Graffiti and Urban Art: Voices from Latin American Streets I · Global Voices
Issa Villarreal

Editor's Note: This is the first in a 3-part series about graffiti and other urban art from various Latin American countries.
Although its modern incarnation originated in United States three decades ago, graffiti art can be found in the urban areas of almost every country. By now, the drawings and messages sprayed on walls, murals, and other spaces have been widely covered by both citizen and traditional media. They are also slowly gaining recognition as a controversial art, along with the rise of other urban expressions like stencils, posters, stickers, and mixed techniques.
In public spaces, street art (or urban art) represents the voice of the community, marginal groups, and young people that strive to be heard, often defying the notion of private property. Latin America is not an exception for this. Some of Latin American street art is distinct from what is created by the hip-hop movement, focusing on political messages and stories of struggle that speak directly to the viewer.
Through the lens of bloggers, Flickr users and communities, and contributors on YouTube, we offer you an online tour of the art of the streets that communicate secrets and passions at every turn.
Perú
Photo by The/Waz. Used following a Creative Commons license. Taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/thewaz/2696394170/in/set-72157605789705430/
Internet users preserve art because photographed walls neither wash away, nor decay with time. They can also provide information of the artist's name or pseudonym, location, description, and put the art into context. In a group about Peruvian graffiti on Flickr, there is a discussion about the short careers of the artists, user DeCe-RTOR pointed out some of social responsibilities [es] of the street art in Perú:
el arte en peru necesita una reforma, pues a tenido siempre rupturas como terrorismo, corrupcion, mal sistema educativo y sobretodo pobreza,, asi con todos esos problemas es q no se avanza en ningun sentido, asi no se desarrolla ni cagando este pais, y el arte va tan de la mano con el desarrollo q si no se cultiva este pues no se puede esperar mucho, quienes tienen claro q es el graffiti y lo hacen espero q tengan conciencia del poder q es estar en la calle, por lo tanto hay q tomarlo con responsabilidad y aveces para hacer lo mejor es necesario hacer sacrificios, aveces dejando de pintar egocentricamente lo que uno desea, lo q uno solo puede entender.. y dedicar esas fuerzas y ganas en representar lo que la comunidad quiere ver, y necesita saber… siempre buscando la manera de que ademas q guste a todos, guste a uno,, ahi esta la chamba…
Photo by Luis Fonseca. Used with permission. Taken from http://cazadordegraffitis.blogspot.com/2008/11/sentimientos-ocultos.html
On a more personal level, blogger Luis Fonseca wanders through the streets of Lima taking pictures of urban art, which he shares in his blog Cazador de graffitis [es] with songs, poetry, and reflections on the works like the one shown above [es]:
Iba en el bus un poco mal por cosas de la vida y pensaba que nadie la podía estar pasando peor que yo. Levante la mirada y vi esta imagen en un muro [es], rapidamente pense que mi problema no era nada a comparación de otras personas que viven más tiempo sumergidos en problemas que en paz.
Sometimes the communication is even more direct: graffiti artists like Faber take advantage of the anonymity the electronic media grants to promote their work, to show by themselves and their portfolio without any risk of being prosecuted. With minimal commentaries (“busca la sencillez de las cosas” / “look for the simplicity in things”), Faber shares through Flickr and Fotolog [es] his colorful portraits of sad characters, some of them in poverty, without revealing much of himself except his incredible abilities to create:
Related work can be found on the groups of Flickr Peruvian graffiti and Peruvian street art.
Colombia
It reads If the press makes silence, then walls should speak. Photo by Juan Arellano. Used with permission. Taken from http://es.zooomr.com/photos/cyberjuan/8272064/
Common graffiti is known for being a ‘code’: only members of the neighborhoods can understand the intricate traces and calligraphy, the “wild style”, or the code numbers used to represent names and places. However, along with these obscure messages, explicit messages can also be found on the streets, using clear and spaced letters, leaning towards protest. On his blog Globalizado [es], Peruvian blogger Juan Arellano shares photos of the graffiti he found  in Pasto, Colombia, and he concedes that most of the times he does not understand it:
En realidad no soy tan aficionado a los graffitis, la mayor parte de veces ni siquiera entiendo que dicen dada la complicada grafía que utilizan muchos de los graffiteros, pero cuando el mensaje va claro y directo obviamente que si.
An extensive gallery of explicit graffiti can be found on El Blog Canalla [es], where El Reticente [es] and Alejandro [es] collect politically oriented street art on the streets of Medellín. Although they barely comment on their collection, their slogan holds a message of protest:
Si los medios son del Estado, las paredes son Nuestras
This is a photo taken in the streets of Bogotá, that reads “Huya, lucha, y vuelve a nacer” (“Run away, fight, and be born again”):
Photo by El blog Canalla. Used with permission. Taken from http://elblogcanalla.tumblr.com/post/290759594/huye-lucha-y-vuelve-a-nacer-bogota-colombia
Flickr groups for urban art of the cities of Cali and Bogotá share photos from almost 300 members altogether.
Guatemala
Photo by Oscar Mota. Used following a Creative Commons license. Taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/oscarmota/1132340373/in/set-72157601472161317/
“Writers” is how graffiti artists call themselves because of their use of quick signatures (called tags) and bombed letters (known as bombs). In the case of Ricardo (alias NEARsyx [es]), he is a grafitti writer, and also a blogger at Hemisferio Urbano [es]  he shares events, profiles of other graffiti artists, gathers media coverage of the movement, and also sums up the feeling of his graffiti crews and the community.
In 2007, he documented the situation of the graffiti in Guatemala [es] and criticized how television coverage does not differentiate “artistic” graffiti from “vandal” graffiti, the latter commonly associated with illegal tags and bombs:
Lastimosamente aquí, y creo que en muchos otros lugares, el graffiti aun se asocia bastante a las pandillas, un claro ejemplo de esto es un pequeño documental que recientemente realizo Noti7, un noticiero local, donde la edición de este fue parte crucial para dejar a todo mundo bastante confundido y con la misma imagen de que el graffiti es de pandilleros.
En el documental aparecen algunos de los que si realmente forman parte del movimiento artístico, lo malo es que las imágenes de piezas y entrevistas con ellos fueron mezcladas con imágenes del graffiti pandillero, algo que nos dejo con una mal sabor de boca a todos los que formamos parte de la verdadera comunidad del graff.
Sadly here, and I think in other places too, graffiti is commonly associated with gangs, a clear example of this is a recent documentary made by Noti7, a local news show, where the video was edited in a way that left the audience in confusion and holding the same idea that the graffiti is for vandals.
In the documentary, some appeared that really do belong to the artistic movement, the bad thing is that the pictures of the [graffiti] pieces and the interviews they did were mixed with the images of the graffiti vandalism, something that left a bitter taste for us, who belong to the real community of graffiti.
Nonetheless, both artistic and “non-artistic” graffiti share walls and prolonged murals as shown in the video from user Artesinley of some streets in Guatemala City:
More images from the urban art of Guatemala can be found on Flickr in the Graffiti Guatemalteco group and Hemisferio urbano's account.