Travel to Europe: Madrid, Barcelona, Europeanstreets: The Latin Kings of Catalonia

From Latin Kings to Cultural Association of Latin Kings and Queens of Catalonia

Aug 10th, 2009 by apartmentblogger

Evidently it is known that Barcelona is a cosmopolitan and open minded city. Over the last few years Barcelona has undergone major changes. Catalans are tolerant people and they demonstrated it in 2006 when they legalized in Catalonia the Latin Kings. Currently they are known as the “Cultural Association of Latin Kings and Queens of Catalonia”.

Unfortunately, the Latin Kings were announced in 2003 in Barcelona by the murder of the young man Ronny Tapias because of the settling of a score . The attack was aimed at another person and mistakenly they killed a poor innocent bystander: from this moment on the Ñetas and the Latin Kings became very famous due to their violent acts. They were two enemy Latin bands who were continually brawling.

The “Latin Kings” were born in Chicago and New York in the 40s, and quickly spread to the rest of U.S., Latin America and Europe. They used to call themselves an association in defense of the South American youth, but some of their members were condemned for theft, murder, violation or drug trafficking. In the mid-’80s two of its members created a manifesto, “The King Manifesto”, where all the rules, behaviours, prohibitions and so on were redacted. Its main distinguishing mark is the five-pointed crown, each one with a meaning: love, respect, sacrifice, honour and obedience. Five is the number of the Latin Kings. They also like yellow / gold colours: black in reference to Latin American history and death, and gold / yellow in reference to the future and life. They also use other symbols such as the lion for strength, the circle for perfection and diamonds because they are beautiful. They always greeted with three fingers with crown form, and are Rap and Kingdism (a kind of religion that mixes rap with prayers) lovers. They have a female version: the Latin Queens, so far, the only band made up of only women.

Both the Ñetas and the Latin Kings wanted to disassociate itself from its reputation of a violent band and they began negotiations with the Barcelona city hall. After months of discussions, the Latin Kings registered as a legal association of the Justice Department on July 31st, 2003 under the new name of “Asociación Cultural de Reyes y Reinas Latinos de Cataluña (Cultural Association of Latin Kings and Queens of Catalonia). They try to publicize the Latin culture and to promote the integration of young migrants in society.

Over the time they have demonstrated that with desire and determination they can get away from violence and that they can promote good values. Discover the capital of tolerance and mixture, travel to the Catalan capital and stay in the best apartments in Barcelona.