Hispanic street gang graffiti usually contains one or more of the following terms. Barrio (Neighborhood)Catorce (Fourteen) Controlan (Control The Area) Dieciocho (Eighteen) El (The) Hoto, Joto (Queer) Lado (Side) Loco, Lokote (Crazy, Beyond Crazy) Norte, Nortenos (North) P/V Por Vida (For Life) Puto (Whore) Rata (Rat, Informant) Rifa, Rifan (The Best, #1) Sur, Surenos (South)Trece (Thirteen) Varrio (Neighborhood) Vato (Gang Member) 13 (Mexican Mafia- Surenos)14 (Nuestra Familia- Nortenos) http://nwgangs.com/hispanic-gang-graffiti.html To replace a freeway sign costs thousands of dollars (maybe tens of thousands). To combat this problem, Caltrans (Calif. Dept. of Transportation) has placed barbed wire (and/or extremely sharp attachments) on and around freeway signs and their supporting posts. This measure has proven quite effective in keeping Mexicans away from their beloved graffiti "canvas" i.e., a freeway sign How do we know that Hispanics are responsible for this? Because whenever a freeway sign is sprayed with graffiti, it always has the Mexican "style" i.e., sharply angled letters or bubble letters with bright colors often with a "13" to designate "respect" to the Mexican Mafia ("M" is the 13th letter of the alphabet), and/or words like "Loco", "Varrio", etc. Further, nearly all studies on graffiti/urban vandalism state that Hispanics are responsible for the vast majority of graffiti in America. Whites don't do it. Blacks not that much. Asians don't do it (or barely). 98% of the graffiti in L.A. is done by Hispanics. A lot of people think blacks are big on the whole graffiti thing. Yes, blacks do spray graffiti but a fraction of what Hispanics spray.