New Mexico State professor pens book on Borderland gangs
EL PASO, Texas -- Author Mike Tapia has written his second book, Gangs of the El Paso-Juarez Borderland. Tapia is an associate professor of criminology at New Mexico State University.
"Gangs of the El Paso–Juárez Borderland: A History" examines gang history in the region encompassing West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico. The area contains more than three million people spanning 130 miles from east to west. From the badlands—the historically notorious eastern Valle de Juárez—to the Puerto Palomas port of entry at Columbus, New Mexico, this area has become more militarized and politicized than ever before.
Tapia examines this region by exploring a century of historical developments through a criminological lens and by studying the diverse subcultures on both sides of the law. He looks extensively at the role of history and geography on criminal subculture formation in the binational urban setting of El Paso–Juárez, demonstrating the region's unique context for criminogenic processes. Tapia provides a poignant case study of Homeland Security and the apparent lack of drug-war spillover in communities on the US-Mexico border.
Tapia is also the author of "The Barrio Gangs of San Antonio, 1915–2015." Both books are available in bookstores or on Amazon.
