Sotel 13

dmtsureno · Unread post by **dmtsureno** » January 8th, 2004, 8:31 pm

does anyone know the history or status of this gang? are they still active?

Unread post by **BIG DUSTY LOCO** » January 9th, 2004, 11:08 am

SOTEL13 is the name of the gang. Stoner Park is theirs, or at least historically. It's an old West LOS varrio, from the 50's, taking their name from Sawtelle Blvd. Their enemies are Culver City Boys, Venice 13, Santa Monica 13, Eighteen Street...to name a few. Their hood consisted of primarily low-income housing/rent, but due to real estate values jumping up...they are slowly losing their hood to rich folks moving in and buying up the property. Sooner or later, they'll be pushed out.

Unread post by **GIBBY** » January 9th, 2004, 1:14 pm

Qvole Dusty. Yeah Sotel13 is very old. An old homie of mines family is OG wsS13. They are the Underhill family. Anyone fron that area knows about them. Peace

Unread post by **Silencioso** » January 9th, 2004, 5:23 pm

I grew up in Sotel neighborhood and it was always a mix of lower and middle income people it was never a barrio. There's still a lot of poor latino people in that area despite the gentrification and developement.
Sotel has always been a fairly small but tight knit gang. That's their strength. I can't imagine Sotel dying out. Alot of gangs have come and gone in that area - West Side Crazys, West LA Trippers, West LA Party Boyz, West Los 13, West Side Locos 13 - but Sotel has
always survived.
Sotel started out in the late 50's as Thee Falcons, which was more of a lowrider gang. In the mid 60's the Chicano gangs of the West Side finally caght on to the East LA cholo style and reinvented themselves as varrio gangs. Falcons became Sotel other cliques became Venice, Santa, Via etc.

YouTube · Unread post by **alexalonso** » January 9th, 2004, 9:17 pm

there is an article written by Dennis Romero for Citybeat called "Gangster's Paradise Lost" where they dicsuss the west side Latino gangs and the Sotels are discuseed in it.

http://www.streetgangs.com/topics/2003/110603PARA.HTML

Unread post by **Silencioso** » January 12th, 2004, 9:36 am

That was an inresting article. Kind of sad, though. It's been hard seeing the neighborhood I grew up in change from a lower middle class and working class area with a lot of character to a yuppie area full of strip malls and Starbucks.
The article dramatically over exagerates the decline of gangs on the WestSide, though. Only six hardore Sotel but 250 Sotel on the 5 year gang tracking file? Does anybody see a problem there? There are more Sotel members at University High School alone. I think a more reasonable estimate would be 25 or so active members and 30 or so semi-actives. Three gangs in S.M. but only 25 members? That means there are less than ten members on average for each gang. That's ridiculous. SM17th St. has about 50 -70 members GYC has 15-25. Venice 13 has about 100- 150, Culver City Boys have several hundred. Only 25 PBG's? Wrong. More like 70. Minor gangs like Rancho Park? Rancho Park is a clique of 18th Street. Interesting how they conveniently don't mention that. Gangs in "Del Rey" leaving the projects? Are we supposed to believe that the Mar Vista Gardens housing projects are going to gentrified soon? Be serious.
The basic point of the article is true, though. Gang activity is down from where it was in the late 80's/early 90's but obviously the police and civic leaders are trying to minimalize the gang presence even more than it is to help the area's image. The article exagerates the gentrification phenomenon by portraying the area as a former barrio that turned yuppy when the white folks moved in. It didn't happen that way. The Sawtelle area was never a "barrio" in fact it was known more for it's Japanese American community than it's Chicano. The area always had a lot of whites. Venice also never had a true barrio area. The Chicanos were always mixed in with the blacks in Oakwood and the modest income whites in other parts of Venice. The area now known as "Del Rey" for years has been a small pocket of lower income Latinos bordered by middle-class neighborhoods. That hasn't changed. I doubt that will change anytime soon because of the projects and the general shabbiness of that area.
The WestSide will never be a pure affluent area because there will always have to be a place to live for the poor folks who work all the low paying jobs in that area. That's how Oakwood and the Pico Neighborhood started in the first place - "servents quarters".

