Hispanic street gang graffiti usually contains one or more of the following terms.
- Barrio (Neighborhood)Catorce (Fourteen)
- Controlan (Control The Area)
- Dieciocho (Eighteen)
- El (The)
- Hoto, Joto (Queer)
- Lado (Side)
- Loco, Lokote (Crazy, Beyond Crazy)
- Norte, Nortenos (North)
- P/V Por Vida (For Life)
- Puto (Whore)
- Rata (Rat, Informant)
- Rifa, Rifan (The Best, #1)
- Sur, Surenos (South)Trece (Thirteen)
- Varrio (Neighborhood)
- Vato (Gang Member)
- 13 (Mexican Mafia- Surenos)14 (Nuestra Familia- Nortenos)
To replace a freeway sign costs thousands of dollars (maybe tens of thousands). To combat this problem, Caltrans (Calif. Dept. of Transportation) has placed barbed wire (and/or extremely sharp attachments) on and around freeway signs and their supporting posts. This measure has proven quite effective in keeping Mexicans away from their beloved graffiti "canvas" i.e., a freeway sign
How do we know that Hispanics are responsible for this? Because whenever a freeway sign is sprayed with graffiti, it always has the Mexican "style" i.e., sharply angled letters or bubble letters with bright colors often with a "13" to designate "respect" to the Mexican Mafia ("M" is the 13th letter of the alphabet), and/or words like "Loco", "Varrio", etc.
Further, nearly all studies on graffiti/urban vandalism state that Hispanics are responsible for the vast majority of graffiti in America. Whites don't do it. Blacks not that much. Asians don't do it (or barely). 98% of the graffiti in L.A. is done by Hispanics. A lot of people think blacks are big on the whole graffiti thing. Yes, blacks do spray graffiti but a fraction of what Hispanics spray.
