Lining the streets of Los Angeles and Mexico City, under the bridges of Chicago’s Hyde Park, on the walls that surround the Tijuana border, on the corners in New York’s Harlem, and all over the world lies a controversial art form that can be one man’s burden and another man’s saviour. It’s called graffiti, the art of the youth and of urban areas.

Graffiti art has swept the nation in a radical movement spreading hip-hop culture. In a time when people are becoming more aware of social corruption and feeling the consequences of our history, and where the young and the poor have practically no say in politics, graffiti has been used as a form of communication for those who are not heard, to express their political views and social burdens, or simply show off their artistic skills to the public.

It’s been my hobby and passion the past four years to research and document graffiti around the world. I’ve learned so much about groups of people, their neighborhoods, politics and culture just by looking at the streets and taking a minute to analyze the writing on the wall.

Hip-hop graffiti has become a special revolution in art. It relates to radical art movements of the past because the artist says, “fuck you” to the established art community and instead chooses to display his or her work freely for the public. Unlike in museums, where there are security guards to protect the art, graffiti writers, no matter how good their work might be, risk the fact that their piece might not even see the light of day. The artist also doesn’t stick around to inform his or her viewers what the piece means. It is left for you to interpret (or destroy). It’s this aspect of graffiti, its transitory nature that involves so much passion and risk, that makes graffiti all the more meaningful.

The style of hip-hop graffiti originated on the subway cars in New York City in the early 80’s, but has now spread tremendously, developing its own culture, language and techniques to go along with it. Hip-Hop graffiti comes in three different styles: “the tag,” which is a simple name that takes maybe five seconds to do, “the throw-up,” which is more complex, but is still fast and might involve a few different colors, and then “wild-style,” which is the most complex form, where the letters and other images are intertwined and manipulated into a kind of picture puzzle. A piece in wild –style usually involves many colors and could take up to several days to complete.

However, graffiti doesn’t always require tremendous artistic skill to be emotional, beautiful, or informative. Even the simplest forms of graffiti that have been around since aerosol paint was invented can be just as powerful as a huge wild-style masterpiece.

The political graffiti that shows up in Argentina, for instance, whenever there’s an election can be very powerful; graffiti like the “Viva Mexico” piece right here in San Miguel de Allende across from the Parroquia is enough to make one smile and feel a sense of pride in this country; the artist, Miss Tic’s slightly feminist, poetic graffiti in Le Marais in Paris is always beautiful to come across: “Je ferai jolie sur les trottoirs de l’histoire de art” (“I will look pretty on the streets of art history”); or the “2002, or 1984?” piece in Berkeley, California makes you think, and requires knowledge of George Orwell’s famous novel, 1984, in order to understand it.

Walking through areas like Spanish Harlem in New York City, I found myself surrounded by street art that screamed out the politics and concerns of the Puerto Rican community there. By finding works by the renowned graffiti artists De La Vega and Vagabond, I was informed about US foreign policy in Puerto Rico, how they’ve tested bombs in their harbors many times over, and where protestors have been persecuted: “Free Puerto Rico!,” “US Navy out of Vieques!,” “Grenades are not free.” There was graffiti art that taught of revolutionaries, such as Lolita Lebrun and Puerto Rican musical icon, Olga Tanon.

Spanish Harlem is just one example of hundreds of low-income communities across the globe that have used graffiti as a voice to communicate with one another and the public. It has been considered many times as a voice for those who don’t normally have a strong influence in the government or even their communities. For this reason, graffiti can serve as a very important tool. If one takes the time to analyze the writing and connect it to the surrounding society, changes can be made and those people will be heard.

So why an article on graffiti in San Miguel de Allende? This small city is no Harlem. Instead, it is one of the most expensive cities in which to live in Mexico, with tourism and a large expatriate gringo community that has caused property values to go up. This city also has beautiful colonial streets where one usually wouldn’t find graffiti. However, like any city, no matter how small, there is a community of people that are generally not taken into account, especially here, where central downtown businesses cater to tourists.

Nevertheless, graffiti does exist in this city and is used to manifest political, sexual, or humorous messages (“La policia dice mentiras”), to show declarations of love, friendship and a yearning for liberty, to spread the name of an artist or crew (as in the recent student tagging incidence in the bathroom of la escuela Etec), or to show artistic skill, as in the pieces from the recent graffiti competition, that can be found near the Gigante. All these forms of graffiti, whether they are appealing to look at or not, can be informative about different causes, cultures, people and the societies in which the artists live.

Much of graffiti’s meanings are straight up easy to understand. Political graffiti for instance, tells the public to wake up and get informed. It doesn’t have to be pretty because it’s the message that matters. Hip-hop graffiti is mostly about showing artistic talent and gaining recognition within the graffiti community. But what about all the one-syllable aliases that kids create for themselves and write on every wall they possibly can? There’s certainly a fair share of these names in San Miguel de Allende and they’re not all pretty or commendable.