Okay, so the other day, I got curious about this whole “gang colors in Brazil” thing. You hear a lot about gangs down there, like Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), and you kinda automatically think, like in the US, they must have specific colors, right? Like Bloods wear red, Crips wear blue. Seemed simple enough to check out.
So, I started digging around. First thing, just basic searches online. Typed in stuff like “Brazil gang colors,” “CV colors,” “PCC colors.” Expected to find some quick answers, maybe a list or something.
Well, that didn’t quite happen. It got confusing pretty fast. Lots of talk about the gangs themselves, their history, their power, especially CV and PCC. But clear info on specific colors? Not really straightforward.
My Research Process
I spent a good chunk of time sifting through articles, blog posts, even some academic bits that popped up. Here’s kinda how it went:
- Initial Searches: Mostly news reports about conflicts, arrests, prison life. Mentioned the big names – CV, PCC, Terceiro Comando, Amigos dos Amigos.
- Looking for specifics: I tried focusing searches on symbols and identification. That’s where it got murky. Some sources mentioned red being associated with CV (Comando Vermelho literally means Red Command, after all). Makes sense, right?
- Checking the Red theory: But then, digging deeper, it wasn’t like a strict uniform. You’d read accounts or see pictures where maybe guys associated with CV might wear red, especially maybe red football jerseys like Flamengo in Rio, but it wasn’t a hard and fast rule everyone followed all the time. It seemed more like a loose association, sometimes.
- What about PCC?: For PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), based mainly in São Paulo, finding a specific color was even harder. Some chatter linked them to black and white, maybe because of the Corinthians football team connection in São Paulo, but again, nothing solid, nothing official like a “gang uniform” color. It felt more like speculation or local observation.
- Realization: It started hitting me that maybe this whole “gang color” system, like the clear-cut US version, just wasn’t the main way things worked in Brazil.
What I Found (or Didn’t Find)
So, after all that looking around, my main takeaway was this: It’s not really about specific, universal colors like you see in the US.
It seems much more complicated and localized. Here’s what I gathered from my process:
- Symbols & Tattoos Matter More: Things like specific tattoos (like the PCC’s symbol, or certain styles associated with crime), hand signs, or even specific brands or types of clothing might be more important for identification within certain groups or areas, but not a nationwide color code.
- Territory is Key: Knowing who controls which favela or neighborhood seems way more significant than what color shirt someone might be wearing. Your location often says more than your clothes.
- Football Teams: Sometimes, the colors of local football teams get mixed up in it, like the Flamengo (red and black) connection with CV areas in Rio, or Corinthians (black and white) with PCC influence in São Paulo. But it’s more of a cultural overlap in specific places, not an official gang uniform policy. You can’t just assume someone wearing a Flamengo shirt is CV.
- CV’s Red: The “Red” in Comando Vermelho seems more historical or symbolic of their political origins than a strict dress code today, although the color red definitely pops up in association with them sometimes.
- PCC’s Lack of Color: PCC seems even less associated with a specific color. Their identity seems built more around their structured organization, influence inside and outside prisons, and their specific symbol.
So, yeah, my little research project didn’t give me a neat list of colors. Instead, it showed me that the reality on the ground in Brazil is way more complex. It’s not like the movies. Gang identification there seems to rely on a whole mix of factors – territory, reputation, symbols, tattoos, local alliances, and maybe sometimes, very loosely, colors, but definitely not in a simple, standardized way across the country. It was quite the process to figure that out, or rather, to figure out that there wasn’t a simple answer to find.
