by Damian Gomez
July 31, 2018
The origins of modern American graffiti can be a contentious topic and it's been discussed in many books and documentary films. When asked about the origins of modern American graffiti, most folks will conjure up images of early 1970s New York City subway cars or if you happen to be in the know, you may hark back to an earlier time in 1960s Philadelphia. In other words, the history of modern American graffiti is typically associated with East Coast hip-hop subculture but what about West Coast cholo graffiti and its origin?
Cholo graffiti predates East Coast hip-hop graffiti by at least two decades. Videos and photographs depicting Los Angeles cholo graffiti dating as far back as 1940 serve as archaeological evidence for those looking to place Los Angeles on a chronological time line alongside Philadelphia and New York. For those looking to ascertain the actual point of origin, things may be a little more complex as the history and origin of cholo graffiti is vague at best. Cholo graffiti is usually relegated to a lower status (artistically) and is placed into a different classification than that of East Coast hip-hop graffiti. Unlike the graffiti styles that developed later in Philadelphia and New York City, cholo graffiti hand-styles are unique in that they often resemble Olde English and Gothic typography. Christian P. Acker, author of the book “Flip the Script: A Guidebook for Aspiring Vandals & Typographers” writes “Gothic types have long been a staple of the visual landscape in Mexico and Mexican American culture...The very first printing press in the new world was established in Mexico City in 1534, imported from Seville, Spain and stocked full with the metal types of the day, mostly from Dutch type foundries” [Acker]. Recent trends in mainstream graffiti subculture appear to be borrowing more and more from what was once considered to be an outdated and substandard graffiti style (i.e cholo graffiti). With little information available regarding the history and origin of cholo graffiti, it is generally assumed that cholo graffiti originated in Los Angeles. However, my research suggests that the point of origin is not Los Angeles but rather the city of El Paso, Texas. That's right, during the late 19th century El Paso played a crucial role in the cultural diffusion of what is now recognized as cholo subculture and it's not that difficult for one to hypothesize that along with cholo subculture came its unique and inherent style of graffiti.
Situated in the hot and dry American Southwest on the North bank of the Rio Grande River, El Paso or El Paso del Norte was considered to be an important mountain pass by Spanish Franciscan friars. In its incipient stage, El Paso was a part of New Mexico and was economically bound with Santa Fe. It wasn't until the Texas Revolution (1835-1836) and the annexation of Texas (1845) did El Paso become a part of Texas. The Southern Pacific Railroad connected El Paso to Los Angeles in 1881. Authors of “How We Got Here: The Roads We Took To America” Donna S. Morales and John P. Schmal write “Located in the westernmost part of Texas at the point where the Rio Grande River intersects with the Texas-New Mexico state line, El Paso represented a strategic point between the American railroad network and the central Mexican heartland. In May 1881, the Southern Pacific Railroad reached El Paso from Los Angeles. A month later, the Santa Fe Railroad arrived in El Paso from Santa Fe, New Mexico...” [Morales & Schmal]. By 1884 the Mexican Central Railway had linked Mexico City to Ciudad Juárez which is located directly across the river from El Paso. In the early 20th century, many Mexican immigrants were incentivized by the employment opportunities created by the ever expanding North American railroad system. This is especially true after Chinese immigrant workers were excluded from recruitment and training. Mexican or Mexican American railroad workers became known as “traqueros”, a word that derives from the Spanglish word “traque” for “track.” It was via this vast railroad system (and other accessible migration routes) that the early Mexican American gang subculture would eventually find its way from El Paso to Los Angeles.
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| early 1940's pachucos |
By the early 1940s, this distinctive Mexican American gang subculture appears to have evolved into what is known as pachuco subculture. The pachuco or “zoot suiter” subculture became the vanguard of the Mexican American gang subculture. Pachucos were typically identified by their tailored suits or “zoot suits.” These suits were usually accessorized with felt hats, suspenders, and elongated key chains (la cadena) that sometimes dangled clear down to the ankles. Mexican Americans did not invent the “zoot suit” and they weren't the only people wearing them at that time. Many different American ethnic groups including African Americans, Japanese Americans, and Italian Americans wore “zoot suits.” The “zoot suit” came to be known as a counter-cultural fashion statement during that time. Mexican American Pachucos did, however, adopt the “zoot suit” style as a part of their ensemble. The origin of the word “pachuco” is uncertain, but one theory claims that “pachuco” was a word designated to young Mexican gang members (of low social status) who resided in El Paso. Another theory asserts that because El Paso was (and currently is) known as “Chuco Town” or “El Chuco”, Mexican immigrants migrating from El Paso to Los Angeles would say they were going “pa' El Chuco” (to Chuco Town), therefore they became known as “pachucos” and/or “pachucas.” In a newly released Youtube video, Susie Melendez sheds light on El Paso's long and rich pachuco history, “people migrated from Mexico over here to El Paso to work on the railroad...Once they hit California, they were always asked, ‘para dónde la llevas’ (where are you going?) And they would say Para El Chuco. Pachuco” [Villa]. Some scholars have noted that the Mexican American pachucos indigenous to Los Angeles were quite different from those that came from El Paso, TX. Pachucos from the Los Angeles area were influenced by African American culture, “Mexican American zoot suiters native to Los Angeles spoke more jive; migrants from El Paso spoke pachuco caló with more of a Spanish-language and Spanish slang influence. This is also why when reporters asked Mexican citizens, after the Zoot Suit Riots, where pachucos had come from, many said they came from El Paso” [Licón].
