Setting the Stage: The School-Community Borderland

Abstract

As I drove into the packed, parking lot of Mirasur elementary, I looked past the signs that let me know exactly whose territory I had entered. F13 block letters, in black spray paint, at times legible and other times barely discernible, covered the walls and storefronts of the 99-cent store, la botanica, the indoor swap meet, liquor stores, the Western Union, and the ceramic and vinyl tile warehouse with merchandise offerings from south of the border. The limited knowledge that I had pulled together during my youth from Hollywood films such as Colors, Mi Vida Loca, Boyz n the Hood! and American Me about Los Angeles’ barrios taught me that graffiti was an inner-city staple item, a semiotic marking that indexed territorial control, group membership, and the violence that Latina suburbanites like me attributed to it. The unfamiliar suddenly became more familiar, and the tensions and fears that make for intense movie dramas overcame me. Got off the freeway. Door locked? Yes. Windows rolled up? Yes. Deep breath.