OT102-OT103-OT104-OT105 - Historisches Museum Saar

E LiL ART DE HOYO MARA [the small Art[ur] from [the neighborhood] Hoyo Mara], Cholo Graffiti, East Los Angeles, 1963.

Derived from Aztec xolotl [dog], “cholo” was used in the United States as a derogatory term for a person of Mexican origin. In the 1960s, Mexican-American activists reclaimed the term “cholo.”

Photo: Ben Lomas. Lomas and Weltman Collection, 1965. ©Susan Phillips.

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LOS LiL ARAÑAS TRece MOTA [The small Spiders 13 Mota], Cholo Graffiti, East Los Angeles, 1963-65.

MOTA = Medicine Of The Angels [ Marijuana ]. " I don't think they were referencing the Mexican Mafia. In L.A. when we write the number 13 [in ABC = M] we are always talking about Marijuana. I think it a fun tag bragging about getting high, with a 'Beautiful Script'.”[Chaz Bojorquez].

Photo: Ben Lomas. Lomas and Weltman Collection, 1965. ©Susan Phillips.

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Dr. Charles Chaz Bojórquez (*1949), Señor Suerte [Mr. Lucky], stencil graffiti, and Veteranos Roll Call, Cholograffiti, Los Angeles, 1975.

Bojórquez Señor Suerte Stencil (1969) is one of the first stencil graffiti artists and was active in illegal Mexican-American street calligraphy (cholo graffiti) until 1986. Here he sprayed roll calls [list of friends, in gangs: members] in the gang graffiti tradition.

Photo: Blades/Kathryn Bojorquez.

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Blades/Kathryn Jones/Bojórquez, Blades, Spray Day, Highland Park, Los Angeles 1973-74.

Blades is so named because she stabbed her first friend. A year after she spray-painted her only tag ever, in the Cholo graffiti tradition, gang members derogatorily added Puta (whore) and La Loca (the crazy one).

Photo: Gusmano Cesaretti.

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