The City as Teacher

Charly Hinojosa is an active community member in Northeast LA, where he has served on the Cypress Park Neighborhood Council, led kayak tours for BIPOC individuals on the LA River, and coached at-risk youth in the community.

However, Charly spent his “active, outdoor childhood” immersed in youth countercultures. A punk rocker, he was against playing football or soccer like many of his peers. Instead, he estimated that 80% of his time outside of school was spent on his skateboard. It was a way to express himself.

There were no skate parks near where he grew up, so he took to street skating. Bombing hills, skating the embankments of the LA River, and hitting DIY spots were all ways to explore the “wild west” around him.

“Skateboarding taught me to look at the world from a different angle and perspective, and it starts as simple as grip tape,” he said. “I was a punk rocker, so it was like I can’t just have regular grip tape. So you would get a deco or a streak or a paint marker, and then you’d like to paint on your grip tape in the name of the crew, whatever you are in. And then after you’re like, ‘Hmm, that would probably look cool up [on the wall.]’”

A proud Chicano skater, he started tagging the name of his skate crew on his board. He worked his way to writing on other people’s boards, then eventually started throwing bigger pieces on public property.

“It’s a form of expression. To me, it’s like a really cool art form because there is no frame,” he said. “It shows a sign of resistance. That’s my favorite part. If you see graffiti [it] shows, ‘Wait, they’re not following the laws here.’ ‘Cause laws are more like a suggestion, you know? Like this is all stolen land to begin with, and I don’t even want to get into that mess.”

Charly continued his street art even after getting caught tagging by police and getting shot at while tagging in Cypress Park.

“I had more art to do,” he said. “I needed a canvas, which is why we started going underground.”

Going underground, no one was there to tell him to stop. Just as his skateboard rides left traces on the concrete, he continued to express himself through graffiti across the city.

“They didn’t send me to art school,” he said. “They sent me to the city.”

Carlos “Charly” Hinojosa, known as Gnarly Charly, was born and raised in Highland Park and, over the years, became known as an activist-anarchist–punk rocker-cyclist-parkourer. He has served on the Cypress Park Neighborhood Council and has organized several Bartertown Festivals at Taylor Yard. He is the current lead singer of Pedal Strike, a “bike punk” band with roots in Northeast L. A.