Origins
Nuestra Familia was organized in either the Folsom, California, or Soledad, California, Correctional Training Facilities in 1968.
In the late 1960s, Mexican-American (Chicano) inmates of the California state prison system began to separate into two rival groups, Nuestra Familia and the 1957-formed Mexican Mafia, according to the locations of their hometowns (the north-south dividing line is near Delano, California.)
Nuestra Familia were prison enemies of the Southern Latinos who comprised La Eme, better known as the Mexican Mafia. While the Mexican Mafia had initially been created to protect Mexicans in prison, there was a perceived level of abuse by members of La Eme towards the imprisoned Latinos from rural farming areas of Northern California. The spark that led to the ongoing war between Nuestra Familia and members of the Mexican Mafia involved a situation in 1968, in which a member of La Eme allegedly stole a pair of shoes from a Northerner. This event put into motion the longest-running gang war in the state of California.
In addition, it is common knowledge for many California gang members that a member of the Crips gave a pair of replacement shoes to the Nuestra Familia member as a way to protect his manhood and dignity. Since then the Crips and Nuestra Familia members have been "cliqued up" in the California Correctional system. Normally in penitentiary rules, there are certain politics among the various races which regulates how inmates of other races can interact with each other. These "politics" take supreme precedence over all issues; meaning that Blacks deal with Blacks, Whites with Whites Mexican with Mexican, etc. So ultimately, this moment of friendship between the Crips and Nuestra Familia is a classical element of California gang history for those who are familiar, because the politics (i.e. color lines) that were erased to bring justice to a man's life.
Read more about this topic: Nuestra Familia
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