"The Varrio's War's"

Simons vs. Pico 

                                             
By kiki

Summer of 1953, there was trouble brewing between the guys from Pico and Simons, and a rumble was in the air; War was coming between the two barrios sooner rather than later.

We had moved into Pico from Simons in the fall of 1952, and I had gotten to know and become friends with some of the guys from Pico, though some still saw me as an outsider and would chase me around the barrio when I would be driving home or when they saw me talking to their homegirls. At that time, I was still hanging out with my Simons friends; maybe that's why I was chased…On a hot 1953 mid-week summer night, while we were shooting pool and listening to R & B on the jukebox in Nacho's Pool Hall in Simons, there was some talk among the Simons guys about going into Pico to settle matters…Lil Raul, Frankie, Bobby, Joe, Carlos, et al. asked me if I was in; I told them no and that I couldn't fight Pico guys since I was living in Pico and was friends with some of them. They all said they understood and told me to stay out of their way. I told them I would stay home whatever night they decided to "invade" Pico.

It was decided among the Simons guys to hit Pico on the following Saturday night. Their weapons of choice were baseball bats, chains, and fists, no knives, though I am sure some carried some switchblades. Guns were not much used in rumbles back in the early-'50s. That came sometime later.

What follows is hearsay, mainly since I wasn't there….Somehow the Pico guys found out, or maybe it was just youthful intuition; either way, they knew that the Simons guys would hit them on Saturday night, and they were ready and waiting for them. They were also armed with baseball bats, chains, and maybe a blade or two; who knows. Saturday night: at about 10:00 PM, the Simons guys drove into Pico in three cars full of guys and weapons. They were met with swinging baseball bats and chains as they drove up to the Ibsen and Acacia streets intersections. The Simons guys exited their cars and started swinging their weapons too. Gilbert, a Pico guy, went after a Simons guy, Lil Raul, with a bat; and what happened next? You would think it could only happen in the movies; Lil Raul grabbed Gilbert's bat and took it away from him, and broke Gilbert's arm with his own bat, man! That's got to hurt!! Then, somebody on a party-line phone called the cops. 

As the cops raced into the barrio with their sirens screaming and red lights flashing, the Pico guys scattered into the four winds. The Simons guys jumped on their cars; some now had broken windows, but they got into the wind without any of them getting busted; none of the Pico guys got busted. A couple of days later, I saw Gilbert with a cast on his left arm at Uncle John Adame's house getting a haircut; I asked him what they were fighting about "hell, I don't know," he replied. I don't think anybody knew what they were fighting about; I sure didn't

Why do I write about wars among the barrios? I do so because it's part of our history. It's the mid-20th-century history of the Mexican-American barrios that were scattered all over the Southwest. It was a time when our people were segregated. People were forced to live in barrios with names like Hick's Camp, Jimtown, Pico Viejo, Cantaranas, Maravilla, El Ranchito, Simons, and others. I can't explain why there was always warfare between the barrios, i.e., among our own people; I don't think anybody can explain that craziness.