UC San Diego

This thesis focuses on a photograph that captures Charles Bojorquez in the act of painting in 1975. The photograph features two writing columns known as placas juxtaposed with a 5’x 6’ spray-painted image of the stencil Señor Suerte. Bojorquez attributes placas to pachucos from the 1940’s and understands these written documents as representing a form of solidarity. Señor Suerte is an illustration of a skeleton lavishly accessorized with a wide brimmed hat outstretching from its face and a fur wrap draping over its clavicle. The skeleton with a grimacing smile outstretches two crossed fingers to its hallow eye sockets. The image of Señor Suerte is fragmented into three distinct spaces of interaction along with the reproduction techniques, meaning attributed to the image by different audiences, circulation and asserted value. The image has three surfaces and circuits to consider: walls of the public space, flesh on the bodies of members from a particular gang, and on canvas. The original 1969 location is on the staircase of the Arroyo Seco Parkway where Charles Bojorquez first spray painted the image. Images reproduced by the artist are fragmentations of the original image. The secondary is a tattoo on the flesh of those who identify with the gang The Avenues, reproduction and circulation of the image occurs parallel to the prison industrial complex by unknown materials, tools, and producers. The third form of fragmentation is as a painting produced by the artist himself on canvas that is either held in private collections or acquired and exhibited in art institutions.