What separates illegal advertising from street art? For one, billboard companies who erect billboard ads without permits get fined an average of $100 per day in Los Angeles; street artists who paint without authorization on public property are tagged with felonies. While advertisement illustrations ask the public to buy products, street art invites the public to look at color. The first type of public exposure is normalized, while the latter form is criminalized.
More than just petty vandalism, street artists offer the average by-passer what others would pay hundreds and thousands of dollars to have: art. Street art is free, accessible, uncensored and unapologetic, from the murals in the alleys of the Mission District in San Francisco to the graffiti bombs in the billboards of LA.
Graffiti originated in Philadelphia in the late 1960s, eventually expanding worldwide (France, Brazil, Spain, Africa). Graffiti wasn’t the offset of people writing and drawing on walls, however. Humans were drawing stories on walls since prehistoric times. In New York, graffiti started out underground in the subways during the 1980s. When people saw their names traveling from city to city on the trains, the subways of New York were suddenly transformed spanning like this for a decade.
Graffiti might be alarming and threatening to some because it is an uncensored manner of speech. Following the shooting of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer, street art portraits of him and messages of solidarity popped up across Oakland which condemned the death of young black men at the hands of police. In Palestine, graffiti is shown in the towering walls of the West Bank. An article in Global post titled, “West Bank: Ultimate holiday for graffiti artists?” touches upon this. The messages reject Israeli occupancy. Mujeres Creando is a group in the country of Bolivia with a high indigenous population that writes graffiti messages dismissing patriarchy and colonization.
Graffiti overall is a defiance of the way which society judges what is art and what isn’t. It does so while renouncing that some people have more freedom of speech than others because they are able to pay for it.
“Neither the land nor women are territories of conquest.”
Oscar Gutierrez in his room in the Ocean View district, San Francisco, Calif., Sunday, March 23, 2014. He was cleaning his room.
Oscar Gutierrez is a 20-year-old straight edge/sober punk based from Huntington Park in Los Angeles. Being introduced into the punk music scene in his early youth, he also made a conscious decision to stay sober within and out of punk spaces. Aside from working in the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center (ROMC) in the Cesar Chavez Student Center at SFSU, he reviews bands for the punk zine Maximumrocknroll (MRR). Oscar is finishing his second year at San Francisco State University where he studies journalism. In this interview, I ask him about his experience navigating college, an underground punk scene, and other places as a straight edge/sober punk.
Does the decision to remain sober bring an identity with it?
At first I didn’t associate it with anything. I started listening to punk when I was really young, and so all the bands that I used to listen to were straight edge bands, so like super sober bands. They were mostly white bands, and they were mostly emerging from the D.C. hardcore punk scene. I identified being straight edge with punk. I never saw them as separate. I say straight edge every now and then. I say sober interchangeably. Straight edge has more of the punk edge. They’re basically the same. My sister was straight edge for a bit, and then she started drinking a lot. She started drinking and doing drugs, but I just never got into it. I think it goes hand-in-hand with my “punk identity”, if you can quote that. I think that’s the identity it comes with. I think it’s a big part of me too, though. I think every year that goes by that I don’t drink or do drugs, it’s a huge step.
Does being sober alienate you from friends who drink and take other drugs?
My roommates drink a lot, and they smoke or whatever. So do my friends in the punk scene and outside of that. They drink and do drugs, a lot. Sober friends, I can probably count on my fingers. I can say it alienates me a little bit, but for the most part, I feel I can party with people regardless. The only part that I hate is when I end up babysitting. When it turns into that I’m just out. I’m like, “I’m not doing this.” But for the most part, I party with people, so the alienating piece is very rare. But it happens, and it feels kind of dumb. I was telling my roommate Jessica how I feel that if I drank and did drugs it would be a lot easier for me to make friends. Growing up in Southeast L.A., a lot of hangouts were “Oh let’s go and drink a 40oz.” So I couldn’t really do that. What was I going to say, “Let’s go out and drink some soda”? No. It just never worked that way. So I told Jessica, I feel like I would have had many more friends, especially in punk if I drank 40s, but I don’t.
