The first time I arrived in Oaxaca City for Holy Week, I was fascinated by the colors all over the city. But what I found beautiful about Oaxaca my classmates couldn’t appreciate- it was the graffiti that captured my attention.

Graffiti in Oaxaca has only been around for 7 to 10 years, depending on who you talk to. The first graffiti artists were both rich and poor and came primarily from Mexico City and Puebla. The differences in social class influenced the techniques and styles of graffiti made by the youth. Like many histories of graffiti, young men started tagging- putting their nicknames in every part of the city. Later, bombs and pieces started to cover the wall and with more practice and nightlife, artists formed their crews and developed their styles into murals. For some, graffiti was a moment of rebellion that satisfied the trend of the week, but for many graffiti is a way of life.

For many of the graffiti artists that I know, graffiti was a transition between street art and fine arts, between mixing colors with spray cans to painting with paintbrushes. From looking for walls to paint to making designs for buildings. From designing characters to working in graphic design.

Graffiti artists entered fine arts, architecture and graphic design schools with a passion for painting. But this passion was not just for painting. Many had a passion to give something to the community. While some painted to express their feelings and ideas, others created murals that illustrated themes of history, social problems and injustice as a way of sharing something with the people. The walls were public spaces for these youth to announce what they thought with images and words.

But the graffiti artist continues to be commonly seen as a delinquent with no respect for town property. He is punished for painting with or without permission. He has to pay fines or stay in jail. The people and police look for him day and night, identifying him by the stains on his hands. This is why many graffiti artists have multiple identities, one in public and one in private. 

Why Graffiti?

After the popular movement in Oaxaca, graffiti artists have received a new type of fame in the streets. What is a graffiti artist, artist, revolutionary? This question has many answers depending on who you ask and each answer has value, but what I find interesting are the power relations that separate identities into good and bad/ delinquent and citizen. From my research and observations among various groups of graffiti artists, I have seen the way in which graffiti has touched the lives of many young people here in Oaxaca, both before and during the popular movement.

Stencils

It’s been two years since stencil artists have reclaimed stencil to denounce the government, PRI and Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO). Those of StencilZone, ArteJaguar, and Bemba Klan held an exposition in ESMUJ. The exhibition had much success as images of poverty, violence, corruption, rats, and the necessity for rights and equality filled the walls of the furthest room. But those exhibiting still held the reputation as graffiti artists. Their works were disregarded as the art of a lost generation and no one paid much attention to them, except perhaps the police that saw their faces and looked for them later in the streets. Slowly the streets of Oaxaca were painted with images made with stencils and posters. The two are quicker to get up on the streets and can be easily reproduced.

“Cutting stencil is the hardest part. It’s easy if you have a design on your computer and you add the shadows and dark areas to cut. “It’s more difficult when you use your own drawings for your design and you have to look for the shadows yourself,” says Gena. Many graffiti artists started to experiment with the two and, with many studying graphic design, fine arts, and photography, other styles have started to blend with the ones already present in the city. According to graphic designer and graffiti artist Villegas, “Stencils are the stepbrothers of posters.” With time, people had the opportunity to get to know the works of StencilZone, ArteJaguar, Bemba Klan, and Colectivo Zape.

Graffiti artists also had a lot to say about the national elections this year as well as the state government’s “renovations” of the zócalo, Llano Park, the Fountain of the Seven Regions, and the general waste of public resources on tourist sites. They criticized the wastefulness of such investments when the government should be bringing drinking water to the people, improving the educational system within the state, and providing health clinics in towns.

The government is not working “with unity” as its slogan claims but rather “without unity” and “with impunity” as the Colectivo Zape has stated.

Stencil and People’s Movement in Oaxaca

After the violent eviction of protesting teachers on June 14, 2006, the people of Oaxaca, angry and tired of the continuous abuses of state power, united in resistance.

