Through reading the article, I was able to understand more about the Santa Fe youth
culture. The article went into specifics about how a younger artist is trying to advocate for
graffiti walls for young people to display their art instead of illegally painting around the city.
From what the article conveys, we see the biggest expression of the youth culture in Santa Fe in
their graffiti. The article says “There are some of those young people out there painting their
names huge on trains, on walls, in places, and they step back and say, ‘See how big I am and
how colorful I am and how beautiful I am. I am someone. Take that. You can’t hold me down.’
And it’s a beautiful thing”. We can convey that graffiti is an expression of the young youth
trying to find their place in the community and to make themselves seen. A cultural norm of the
Santa Fe youth culture is that they do their art wherever they can, even if it is illegal. Also, their
paint gets painted over if it is not good enough, and they know their graffiti is good when people
do not paint over it. An influence of the youth culture in Santa Fe is shown in how people are
advocating for the youth to have an outlet to express themselves. The youth are important to the
community and people are trying to figure out ways to convey that to them instead of pushing
them out of the city. So, the youth culture simply existing is influencing the city by putting them
into action to figure out how to get them to stay. An expectation of the youth culture in Santa Fe
that I see conveyed through this article is that many leave once they can. The city is actively
complaining about the youth leaving, and that is why this graffiti wall idea has, in part, come up
in conversation: to try and create purpose in the youths’ lives for being in Santa Fe. These are a
few ways shared by the article of the influences, cultural norms, expectations, and expressions of
the youth culture in Santa Fe.
In order to make significant relational connections with the youth in the Fort Mercy Park
community, I think that the most effective strategies would be to first create the graffiti wall on
the side of the Fort Marcy Recreation Complex for the youth to use, also for business owners to
create opportunities for youth to use their walls for graffiti and to display their art, and finally for
Santa Fe’s Art in Public Places Committee to accept more youth’s art as a part of their city’s
public art collection. When creating a graffiti wall for the youth on the side of the Fort Marcy
Recreation Complex to use it would give youth in Santa Fe a safe and legal outlet to do the art
that they are already doing illegally; it would give the message that their art is wanted just not in
the outlets that they are pursuing it by. Another way to make significant relationships with the
youth could be through business owners creating opportunities for youth to use their walls for
graffiti to display their art. This would be an add-on to the side of the Fort Marcy Recreation
Complex. I believe that this would show the youth in Santa Fe that they are valued, and their
form of expression is valued. If a business owner commissioned a well-known graffiti artist to
paint a picture that represented their business, it would not only promote the specific youth but
also send the message to other youth that their art is valuable. The last way I mentioned that
Santa Fe could make significant relational connections with the youth in the Fort Mercy Park
Community would be through the Art in Public Places Committee to accept more youth’s art as a
part of their city’s public art collection. In the article, it is mentioned the committee is trying to
find ways to make art that is relevant to today. The committee said it themselves that graffiti and
street art are now those ways. I believe that if they put more of the local graffiti as a part of their
public art collection like they did with Simpsons painting it would send the message that they are
attempting to send already to the youth of Santa Fe, that they are wanted and accepted. These are
three ways that could be effective strategies for making significant relational connections with
the youth in the Fort Mercy Park community.
