Chaz Bojórquez on the Beauty of Cholo Tagging

Chaz in 1975. Photos courtesy of Chaz Bojórquez. .type-event_listing .page-header-single { display: none; } Ever since he was 15, Chaz Bojórquez knew he wanted to be an artist. But roaming the halls of Los Angeles museums for art classes as a kid, one thing, or lack of it, caught his attention: He found no Mexican-American artists or imagery that related to him.  “Racism and lack of personal identity made me see the world in a different way,” says Bojórquez. He saw beauty in the every day: lowriders, brightly colored Disney movies, advertisements and records attracted him, Bojórquez says. “I saw art in the public culture, not just in the galleries.” Later, he says, wall graffiti of gang or crew names, street names and numbers—referred to as “placas,” which denote territory—became important to him. Immersed in this letter-based, Mexican-American culture that dated back to the 1940s, he knew he wanted to be part of it.  While Bojórquez says “it took another 30 years for the public to accept [graffiti] in the mid-1990s,” he has made strides in the tagging scene, credited for the distinctly iconic “West Coast Cholo” calligraphy. In his more than 50-year run, Bojórquez has collaborated with brands like...