
I found these Latin Kings playing around with a boy on the corner of Winthrop and Ainslie in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood in 1976. Gangs were an ever-present factor in the lives of kids growing up in Uptown. In many cases, gang members were the dominant role models in the lives of kids. The man on the left described himself as a leader of the Latin Kings in this neighborhood. Note that he is wearing a shirt that says, “Unknowns.” This may have been the precursor for an offshoot (no pun intended) of the Latin Kings called the Insane Unknowns.