Karina Schmitt 
An Analysis of “Blood In Blood Out”. Personal Identity Construction in Gangs 

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Film Science, grade: A, University of Southern Denmark, course: Spanish and Spanish American Studies, language: English, abstract: Our social constructions, culture, and history play an important role in our personal identity construction. In this analysis, these elements, as well as the role that machismo plays for the male gang member, in the 1993 cult movie Blood In Blood Out are analyzed to provide a profound understanding of one’s motivation to join violent gangs. We go beyond the movie to find out what it means to be Chicano.

“Karina Schmitt, has one of the most vibrant outside perspectives regarding the Chicano community I have ever seen. The only other I ever thought cared enough and expressed the realities of the Chicano community was Taylor Hackford, a very Anglo film director who chose to show the Chicano community using me as the star playing Miklo in Blood In Blood Out. Most Anglos don’t understand enough about the language or the subtleties of the Chicano community to share or understand how to lend knowledge to the academic society or any other part of society without having grown up in this society of ‘Chicanismos’ as I have. But there is a certain care, passion, and loving embrace toward our Chicano society that Karina Schmitt embodies. She loves our language, our culture, and she cares.”
– Damian Chapa, Star playing Miklo in Blood In Blood Out (1993)