Chicano culture with Thai twist

Tom yum amigos: Members of the ‘Barbarian Has a Gun 13’ attending a weekly gathering in Bangkok. — AFP

THE crowd roars in the tightly packed room as the broad-shouldered, tattooed men stop pummelling a young recruit and smother him with hugs – completing his initiation into one of Thailand’s “Chicano” gangs.

For the tight-knit group of friends, the ritual embodies a concept of a Mexican-American Chicano culture increasingly embraced in Asia, with sounds, styles and swagger from the United States finding a home first in Japan, and now Thailand.