vernon is a city five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, California. The population was 112 at the 2010 United States Census, the smallest of any incorporated city in the state....

. They received media attention in the 1940s as a result of the "Sleepy Lagoon Murder

Sleepy Lagoon murder

Sleepy Lagoon murder was the name that newspapers and radio commentators used to describe the alleged murder of Jose Diaz, whose body was found on the Williams Ranch near a lagoon in southeast Los Angeles, California, on August 2, 1942...

" and trial. Several members were arrested and convicted of the murder of José Díaz.