Cholo is bursting out of the barrio

Mainstream America is learning how to say a new word: cholo.

This is pure shite. Mexicans should be so lucky! Note the sarcasm. Hmph. Old story that needs to be filed for posterity here.


Cholo is bursting out of the barrio
By Karen Thomas, USA TODAY

Mainstream America is learning how to say a new word: cholo.

It's slang for Mexican gangster, and the lifestyle has its roots on the gritty barrio streets of East Los Angeles.


These days Christina Aguilera's sporting a bandana everywhere.
By Scott Gries, Getty Images

Fashions first seen on gang members are popping up on the clean-cut likes of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. But the trend extends beyond the cholo uniform of bandanas, khakis and plaid Pendleton shirts. It's even being celebrated on the Discovery Channel.

And celebrities — always a gateway for what's cool for the masses — are infatuated.

"We love cholo," says stylist Trish Summerville, who has worked with Pink, Mya, Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera.

The cholo movement feels "exactly like rap/hip-hop culture did in the early '80s," says trend researcher Irma Zandl, founder of Manhattan's Zandl Group. "We're at the very start of something as big or bigger than hip-hop."

Evidence that cholo has moved beyond the barrio:

Bandana style

For cholas (female cholos), it's not just having a bandana, it's how it's worn — "folded flat, across the front of your head," Summerville says. Celebs spotted in cholo-style bandanas: the Olsen twins, Aguilera, Missy Elliott and Vivica A. Fox.

Pepsi goes cholo

Older-model sedans that sit low to the ground have long been part of the Mexican scene, and the automotive style has been borrowed by hip-hoppers. How cool is the new Vanilla Pepsi ad, in which the delivery truck is outfitted with hydraulics to make it bounce to the music?

Cholo 'Madness'

Motorcycle customizer Jesse James, left, who grew up in a Mexican neighborhood in East L.A., is now the darling of the Discovery Channel with the popular series Motorcycle Madness. James says he "adapted cholo into the way I dress and the way I build my bikes." Celeb clients include Keanu Reeves, Fred Durst and Kid Rock.

Gang-inspired tattoos

Celebs such as Bow Wow, Justin Timberlake, Eminem and Beyoncé Knowles are flocking to tattoo specialist Mr. Cartoon. The East L.A. artist bases his fine-line work on a prison practice among gang members who tattoo themselves with a method using sharpened guitar string threaded through an empty pen. Other cholo-inspired tattoo trends: Old English lettering and neck tattoos. Aguilera has "xtina" tattooed on the back of her neck.

Cholo on MTV

Beyond fashion, musicians are embracing cholo in their videos. Metallica's Saint Anger is set in a real L.A. prison, and much of the video is focused on tattooed, cholo-attired inmates.


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