Nahuel Gallotta
09/04/2021 2:12 PM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 09/04/2021 2:13 PM
"Do you want to work?" Miguel Ángel Cabral (47) was asked one night in the Illia neighborhood, Bajo Flores.
He was 17 years old and had no doubts: "Yes," he replied to the Paraguayans who
made the proposal without clarifying what he should do
.
Five minutes later he was carrying
the cans of a political graffiti team
. That night they painted for the radicals, on the old "Gaona", in the West of the Conurbano. For "el Chino", as Miguel is known, the job was new, but not unknown. Historically his neighborhood was recognized as
"the cradle of political graffiti
.
"
Several kids his age began doing the same, in the five graffiti teams that came to be in the neighborhood.
The next few months will mark the
30th anniversary of his debut in graffiti
.
And now, in a corner of Villa Lugano, with the paint bucket in one hand and a brush in the other, he watches his two sons at work, Aaron and Thomas: one whitewashes the wall and the other prepares to do the filling.
They are 18 and 19 years old.
"El Chino" is the lyricist.
It became independent in 1995. From that moment on, its signature became common in each painting, next to the name of the candidate.
To the point that some neighbors approach him when they see him sign his nickname: "ah, are you the famous 'Chino'? We have been reading your name on the walls for years."
"El Chino" began with political graffiti at the age of 17.
Today yours is a registered trademark.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
"When they were little, I took them to work with me," he says, for his children.
"It gives me pleasure and pride that they do the same thing that I started to do without knowing that
with this job I would be able to keep them and send them to study
. The 19-year-old is studying professional photography," he says.
There are a few weeks until PASO 2021 and the different political graffiti teams have already begun to paint the names of the candidates.
Tonight, "el Chino" paints for Leandro Santoro.
Some letters are filled with red and others with blue.
"Because he is radical but he plays for Cristina", is his justification.
The "exit" is through the Federal Capital, and includes 25 painted walls.
Or rather, for a part of the City.
For a few years
you can only go from Rivadavia avenue to the South
.
If you try to paint on the other side, the most likely is that the police will kidnap the cans and the truck.
Furthermore, some of
the most valuable walls in the City
disappeared.
Like the ones in Lugones, near the River Plate stadium.
Or that of one of the descents to July 9, which was focused throughout the day by TN.
According to Cabral, there are 40% fewer walls to paint.
In Province it is without restrictions.
"Our work is maintained because it
is urban
or popular art. It is installed. We are going to die and it will continue to be done. An audience is reached through social networks. For there we paint for the public that does not have so much access to the Internet:
you are bored in the bus and you look at the walls,
"he adds.
As the elections approach, and there are more and more teams in the streets, the graffiti begins to last less.
Maybe "El Chino" will paint a wall and before he leaves another team will arrive.
To cover it and paint it up.
The codes of the item say that the one that has just appeared must wait for the other to leave to paint.
Are occupational hazards.
The most intense night is the one before the electoral ban.
Whoever becomes the last to paint a wall is guaranteed 48 hours of stained glass.
El Chino, painting a wall.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
The field had a before and after in 1989, when the first teams were formed and replaced the militants. Today, in the City, there are only five teams. Three are from the Illia neighborhood. In the Conurbano there are more. "Ours has gone beyond politics. It has been years since it is impossible to live just painting for politicians, because they only commission you to face the elections," he says.
The unions also hire them.
Just like the candidates for president of soccer clubs.
During the pandemic, "el Chino"
went out to paint on his own
.
At the request of no one.
"Stay at home" and "Vaccines for everyone", he drew on the walls of southern Buenos Aires.
But where he paints the most is in his neighborhood, where about a thousand families live: 614 little houses and some 400 apartments a few meters from the San Lorenzo stadium.
For each
Valentine's Day he
receives about 30 requests for messages.
The birthday greetings became something of the day to day.
The same with the goodbyes for recently deceased neighbors.
Merchants ask for the name of their premises.
Team.
Today he paints with his children.
And he is proud that, with his work, he paid for their studies.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
But he also receives
requests from social causes
: "Justice for Florencia Farfán. Enough of impunity", he painted for a mother who lost her daughter, who was 16 years old and was killed by a shot in the head when she was left in the middle of a shooting between bands from Bajo Flores.
Although in that case, "el Chino" did it for free.
If there are Corsicans or carnivals, they ask you to announce the date, time and groups that will perform.
Everything had started on his own, in 2011. "Life I love you", he dedicated to his wife on a corner of the neighborhood.
At the same time he surprised with a "happy birthday" for one of his sons.
After months he repeated the greeting for another of his children.
His sign.
People already recognize it.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
The wall of Lugano, next to the Dellepiane Highway, is painted in a matter of minutes.
No more than four.
It must be about seventy meters.
The first thing he does is cross the sidewalk, stand straight ahead, and watch her.
From the first letter to the last.
Take photos and send it.
It is a way of showing your work to the person who hires you.
He says he has about 4 thousand photos in his gallery.
It does not erase them.
Enjoy looking at them.
"It is my typeface. My own. I have perfected it. He who knows sees my typeface and already knows that it is me, even if it does not bear my signature. Because of the bleached, because of the filling, because of the style. The artist Gaspar Libedinsky is working so that
my letter sums up to the typefaces of Word
", says Cabral.
In recent years he has spent studying: he went back to High School and enrolled in Caricatures courses and Painting workshops.
From Monday to Friday, in the mornings and until the afternoons, he has a job as a driver.
Painting is for the night shift.
"Once I start to paint, I forget my fatigue because of the desire I put into what I really like. I get my strength; I enjoy it. Of course: when I enter my house, I stay typing", he concludes, with his gloves on. latex, his little pen and his brush.
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