Rodolfo Cadena

Cadena was the basis for the 1992 movie American Me, in which, Montoya Santana, a character based upon Cadena, was portrayed by Edward James Olmos. The Mexican Mafia, however, was enraged by certain parts of the movie, especially the portrayal of Santana being raped in juvenile hall and a climax in which Santana is murdered by his own followers. Two of Olmos' consultants on the film were subsequently murdered and a plot to extort the director was uncovered.

The night before his death, Cadena had received multiple death threats and knew that when he left his cell in the morning, he would be leaving it permanently. On the morning of December 17, 1972, Cadena was asked if he wanted to leave his cell with the rest of the prisoners; rather than avoiding his fate and staying in his cell, he stepped onto the tier of his cell in "Palm Hall" at the Chino Reception center. He was stabbed repeatedly with shanks, and beaten with a pipe by Nuestra Familia assassins. He was stabbed an estimated fifty times on the tier and thrown off a third story tier onto the concrete floor below and stabbed another dozen times. Cadena was subsequently buried at Union Cemetery in Bakersfield, California with an inscription reading, "Recuerdo de tu madre y familia" (Remembered by your mother and family.) His parents would divorce shortly afterwards.

Rodolfo Alvarado "Cheyenne" Cadena (April 15, 1943 – December 17, 1972) was a Mexican-American mob boss and a prominent figure in the Mexican Mafia prison gang also called La eMe (Spanish for the letter M).

Cadena was born on April 15, 1943 in San Antonio, Texas, the son of second-generation Mexican immigrants Anita (née Alvarado) and Daniel Hernandez Cadena. The family later moved to Bakersfield, California where Cadena attended East Bakersfield High School. Cadena became a member of the Varrio Viejo Gang (now known as the Varrio Bakers). He was incarcerated at Deuel Vocational Institution after he and Richard Ruiz, who would become one of the founding members of La eMe, stabbed a man to death outside of a dancehall called 'Salón Juárez' in 1959. At the time of his conviction, Cadena was only 16 years old. While incarcerated, he earned the respect and admiration of the members of the Mexican Mafia which was still in its development stage.