Initials “S13”
Varrio hand sign is the backwards two handed “S”
Left hand over the right hand
Bandana Color: Brown
Varrio claims WEST LOS
Started out in the 1950's
Started out as a Car Club
OG name "THEE FALCONS"
Stoner Park = the heart of the Varrio
Clikas:
Diablos/Devils
Niteowls
Dukes
Chicos Locos
Peewees
Pachucos
Borders:
N ~> Santa Monica
S ~> Pico
W ~> Centinela
E ~> The 405
UNI HIGH
University High School
Sotel 13 is an old West Los Varrio, which dates back to the 1950's.
The Varrio name is derived from the West L.A. community/neighborhood of SAWTELLE
SOTEL is very much in line with the old school Pachuco way of baptizing their barrio names with; for example..
WILMAS for Wilmington
LONGO for Long Beach
PACAS for Pacoima
BOLEN for Baldwin Park
SAN GRA for San Gabriel
so on and so on..
Sawtelle was always a mix of lower and middle-income residents but it was never a barrio as we tend to perceive places like East Los or Sal Si Puedes in San Jo. Their neighborhood consisted of primarily lower-income housing, but due to real estate values jumping up, they are slowly losing their streets to richer folks moving in and buying up more and more properties. There are still a lot of Latino residents in that area despite the gentrification and re-development but little by little, they're being pushed out.
Sotel has always been a fairly small but tight knit Varrio. That's their strength. I can't imagine Sotel the Varrio dying out. Some other cliques and clubs have come and gone in that area, like the West Side Crazies, West LA Trippers, West LA Party Boyz, West Los 13 and West Side Locos 13, but Sotel has always survived.
Sotel started out in the 1950's as Thee Falcons de Sotel, which was more of a Lowrider club. It is said that in the 1960's the Chicano cliques of the West Los (Santa Monica, West L.A., Venice, Culver City/Mar Vista and Sawtelle) caught on to the East L.A. cholo style and reinvented themselves as Varrios. Thee Falcons became SOTEL 13 and some of the other cliques became Venice 13, Santa 13, Via, etc. Most Sotel Homies live around the Brockton Avenue and Norris Terry elementary school neighborhood, centered mostly around Stoner Park, at least that is "historically". They're a very spread out Varrio, so you will only catch them together only at their hang out spots. Their main click now is the Diablos and they usually wear the San Diego Padres lid, which stand for Sotel Diablos.
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