Graffiti

I loved reading about Charles Bojorquez and his experience with LA graffiti. I have very little basis of knowledge about graffiti other than I live in Los Angeles and I see it everyday. The one part that I associated with was when he was talking about when he went to Guadalajara, Mexico and then he came to CalArts. Both of those are extremely close to me. CalArts for the obvious reasons and Guadalajara because my father is from there. I have tons of family there and visit often enough to say I know the place. I especially associate with this idea of territory. My father would tell me stories of when he was young and he would go around and be in different gangs. Apparently, in the neighborhood that he lived in, different streets would be associated with different gangs. What I found amusing is that some of the gangs and territories would be named after bands. The street that my dad lived on was The Doors. I believe he said that one of the gang’s name was Led Zeppelin. My uncles told me stories of how on the walls there were big spray painted pictures of Jim Morrison. It never really seemed to be anything too violent or crazy, just something that they could associate a community with. Doors for life!