The First, and Last, Good Spanish Tagger

I hate the graffiti in Madrid. It drives me crazy. And with all the construction going on in town someone just puts the finishing touches on the remodel of some stately 100 year old building and the next day it is covered in very ugly and incomprehensible graffiti. There was a time though when I liked graffiti - at least the "work" of one man, Muelle.

Up until about 1984 there was hardly any graffiti in Madrid. This bad habit had not yet been imported from New York and Los Angeles. But there was this one Tio working hard defacing property. He was a perfectionist and quite famous at the time. We saw his signature all over the place - and I mean ALL OVER the place.

Big and small, in simple black and white letters or very ornate with a whole bunch of colors - it was on telephone booths, mailboxes, in the metro, and on billboards. Muelle ruled the walls of Madrid.

What was different about Muelle was how well done all his "tags" were. He really was an artist. Of course, "muelle" means "spring" and the spring is part of his mark, along with an arrow. He also put the "Registered Trademark" symbol at the top. This seemed to confuse his imitators - and there were many. They would do a bad signature, very messy in simple black spray paint, then put a half-assed arrow on the bottom, then put a "K", or some other letter, in a circle somewhere, with no clue what it meant! You still see graffiti today that vaguely looks like Muelle's.

Muelle was Juan Carlos Arguello from the Madrid barrio of Carabanchel. His tag apparently was a childhood nickname because he built a bicycle using a car suspension. He was just a guy trying to start a rock band during the Movida years painting walls on his down time. I'm afraid he died young so there will be no more "Muelles" in Madrid. I did find one though as recently as 2004 and there still could be a few out there so keep your eyes peeled.

Back in the old days when I of course did not personally know him, I liked Muelle. Why? He chose one thing to do, did it well, and stuck with it. It's true that it was a useless and childish thing, going around painting walls with your name and an arrow, but he did it with such dedication that he was assured success. A lesson for all! He sure made an impression on me, here I am still remembering and talking about him.

Having said all that, here comes comes a healthy dose of hypocrisy. Madrid really has to get serious about eradicating graffiti. And what the heck is going on in Malasana? Did they just give up? They don't seem to even bother to clean it anymore.

Hey Madrid, take it from Los Angeles, don't let this get out of hand! These are not misunderstood youth trying to express themselves. Trouble starts this way. Pretty soon the city looks like crap with gangs fighting over writings on the wall.

And Muelle started it all. Thanks a lot Muelle! Now that you are gone you left us with a bunch of delinquent amateurs.