La escritura en la pared

Look at me, just bloggin' up a storm!  I was iffy about this blogging thing (what do I possibly have to say that's worth reading blah blah blah) but then I got over myself and realized how much I like reading other people's blogs, even if they don't have anything that great to say either.  So here's another post, yee haw!

Okay so South America has a lot of graffiti/street art.  There are basically three types of vandalization here:  bad vibes/gangs (the worst kind), political statements, art (the best kind).  I asked a prof about it because we don't really get political graffiti at home, and he told me that SA has a long tradition of loco political regimes that didn't allow a lot of freedom of ideas, making it nearly impossible for people to speak out safely--unless they're anonymous.  Many artists in Chile during the Pinochet era, for example, were either exiled from the country or mysteriously disappeared because for sticking it to the man through art.  So now, much of SA makes political statements with spray paint.  Here are some of my favorite examples of both art and other throughout SA.


Art:

 

Remember when all the kids were electric? (Not my photo, thanks Marie!)

 

Words:

"La educactión no es un negocio"  Education is not a business.

"Dónde está la primavera?"  Where is the spring?

"Construye tu historia"  Construct your history.

"Ellos tienen la fuerza y nosotros tenemos la razón"  They have the force/strength but we have the reason.  This one is a play on Chile's official motto, "Por la razón o la fuerza" meaning "for the reason or the force/strength."  But in Spanish 'to have reason' means 'to be right' so you could also read it as 'they have the force but we are right,' although it doesn't have quite the same ring to it. 

"Orgulloso Sur"  Southern Pride

"Los animales son mis amigos y no como mis amigos"--San Francis de Assisi  The animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends. -- St. Francis of Assisi, this was on the side of the cathedral.

"No aborto para pedófilos"  No abortion for pedophiles, also on the side of the (catholic) cathedral (abortions of any kind are illegal in Chile).

"El gobierno debería temerle al pueblo"  The government should fear the people.

"Si quieres ver algo k' nunca haz visto, hazlo tu mismo"  If you want to see something you've never seen before, do it yourself.  (I don't get it, maybe I'm misunderstanding though, if any gringos are reading this, let me know)

And finally, I leave you with this question:  Bathroom graffiti is done for neither recognition nor money making it the purest form of art.  Discuss amongst yourselves.