A few inches down and he would have been dead in the front seat of his mom’s Mitsubishi. Yet as Raul weaved in and out of traffic towards his future, untouched and laughing, it seemed like it was just another day in 1990s Los Angeles. Flash forward to the present and Raul Baltazar is still in LA, now an established painter and performance artist working to understand the experiences of Mestizo and Mesoamerican Indigenous communities. With exhibitions held in LA, Mexico, Taiwan, Vienna, and Australia, Baltazar’s exploration of post colonialism and trauma responses has earned him international acclaim over the past decade. But before he ever went to art school or joined a drag show at the navy, Raul first found his love for art in his hometown. Whether he was going to school or merely walking with his friends, El Sereno’s Chicano murals stood out from every wall, telling a story of past resistance…