Thursday, August 2, 2012

Wild N The Streets


                                         

Wild N The Streets

Jefferson Francisco                                                       jeffersont.francisco@gmail.com

Mention the word migration and people think of the masses that leave the South to work in the USA.  The migration that is occurring within the South rarely crosses the gringo mind.  I’m talking about the urbanization of Latin America.  It is the movement of people from the countryside to the cities.  People move to cities looking for jobs and a chance to educate their children.  These children are the next generation of the most urbanized region of the world. 

They grow up and get used to the noise, crowds, guns, and exhaust fumes.  They are graffiti artists, students, musicians, street vendors, lookouts, punk rockers, cobradores, and some are even homeless.  They are the urban tribes of the concrete jungle, and they create their culture on the cities’ streets.  Everything from language to hairstyle evolves in the city.  You must be able to adapt to the environment if you want to have a good time in the concrete jungle. 

In the city of San Salvador, that means learning to tear up the streets, sidewalks, and staircases on a skateboard.  Skating is a natural reaction to life in a city.  Skateboards are easy to come by, and a lot of mixing between “classes” goes on within the skate scene.  I don’t want to take it too far, but the more time people spend together on the streets, the better they get to know one another. 

On June 24th a crowd of skaters amassed at Plaza Masferrer and skated all the way down the main drag to downtown San Salvador.  The massive group took control of the streets from the cars and buses.  They stopped at Paseo Escalon, Salvador del Mundo, Parque Cusctlan, and Parque Bolivar to pull of tricks.  Adam Keough and I recorded the downhill ride.  Here is a video that attempts to capture the mood.  We are going to bring on some in-depth skate material in the near future.  View the video in HD for a tolerable experience.          

No comments:

Post a Comment