<p>The first time I heard about <i>La Madrina</i>, it was through her <i>hermanos</i> (brothers) who had declared war against her. I had been investigating the history of the New York Ñetas gang’s transformation from “gang banging” to “gang organizing”—as Ñetas members put it – and she was a ghostly presence haunting the Ñetas’ official narrative about their history. Although she seemed to have been an important figure within the organization in the past, my contemporary Ñetas interlocutors avoided talking about her, which raised significant questions, particularly when juxtaposed with other sources of information such as media articles and juridical documents. This article seeks to juxtapose different discourses about the Ñetas’ history in order to excavate <i>La Madrina</i>’s story and significance. In doing so, it explores how one can write about the life of a shadow, of a ghost, and what this can tell us more broadly not just about a given individual, but also the organization that she was part of.</p>