"Chaz" Bojórquez

Charles "Chaz" Bojórquez is a Chicano graffiti artist and painter known for his work in Cholo-style calligraphy. He is credited with bringing the Chicano and Cholo graffiti style into the established art scene.

He received his art training at University of Guadalajara for Art, California State University, and Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He was influenced by the Chicano art movement and the work of Gilbert "Magu" Luján.

Cholo-style graffiti is described as "one of the oldest forms of graffiti," which was "invented by Mexican Americans in the 1940s, when gangs marked their territories with roll-calls, or lists of names." Bojórquez and other Chicano artists were developing their own style of graffiti art known as West Coast Cholo, which was influenced by Mexican muralism and pachuco placas (tags which indicate territorial boundaries)

In his 1980 work Placa/Rollcall, the piece features the placa, which "denotes territory and neighborhood loyalty, with a personal roll call of people he holds near and dear... [showing] the artistry of Chicano graffiti and resonating with traditions of abstract art and calligraphic forms from around the world."[2] In his 1992 work Somos La Luz (“we are the light"), featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, "Bojórquez created a roll-call of prominent Los Angeles graffiti artists."  (info from Wikipedia)