Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US Hisp.) someone from one’s own social group, a friend from the same neighbourhood; in pl. carnales.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 84: You don’t need me, carnal. You could bust a foot in all their asses.
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 114: My carnal is there, Ernie Obregon.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 176: [They] were now sworn carnales, the Hispanic term for homeboys.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 373: Yeah, I tell a good lie from time to time, ese, but this is straight shit, carnal.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 36: Hey, carnal . . . my people are saying that the thing with the niggers ain’t gonna get squashed.
2006		F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 144: This here’s like things I supposed to be, carnal.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] If you were a ‘baby,’ a bitch [...] the others would rent you out, but the Eme carnals or camaradas weren’t allowed to use your services.