Chicano street art blends history with practice

BEAVERTON, Ore. (KOIN) — At the end of a school day at Beaverton High, a group of students gather and begin shaking cans of spray paint. They’re here at the bi-weekly, no-credit class to learn how to create street art, but not just any street art.

Chicano street art.

“Here at Beaverton, I would say 90% of the CANS class is Mexican American,” said OC Note, an MC, singer-songwriter and graffiti artist from Orange County, California. OC is currently living and working here in Portland, teaching students the art of spray paint.

The earliest elements of what we now consider graffiti or writing, stemmed from the Chicano/Cholo movement in LA during the 1970’s.

Spray paint was patented in 1949, but the Cholo style predates it, originating with shoe shine boys in the 1930s and ’40s. In the 1950s and ’60s, gangs were small, localized groups of friends and neighbors.

The drug trade and subsequent war on drugs led to increased violence and incarceration, where styles merged and influenced each other, collectively becoming known as Olde English, with an emphasis on the entire alphabet.

“In Mexican American culture, specifically like Chicano culture and street culture, graffiti is very common, but it comes in a particular style—and that style requires a lot of practice,’ he said. “Straight lines, Olde English and script are usually big fundamentals in Chicano street art.”

There’s a reason Olde English font holds a special place in the Mexican American community, he said.

“The first place Olde English was written in the Americas was in Mexico City. It almost holds this symbol or representation of being official or like a stamp. So we see Olde English on street signs, we see it on birth certificates, we see it on diplomas, awards.”

This style was then replicated with hand painted signs throughout Latin America. La Placa was meant to look like a newspaper headline, perfectly formed.

OC Note weaves history lessons into his classes to help spread positive messages to the Chicano community through art, fashion and music.

“We really try to teach the kids that discipline is the key to a lot of these styles and a lot of them already have a love for Chicano graffiti. So it’s just a matter of practicing and practicing and getting it down,” he told KOIN 6 News. “And as you can see through our last mural, we used Olde English font, which holds a very special place in Chicano graffiti — and I think we did really good with it.”

Beaverton High sophomore Angel Vargas is interested in getting better with his calligraphy, cursive and Chicano street art. This summer he dedicated his time to helping paint a new Portland Timbers mural.

“We did the mural for the Tursi soccer store right there by Providence Park. It was a big project,” Vargas said. “It was a really fun experience. We all got to work on something that we all love. We all got to share that connection. It doesn’t really feel real. I’ve seen murals in Portland and I always think they’re so cool and I would’ve never thought that I would do one one day.”

The teen said the styles he likes to do “are a lot of styles that are involved with Chicano and Mexican American graffiti styles. And I just really appreciate that coming from my culture.”

Angel Vargas is a shining example of how OC Note hopes his classes can spark a new wave of Mexican American artists from Portland.

“I’m seeing in the greater Portland area a big movement among Chicanos,” Note said. “We’re coming together and we’re really educating ourselves, and then we’re also using what we know and the struggles that we’ve been through to really help out the new generation. So this is my way of giving back.”

Students will practice making murals together throughout the school year and then move on to making commissioned murals in the community during their summers.

The non-profit Cada Casa helps sponsor these bi-weekly classes. Cada Casa offers educational athletic and civic engagement programs to students in Oregon. Their programs are focused on equity and diversity, aimed especially at Latine, BIPOC and disadvantaged communities.

The non-profit pays OC Note to teach the class. Then they partner and hold fundraisers to sponsor the classes. In this instance, the Timbers partially paid Tursi’s for the mural, and Tursi’s hired Cada Casa to pay OC Note and the students involved.

Also, Cada Casa helps teach these students about the proper permitting process so they can pursue art careers independently in the future.

Using history and culture, these proud Mexican Americans hope to raise the standards for Portland street art.

“It honestly changed my perspective on what I want to do for my career,” Vargas said, “because working on the mural, they ended up paying us and they paid us a pretty good amount. And it showed me that I can get paid good to do what I love.”

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