Kelvin, Rene, Kevin, and Eliseo are four skaters who came up in the same small community in El Salvador. Skating is their passion but it was not easy to live the skater lifestyle in El Salvador. Local gangs would target the skaters because for many, skating was an alternative to gang life and therefore a threat to the gang’s power. When a group of skaters ended up in the hospital after being attacked by a gang in March, the four guys decided to leave El Salvador and try to make it to their dream city: Los Angeles.

Levi Vonk, a Fulbright scholar living in Mexico, met the guys while they were traveling through Mexico and helps us tell their story crossing Central America.

Here is the link to Levi’s article for Rolling Stone on the skater crew.

Photo via Levi Vonk