Gang members can still be seen regularly in large numbers at Oakwood Park(Shore Lines), on Venice Blvd. (Venice Boys), at Victoria Park (GYC's and SM 17th). The other day I saw about ten SM 17th or Lil Locos walking home from Santa Monica High School. I guess that was the whole gang, eh? LOL

Unread post by **GIBBY** » January 12th, 2004, 10:17 am

Silencioso wrote:That was an inresting article. Kind of sad, though. It's been hard seeing the neighborhood I grew up in change from a lower middle class and working class area with a lot of character to a yuppie area full of strip malls and Starbucks.
The article dramatically over exagerates the decline of gangs on the WestSide, though. Only six hardore Sotel but 250 Sotel on the 5 year gang tracking file? Does anybody see a problem there? There are more Sotel members at University High School alone. I think a more reasonable estimate would be 25 or so active members and 30 or so semi-actives. Three gangs in S.M. but only 25 members? That means there are less than ten members on average for each gang. That's ridiculous. SM17th St. has about 50 -70 members GYC has 15-25. Venice 13 has about 100- 150, Culver City Boys have several hundred. Only 25 PBG's? Wrong. More like 70. Minor gangs like Rancho Park? Rancho Park is a clique of 18th Street. Interesting how they conveniently don't mention that. Gangs in "Del Rey" leaving the projects? Are we supposed to believe that the Mar Vista Gardens housing projects are going to gentrified soon? Be serious.
The basic point of the article is true, though. Gang activity is down from where it was in the late 80's/early 90's but obviously the police and civic leaders are trying to minimalize the gang presence even more than it is to help the area's image. The article exagerates the gentrification phenomenon by portraying the area as a former barrio that turned yuppy when the white folks moved in. It didn't happen that way. The Sawtelle area was never a "barrio" in fact it was known more for it's Japanese American community than it's Chicano. The area always had a lot of whites. Venice also never had a true barrio area. The Chicanos were always mixed in with the blacks in Oakwood and the modest income whites in other parts of Venice. The area now known as "Del Rey" for years has been a small pocket of lower income Latinos bordered by middle-class neighborhoods. That hasn't changed. I doubt that will change anytime soon because of the projects and the general shabbiness of that area.
The WestSide will never be a pure affluent area because there will always have to be a place to live for the poor folks who work all the low paying jobs in that area. That's how Oakwood and the Pico Neighborhood started in the first place - "servents quarters".

Gang members can still be seen regularly in large numbers at Oakwood Park(Shore Lines), on Venice Blvd. (Venice Boys), at Victoria Park (GYC's and SM 17th). The other day I saw about ten SM 17th or Lil Locos walking home from Santa Monica High School. I guess that was the whole gang, eh? LOL

I was thinking the same thing

Unread post by **mangler** » February 3rd, 2004, 10:39 pm

u guys know your stuff......i thought sotel beefed with eighteen st and santa monica only.....remember the paisas that use to be up and down sawtelle in the mornings......didnt know S13 was back in the 50s, didnt know there were mexicans in that part of down then......

Unread post by **Silencioso** » February 7th, 2004, 6:18 pm

That part of West LA has been mixed since the 50's, My mom grew up near St. Sabastian Church and she say's that area had whites, japanese, blacks and mexicans.

YouTube · Unread post by **alexalonso** » May 29th, 2004, 7:11 pm

Sotel 13 on the west side. I go there but dont see too many cats hanging but go an idea of their barrio. Who knows their boundaries?

kushbomb · Unread post by **kushbomb** » May 30th, 2004, 3:26 pm

dont know their boundries.Stoner park is where they can be seen all the time. i always see at least 50 of them chillin there.

