Soto Street

Poetry | Poesia

A poetic memory

In memory of sixteen-year-old Gabriela Martinez, who was shot while watching a telenovela in her East L.A. home in 1998.

Ain’t no flowers anymore.
They’re all being used
for burying the young.

Tepeyac’s roses are gone.
Mr. Lieu’s snapdragons too.
Mrs. Gilbert’s garden has been stripped bare.

They’ve all been picked for
prettying the graves
making the farewells beautiful.

No more color cheering up the sidewalks.
No more little bits chasing down the twilight.
Only tiny orbs ducking in the curtains —

disappearing
into
the brown-stained madness.

Gabriela was not in a gang. Nobody in her family was. It didn’t matter. Not when you live and sleep in a city where gang violence has taken over the streets. Troublingly, the Los Angeles Police Department estimates that nearly half of gang violence victims have no affiliation whatsoever with any form of gang involvement.

The bullet wasn’t meant for Gabriela, it was meant for someone else, a fellow gang member.

Gang-related assaults exhibit unprecedented levels of brutality, as members increasingly equip themselves with semi and fully-automatic assault rifles. In their quest for enhanced prestige, gang members are even willing to target law enforcement officers.

The issue of street gangs in Los Angeles has been further exacerbated by the inflow of illegal narcotics.

Drive-by shooting occurs when someone fires a gun from a vehicle at another vehicle, a person, a structure, or a stationary object and often involve multiple suspects and victims. The use of a vehicle allows the shooter to approach the target discreetly and speed…

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