Jose Parla was born on June 13th, 1973 to Cuban parents. He took up art at an early age, later on becoming one of Miami's best known graffiti artists. In 1989, Parla traveled to Boston to compete in The National Scholastic Art Awards where he won a scholarship to the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. After two years he moved back to Miami, taking up residency at the South Florida Arts Center. Eventually, he moved on to an advanced painting course at the New World School of the Arts. Now based in Brooklyn, Parla has traveled extensively throughout Central America, Tokyo, London, Antwerp and Istanbul. "Graffiti in its true essence is not a crime, paint fades away. A building is a piece of concrete (graffiti) over nature...asphalt is graffiti over the grass...graffiti is the essence of humanness, it proves existence."