So you’re sober, what don’t you consume?
Basically, I don’t drink any alcohol. I don’t do any drugs. That includes marijuana. I also don’t smoke cigarettes.
Do you consider as drugs other addictive substances like soda and coffee, and do you reject them as well?
No. And the reason why is because I associate drugs with parts of my life that have affected me. Usually, it’s a bad piece of my life. Something that I don’t want to relive. I think a lot of the reasons I decided to not drink or do drugs is because a lot of my friends and family members had either been part of the system, the injustice system, or have died because of alcohol or drugs. In a bad way, it’s a motivator to just not ever touch that. I associate substances that I can’t do with things that have negative impacts. To me, coffee doesn’t have a negative impact. Soda does. I used to drink a lot of soda, and then I quit. No more soda. I haven’t had soda in months. Coffee, that needs to happen.
What are the reasons that led you to commit to being straight edge/sober?
I think the reasons have changed a lot throughout my life. I was telling my mom that I’ve never had the drunk uncle. It was mostly cousins who couldn’t do things without drinking. They weren’t always drunk, but they just always had to have a drink. A really close friend of mine started drinking very heavily after he got out of the army. He’s from L.A. and he moved out to New Jersey for his base. He actually drove drunk and ended up killing two people while driving drunk. Now he’s in prison for about 14 years. It was a really big turning point for me. I was sober the whole time. I’ve been sober since day one, but I think that was the point where I noticed it: I’m sober and it’s super real. I was about 16. That’s when I noticed it’s really real for a lot of our families, families of color where those types of things happen. Even with folks that are serving in the military or things like that. That is a real issue and I don’t think a lot of people consider it that. I think they consider it “Oh he’s just a fucked up drunk.” They don’t consider the effects of being in war for such a long time and then coming back and trying to be okay. That was a big turning point for me. But there’s also little things that happen where I’ve had to take care of this person and I never want to do that.
Do you find it hard to be in college and around people who drink, smoke and do other drugs while you don’t?
I think it depends in the space that I’m in. If you feel like grabbing a couple of beers, drinking, or smoking, I’m whatever about it. When I was younger, yeah. When I first started going to punk shows, yeah. I tell people one of the main reasons that I didn’t start drinking is because it smelled like shit. It smelled awful, and I didn’t want it in my body. I just think it’s really scary to not have control of your own body sometimes, and I saw that a lot. When I’m in a space with people, it doesn’t really matter to me. However, when people start getting really drunk, it bothers me a lot. By drunk, I mean you don’t know how to handle your alcohol and you are falling all over the place, and you are making a huge scene. Especially if I’m associated with you. If I’m the homie that brought you, it’s just like “Damn, that is not cool.” It annoys me especially at punk shows. A lot of the time it’s not because they’re “making a scene”, it’s because I’m concerned with their safety. Alcohol poisoning is real. Overdose is real. It’s a real concern for the person’s health and not for how they look. I’ve had a bunch of homies overdose on drugs or get mad alcohol poisoning and that’s not just something I would want.
How do you have fun without alcohol and drugs?
I eat a bunch of snacks. So let me tell you something about straight edge hardcore punk scene: I don’t fucking like it. I’m not about it. It’s super macho. It’s super heteronormative. I’m not about it. I’d rather be in a room full of people that drink. They start getting violent. It’s a very white-dominated scene, which is why I never got into hardcore punk that was super straight edge. For one, people need it [alcohol] to have fun, but also people need it ceremonially. That’s one part that people often put on the backburner. There’s an aspect where folks have been using marijuana traditionally. Folks have been drinking alcohol traditionally. That’s one of the things that people don’t talk about, but I hope it’s a concept that people understand. Alcohol and marijuana, or any other plant, have been used ceremonially and will continue to be used ceremonially because traditions don’t have straight edge rules. For me, having fun, I don’t know, I have fun! I dance, I wiggle, I get my groove on. I’m conscious of the fact that yeah, people are smoking and drinking and doing drugs, but I’m also not the one to be like “you’re ruining my fun” because it’s not about me. But shit, if your ass is drunk and you’re dancing all over the place, let me dance with you. I’m not going to separate myself and be like “I’m the shit because I don’t do any of that.” That’s a choice, and if somebody doesn’t want to do it, then cool. Shit is not going to stop because of me, but if you want to party, I’m going to party with you. Just know that. I’ll act as crazy without the substance.