Unread post by **CHRIS** » June 7th, 2004, 8:32 pm

THEIR BROADS

Unread post by **CHRIS** » June 28th, 2004, 5:22 pm

THE SOTEL 13 DONT DO ANYTHING BY THEMSELVES, THE NIGGAS DONT FIGHT BY THEMSELVES THEN THE NIGGAS COME TO CARNIVALS AND SMASH ON THE LITTLE NIGGAS, BESIDE THEY ARE NOT TO THICC IN NUMBERS AND LIKE SOMEONE SAID THEIR KICC IT SPOT IS AT STONER BARK AND BAD NEWS BEAR PARK

Unread post by **bgcasper** » June 28th, 2004, 9:19 pm

here what i heard ...santa monica north , olympic south ,barrington east and bundy drive west they are around stoner park

Unread post by **Silencioso** » July 3rd, 2004, 1:18 pm

Wilshire - north
Pico-south
Centinela -west
405 Fwy - east

Most Sotel live in the Brockton Ave.and Norris Terry elementary school districts.

They're a very spread out varrio so you only see them in hang out spots for the most part.

YouTube · Unread post by **alexalonso** » July 3rd, 2004, 9:32 pm

bg Casper, if you make barrington east and bundy drive west then you miss Stoner Park. The 405 is definitly their East border, but an oldtimer told me that they once went to Westwood Blvd in the 1970s,

But Silencioso, I know for sure that they never went north to Wilshire, thats is too far, Santa Monica has been their traditional north border. And Centinela does not go through there, i think it turns into Bundy. Is that what you mean?

Unread post by **Silencioso** » July 9th, 2004, 4:26 pm

That WLA/SM border are has always been more Sotel than SM17th St. There was a family of Sotel actually within the Santa Monica city limits at one point.

Westwood Bl. is just the official north boundry. Few S13 live there but its just north of Uni High School so...

Unread post by **CHRIS** » July 11th, 2004, 1:44 am

BESIDES, DIDNT THEIR NAME BRANCH FROM ONE OF THEIR HOOD STREETS? SAWTELLE BECAUSE SOME OF THEM NIGGAS RITE SAWTELLE 13

Unread post by **Silencioso** » August 2nd, 2004, 4:34 pm

yeah, the name Sotel is from Sawtelle.

Unread post by **Lonewolf** » August 9th, 2004, 5:59 pm

alonso
Founder
Posted: Sat May 29, 2004 5:11 pm Post subject: Sotel 13
Sotel 13 on the west side. I go there but dont see too many cats hanging but go an idea of their barrio. Who knows their boundaries?

code647
Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 1:26 pm Post subject: Re: Sotel 13
dont know their boundries.Stoner park is where they can be seen all the time. i always see at least 50 of them chillin there.

CHRIS
Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 3:22 pm Post subject: Re: Sotel 13
THE SOTEL 13 DONT DO ANYTHING BY THEMSELVES, THE NIGGAS DONT FIGHT BY THEMSELVES THEN THE NIGGAS COME TO CARNIVALS AND SMASH ON THE LITTLE NIGGAS, BESIDE THEY ARE NOT TO THICC IN NUMBERS AND LIKE SOMEONE SAID THEIR KICC IT SPOT IS AT STONER BARK AND BAD NEWS BEAR PARK

bgCASPER
Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 7:19 pm Post subject: Re: Sotel 13
here what i heard ...santa monica north , olympic south ,barrington east and bundy drive west they are around stoner park

Silencioso
Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2004 11:18 am Post subject: Re: Sotel 13
Wilshire - north
Pico-south
Centinela -west
405 Fwy - east
Most Sotel live in the Brockton Ave.and Norris Terry elementary school districts.
They're a very spread out varrio so you only see them in hang out spots for the most part.

alonso
Founder
Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2004 7:32 pm Post subject: Re: Sotel 13
bg Casper, if you make barrington east and bundy drive west then you miss Stoner Park. The 405 is definitly their East border, but an oldtimer told me that they once went to Westwood Blvd in the 1970s,

But Silencioso, I know for sure that they never went north to Wilshire, thats is too far, Santa Monica has been their traditional north border. And Centinela does not go through there, i think it turns into Bundy. Is that what you mean?

