CLIQUES

Every subculture needs a publication, and gangbangers are no different. Teen Angel’s magazine, which is available at newsstands throughout Los Angeles in sets of two for $13.90, has been covering the gang scene for 11 years. Illustrated with comic book-type doodles and drawings of large-breasted women and muscle-bound males, its contents range from syrupy love letters to Spanglish poetry announcing solidarity to various ‘hoods. Many of its contributors are in jail, and snapshots of fellow gangbangers posing in full regalia, signaling with hand gestures and bearing Uzis, abound.

There is no staff box in Teen Angel’s but according to a Rialto man who says he is the distributor, “We publish whatever comes in the mail. It’s really a magazine for barrio kids. It’s about Chicano culture. We try to put positive articles in the magazine, but we also stand behind gangs. We can’t help it if our young people group together under a common name for their neighborhoods. This is a legit magazine.”

The Los Angeles Police Department has a different angle on Teen Angel’s. “It’s a legit magazine, as legit as these gangsters can get,” retorts Detective Terry Wessel, who heads the Rampart Area CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) Division. According to Wessel, Teen Angel’s hypes the gang mentality by romanticizing and glorifying it. “Teen Angel’s magazine is for the young and dumb,” he says. “The saddest picture I’ve ever seen showed a whole family dressed down in gang outfits, the men holding sawed-off shotguns and pistols, the women holding little babies.”