Graffiti Lexicon

(Note: This Glossary will expand and contract as the project continues. Check back for updates.)

Cholo Writing – Gang-related writing, largely developed in and around Los Angeles by Latinos in the mid-Twentieth Century. Cholo writing continues today in much the same form as earlier epochs.

Guerilla Marketing – drawings, paintings, leaflets, wheat-pastes, and other materials placed on public and/or private property by individuals or groups acting as agents of a corporation or other entity for the express purpose of advertising a product or service. Advertisements may or may not be sanctioned by property owners.

Latrinalia – any writing or drawing that appears on bathroom walls. These may include lewd comments, limericks, names, or prejudicial comments, and include hand-scrawled signage (such as “Please turn lights off when thru”), but not advertisements or mass-produced signage.

Municipal Graffiti (Municipalia?) – writing and drawing made on sidewalks, walls, streets, parking lots and the like by city workers to indicate the location of underground cables, pipes, and other objects.

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