Silencioso
Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 2:26 pm Post subject: Re: Sotel 13
That WLA/SM border are has always been more Sotel than SM17th St. There was a family of Sotel actually within the Santa Monica city limits at one point.
Westwood Bl. is just the official north boundry. Few S13 live there but its just north of Uni High School so...

CHRIS
Welter Weight
Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2004 11:44 pm Post subject: Re: Sotel 13
BESIDES, DIDNT THEIR NAME BRANCH FROM ONE OF THEIR HOOD STREETS? SAWTELLE BECAUSE SOME OF THEM NIGGAS RITE SAWTELLE 13

Silencioso
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:34 pm Post subject: Re: Sotel 13
yeah, the name Sotel is from Sawtelle.

Unread post by **Lonewolf** » August 9th, 2004, 6:01 pm

code647
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2004 3:15 pm Post subject: sotel 13?
how active are they? will they be around in 10 years? i know they go back generations, are they even a threat anymore?

Silencioso
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2004 10:56 am Post subject: Re: sotel 13?
There's three active cliques of Sotel right now - Diablos/Devils, Nite Owls and Dukes - plus some Chicos Locos are still around. Probably about 40-60 active members. They could easily double their membership if they did what alot of Eastside and SouthCentral gangs do - absorb new smaller gangs,tagging crews, party crews etc. If there's still agngs in L.A. in ten years, they'll be around.

Unread post by **Cold Bear** » December 22nd, 2004, 3:56 pm

Wasn't there some Sotel livin on the South side of Washington Blvd., near Wade St. for a while?

Unread post by **BIG DUSTY LOCO** » December 22nd, 2004, 5:54 pm

Cold Bear, where you from?

Unread post by **Cold Bear** » December 23rd, 2004, 8:23 am

What up Big Dusty. I don't claim.

Unread post by **Silencioso** » August 1st, 2005, 1:13 pm

Sotel's presence in West LA, particularly the area between Barrington and Bund South of SM blvd., is strong as hell. You see all kinds opf cholos in that area during the day. Anybody saying this gang is dying out is misinformed.

Unread post by **Lonewolf** » August 1st, 2005, 1:32 pm

So tell me, are they putting up their placasos as S13 or STL?
This one really got me spinning...

Unread post by **Silencioso** » August 2nd, 2005, 1:15 pm

S13, homie. I grew up in that area and that's what they write. Never seen STL.

Unread post by **BIGG LISTO** » August 2nd, 2005, 7:49 pm

S13 is what I see when I'm in the area.

Unread post by **Lonewolf** » August 3rd, 2005, 4:57 pm

Silencioso wrote:S13, homie. I grew up in that area and that's what they write. Never seen STL.

I feel you, suave.

Unread post by **Cold Bear** » August 4th, 2005, 8:05 am

I knew some guys on Granville in that area you talking about, and like 3 years ago there was nobody holding down that neighborhood with a noticeable presence. I also had homies over there on Purdue on the other side of Pico, and I would see 'Big Sotel' hit up etc. but never anybody outside. I even went to those free kung-fu classes in Stoner on Thursdays a couple times, lol. But similar to what happens in a lot of neighborhoods is I think a cycle. Some months there is no presence, and other months there are a grip of fools outside. Is that what you notice too Silencioso?

Unread post by **BANDIT** » August 9th, 2005, 8:53 am

THERES A GANG OF SOTEL's IN UNI! THEY BE HOLDING THAT SCHOOL DOWN!

Unread post by **Silencioso** » August 12th, 2005, 3:01 pm

Yeah. There's a lot a younger new members. They look like Oaxacans and Michuacanos mostly. It's funny because back in the day Sotel was kind of prejudiced against wets/mojados. Now they see them as their last chance at surviving.

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