I got schooled today on what the graffiti all over this payphone means. A gang member told me these are the names of "fallen soldiers", victims of Woodside's gang violence. What looked like a squalid mass of graffiti is really a descanso of sorts, a poignant roadside memorial. pic.twitter.com/ITg4AvJC8b

— Payphone Project (@projectpayphone) November 9, 2020

I got schooled yesterday with regard to the meaning of this payphone’s graf.

After I finished recording this video a man identifying himself as a gang member approached me, asking why I was taking pictures of this payphone. He was confrontational, pointing at my phone and telling me to delete whatever pictures I’d just taken.

I faked doing that.

He asked, again, why I was doing this. I said “It’s something I do. I document payphones.”

I’m not going to lie: I was nervous about where this situation might go. I’m no gangsta, and I think that was obvious to him and another gang member that appeared as this conversation developed.

He said these were the names of the dead.

I assumed he meant Covid casualties but he clarified: These were the names of people killed in Woodside’s gang violence. He called them “Fallen Soldiers.”

He asked if I was a reporter. I said no. He asked if I’m a cop. I said no, iterating that I document this stuff for my own satisfaction.

His confrontational approach softened. “You do this because you love doing it?” I said yes.

He put his hand to his chest and said “So it’s like a passion you have, to document payphones?”

I kinda laughed, said “I guess you could call it that.”

With this he smiled, nodded his head in approval. “That’s alright, man.”

He went from telling me to delete everything I had of this on my phone to encouraging me to get more photos of the payphone. He said that if I post this to the Internet be sure to explain what it is, and what it means: “Fallen Soldiers.”

“This is a bad part of town, man.” He didn’t say it but I interpreted his demeanor to imply he was telling me I should not be in this part of town, taking pictures of payphones. And to think I was wearing a fucking Charlie Brown facemask.

It gave me goosebumps, it really did. After his account of what these names meant the phone went from being covered with a squalid mass of graffiti to a Descanso of sorts, a poignant roadside memorial for victims of gang violence.

We parted ways with a light, pandemic-aware fistpump.

…

UPDATE: This phone was removed a few months after I recorded this video.