The people, el pueblo, went to the streets in order to reclaim their city, calling on graffiti artists to cover the walls with their frustrations. The graffiti artists took to the streets, without thinking about the years when most citizens seemed to shun them. “Everyone is involved in this movement. If your parents aren’t teachers, then your aunts or uncles are. We have to support them,” says Wons.

The role of the graffiti artist converted from delinquent to citizen in this moment when the majority of the people were in their own state of rebellion. To claim citizenship was to say that you supported the teachers, Section 22, the people of Oaxaca, and the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO). The fight was not in government offices or buildings. The fight was in the streets and it is here that the conscious of the people was born, grew, and lived. Not only the consciousness of injustices that existed but also the consciousness of the motives behind graffiti. “I think now that there is more consciousness about what graffiti is…because the people know that we have to express ourselves. With these types of media…the street is more visible…The graffiti artists, at least the majority of graffiti artists, have been fighting for this so that people would understand,” says Smek.

Now graffiti has taken on another meaning in Oaxaca. Graffiti artists are not seen as delinquents disturbing the peace. All over the city, people could see and read their feelings on the walls. “Ulises, Assassin: Get Out of Oaxaca” or “Long live the APPO” were painted during the Mega-Marches the occurred within the city. Stencil artists showed their support as well. “Now I’m working on political characters to support my compañeros in APPO,” says Aler. Others worked on images of leaders within the movement and of other revolutionaries.

As the fight continued, more and more people started to participate within the movement. People from various social classes: students, campesinos, housewives, children, and senior citizens. All of them were against the PRI and asking for URO to resign. The situation grew more and more violent, with many people arrested or murdered as a result of their participation. Once again graffiti took to the streets in order to help out their fellow citizens.

With the arrival of the Federal Police, a group of graffiti artists and artists formed the Asamblea de Artistas, Revolucionarios de Oaxaca (ASARO) and decided to make sand paintings on October 31 and November 1, Mexico’s Day of the Dead, in honor of both of their ancestors and of those who had died or been disappeared within the movement. They made their sand paintings at the feet of police officers with the support of the people. Everyone was invited to participate and make pieces of art- by the people and for the people. People brought out all of the materials so they could keep creating paintings. Yesca, one of the artists working on the sand paintings explains the philosophy behind ASARO. “Assemblies are a good way to form relationships and organize, and revolutionary because we experiment with art to create consciousness and be driven by the people.” ASARO looks for ways to awaken the consciousness of the people with their images.

Within the assembly, participants worked on prints and stencils in order to spread them all over the city streets and use them during marches as gritos that could have a continued impact days after the march had finished. They began signing their works as ASARO and little by little the people started to recognize them. Many of the participants are fine art students or well-known artists and used their connections in order to find spaces in which the group could keep working. Because of their dedication to making images for the people and their connections, they were able to create an exhibition in Instituto de Artes Graficas de Oaxaca (IAGO).

The exhibition Graffiteros al Paredón, supported by famous artist Francisco Toledo, was another stage of graffiti in which underground art became known as art and graffiti artists were artists. They had the freedom to paint their stencils in three areas of the library, using acrylic paints instead of aerosols, in which about 30 people filled the walls with images of the Oaxacan resistance.

In the visitor’s log at the exhibition, left out for the public to sign, were pages upon pages of comments supporting and accepting the work of the graffiti artists.

But the graffiti artists here in Oaxaca are doing the same things they have been doing for years, developing their style and technique. What has changed is the way in which the people see their relationship to graffiti artists. Now these youths are compañeros supporting the movement and expressing the feelings of many Oaxacans.

However not every graffiti artist is participating in the same way by claiming affiliations with groups such as APPO. Instead they are continuing to act as citizens of Oaxaca, gaining the respect of many who wish to change things for a better future.

For more information or to view more images please visit: www.myspace.comlosartejaguar http://colectivozape.blogspot.com/ http://web.mac.com/dfteitel/iWeb/ASAR-O/Home.html http://www.fotolog.com/bembaklan or write me: phisigcelestial@hotmail.com