[2] Growing up in one of the most violent areas in Los Angeles, Fabian Debora began to graffiti tag around his neighbourhood at thirteen years old.
[2] He participated in a one-year rehabilitation program, yet failed to pass drug tests several times, leading to going back to jail.
[4] He began using art as a form of self expression while in middle school by drawing during class in order to help him cope with living in the impoverished Boyle Heights housing projects with an absent father.
[3] However, he realized that the facility was a lacking a drug counseling program which was integral to helping ex-gang members and others at risk get their life back on track.
[3] Debora took this back to homeboy industries and became the director of their drug counseling program and began teaching others the skills he had learned.
[3] In 2008, he met Sandra Quintana, the founder of Latino Producers Action Network (LPAN), who recruited him to use his art skills to better the community.
I believe there are still systems of exclusion and oppression that exist, prohibiting people from reaching their fullest potential,” Debora says.
[6] In 2011 Debora was honored by the Belle Foundation for Cultural Development, Grantee, San Jose, Calif.
In 2007, Edward James Olmos awarded him a scholarship and featured Debora in a 2007 documentary called Voces de Cambio.