Mara Salvatrucha producción y reconfiguración simbólica : un mirada desde la semiótica

Abstract

The “Maras” or youth gangs that have developed and spread since 1980 in Central America imply an analytical challenge for the social sciences; insofar as they denote complex systems of organization, hierarchy, symbolic relationship, significance and reproduction of patterns linked to the systematic use of violence. They are united by ethnic affinities and high degrees of affiliation in relation to the territory, place of origin and cultural system. In this sense, the Maras are associations of subjects located space-time, with particular characteristics, connected culturally and ethnically, product of a specific socio-historical process, they rest in complex structures that respond to strong tensions with the State, the police force and good part of the society where they emerge and currently operate. The Maras, configured as an antithesis of the dominant institutional and moral guidelines, are the product of a particular political, economic and cultural context, marked by exclusion, stigmatization and social marginality. Las Maras specify a response to complex processes within unequal Central American societies. Central America is notably affected by an inequitable distribution of wealth, the increase of marginal areas and systematic violation of human rights. The excluded in Central America specify a large percentage of citizens on the margins of labor markets, social and civil rights.