Visit a market in many Latino neighborhoods across the country and you might come across Homies--tiny Chicano figurines wearing baggy clothes, white T-shirts, bandannas and knit caps.
The creator of the 1 3/4-inch-tall cartoonish toys, which are sold in gum ball machines, said Homies are caricatures of real people from Mexican American barrios, like the one near San Jose where he grew up. More than 1 million have been sold since they hit the market four months ago, a distributor says.
"That's a big part of our culture: young, lowrider Chicano kids wearing baggy clothes," said David Gonzales, 39, who draws the characters out of his Northern California home. "Most of them are based on people I met. A lot of them are my friends."
But Los Angeles Police Department officers and prosecutors said the figurines are clearly designed to be gang members, and that they glamorize that violent culture. As the nation again struggles with the issue of limiting children's exposure to violence in movies, music, video games and television, local authorities say Homies should be removed from stores.
"It's scary that kids are playing with this," said LAPD Det. P.J. Morris, a member of the gang detail in the northwest San Fernando Valley, who is trying to persuade vendors to remove the toys. "We're trying to fight and teach kids to stay away from gangs, and we have to contend with this as well?"
Gonzales said people who criticize his Homies are simply ignorant of the Chicano culture. The toys don't represent violent gangsters, just authentic barrio life from the 1970s and 1980s, a time he considers more peaceful than the present.
"Usually the people throwing rocks are on the outside looking in. They don't understand our culture," said Gonzales, a San Jose State University alumnus who is studying computer animation in San Francisco. "I know where my heart is.
"I keep my Homie characters violence-free and drug-free," he said. "I don't push gangs."
The Homies draw mixed reactions from Los Angeles area Latino community leaders, raising issues of dignity, stereotyping and the right to artistic expression.
Some in the community agree that many of the images are nothing more than silly, harmless or nostalgic portrayals of characters that have existed for decades.
"It's a form of art and I respect it as such," said Xavier Flores, head of the area Mexican American Political Assn. and the San Fernando-based social service agency Pueblo y Salud.
