0:01

In 1970, the government-run Radio

0:03

México Internacional, which broadcasts from

0:05

Mexico City, held a

0:08

contest to find the best new rock band

0:10

from the state of Jalisco, which is famous

0:12

for its mariachi music and tequila. A

0:16

few groups were invited to record a song

0:18

at the local station, which was broadcast on

0:20

a short wave frequency. Among

0:24

those groups was a band from the

0:26

capital city of Guadalajara called La

0:29

Revolución de Emiliano Zapata. The

0:33

band was named for the iconic Mexican

0:36

revolutionary who fought for the rights of

0:38

the poor against the corrupt Mexican government

0:40

and the country's wealthy elite. He

0:43

was gunned down in 1919 in an ambush. Zapata

0:47

never compromised on his commitment to liberty

0:49

and land for working people. Today,

0:52

he remains a symbol

0:54

of social justice and rebellion in Mexico.

0:58

La Revolución chose to record a song

1:00

called Nasty Sex. They sang in

1:02

English. It featured a blues rock riff.

1:17

If you think that sounds a bit like

1:19

Fortunate Son by Credence

1:22

Clearwater Revival, you're not wrong. The

1:36

German label, Polydor Records, signed La Revolución

1:39

to a record deal. Their

1:42

debut album was released in

1:44

September 1970, and its singles,

1:46

Nasty Sex and La

1:48

Ciudad Perdida, went into rotation

1:50

on Mexican radio stations. That

1:52

was rare at the time when the radio

1:54

would rather play soft rock and ballads. And

1:57

Polydor released the song in Europe and South

1:59

America. It charted in multiple

2:01

countries. The

2:13

Rolucion, getting airplay on Mexican radio

2:15

was nothing short of a breakthrough.

2:18

Sure, plenty of English language rock was being

2:20

played in Mexico. British and American

2:22

groups were able to land number one hits in

2:25

the country. You could hear

2:27

Tommy James and the Chondelles doing Crimson and

2:29

Clover. Or

2:37

Mungojerries in the summertime. Even

2:46

George Harrison went to the top of the

2:49

charts with his first solo song, My Sweet

2:51

Lord. The

3:04

revolution was among a small number of

3:06

Mexican bands to hit that same high

3:08

amid tight government control over the media.

3:12

While the revolution's music charted,

3:14

critics were blunt. Mexico-Mexican

3:17

rock magazine Piedra Rodante wrote

3:19

that Nasty Sex was, quote,

3:22

as popular sounding as you could want, but

3:25

sounded like credence on a bad

3:27

night. Mexican

3:30

rock historian Federico Ruvli notes that

3:32

Nasty Sex demonstrated for the first

3:34

time that native rock could be

3:37

exported abroad successfully. The revolution was

3:39

very, very, very important because they were

3:41

the first ones that were able to

3:43

do this. They were

3:45

also among the first and the few

3:48

Mexican rock bands from the era that ever

3:50

would. A

3:52

year after La Revolution released its debut

3:54

album, the largest rock festival of the

3:56

decade would spark a crackdown by the

3:58

government on national television. rock. Over

4:03

one weekend in September 1971, hundreds

4:06

of thousands of people gathered

4:08

about 140 kilometers outside of

4:10

Mexico City for a

4:12

festival of Andorro Roque Redas.

4:15

It was a homegrown response to Woodstock complete

4:17

with all-night dancing, freewheeling

4:19

marijuana use, and an overall

4:21

hippie love vibe. The authoritarian

4:28

government at the time controlled

4:30

cultural consumption. And the

4:34

rebellious spirit of the festivities did nothing

4:36

short of cause of panic. Officials

4:39

led of media blitz calling the festival

4:41

an orgy of sex, drugs, and violence.

4:45

In what would become known as El Avante de

4:47

Rasso, the government waged

4:49

war against Mexican law, canceling

4:51

all concerts, prohibiting radio stations

4:53

from playing music, censoring

4:56

journalists, and threatening to end careers

4:58

and jail anyone who defied their

5:00

decrees. Mexican

5:03

rock had been effectively pushed underground.

5:05

Groups broke up, fled the country, or

5:08

adapted by changing their music styles. La

5:12

Revolution chose survival. The

5:15

next time the band's music was heard widely on the radio

5:17

in 1976, they no

5:19

longer played Credence-style jams sung in English.

5:22

They played saccharine sweet tropical

5:24

tinged ballads in Spanish. My

5:35

name is Christian Sanasar, and you're listening to

5:37

Have You Heard This One, a show about

5:39

the stories from the back pages and hidden

5:41

corners of music history. I'm

5:44

an independent journalist. I've worked for

5:46

the Associated Press and have been published by

5:48

The Guardian, The Daily Beast, and other news

5:50

organizations. I was born

5:52

in Mexico in 1976 and grew up in Colorado.

