Marco Polo (Empy), 23 years of age from Guatemala City, Guatemala

I met Marco Polo recently in Monterrey City. He is originally from Guatemala but he is currently visiting Mexico to paint his names on the walls. 

He is quite a short kid but when he paints, he likes his style to stand out, no doubt about that. He likes to go as high and big as he possibly can. I interpret this act as if it were a statement to say, - yeah, I am a small guy but I can go big for the whole world to see my name!

While I am chatting to him, I can sense a huge passion and love for this art form. He spends the whole time talking about graffiti, and in a way he reminds me of when I was young and all I cared about in life was to see my name on the streets for ever.

I try to divert the graffiti chat to talking about Guatemala and the current political situation though he is not having it, all he cares to discuss is graffiti, end of story.

Marco Polo, better known in his graffiti world as Empy, as in Em Pee which are is his name’s initials, has been painting for a good 8 years he says. He was first a B-Boy but later found graffiti as an outlet to discharge his energy in a creative way too.

I am particularly interested in him as not much is know about graffiti in Guatemala or for that matter, in the Central American region overall. All I really know is that gangs mark there territory with MS13 or 18 St. in various parts of the city. Therefore, being a graffiti writer in Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras is indeed pretty dangerous.

Empy lets me know that in order to paint in the city you need to know how to navigate within it. Certain areas are no-go zones since gangs or drug dealers operate there. Having said that, Empy reckons that it is far less risky to be an active illegal graffiti writer in Guatemala than being one in El Salvador or Honduras where gangs and the police force are very dangerous.

In fact, even if you paint a legal wall in El Salvador, for instance, they will hassle you and arrest you, that is even if you have permission to paint the wall!

Empy explains that as he got better at painting letters, he started to have issues at home. Him and his family started to fall into a economic crisis plus, his Mom disapproved of his activities as she was worried for his safety at nights etc. 

He decided to leave his home to live elsewhere in Guatemala. After that he moved to El Salvador where he remained for some time and carried on as a full time graffiti writer.

It was in El Salvador where he experienced how hard it was to paint his name in the centre of the city; it was no joke to go out at night and try to do graffiti. Empy explains, - You have to keep an eye at all times from gang members, community police, the police and passersby. If they saw you painting, the chances of getting shot at were quite high for sure!

One night the police caught him and his mates and in order to scare them off, they received a very bad kicking and had there bodies covered in spray paint to set them up as an example.

Empy now lives back in Guatemala and dreams of one day travelling around the States and consequently around Europe; first to Germany, then Denmark, Italy, the C. Republic etc. to spray his name on trains and walls of each on of those countries…