Pachuco subculture was also heavily influenced by Mexican comedic performer Germán Valdés who is known for his iconic character “Tin Tan.” Germán Valdés was born in Mexico City but after moving to Ciudad Juárez in 1931, he quickly became immersed in what historians now label as the “Mexican American generation” [Guzmán]. It would be there, in Ciudad Juárez, where Valdés would begin his career performing as a pachuco on the local radio (La XEJ de Juárez). Today, Germán Valdés is Mexico's most celebrated pachuco.
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Germán
Valdés aka "Tin Tan"
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Young pachucos living in the American Southwest even developed their own argot or exclusive hybrid language called Caló or “pachuco Caló.” Pachuco Caló consisted of words like “ruca” (wife, chick, girlfriend), “¡orale!” (hey right on), and “carnal” (brother, close friend). There were also slang terms created for pachuco graffiti such as “plaqueazo” and/or “placa” which can be described as a list of each gang member's street moniker in graffiti form [Tranquilino & Tagg]. To pachucos and pachucas, Caló represented style, “it was considered hip and cool to spill out versos suaves (smooth words) to the chicas patas (young women) and eses (young men) while cabuliando (horsing around) after school or work” [Ramirez]. Being a native of the American Southwest, I can attest to the impact that the pachuco subculture had in my homestate of New Mexico as the the local vernacular there [Southeast New Mexico] is heavily influenced by pachuco Caló. Shortly after completing my very first graffiti throw-up in my neighborhood (Southeast Roswell c.1992), I received a phone call from a friend stating that he had heard about my new “placa.” I distinctly remember thinking to myself “Placa? Isn't that like some type of old cholo talk or something?” I can also remember my grandmother speaking fondly of the “zoot suiters” and the pachuco movement that existed in our area when she was a young girl. “Ooh those zoot suiters, they looked so nice!,” she would say as she smiled and reminisced about the halcyon days of her youth growing up in Southeast New Mexico.
It was during this era of the pachucos and “zoot suiters” (early 1940s) that Mexican American gang graffiti began to be documented in places in and around the city of Los Angeles but as I've clearly explained in the preceding paragraphs, by 1940, Mexican American gang subculture had already been well established by the young pachucos of the American Southwest. Being that the only existing documentation of early 1940's cholo graffiti is from Los Angeles, one may feel tempted to argue at this point that the territorial disputes among rivaling neighborhoods in East Los Angeles during the 1940s and 1950s may have been a primary motivating factor behind the advent of cholo graffiti. Nevertheless, we've already learned that neighborhood division among young pachucos was occurring in El Paso, Texas as early as 1924. I don't think that it is too far a stretch to surmise, at this point, that cholo graffiti was imported into Southern California by the early pachucos who came from El Paso, TX.
So why is it (despite these important historical and anthropological details) that the Southwest and/or El Paso is seldom, if ever, mentioned when the topic of Los Angeles or West Coast cholo graffiti is being discussed by so called “experts?” In a recent panel discussion titled “The History of L.A. Graffiti” featuring Chaz Bojorquez, an American graffiti artist from Los Angeles who is referred to as “the Godfather of cholo style”, panelists (including Chaz) fail to make any mention of El Paso and its pivotal role in the development of Los Angeles cholo graffiti. In a different interview from 2012, Los Angeles based artist Cristian "Smear" Gheorghiu says almost haphazardly, “Even before the advent of spray paint in the L.A. River, there were parts under the bridges where zoot suiters or pachucos would get sticks and tar and write their neighborhoods on the walls. Graffiti has been going on in L.A. since forever...” [Devis]. The false implication being made here is that the cholo subculture (including cholo graffiti) is indigenous to Los Angeles, California. This, in my opinion, is a blatant disregard and irreverence for the Southwestern pioneers and veteranos of the unique subculture that they [Californian graffiti artists and cholos] seem to be claiming full ownership of.
