Space of Detention

by Zilberg, Elana

• ISBN13: 9780822347309
• ISBN10: 082234730X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-07
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Gangster, Cop, Soldier, Spyis a powerful ethnographic account and spatial analysis of the ;transnational gang crisis ; between the United States and El Salvador. Elana Zilberg seeks to understand how this phenomenon became an issue of central concern for national and regional security, and how La Mara Salvatrucha, a gang founded by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles, came to symbolize the ;gang crime ;terrorism continuum. ; She follows Salvadoran immigrants raised in Los Angeles, who identify as, or are alleged to be, gang members, and who are deported back to El Salvador after their incarceration in the United States. Analyzing zero-tolerance gang-abatement strategies in both countries, Zilberg shows that these measures help to produce the very transnational violence and undocumented migration that they are intended to suppress. She argues that the contemporary fixation with Latino immigrant and Salvadoran street gangs, while in part a product of media hype, must also be understood in relation to the longer history of U.S. involvement in Central America, the processes of neoliberalism and globalization, and the intersection between immigration, criminal, and antiterrorist law. These forces combine to produce what Zilberg terms ;neoliberal securityscapes. ;

Author Biography

Elana Zilberg is Associate Professor of Communication and Associate Director of the Center for Global California Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

Introduction Neoliberal Securityscapes	p. 1
Chronology The Divided Bnds of Peace	p. 25
Los Angeles
Latino Looter: Law of Place	p. 53
Street Hoodlum: Topographic Reform	p. 75
Criminal Cop: Spatial Justice	p. 101
San Salvador
Criminal Deportee: Transnational Space	p. 129
Gang Peace Activist: The Space of Civil Society	p. 151
Soldier Cop: Remilitarized Space	p. 177
A Disturbance In Time And Space
The Gang-Crime-Terrorism Continuum	p. 207
Conclusion Hall of Mirrors	p. 233
Epilogue Impressions from a Political Present	p. 241
Acknowledgments	p. 251
Notes	p. 259
Bibliography	p. 301
Index	p. 333
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