5:55

I listened to rock artists from Santa Ana

5:57

and Queen to The Cure and Nine Nichenales.

6:01

When I returned to Mexico in 1994 for

6:03

my junior year of high school, I was

6:06

introduced to Mexican rock. The

6:08

first song I ever heard was shared by a friend

6:10

on a cassette, an unusual

6:12

anthem that ends in robust horns called

6:14

Piedra by Guy Fanes from their

6:16

third album, El Silencio. Just

6:29

by Adrian Boulud, the guitarist from King Crimson

6:31

who worked with David Bowie in Talking Heads,

6:34

the album is a mix of prog

6:36

rock, Mexican folk songs, and gothic undertones.

6:39

It's a post-punk soundtrack perfect for El Día

6:41

de los Muertos. And

6:45

then there was Caffe Tacuba, who appeared

6:47

in videos wearing various styles of Mexican clothing,

6:50

their music a fusion of modern and traditional.

6:52

Their breakout single was Maria. At

7:05

the time, family and friends told me that

7:07

Mexican rock had been largely banned for years

7:09

and that these bands were the first to appear on MTV

7:11

and get played on the radio. I felt that

7:14

strange. But as a

7:16

teenager, I didn't know how to find out what happened. For

7:19

years, I poked around until I learned

7:21

about the Avant-en-Rol Festival and the government's

7:23

repression. And until

7:25

recently, I didn't know how deeply that

7:27

history had transformed Mexican culture, changing

7:30

the direction of music for an entire generation.

7:37

There are a few things you need to understand about

7:40

Mexican history before we go any further. First

7:42

of all, the Mexican Revolution

7:45

in 1910 transformed the country

7:47

and unleashed unprecedented chaos and

7:49

violence. In 1929,

7:51

the Partido Nacional Revolutionario came

7:53

to power and by 1946 transformed

7:55

into the Partido

7:58

Revolutionario Institucio. to another with

8:00

a pre. The

8:02

party controlled the country and coordinated elections

8:05

until it fell out of power in

8:07

2000. By

8:11

the 1960s, the pre's rule was

8:13

being met with resistance. As

8:17

in many Latin American countries, the status quo

8:19

was being challenged by new left movements. And

8:22

people in their 20s and 30s were at the

8:24

forefront. The government

8:26

alert to threats to its power had caused

8:28

a worry. The Cuban Revolution

8:30

of 1959 was fresh in

8:32

the minds of the elite. Students

8:36

and teachers were gravitating to

8:38

communist-leaning ideologies. And armed

8:40

guerrilla groups had begun to form throughout

8:42

the country to oppose one-party rule, including

8:45

an organization of farmers and ranchers

8:47

in Chihuahua that led an uprising against

8:49

the Mexican army in September 1965. The

8:58

pre tried to project stability to the world.

9:08

In 1968, the Mexican government believed welcoming

9:10

the Olympics would demonstrate that it was

9:12

this modern, civilized country.

9:16

Instead, it galvanized the student-led social movement

9:18

that sought to challenge the status quo.

9:22

As the movement grew and influenced, the

9:24

government used extreme methods of violent control.

9:27

They deployed the army with bazookas

9:30

and high-powered weapons at the university

9:32

campuses. Then,

9:35

on October 2nd, 1968, 10

9:39

days before the opening ceremony of the Olympics,

9:42

thousands of unarmed teachers and

9:44

students mobilized and marched to

9:46

protest the games in the Plaza

9:48

de la Tres Cunturas of

9:51

Mexico City in Zalata, Lolco. Two

9:54

helicopters hovered overhead. Fireworks

9:57

were set off. Shots

10:00

were fired into the ground. Army

10:03

tanks entered the plaza. To

10:09

this day, it's unclear how many people died.

10:12

The government said it was four dead and 20 wounded.

10:16

Eyewitnesses say the casualties were in

10:18

the hundreds, with thousands of

10:20

students beaten and jailed. Documents

10:24

revealed years later that a military

10:26

branch known as the Presidential Guard

10:28

had posted snipers around the protest

10:30

to shoot at troops, antagonizing

10:33

them into firing at the protesters.

