by Sheila Jamison
As visitors are guided through the avenues and streets during MoRUS walking tours, the murals of “Chico, the Artist” serve as vibrant co-tour guides, depicting scenes, personalities, and sentiment that are 100 percent Lower East Side.
Having lived in the neighborhood for over 40 years before making a recent move to Florida, Antonio “Chico” Garcia has dedicated his distinctive style of transformative graffiti to brightening the bleak and dangerous feel of the neighborhood that was prevalent in the 1980s. He is credited with creating close to 7,000 murals all over New York City; some he took on independently and others under commission by grateful local vendors and community organizations. If Chico christened a wall or metal gate with one of his works, it was less likely that those with lesser talents and intentions would choose it for tagging.
I had the opportunity to meet the artist in person in 1993 while working on the Columbia Pictures film, I Like it Like That, a coming-of-age story about a young Puerto Rican family living in the Bronx and life-changing events following a summer blackout. Chico was hired to dress one of the sets with murals dedicated to slain characters in the film. (Many of his early East Village murals are dedicated to locals who lost their lives to violence — a milieu that helped launch his career.) While few on the cast and crew ever got to see him at work, it was impressive how quickly — sometimes overnight — he could infuse passion and color onto a dilapidated and previously disregarded wall.
Chico’s other feature film credits include Beat Street and The Warriors, the latter being the cult classic about gangs in Coney Island for which Chico created the iconic title lettering. He has taught graffiti art all over the world and although he’s moved out of state, he returns from time to time to visit family still in the area. I hope we can catch up with him on one of those instances and induct him as a guest tour guide!