Initiated: Finding a Way Out of Gang Culture | Alex Sanchez

Alex Sanchez’s recruitment into the notorious Los Angeles-based gang MS-13 can be largely attributed to three things: isolation, music, and domestic violence. Formed by children of refugees fleeing the US-funded violence in El Salvador, MS-13 makes up less than 1% of gang members in the US, which have approximately grown to 1.4 million.

In this episode, we dive into the dark world of gangs to better understand how politics and prison systems further fuel their violence. What are the social conditions that enable gangs to proliferate? Why are young people forced into gangs? How do these groups propel to notoriety and lives of crime? What can we actually do to address its root causes?

On the podcast, we share Alex’s compelling journey — from an active member of MS-13 to an internationally recognized peacemaker who co-founded Homies Unidos, an organization that aims to end violence by working with at-risk youth, former gang members and their families.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Dr. Charles Katz, Professor and Director at the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University; and William Wheeler, Journalist and Author of State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador's World of Violence.

In conversation with Hazami Barmada, Founder and Chairperson, Humanity Lab Foundation.

Speaker Biographies:

ALEX SANCHEZ is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Homies Unidos Inc. 

Alex Sanchez is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles branch of Homies Unidos, an organization in the Pico Union and Koreatown area of Los Angeles with a sister organization in San Salvador and Denver, Colorado. He is a former gang member who served prison time in a California state prison and was then deported back to El Salvador in 1994. Alex returned to the US be a father to his son but also to flee the death squads that were targeting him. In 1998, he started implementing programs geared to youth in gangs. In 2000, he was targeted by the LAPD’s Rampart police division and became part of the infamous Rampart scandal. Alex was freed later that year and in 2002 was granted political asylum. Alex’s resilience helped him to continue implementing violence prevention, intervention and reentry programs in his Central American immigrant community in Los Angeles. He has consulted in Maryland, New York, Colorado and San Francisco to help implement programs geared in reducing violence. He has conducted lectures in several universities across the nation. He has also served as a gang expert in criminal and immigration courts. He has received countless awards and recognitions from the City of Los Angeles, Organizations and Foundations. He has spoken in many media outlets, has been featured in documentaries and presented in the United Nations in 2005. Most recently Alex was a consultant to a play called, Placas, The Most Dangerous Tattoo. The play was inspired by Alex’s story. Twitter: @homiesunidos

DR. CHARLES KATZ is a Professor and Director at the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University

Charles Katz is the Watts Family Director of the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety and is a Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. His work focuses on police transformation and strategic responses to crime. He currently serves as a research partner to the Phoenix Police Department to evaluate their agency’s BJA sponsored initiatives related to body-worn cameras and its Crime Gun Intelligence Center. He also currently serves as principal investigator of the Arizona Violent Death Reporting System sponsored by the CDC and regularly collaborates with USAID and UNDP to develop comprehensive strategic plans to reform international police agencies. He recently completed several research projects for the US Department of Homeland Security and USAID in El Salvador and Honduras on issues involving MS13 and gang and delinquency prevention. Twitter: @cmaxkatz, @ASUCrimJustice

WILLIAM WHEELER is a Journalist and Author of State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador's World of Violence

William Wheeler is the author of State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador's World of Violence. An investigative writer and producer, he has reported on political affairs across much of the developing world, on subjects as disparate as the Libyan civil war, the rise of Europe’s far right, the radicalization of a Danish jihadist, and the Cold War politics of an assassination attempt on Bob Marley. He was a part of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting team that won National Press Club and Society of Professional Journalists awards for coverage of the rebuilding effort in Haiti, and his feature from Pakistan on geopolitical tensions over the Indus River won an Earth Journalism award at the Copenhagen climate summit. His work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic, McSweeney‘s Quarterly, and elsewhere. As a documentary producer, he has worked on Ai Weiwei’s IDA-nominated film Human Flow, Netflix’s Emmy-nominated series Remastered, and Showtime's migration docu-series The Trade. Wheeler holds graduate degrees in international affairs and journalism from Columbia University. Twitter: @WilliamGWheeler @ColumbiaGR

HAZAMI BARMADA is the Founder of Humanity Lab Foundation and co-Executive Producer & Host of the Finding Humanity Podcast.

Hazami is an award-winning social entrepreneur, thought-leader, and public affairs and social impact expert recognized by Forbes as an “inspirational agent of change.” She has consulted for many leading global brands including the United Nations, United Nations Foundation, Aspen Institute, and the Royal Court of the Sultanate of Oman. Among her posts at the United Nations, she served as the Coordinator for the United Nations Secretary General's World Humanitarian Summit, an Advisor to the first-ever United Nations Secretary-General's Youth Envoy, as a member of the United Nations SDG Strategy Hub for the launch of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Hazami has a Masters from Harvard University where she was an Edward S. Mason Fellow in Public Policy and Management. She studied social and public policy at Georgetown University and has a BA in Anthropology and Sociology. Twitter: @hazamibarmada