A Clean Slate : Ex-Graffiti Tagger Seeks to Refine Art Skills at College

“Chaka,” the brash, young graffiti vandal who police said caused $500,000 in damage by scrawling his moniker at least 10,000 times on any available surface from the Golden Gate Bridge to Disneyland, has applied to attend Cal State Northridge to study art.

Daniel Bernardo Ramos, 20, who served 90 days for vandalism and other offenses, now paints himself as a changed man.

“I used to be Chaka and now I’m Daniel Ramos, the artist,” he said Monday. But college officials say Ramos’ chances of obtaining financial aid may be slim because he filed his aid application late, and grants and scholarships are disbursed on a first-come, first-served basis.

University officials said the school is giving Ramos no special treatment because of his notoriety as Los Angeles’ most prolific graffiti “tagger.”

“I don’t know that there is anything particularly special about his application over anyone else,” said Warren Furumoto, a university vice president.

Nonetheless, Ramos’ effort to paint a brighter future for himself is welcome news for some familiar with his past.

“I don’t have a problem with someone who is having trouble and is trying to change his tune,” said Peter H. Shutan, the deputy city attorney who prosecuted Ramos. “I know there are a lot of people who wanted us to hang him up from his toes.”

Shutan said he believes Ramos can “provide some positive impact on the current explosion of graffiti.”

Deputy Public Defender Yvonne Velazquez, who defended Ramos and now advises him, said the tagger had a poor attitude about himself before he was sent to jail.

His attitude now is “more positive,” she said.

“He looks like he’s getting his act together,” said his probation officer, who asked that he not be identified.

Ramos was first arrested in November, 1990, by Los Angeles police as he marked a traffic light in Lincoln Heights. He pleaded no contest to 10 counts of vandalism and was placed on three years probation.

But only 24 hours after being released from jail, he allegedly struck again on the courthouse elevator door while on his way to visit his probation officer. He was arrested six months later on suspicion of trespassing in Griffith Park and possession of marijuana. He was sentenced to 90 days in a Sheriff’s Department “boot camp.”

Ramos was also required to perform 900 hours of community service cleaning up graffiti. He said he has about 600 hours remaining on his sentence.

Ramos said he decided to turn his life around while he was at the Regimented Inmate Diversion program at the Pitchess Honor Rancho near Castaic.

He said he “tagged” because it was the only way to keep himself from turning to gangs and drugs. “I just wanted to get out of the Aliso Village housing projects, the ghetto life, the flying bullets and the drugs,” he said.

Ramos earned the equivalent of a high school diploma while at the county diversion program and plans to take a summer course at the college to prepare him for the more rigorous academic work.

Meanwhile, like any good artist, Ramos has already found an agent to guide his art career. Jeannette Nunez, who describes herself as an artist’s representative from Alhambra, said she recognized Ramos’ artistic talent simply by looking at his graffiti.

She said she met Ramos through other young Latino artists who have also turned to her for guidance.

“We looked at him and we saw that he was crying out for help,” she said.