10:36

It was a trauma felt throughout the country. It

10:40

was one of the pivotal moments

10:42

in Mexico's dirty war, with the

10:44

government seeking to stamp out subversives

10:47

through violence and state-sponsored disappearances. The

10:50

war did not just take place in cities and

10:52

towns throughout the country. It

10:54

also took place through culture, as

10:56

a generation of hippies or hippie

10:59

techas fought the government through symbolic

11:01

acts of resistance. They

11:04

flew banners with leftist Cuban revolutionary,

11:06

Che Guevara. They

11:09

championed John Lennon of the Beatles, but

11:12

there was no guarantee of free speech or the

11:14

right to protest in Mexico, and

11:16

the government had to factor control over the

11:18

mass media from radio stations to television. That

11:21

means they also controlled the kind of music that

11:23

made it to the masses. The

11:27

Rock and Roll invaded Mexico

11:29

in the 1950s, and

11:33

the first native bands to play the music produced

11:35

cover songs of English language music in Spanish. They

11:39

became known as Refritos. Here's

11:42

those teen tops covering Elvis's gel house

11:44

rock as a Rock de la Carcel. We're

11:47

going to have a good time. We're going

11:49

to have a good time. We're going to have

11:51

a good time. We're going to have a good

11:53

time. Next isloep. the

12:00

sounds and styles of rock and roll. After

12:03

all, it had a great beat and you could

12:05

dance to it, as Dick Clark's

12:07

American bandstand audience always used to say.

12:10

Then you can dance to it. It has a

12:12

nice beat to it. Do you

12:14

think that a signal... It

12:18

wasn't until the late 60s that a new

12:21

generation of forgettos set out to produce original

12:23

songs. They also projected

12:25

a new, rebellious style, long

12:27

hair, radical politics, and

12:30

contempt for the authoritarian elite. Here's

12:33

rock historian, Federico Rubli, again. They

12:37

said, well, we want to compose

12:39

our own music, not doing covers

12:42

and all of that. Now, of course, 67, 68

12:46

was on the height of the hippie

12:48

movement and of the

12:51

psychedelic era. So all

12:53

the music they started to

12:55

compose was in that tradition,

12:57

in the tradition of acid

12:59

rock, of psychedelic rock. And

13:02

interestingly enough, they developed these

13:04

songs in English because

13:07

at that time it was thought that

13:09

the language of rock is

13:11

English. Bands that emerged during

13:13

this time included Los Doug Ducks, a

13:15

psychedelic rock band that formed at Tijuana

13:17

and moved to Mexico City in the

13:19

mid 1960s, where

13:22

they first made a name for themselves playing Beatles

13:24

covers. They didn't record their

13:26

first album of original English songs until 1971.

13:30

Here's the first track called Lost in My

13:32

World. There

13:42

was also Peace and Love, which

13:44

combined Afro-Latino, percussion, and blues rock,

13:47

and was known for its rolicking, pot anthem,

13:50

marijuana, which begins with

13:52

someone apparently choking on smoke. SINGINI

14:06

There was also three souls in my mind which

14:08

played a down and dirty blues style and bucked

14:11

the English term by singing in their native Spanish.

14:14

Here's an early song called, Perro

14:16

Negro y Callejero. By

14:27

1970 radio stations had begun to embrace

14:29

this new generation of rock. International

14:32

record companies were signing the bands and

14:34

fans turned out to their concerts. And

14:38

this native rock movement gained a name, La

14:41

Onda Chicana. If

14:44

you're familiar with the Chicana movement in the US,

14:46

you might be a little confused here. While

14:49

Chicana's championed civil rights and ethnic

14:52

independence for Mexican Americans, the

14:54

Mejico, La Onda Chicana, grew

14:56

out of the same spirit of youthful rebellion

14:58

as the student movement that had been traumatized

15:01

by the massacre during the march against the

15:03

Olympics. In

15:05

its book Refried Elvis, historian Eric

15:08

Zolav writes that La Onda challenged

15:10

the dominance of the Mexican government

15:12

over cultural production with songs in

15:15

English and by elevating Zapata and

15:17

images of revolutionary bandits. The

15:20

vast majority of youth who

15:22

were either protesters in 68 or sort

15:24

of come of age in the wake

15:26

of 68 will

15:29

now find their political

15:31

voice that Chicana wave, which

15:34

was Mexico's version of this

15:36

countercultural protest movement, will

15:39

become that vehicle. La

15:41

Onda was also an urban movement

15:44

sprouting roots in major cities, including

15:46

the capital Monterey and Guadalajara. Javier

15:49

Martin del Campo is the musical director

15:51

and guitarist of La Revolucion, and

15:54

he still lives in Guadalajara. He

15:56

recalled the scene for me. He

16:00

says they were hippies. They

16:19

championed peace and love. They grew

16:22

their hair long. They played rock shows around

16:24

the city. The

16:26

contest put on by Radio Mexico International

16:28

was their big break. They beat out

16:31

other local bands who were more well

16:33

known, including their idols, those spiders. Their

16:36

hit single, Nasty Sex, was not raunchy,

16:38

despite its name. It was

16:41

about a woman who was sleeping with a, quote, tricky

16:43

guy. Some say its

16:46

themes allude to the complexity of living

16:48

in a time of sexual liberation. Here's

16:51

the line from the chorus. It's a more

16:53

social commentary than sexual innuendo. Hey,

16:57

baby, change your manners. Hey,

17:03

baby, change your manners and go by the way of

17:05

the sun. Can't you see that

17:07

this kind of sex is going to let you down?

