Updated Monday, March 18, 2024-01:01

  • La Ventilla or when the north of Madrid was dangerous

  • The Madrid of Lute

  • The passage of terror in Barranquillas

  • El Specka, the embassy of the Bakalao Route in Madrid

  • The Pedro Gómez feathers, the fetish garment that seduced the bakalas in the 90s

El

Know

is a graffiti artist from Madrid born in 1977 who is still active today.

Among other things, he was one of the

Mambo Kings

, one of the most important graffiti groups of the nineties scene.

I talk to him about his neighborhood, its history and his origins in graffiti: «I remember starting to paint with the name Know after looking in my school English book and seeing that verb, which I liked.

And it is the one I stayed with and the one I continue to paint with today.

Know grew up in La

Ventilla

in the 80s and 90s, an inhospitable place for many: «In the area there were gypsies and what I call gypsy payos.

Anyone who grows up in a normal neighborhood has normal experiences.

But I grew up in a neighborhood where crime was part of everyday life.

I didn't see what was happening there as strange.

I grew up on heroin.

Horses were sold in many houses in the area.

It was the time when it seemed like

zombieland

, they were all junkies.

I perfectly remember playing soccer in the open fields, and we would get dead junkies out of the way.

We dragged them to be able to play, that was normal.

We also removed the syringes so we could play a game.

"It was something super common."

Our interviewee continues: "When I was a teenager and people came from another neighborhood, I would see their faces and I was like: 'What the hell is this?'. It was then that I became more aware that I lived in a neighborhood that was a bit strange. For us, fights, robbery, and drug sales were super common. I grew up among big drug traffickers, small drug traffickers, people who kidnapped. My parents gave me education and values, but I grew up in the street under codes and rules that were essential. I was more afraid of the codes of the street than the rules that my father could set for me. In my house there was always love, in contrast to the families of my friends, who were almost all unstructured.

Know lived on 22 Rafael Ceballos

Street ,

next to the

Plaza de Castilla

garages .

"That was a world too..." he says.

«From Plaza de Castilla to the Sinesio Delgado hydroelectric plant we had everything painted.

And the plant was like a fucking museum.

As you went down from Plaza de Castilla, everything was murals and pieces, a fucking marvel.

We had a lot of permissiveness when it came to painting.

The bakery in my neighborhood was like an office for many people in the neighborhood.

There they often told me that a certain neighbor wanted us to paint the wall of his house.

Nobody told us anything and the police at that time entered the neighborhood only when they were called for some emergency.

"That would be the early '90s."

One of Know's drawings, in the 90s.EM

He continues: "The

Kío Towers

had not even been built. The old neighborhood has disappeared. They expropriated us all. They gave you money or they gave you an apartment. I left the shanty to live in the building opposite, which was finished to build. It would be 1995. I used to live in a shack that, as you entered, there was a hole in the floor. Inside it was spotless, but it was still a poorly built house. I slept in a 15 square meter room with my "two sisters. Until I was 18. My father was born in Úbeda, Jaén, but he came to Madrid as a child."

In the 90s there was a transition in which many rappers became

bakalas

.

Know experienced this phenomenon first-hand: «In the 90s there was the so-called party.

Of the people I hung out with in my neighborhood, I was the only one who was into rap and who painted.

My colleagues were neighborhood jinchos, they all sold, many stole.

Partying was a small business because many went out to rob people who sold in the joints.

The girls in the group were the ones who looked for those who sold.

And when they located them, they pointed them out, and my friends robbed them.

There were fights etc.

My friends were a small mafia that was dedicated to drug theft and smuggling, theft of motorcycles, cars, etc.

"Unfortunately, I have seen many friends die, both from drugs and from murder."

The graffiti artist's story is detailed: "In 2004 I went to Coruña to live and decided to leave all that behind and dedicate myself to tattooing. I had like two lives. I had a life like in the neighborhood, with my gang, but then I had the graffiti, where I hung out with other types of people who did not have that evil. Many of the things I did at that time I would be incapable of today. For me at that time it was a normal day to day life. "

The Pedro Gómez mafia

The gang that Know moved with became known: «The people in my neighborhood and I were called the

Pedro Gómez

.

In those years, anyone who had a Pedro Gómez [feather jacket] knew that he had to defend it.

Either you were a bastard or it was difficult to walk down the street with a Pedro Gómez.

We would meet at the door of the Igloo [store], where they were sold.

The people in my neighborhood had Pedro Gómez, we had two or three each.

We were all on 50-size motorcycles, maybe fifteen motorcycles.

We all went, boys and girls, with

Pedro Gómez

.

Because of something in which we were involved and that appeared in the newspaper, they began to call us the

Pedro Gómez

.

At that time things were going on in neighborhoods.

And the leaders stood out.

In La Ventilla, for example, there was a ringleader.

He was like the boss, who was the one who dictated.

He was the one who told you: 'You can't do this or don't go and steal from this one, or return what you stole from this one.'

And you had to obey him.

There were hierarchies, like everywhere.

It all sounds like a movie, but I swear on my dead that it was like that.

"It was another time."

Inaki Dominguez

He is the author of

Macarras interseculares

, edited by Melusina, [you can buy the book here],

Macarrismo

, edited by Akal, [you can buy the book here],

Macarras ibéricos

, edited by Akal, [you can buy the book here], the

The true story of the Moco Panda

.

[you can buy the book here] and

San Vicente Ferrer 34

[you can buy the book here].