A DUBIOUS ANNIVERSARY
For those who keep track of these things, yesterday, Sept. 16, is a day that the NUESTRA FAMILIA celebrates as something akin to their day of Independence. It also happens to be Mexican Independence day.

According to NF lore, Sept. 16th, 1972 is the day that RUDY "CHEYENNE" CADENA, an EME brother was assassinated by FAMILIANOS on the second tier of PALM HALL in CHINO STATE PRISON.

There's a backstory to this. The Eme and NF have been locked into a no-win war since the NF first started organizing in 1965. But CADENA was a true believer in the concept of a Hispanic supergang that would supersede the geographic loyalties of the Eme and the NF. He had a vision of a united La Raza uber-gang that would stop the brown-on-brown war and stop wasting the energies and depleting the manpower of both gangs. There's also reason to believe that CADENA ultimately wanted to use that base of power to gain some social and political capital outside of prison.

Although he was counseled not to do so by some of his brothers like JOE MORGAN, CADENA went ahead and set up a meeting with NF shot callers. The meeting took place in CHINO.

By all accounts, CADENA's intentions were honorable. He wanted a genuine truce that would eventually evolve into a full blown alliance. The NF, however were suspicious. They thought it was a set up and CADENA was actually there to hit the NF shot callers. He never got the chance to prove otherwise.

Before a single word was exchanged, three Familianos (FRANK "JOKER" MENDOZA, JUAN "MANSANAS" COLON, and BOBBY "CRACKERS" VINDIOLA) shanked and beat CADENA and threw him off the tier. When he landed, another Familiano was there with a shank to finish CADENA off. CADENA was stabbed at least 50 times.

It's supposed to be a red letter day for the NF and certainly a black one for the Eme. There's never been another attempt to unite the two factions. Needless to say, they've been at war ever since.

Last month, for instance, Folsom was purged of all Nortenos by the CDC for reasons that remain not fully explained. Folsom is now apparently a 100% Eme controlled institution. Eventually, I'll tell you what's going on in Folsom. But now is not the time. We'll wait for the dead tree media's version of this situation before we comment.

The CADENA killing was portrayed in AMERICAN ME, the Edward James Olmos movie. In the film, however, the character based on CADENA was killed by his own brothers. This was something that the EME found outrageous. And we don't blame the brothers for being upset. The truth is interesting enough. It doesn't require embellishment or outright fabrication to make it dramatic or compelling. Not to mention that it's a slap in the face to the brothers who tried to talk CADENA out of the sit down with the Familianos. As a result, Olmos was allegedly greenlighted and is said to have paid his way out of it. And we know what happened to ANNA LIZARAGA.

The irony of the CADENA assassination is that while the NF celebrates that hit on Sept. 16, the killing actually happened on December 17, 1972. Nations don't always celebrate events on the date they happened. So it's not that odd that any other organization should do the same.