The librarian at the downtown LA Central branch did a quick double-take after scanning the barcode on this beat-to-hell copy of the Romotsky’s Los Angeles Barrio Calligraphy. This book comes with an unusual $300 fine if lost. A deal if you ask the publisher’s grandson at Dawson’s Books, who last saw this rarity go for over 6 bills on Ebay. I racked up a much smaller late charge and was sad to see this book go back to the LAPL, where you can peep it for yourself and where it now sits safely.
Jerry and Sally Romotsky put this book together on a grant in 1976 from Cal State Fullerton, it’s an early chicano studies ethnography on the barrio plaquero style of graffiti, written with careful respect for youth street culture (youth informants were a huge part of their research) and a contrasted need for analysis of the typography of the periphery. Couldn’t stop thinking about the kids in JR high who kept Old English alphabet xerox’s in the sleeves of their binders.
Thanks to a friend with a camera and the geniuses behind the open software Scan Tailor the whole thing is photographed on Flickr and organized to PDF. Keep an eye out for SIMBA, CROMERS and others who were compelled to leave gel pen tags in the margins and next to highlighted and underlined words on Los Anegels Barrio Calligraphy’s pages.