Boyle Heights

Boyle Heights was a neighborhood in east Los Angeles, California, overlooking Downtown. Originally an affluent upper-class area, it had since become degraded by three generations of gang warfare.

After leaving Mexico, Jorge Marquez lived in Boyle Heights with his uncle Juan Olivera and cousin Sofia, where he joined the growing street gang known as MS-13.

Ruben "Smiley" Lopez, the suspected leader of the L.A. branch of MS-13, lived at a Colonial-style house on 14th Street in Boyle Heights.