Meet Javier Barboza

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Javier Barboza. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Javier , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

My resilience came from the streets of the dog eat dog inner city LA gangland worlds. My hustle came from the graffiti world and was my gateway into considering myself an authentic artist in my youth. In the 90’s you where call out, either your a cholo/gangster, rocker, paisa, party crew or a tagger….I choose tagger. Graffiti Art… Art was and still my hustle. At age 9 is when I started first making money from my drawings selling barrio loony tunes to friends, 2 bucks, 5 bucks a drawing. I grew up in Boyle Heights/East LA. As teens in the hood, everybody had a nickname like, Droopy, Yogi, Gumby, Flacco, Snoopy, Cheeks, Tweety. So I would draw Cholo Tweety bird wearing a bandana, baggy paints and some steel boots. Mid 90’s transition from drawing Teen angels, low rider magazine, to more NYC graffiti style, bubble letters and wild style. From paper to the walls so I would tag peace, bombs, throw up but most importantly funny looking cartoons on walls, freeways, trains, rivers walls, billboards. It was fun until you got caught for the hood foo’s and get shot for tagging in their wrong barrio…lol. The homies and I would watch Jackie Chan movies and study his moves to climb and scale structures and escape from the cops and gangsters…..it was fun and a rush. I retired from graffiti at age 23, once the law change from misdemeanor to a felony and I wasn’t about to get busted for painting letters on the walls. Fast movement of graffiti that raw power and real world environment blend into my animation film work now.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

What excites me the most at the moment to complete a short film I’ve been producing and directing an independent film titled Clandestino: A Refugee fairy tale. It’s inspired from my travels in central and southern Mexico. An animated documentary/ mockumentery of interviews when I volunteered with “Hermano en El Camino” in Oaxaca Mexico and “Las Patronas” in Veracruz Mexico. As a volunteer I helped out migrants coming from Central America hitchhiking in Mexico riding on the train called la Bestia, El tren de Murte, The Train of Death. I completed one section of the film MURO/Wall. MURO is a stop motion film that was funded by Laika studios studio that made “Coraline” the film grant was part of Film Independent organization’s Project Involved animation grant. In the film “Muro” Humpty Dumpty guards the Wall/Muro in Spanish. Humpty watches over a mythical landscape. The Wall represents the division wall from the world and history, The great wall of China, East & west Berlin, Israel and Palestine, US and Mexico. A young girl named LIbby is trying to cross over for a better life and has to bargain with Humpty Dumpty. I’ve looking for investors, patrons for financial support, plus writing grants to get more funding to complete the 2 other acts of the film Clandestino. The other 2 stories are adaptations of the 3 goats and the troll and the Fairy godmothers.
We live in a new age where worlds can merge in a new fairy tale, for new fairy tales emerge to tell of the horrors of our world. Clandestino: A Refugee fairy tale is like my other films surreal/narrative story telling in animation, mixing these stories and ideas from documentary to fantasy animation mix media and experimental film styles. Juxtaposing these worlds audiences will see a very familiar stories transpire. From fantastic to comedic, dark and terrifying, reflecting on reality of trying to make sense of this world. I quote Mark Twain “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it’s because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t.” But just how strange can truth be? “

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

A mentor of mine worked for and with Walt Disney in the 1940 & 50’s. He worked on some of the best animated films and shows, but ended up with also nothing in the end. Corporate studios pay fascistic… but they grind you to the bone and dust. It’s no surprise why most of Hollywood is struggling and leaving LA. The film industry is over worked, underpaid and being taking advantage and yet, we..the creatives give them everything. It’s no surprise most animators and filmmakers either have no kids and or in relationship and personal life struggles. They sacrificed everything to make amazing work for tv and film for the art …but at what coast? It’s always greener on the other side. What would one pay for success? Money, Power, Fame? For Hollywood and the Art worlds can sail any artist in search of the seas of gold, Then ask why the seas of gold are so cold? Be true to your work and your voice and hold your ground. Make sure your aim is true and keep both eyes open. Focus and consecrate…. for smiley faces tells lies in Tinseltown.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

(Holidays on ice) by David Sedaris is a book that push me and inspire me to go further in my art work and make that jump. It was fall of 2004?… I worked as an usher at an artsy movie theater in Beverly Hills. Some French film was screening I was cleaning the sticky floors and dusting off the crushed fart pop corn from the auditorium seating. Some one forgot a book it was “ Holidays on ice “ I put in the lost and found. I would pick it up and read parts on my down time from serving hot dogs to famous overrated movie starts asking them if they wanted mustard or radish to stuff there fat face. George Clooney never paid for his hotdog. 2 weeks past and no one claimed the book, so I kept it. I was attending community college in the mornings, working the movie theater evenings and graffiti at night righting the bus back home to East LA. That book was speaking to me. Waiting for the bus I knew It was holidays, cuz the Larry Flynt building was being decorating with 10floors of Christmas lights and a 20 foot Menorah in front of the the Flynt building for the Porn God Empire. My favorite chapter in Sedaris book was “The diaries of a Macy’s elf.” I was in L.A. not Los Angeles and I was working these shit jobs, and I couldn’t stop laughing from reading the book. So I said to myself, fuck it! I’m going to art school and make cartoons. Reading up on other artist and their struggles roller coaster of life, this is some thing that comes time to time… as test? To reflect back and learn and overcome the trials and tribulations. Make art out of it ,to make sense of the senseless.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.javbarboza.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/javbarboza/
• Youtube: https://vimeo.com/85998522
• Other: https://vimeo.com/888048844

Image Credits

1. Coyote Poster
2. film :Clandestino shot of la Bestia, Train of Death Film still
3. film :Clandestino: film still Boy Ricky
4. Drawing 2
5. Set photo, Self /Javier working on set with animator Aaron Homles
6. Muro, film still
7. Muro film still, character Libby
8. .Las Patronas volunteer work with migrants, Veracruz MX
9.. Javier/self on set Muro , with Humpty Dumpty and the Wall/MURO set
10.. Drawing 2
11. film :Clandestino: film still border patrol