 The Ghetto Brothers: Carlos SuarezThe Ghetto Brothers were one of the most important Bronx gangs of the late 60s and early 70s. While they were not as large as the Black Spades and the Savage Skulls, they held as much influence on the streets of the Bronx and beyond. During the mid-70s, Ghetto Brothers chapters spread as far as Connecticut. In fact, Eddie Perez, the current mayor of Hartford was a former Ghetto Brother. Carlos Suarez joined the Ghetto Brothers in the South Bronx after being recruited from a gang called the Egyptians that was fading due to heroin addictions. Known on the streets as "Karate Charlie" for his fighting skills, Suarez became the president of the Ghetto Brothers. He ran the pivotal 1971 Bronx truce meeting that transformed the culture of the borough, and made the rise of hip-hop possible. Here are excerpts of interviews with Carlos done in 2002 and 2003. Q: Weren't you born and raised in the Bronx? A: I was born July 12th 1950. In kindergarten they told me I wasn't Carlos, I was Charles and then they changed my name from Carlos to Charles. And not Antonio but Anthony. So I was Charles Anthony Suarez. That's the name I went to the marine corp with. Q: Were you raised by your grandma? A: My grandma. I didn't know who my mother was. My mother got pregnant and gave the kids to my grandmother and my grandmother raised us. When we were 18 there was a draft. There was a spare bedroom. Before you were 18 that was the room you got to use. And as soon as you were 18, off to the military. Q: Your grandma said you either leave here or join the military? A: No she said I could stay there but I hung around a little group of guys called The Egyptians and the hung around in the basement. They used to shoot heroin. That was getting boring. It's just there were a lot of girls there and girls were getting ready to have sex at the drop of a dime. That got boring because I was interested in school. I was interested in the library and the museums. But none of them wanted to do museums or libraries or art. They just wanted to hang around and let drool run from their mouths. When my opportunity to joined the Marine Corps came, I joined the Marine Corps. Before that I studied martial arts when I got my black belt. Q: Were you sent to Vietnam? A: They were going to ship me out in '70. It was Christmas and they let me come home before they shipped me away. I came home and saw that it had already started and there was a lot of killing. And that's when Benjy (Melendez) told me I had to stay home because something had to be done. Q: What kinds of things were people telling you? How had it changed since you've been gone? A: The gang was—the guys were wearing black berets and red stars. Everybody had grown their hair real long. They looked more militant. The Puerto Rican stuff was not a priority any more. Now it was more war. They were out to kill each other. You couldn't walk the street without somebody saying, "Nigger!" Or "Spic!" Or "Hey chink" or "Hey bastard" or "Fuck you" or "You live around here?" For any reason. It just didn't matter. We started to take down some of the smaller gangs and told them if they didn't become part of our gang, we would demolish their whole family. That's when the peace treaty was made. We incorporated whatever small gangs were around and incorporated them into the Ghetto Brothers. Brothers of the Ghetto became the overall name of all the gangs. So we went to the different gang sites. We went to the Skulls. We went to see the Spades up in the Northeast. The treaty said, "We realize that we are all brothers living in the same neighborhoods, having the same problems. We also realize fighting amongst ourselves will not solve our common problems. If we are to build up our community to be a better place for our family and ourselves we must work together. We who sign this treaty pledge peace and unity for all. All of us who have signed this peaceful note will be known as 'The Family'." |
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