Occasionally, gangs recruit from recent immigrants who are able to maintain a strong ethnic identity in a group within which many of the members speak Spanish.
Gangs provide a good way to break into a circle of friends.
Immigrants especially suffer from isolation in schools and even in the barrios where indigenous Latinos generally will not associate with them. The price is alienation from peers who have been here longer, and who subsequently feel superior to the more recent arrivals. Failure to learn the language and resistance to assimilation is not so much a matter of wanting to hold on to the old or of unwillingness to join the mainstream society, as it is a matter of disenfranchisement and poor implementation of educational programs. Politics also take their toll on recent immigrants. This not only holds them back, but limits their chances of mixing and thereby making friends with mainstream students.