Journalist Julia Reynolds spent 10 years getting the inside story of the notorious Nuestra Familia prison gang, the cops who chase them, and the personal and social costs of gang warfare. She will discuss her new book, "Blood in the Fields," at 7 p.m., Wednesday, at downtown San Jose's Martin Luther King Library.
Reynolds introduces readers to one of the state's most powerful Latino gangs, a criminal enterprise that was born in Salinas, an agricultural town on the central coast, but soon spread to San Jose and other cities. From state prisons, Nuestra Familia leaders orchestrate drug dealing and prostitution as well as a murderous rivalry with "sureno" gangs based in Southern California.
The writer came to know NF members as a crime and justice reporter for the Monterey County Herald newspaper, where she is a reporter. According to the Chicago Review of Books, that background reporting helped her produce a book filled with credible, inside sources from within the gang and law enforcement. A year studying the public health consequences of gang violence as a Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard University also informs her critiques of anti-gang strategies.
Reynolds will speak about the book and narrative journalism in general in the Steinbeck Center, room 560, Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 150 E. San Fernando St., San José CA 95112.
Nuestra Familia gang story told in new book - Inside Bay Area
Reynolds introduces readers to one of the state's most powerful Latino gangs, a criminal enterprise that was born in Salinas, an agricultural town on the central coast, but soon spread to San Jose and other cities. From state prisons, Nuestra Familia leaders orchestrate drug dealing and prostitution as well as a murderous rivalry with "sureno" gangs based in Southern California.
The writer came to know NF members as a crime and justice reporter for the Monterey County Herald newspaper, where she is a reporter. According to the Chicago Review of Books, that background reporting helped her produce a book filled with credible, inside sources from within the gang and law enforcement. A year studying the public health consequences of gang violence as a Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard University also informs her critiques of anti-gang strategies.
Reynolds will speak about the book and narrative journalism in general in the Steinbeck Center, room 560, Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 150 E. San Fernando St., San José CA 95112.
Nuestra Familia gang story told in new book - Inside Bay Area
