I didn't know these niggas got along, wild shit, since back in the day, but then again Florencia is a deep, organized and respectful hood, and business is business.
"Queen Street founder Big Rat, who asked that his real name not be used, is a regular at Townsend's interventions. At 6-foot-2 with a booming voice, he gets people to listen when he talks. Now 52, he is a married father of three adult children and a grandfather to their young kids. He says he never used drugs, but he did sell them during his street days. Now, Big Rat maintains a legitimate six-figure salary. A lot of young men act tough. They don't want to shake my hand," Big Rat said. "I force them. It's my job to show them how to act like men."
As a ranking elder, Big Rat kicked off Townsend's meeting by sharing a story of his own. One of his closest childhood friends, Rueben Estrada, also known as "Little Bozo", was an original member of Florencia 13. Big Rat and Estrada attended the same schools, played on the same sports teams and slept over at each others' homes. That changed as the boys grew into men and Estrada became more and more entrenched with the Mexican mafia, which controls Florencia 13.
One day in the late 1980s, Estrada warned Big Rat that the mafia had zeroed in on Queen Street. Race wars between black and Latino gangs in other parts of Los Angeles had already erupted and now it was Inglewood's turn. The animosity was typical of the time, Big Rat said, as Inglewood's demographics shifted from predominantly African American to increasingly Latino families. "I was heartbroken,” Big Rat said of Estrada's announcement. Their friendship was over. They only saw each other one more time before Estrada died several years ago, Big Rat said.
Date of Article Posted March 29, 2020.