The Rule Breaker

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 gymnastics and parkour for at-risk youth in the community. 

Spending his youth immersed in countercultures like skating, punk rock, and graffiti helped set him on this path. When he discovered parkour as a high schooler in 2006, it changed his life. To him, parkour is a way of life, an expressive outlet, a philosophy.

“It’s a discipline, kind of like a martial art,” he said. “But it’s also a form of expression through the movement—the freedom of motion.” 

As a kid, Charly would travel to Aliso-Pico Recreation Center in Boyle Heights. He remembers needing to travel in a group, or else he would risk getting pocket-checked by local gang members.

“It wasn’t easy for me to learn the discipline, but my coaches, once I was inside the gymnasium, they treated me like an equal. It didn’t matter if I was from that neighborhood or not. They didn’t see colors or anything. They just saw like, alright, this person wants to be an athlete. Let’s teach him.” 

Charly now teaches parkour and gymnastics to at-risk youth, a position he has held with the city of Los Angeles for almost 15 years. Remembering the impact of mentorship as a kid, he tries to emulate the same support for his students. And whether his students realize it or not, he teaches them lessons that go beyond parkour or gymnastics.

One of the rules he implemented with his students: they’re not allowed to say ‘I can’t.’ Instead, he encourages them to use phrases like, “I’m not there yet,” or “I’m learning,” or “I need more work.”

“The kids remind me of myself where like, whatever they have going on in their life—for this one hour, this once a week, one hour—we’re gonna focus on why we’re here. And whether it’s gymnastics or parkour, it’s just a tool to help them find discipline. So hopefully, if they have [something] rough going on, then they could channel their energy.”

He reiterates that his students are like him. Just as he teaches students to build discipline, they test him too.

“Let’s just say they make me practice my discipline, you know? But I’ve never lost it. I’ve learned a lot of patience through coaching because I used to be that kid. So I know what it’s like to be a rule breaker.”

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.