Books by Felix M. Padilla

The Diamonds are a Chicago Street gang whose members are second-generation Puerto Rican youths. For Felix Padilla, the young men who join the Diamonds have made a logical choice. The gang is an alternative and dependable route to emotional support, self-respect, material goods, and upward mobility. Although Padilla shares the same ethnic background as the gang members and also grew up in a Chicago barrio, gaining the trust of the Diamonds was not easy. Eventually, however, he was able to get close enough to the members to interview and observe them. In his book, he shows us his decision to join the Diamonds, but does not paint a romanticized picture.

Based on a three-year ethnographic study of a class on the sociology of Latino/a society, this book tells the story of how the students navigated academic life in a predominantly white university to construct their own education.