Mike Giant is a celebrated American graffiti artist who spent a significant portion of his life living in the American Southwest. During his time as a youth living in Albuquerque, NM, Mike was exposed to cholo graffiti in his local neighborhood. As a neophyte graffiti artist, Mike absorbed many of the cholo hand-styles that were prevalent in his area. Although the local Mexican gang members were reluctant to interact, much less teach Mike about cholo graffiti, he eventually earned the respect of the local cholos and was taught the trade. Mike Giant is now a recognized authority on the subject of cholo graffiti and the various hand-styles that it consists of. When asked to compare the various hand-styles from New Mexico and Los Angeles, Mike Giant responds “It's damn close. The Aztlan nation, from El Paso up to Albuquerque, maybe as far north as south Colorado and all the way across to Los Angeles, and then it kind of trickles up to San Francisco through El España too.” At one of Mike's recent art exhibits, a message written in a traditional cholo font reads, “...cholo style, as I see it, came from the barrios of El Paso, Texas...” Underneath this message Mike has painted a large cholo graffiti blockbuster that reads “SOUTHWEST” as if to emphasize the point of origin.
In the future, I hope that those who speak and/or write on behalf of cholo subculture (and graffiti) take the time and make the effort to learn about its rich and colorful history in the American Southwest. It wouldn't hurt to show homage once in a while to the forerunners of what is now considered to be “cholo style.” Regardless of the fact that the term “cholo” or “cholo style” was later adopted in California (in the 1960s), cholo style is the perpetuation of the pachuco style that originated in El Paso and this should not be forgotten.
sources cited:
1. Acker, Christian P. 2014. Flip the Script: A Guidebook for Aspiring Vandals and Typographers. Berkeley , CA: Gingko Press.
2. Morales, Donna S. and John P. Schmal. n.d. “How We Got Here: The Roads We Took To America.” The Hispanic Experience: Cultural Heritage. Retrieved July 29, 2018 (http://www.houstonculture.org/hispanic/roads.html).
3. Howell, James C. and Joihn P. Moore. 2010. “History of Street Gangs in the United States.” Retrieved July 28, 2018 (https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Content/Documents/History-of-Street-Gangs.pdf).
4. Howell, James C. n.d. “First Period of Gang Emergence in the West Region: 1890s - 1930s.” The History of Street Gangs in the United States: Their Origins and Transformations. Retrieved July 28, 2018 (https://books.google.com/books?id=mc5_CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=The Mexican American palomilla rubel&source=bl&ots=BfTvpaZdA3&sig=Zb6cCdplsZiuxUS4-7YbHDh-Gto&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwir7Jr2mcTcAhWMGDQIHSJqD944ChDoATAEeg
QIAhAB#v=onepage&q=The Mexican American palomilla rubel&f=false).
5. Villa, Viridiana. 2018. “Pachucos: A Culture of Unity.” Retrieved July 30, 2018 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=267&v=5-K_JnhWmhw).
6. Licón, Gerardo. 2017. “Pachucos: Not Just Mexican-American Males or Juvenile Delinquents.” Pachucos: Not Just Mexican-American Males or Juvenile Delinquents. Retrieved July 27, 2018 (https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/the-history-of-pachuco-culture).
7. Guzmán, Romeo. 2017. “Mexico's Most Celebrated Pachuco: Tin Tan.” Artbound. Retrieved July 27, 2018 (https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/mexicos-most-celebrated-pachuco-tin-tan).
8. Tranquilino, Marcos S. and John Tagg. 1992. “Cultural Studies, Volume 6, Issue 1.” Retrieved July 30, 2018 (https://books.google.com/books?id=EzD4fdELEioC&pg=PA566&lpg=PA566&dq
=pachuco graffiti el paso&source=bl&ots=EXNuTqO22b&sig=rfsKf53JGkzIsRawy7nijB6A0xI&hl
=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKnZa8zcTcAhXfHDQIHXatDN0Q6AEwC3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=pachuco graffiti el paso&f=false).
9. Ramirez, Catherine S. 2006. “‘Saying ‘Nothin'": Pachucas and the Languages of Resistance.".” Retrieved July 27, 2018 (muse.jhu.edu/article/209989).
10. Devis, Juan. 2012. “Cristian ‘Smear’ Gheorghiu: My SoCal Art History.” Retrieved July 27, 2018 (https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/cristian-smear-gheorghiu-my-socal-art-history-0).
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