Chicano political activists began using graffiti to make statements.

Chicano political activists began using graffiti to make statements. Chicanos used graffiti to tell about their history, their family unity, and their bicultural pride. Chicanos also used their graffiti to unify the Chicano community during the Chicano Movement. Eventually this led to architectural decoration, murals to remember the deceased, personal shout-outs and gang’s territorial markings. This paper will discuss the elements of graffiti and how it is used today.
It is unfortunate that graffiti should be dismissed as mere vandalism on par with tire slashing and window breaking, because for many young people who often exhibit considerable talent, graffiti constitutes an aesthetic discipline. Graffiti has existed in one form or another as long as writing. The earliest known cave paintings, dating from 20,000 years ago, seems to have more in common with modern graffiti than with writing because they were mostly drawings of their surroundings.
When Henry Chalfant’s documentary film, Style Wars, came out in 1985, graffiti, break dancing and rap music were all seen as elements of hip hop culture. It was in this context that it spread. A Chicago graffiti writer Orko said, “We swallowed it as a whole package: breaking, rapping, DJing and graffiti together. We never split them apart.” Orko goes so far as to claims that “Graffiti is the center of hip hop. That’s why the best MCs were all graffiti writers: KRS-One, Rakim.” Graffiti is a vivid and tangible urban artifact, signaling, at the very least, the writer’s disrespect for the institution of private property and his/her willingness to take risks.
There is a trend, especially in California, toward full-scale productions featuring elaborate scenes and characters, which are easier to appreciate. More often, a writer’s mission seems to be able to find an honorable place in the cadre of writers, by writing the tag-name as often, in as many places, and as skillfully as pos…