Maravillo1

Miriam Maravillo
English 114B
Professor Melisa Malvin
February 29, 2016

Graffiti in L.A
Los Angeles is known to be a place of opportunity. The truth is that Los Angeles is a
place where one can succeed or one can fail but although it can lead to one thing to another
people still decide to stay here for many reasons. Regardless of the reason, everyone in Los
Angeles has their own story. Everyone shares and expresses themselves in different ways. In Los
Angeles Graffiti Art, a part of L.A culture, is a way for individuals to share their stories. Graffiti
art demonstrates an environmental feature of L.A, which captivates an artistic expression of
ones challenges, not just a gang related act. In the passage, Going Up to L.A Ruben Martinez
demonstrates a traumatic gang life experience that soon lead him to understand that bad life
experiences must happen in order to find out our true passion and purpose of life. In different
parts of L.A, people experience events that leads them find out what Los Angeles truly means to
them.
Ruben Martinez is a former gang member who writes about his challenges in
being involved in gang related activities and the obstacles he had to face in order to make
himself a better person. In the passage Going Up to L.A, Ruben Martinez begins with a type of
scenery that captivates the dangers of living under a gang environment. As the narrator goes back
to weeks before the shooting, he begins to show how graffiti plays an important role in the L.A

Maravillo2

area not only because it expresses a certain identity that a gang is trying to reveal but it
demonstrates how the youth is able to share their experiences and lifestyle into a wall that can be
found within any of the city streets. Ruben Martinez describes the lifestyle of living around the
gang environment that soon leads to many adolescents being able to share their fears, traumas,
and feelings by accepting their gang environment and transforming their lifestyle into a passion
that can lead them to a different path than what was originally stereotyped for them. Ruben
Martinez also expresses how people do not accept graffiti as art in any shape, way, or form,
which basically discourages young adolescents to overcome his/her challenges and continue their
lifestyle revolving violence. By constantly having people discouraging this art, it causes teens to
find it normal to have an involvement with gangs which can result in ending with death. Overall,
Martinez shares the history of art in L.A and how it is important to keep this type of art in these
cities because many of the adolescents are able to transform their gang life and turn it into a life
which can lead them to success.
Whenever anyone goes to Los Angeles, the first thing you notice are the walls
covered in graffiti. For many people, Graffiti can be seen as a gang related act, but for those who
do this type of art, it is much more than lines, it is a certain style to release their feelings onto
walls rather than violence. L.A is known for the high amount of violence due to the differences
between locations, ethnicities, religion, and gender but these types of altercations are led by
people who are trying to gain power and superiority. When people think of graffiti, they think of
gangs. In reality, graffiti does not symbolize gangs and power, it shows triumphs and obstacles
that people face everyday living in these conditions where violence is seen everywhere. As
Ruben Martinez states that graffiti is also seen as a certain cry for help as he asserts in his
passage, this is a hype town Number One. The kids cant go on television but they tag

Maravillo3

(745).In other words, children or adolescents who want their voice to be heard and a way of
doing so, they write on the city walls or freeways, mainly anywhere public to emphasize their
feelings and their way of life to all those who do not see what they are experiencing.
In areas like East and West Los Angeles, many of the people that live around these
areas are always stereotyped or portrayed in certain way that causes people to view graffiti as
violence rather that what it truly does. Martinez states that a group of mostly middle-class
Anglo Westside teens took note(738), which indicates that people living in this side of Los
Angeles are people that cannot afford to leave these area. Since many of these people do not
have a certain amount of money, society unknowingly generalizes and stereotypes certain social
classes and portrays them to a certain group they do not belong. Since society portrays the
middle class to be known as the ones that cause trouble and violence, they believe that the way
they express their feelings and emotions are not viewed as an art but rather viewed as way to act
upon the gang violence and make society worse rather than making it better. As Martinez later on
states, It was only when white people started doing graffiti that they said it was art (741), by
mentioning a certain ethnic group he is able to demonstrate how society only judges this type of
art based on ethnicity and social class rather than seeing beyond the lines and considering graffiti
as a way to come across a message or even sharing their feelings/emotions. Martinez involves
race, because he wants to demonstrate how society keeps stereotyping these adolescents by how
they look rather than actually listening to their cries of help. Graffiti is a representation of living
conditions that people face and the class division that society creates unknowingly judging a
certain social class.
Graffiti has lead people to success. As Martinez uses simile to compare
graffiti to the world he states in his last paragraph, Its like a gateway to a new world(749)

Maravillo4

where he is able to show that graffiti can change some lives by being able to turn their life
around and turning the art form as a passion which can lead to success. Martinez was able to get
many adolescents off the streets because of this art and although many people believe that graffiti
does not show any feeling or emotions it has helped so many teens make themselves into better
people. Many people change their way of living every day, not because of the environment
around them but by having someone or something help them get through their troubles and
obstacles.

In the passage, Going Up in L.A, Ruben Martinez is able

to articulate on the subject of graffiti being considered an art due to the certain people that
actually perform this type of art. In many parts of L.A graffiti is seen as a culture in which people
use to release any type of feeling or emotion that can help them leave the gang related act and
transform it to a way to find success and although many people disagree with this so called
tagging it has helped many teens survive and make a better future for themselves.

Works Cited
Martinez, Ruben. "Going Up to L.A." Ed. David L. Unin. Writing Los Angeles:A Literary
Anthropology. New York: Library of America, 2002. 735-49. Print.