Are you ever tempted into trying alcohol, tobacco or other drugs?
Alcohol, never. It still smells gross and it still looks gross. Not that one. Drugs, yeah. I’m not going to lie about that one. I’ve looked a lot into marijuana, and the reason why is because I suffer from a lot of pains. I have a skin condition and that was one of my options, marijuana. So I really looked into it, but I’m not doing it. I think it’s mostly because I’ve found other alternatives, and probably because I’m a wimp. I can’t smoke. I’d probably choke and die.
What other alternatives?
Plants that I can apply directly. Marijuana can be applied directly too. I haven’t done it yet.
What do you think about the reality that people drink or do other drugs as coping strategies?
I always tell people I hope they never drink when they’re sad or mad. Obviously I don’t like it, but it’s been one of the most accessible things to our communities. I’m not going to go off on someone because they’re doing that. I understand the fact that it’s there and you forget a lot of shit when you’re doing that. We often don’t talk about the cultural aspect of it [alcohol], the areas in which we live in, and why it’s so accessible. Where I come from, there’s a liquor store in every corner, but in my community there is also a lot of financial disparity, there’s a lot of people dying from gangs and a lot of different things. That makes me think there’s a bunch of liquor stores in my community for reasons. It sells really fast, it sells really well, but I grew up knowing alcohol is that too. A way to make you forget, “Oh, I’ve had a tough day.” I don’t agree with it, but I understand why it’s so accessible, and why people often turn to it. I would wish they didn’t, but we also can’t address those things unless we don’t have the access to resources. There’s way more liquor stores than there is mental health clinics. And it’s for a reason. People know our communities have a lot of traumas and they have a lot of things to work on, but they’re not going to put mental health clinics in our communities, they’re going to put alcohol because it’s attached to a shitload of money. It’s not something I expect our communities to know, but I feel we need to tackle that problem first, addressing the idea that we don’t have resources to get better. It’s very hard to find those resources and most of the time you have to go out and look for them, and that’s not very easy to do. Sometimes it’s easier to got to a liquor store, unfortunately.
Is it lonely being sober, or are there other people choosing to live independently of drugs and alcohol?
Back in L.A. it’s little to none. I’m trying to think and I don’t know. It’s usually in the punk scene. It’s so rare. I can seriously think of two people right now. They’re usually vegan and straight edge like me. They’re there. They’re brown boys of the Brown Boy Club.
What is a brown boy?
A brown boy is somebody who is just brown. Latinos. Chicanos. We share a lot of the experiences as well. We all come from these communities that don’t have the best resources. It’s also not like I go out to shows, and I’m like “Who’s sober here?” Sometimes I don’t find out, but there are those people that will post it on Facebook, “I’m finally going on my tenth year, my twelfth year, my fortieth year.” People are very proud of that. I’m very proud of it. I came from years of it not mattering to me, and it didn’t matter to me because I didn’t want to be like one of those self-righteous straight edge boys. It’s very annoying and I never wanted to flaunt my straight edge-nes or my soberness. I don’t flaunt it, but I’m very proud that I’ve lived my life this way and I never had to do drugs. It also comes with a lot of responsibility. You can not drink and do drugs but that’s not everything. It’s about recognizing stuff and not being an asshole. Oh my god, the amount of straight edge people that I have met that have been assholes is immense. People that are slapping beers and joints off your hand. People like that are really invasive. That’s not what I’m about. I love my people and I understand reasons why they may drink. And people don’t always drink because they’re having problems. People like the taste sometimes. There’s a lot of different reasons. We don’t always have to associate drinking with “Oh my god, that pobre ninya.” Sometimes people drink because they like to drink. We have decided not to drink because A) We didn’t want to drink or B) because there’s reasons. Everyone has their own reasons.
because everyone you meet knows something you don't…
almendra 