Santa Maria Church Hosts Former Mexican Mafia Hitman

A powerful message of faith, hope and transformation was delivered in Santa Maria Friday night from a former Mexican Mafia hit man and East L.A. gang member.

“I was an assassin for this organization, and as I mentioned earlier, if I would knock on your door, 30 years ago, my face would be the last face you see”, Art Blajos says, “I was a messenger of death and destruction but today I can be a messenger of life and hope.”

Blajos came to Santa Maria Friday night to speak about the power of faith in life transformation and how its never too late to turn your life around.

“Its hard to argue with the life you are looking at and there has been change and I’ve transformed and its all on record”, Blajos says, “of a former member, assassin of the notorious Mexican Mafia but now is a productive member of society and has been for the past 30 years.”

Blajos would not say how many people he killed during his life as a hitman for the Mexican Mafia, only that he “destroyed” lives and families.

“I began to look up to the gangsters, to worship crime and thinking that was the epitome of manhood is being a big homey”, Blajos says, “but as time goes by, in your 20’s and 30’s, you begin to realize that it’s a lie and you want out.”

“There’s the enticement, the allure, maybe of quick money, notoriety, 15 minutes of fame”, Blajos says, “then they are in prison for 20 years or they are dead, or they are overdosed, and their families suffer tremendously and something must be done.”

Blajos says he spent most of his adult life in prison for his convictions but willingly shares his story of total transformation in the hope of preventing another young life from heading down the same, dead end path that he traveled.

“People have told me, ‘what right do you have coming to our city and look at your background, look at what you have done, and how dare you, and that’s the height of hypocrisy’, Blajos says, “I tell them you know what, I have no right, but what I am here, I’m here as a messenger, an ambassador and evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, no matter who you are or what you have done, your past, you are not beyond the reach of God.”

Blajos reveals as much of his former and current life in his book, “Blood In and Blood Out”, and growing up as an East L.A. gang member in Boyle Heights.

“I know there’s problems here in Santa Maria, there’s cartels, there’s syndicates, there’s mafias but I’m here to tell Santa Maria that there is someone greater and stronger than any cartel, something greater than AK-47’s, and 9mm and explosives”, Blajos says, “that is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to change a person.”

Blajos came to speak at the Victory Outreach Church and Christian Center in Santa Maria which reaches out to gang members and others in their life of crime to let them know there is a better way to live.

“We’re hoping that this would inspire and touch young people and other gang members that are showing up”, says Victory Outreach Pastor Mike Coleman, “let them know that that kind of lifestyle is not going to be successful or accomplish anything good for them.”

“It is a dead end, all the people I’ve seen in there, all the people I hung around inside of prison, they were between the ages of 18 and 25 and they were all doing life sentences for one act of violence that they committed”, Pastor Coleman says, “it’s a dead end, there’s nothing there, you climb to try to get to the top and when you get there you find out there’s nothing at the top.”

“The only way you can get in is shedding some blood”, Coleman says, “the only way you are going to get out of this is giving up your blood.”