Book Review: "Protest Graffiti Mexico: Oaxaca"

In October 2006, Mexican state police opened fire on protestors and media outlets in Oaxaca, killing several people. The violence focused the world spotlight on the initial problem: local teachers’ demands for better pay and working conditions.



The latest from Mark Batty, Protest Graffiti Mexico: Oaxaca, chronicles the public unrest and violent protests that occurred in the Mexican city of Oaxaca in 2006, and the movement of protest graffiti for social justice that emerged from the mayhem.

Together, journalist Louis E. V. Navaer and photographer Elaine Sendyk illuminate the clash between teachers, unions, government officials and citizens during this tense time.

The new book offers readers a snapshot of a growing movement in this tumultuous time with images of graffiti sprawling across the UNESCO World Heritage city of Oaxaca. We were especially impressed that it was the teachers themselves, who were mostly women, who created the graffiti for the most part. The works feature themes and sentiments unique to this particular region and not typically associated with graffiti movements in other parts of the world.

The images are an important visual testimony to an impermanent art form. The representation of a scream, the virgin Guadalupe with a gas mask, a black silhouette with a red heart—these illustrations that have already been painted over are forever preserved through nearly 200 of Sendyk’s photographs. Combined with Nevaer’s essays on the struggle in Oaxaca, this book effectively demonstrates how society seeks a visual language of its own, especially when people feel they are being ignored, oppressed, exploited and disenfranchised.

Check out Protest Graffiti Mexico: Oaxaca, Mark Batty Publisher, 2009, to catch a glimpse of a collective historical document that gives context to the continuing struggle for social justice in Mexico.