"No to war, yes to life"
This gallery contains graffiti from South America, Italy, and the USA. Most of the
graffiti here is from Ecuador. This was the first place that I was so taken with the
deep meaning behind the slogans, that I felt compelled to deliver these messages to
the outside world.
In Ecuador, words were not wasted. The graffiti in Ecuador was political, valid, and
was being used as a means for groups to communicate with one another. Freeing
political prisoners, criticisms of unfair Multi National free-trade agreements, and
some venting aimed at wealthy foreigners who have traditionally come in and
abused local workers and government to their financial gain, are common themes.
A lot of these photos were taken during the lead up to the war in Iraq, so there are
many anti American government slogans. I took this to mean "anti war" slogans, as
it seems many Americans, and the rest of the world disagreed with America's plans
for war. The US Government is compared to the government of Nazi Germany in that
it was taking over less powerful countries by violent means.
When I show these photos to people, a lot of times their reaction is "Oh, I'd be afraid
to travel there." I've never felt afraid to walk in the streets of any Ecuadorian city
day or night. Ecuadorians are beautiful, warm, giving people. It's important to put
the business of political movements and activism in perspective and realize that
these messages are slogans of solidarity between movements, and people. They are
also messages to outsiders that go beyond the shallow "free trade is good for a
developing nation" style of reporting of today.
Besides, I agree with them.......
Thank you to Dasha Hlavenka for the Spanish Translations
(click the photo to begin)