Gang warfare between Hispanic neighborhoods was the norm during the 1950s and 60s, so the fact that Luis Flores was able to get established enemies to set aside their rivalry upon entry into the prison system was something that was not thought possible.

Hispanic street gangs like White Fence, The Avenues, Clanton 14, Hawaiian Gardens, Varrio Nuevo Estrada, and Primera Flats, were already into their second decade and firmly established as self-sustaining entities.

[2] Luis Flores initially recruited violent members to the gang in an attempt to create a highly feared organization which could control the black market activities of the Deuel prison facilities.

[28] By 1961, violence got so bad at the Deuel Vocational Institution that administrators transferred a number of the charter La eMe members to San Quentin Penitentiary in the hopes of discouraging their violent behavior.

However, in 1968 at San Quentin, a full-scale riot broke out after a Mexican Mafia soldier, or soldado, stole a pair of shoes from a Nuestra Familia sympathizer.

The gang also extended its influence outside the prison system when members who were released from custody began taking control of narcotics distribution in parts of Southern California, primarily by "taxing" drug dealers.

Many assaults and murders of members of both groups have occurred as a result of each organization claiming the title of "Mexican Mafia" within the Arizona prison system.

During the early 1960s at San Quentin Prison, Luis "Huero Buff" Flores and Rudy "Cheyenne" Cadena established a blood oath for members of the Mexican Mafia.

[36] The Mexican Mafia is also a rival of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang, which holds a loose alliance with La Nuestra Familia.

[3][6][29] Many of the street level homicides in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles committed by the Avenues gang were done on orders issued by the Mexican Mafia.

[26] In 1957, Gregory Huerta Valenzuela and Augustin Acosta, two Mexican Mafia associates and members of the White Fence gang, shot and killed grocer Jose Castellanos during a robbery in East Los Angeles.

They also pled guilty to assault with intent to commit murder and injury to a county employee for the stabbing of Lovretovich and were given sentences to run concurrently with their life terms.

[39] The first murder outside of prison that was ordered by La eMe occurred in 1971 when Mexican Mafia member Alfonso "Pachie" Alvarez was found shot twice in the head in a secluded area of Monterey Park.

[4] The person responsible for the murder was Joe "Pegleg" Morgan—the notorious white godfather of La eMe who had ascended by then to become one of the highest-ranking bosses of the entire organization, even with no "official" Mexican blood himself.

[citation needed] On October 14, 1984, Alfred Arthur "Chato" Sandoval, a high ranking eMe member and Arizona Maravilla gangster, shot and killed Gilbert Martinez and Anthony Aceves during a gang-related fight in Belvedere Park, East Los Angeles; a third victim, Manuel Torres, survived the attack.

[41] On November 6, 2000, Sandoval had his death sentence for the murder of Marlene Wells overturned by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals but remained imprisoned for life without parole.

[42] Two Mexican Mafiosi, the brothers Hector and Ronaldo Ayala, along with a third man, bound and then killed three others — Ernesto "Chacho" Mendez Dominguez, Marco Zamora-Villa, and Jose Luis "Cucuy" Rositas — by shooting them execution-style at the A & Z Auto Repair shop in the Logan Heights neighborhood of Southeast San Diego after demanding $10,000 from the men, who were allegedly involved in the heroin trade, on April 26, 1985.

[7] Mexican Mafia member Charles "Charlie Brown" Manriquez was targeted for death by the gang when he was accused of cowardice after failing to carry out a prearranged stabbing on another inmate at the Chino State Prison in 1991.

Manriquez was fatally shot to death by La eMe hitman David "Smilon" Gallardo in the Ramona Gardens housing project in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, on March 25, 1992.

[49] Mike "Acha" Ison, a Mexican Mafia leader described by San Francisco Chronicle writer Julian Guthrie as "a small man with a giant reputation who had survived 30 years in California's toughest prisons", was beaten to death by three or four people armed with pool cues after he was involved in a bar fight at Grady's Bar in the Mission District of San Francisco, on March 25, 2001.

Members and associates of the gang remain fiercely loyal to the criminal organization both in and outside of prison, particularly in Southern California cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego.

High-ranking members of the Mexican Mafia who are locked in private cells for 23 hours of each day are still able to communicate with their associates, through methods which range from tapping in code on prison plumbing pipes to smuggled letters.

[50] Rudy "Crazy" Espudo (Esco Varrio Diablos – Escondido, California) was in control of the Hispanic gangs in the area and forced drug dealers to pay taxes in tribute to La eMe or face the consequences.

[51] On January 31, 2022, a fight broke out between members of the Mexican Mafia and MS-13 at United States Penitentiary, Beaumont, Texas, causing two fatalities and leading to all U.S. federal prisons being placed on lockdown due to fears of retaliatory attacks.

The film was co-produced, directed and starred in by actor Edward James Olmos, who allegedly received death threats by members of the Mexican Mafia for what they considered an unflattering depiction of the gang.

[54] The Mexican Mafia was allegedly displeased with the portrayal of the murder of Rodolfo Cadena (who was the basis for Olmos' character Santana) as being committed by his fellow gang members.

[55] While serving a life sentence for murder at Pelican Bay State Prison, Joe "Pegleg" Morgan, filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Olmos, Universal Studios, and other producers of the film.