On October 27 2006, when Mexican police opened fire on a crowd of protesters in the city of Oaxaca, killing three people, including American journalist Brad Roland Will, the world became aware
of a social conflict that at its core was about the right to an education. Within hours of these shootings, graffiti calling the region’s governor a murderer was sprayed throughout the city.
Unlike in other cities where graffiti is recognized as a form of public art, in Oaxaca, graffiti became a way of achieving social justice through community organization. And because teachers in
Mexico are primarily women, the graffiti is very much inspired and made by women. Shot by Elaine Sendyk in 2007, the photographs in Protest Graffiti: Oaxaca depict oppression,
empowerment and messages of struggle and revolt.