17:10

The band was an instant hitmaker for Polydore.

17:13

By July 1971, Nasty Sex and Ciudad

17:16

Perdida were in the

17:18

top 10 of the Mexican music charts. That

17:21

same month, Billboard reported they sold 150,000 copies

17:23

of Nasty Sex. Even

17:29

as the rock movement grew in Mexico, there was

17:31

one thing it lacked, festivals.

17:35

By 1971, that would change. Fighting

17:39

de Bravo is located in the state of

17:41

Mexico. Even today, guy books

17:44

describe it as picturesque. The

17:47

havandero is surrounded by pines and

17:49

mountains. While tourists

17:52

may visit for the scenery, it

17:54

was also the location of El Festiva de

17:56

Rota Rada de Vandero, the most significant rock

17:58

festival in the world. of Maikle

18:00

in the 1970s. But

18:03

it didn't start out as a rock festival. Instead,

18:06

the owners of a derelict race

18:08

car track had wanted to restart their

18:10

racing business with a concert with

18:13

two bands and festivities. The

18:15

idea was to hold it near Mexican Independence

18:18

Day, which is celebrated each year on September

18:20

16th. The organizers quickly

18:22

turned what was supposed to be a

18:24

small event into a full-blown music festival

18:26

to rock the ages. Organizers

18:29

included race car driver Eduardo

18:31

Lopez Negrete and his brother

18:34

Alfonso Lopez Negrete,

18:37

as well as McCann Erickson

18:40

Executive Ustino Compián, as

18:42

well as Tele Sistema Mezdano

18:45

producer Luis Degiano-Macedo, who

18:47

was charged with producing a television

18:49

event. Veteran rock

18:51

promoter Armando Molina was

18:54

tapped to find the band. Compián

18:57

would go on to become the head of

18:59

the National Mexican Soccer League, while the others

19:01

would continue to work in music and marketing.

19:04

Marcelo, who produced hit Mexican team

19:07

pop bands in the 1980s, was accused in

19:09

court in 2022 by Sasha Sokol,

19:12

a singer formerly with Timidice, of being in

19:14

a relationship with him when she was 14

19:16

and he was 39.

19:18

He was found guilty by

19:20

a court of pain and suffering. He

19:22

has said he did nothing wrong. By

19:25

the time the promotion of the festival began,

19:27

most of the major bands of Lao Nuchicana

19:29

were set to perform over two days, from

19:32

September 11th to the 12th. The

19:38

festival organizers ended up trying to promote

19:40

it as a mashup of rock and

19:42

auto racing. That's why they call

19:44

it a festival of Rochi Raba, rock and wheels.

19:47

No racing actually ever occurred.

19:51

Radio promoted the festival. All of

19:53

the country's major newspapers sent correspondence to

19:55

cover it. The popular

19:57

Radio Huventud broadcast it on

19:59

AM. Coca-Cola was

20:01

the sponsor. At

20:04

the time a man by the name of Vicente Fox was

20:06

the marketing manager of the soda company of Mexico. In

20:09

2000 he would become the first person

20:11

to defeat the Brie to become president

20:14

through the conservative Partido Axion Nacional. The

20:24

festival was filmed on Super 8. In

20:27

the footage you can see people on foot or

20:29

in trucks, riding in the

20:31

valley along dusty roads. If

20:34

you've been to a big music festival you know the

20:36

scene. Uncut, young people

20:38

dancing, bands on stage, a

20:41

flash of a woman going topless. No

20:44

one knows how many people actually gathered for the

20:46

festival. Some say 100,000, others 300,000. The

20:51

number is likely somewhere in between the two. The few

20:54

tickets that were sold were quickly gone. Brock

20:57

historian Grubly was there as a young

20:59

music journalist. He was 17 years old.

21:02

He arrived Friday and there was already a crowd.

21:05

After having spent the whole festival

21:07

there I can say that

21:09

it was completely peaceful, which is surprising.

21:12

Having 300,000 people it's

21:15

very surprising that there was not

21:17

a single riot or arrest. Nobody

21:20

got arrested. Because

21:22

of course it was the hippie philosophy, it

21:25

was the peace and love philosophy. And that's

21:27

what moved everybody to be there.

21:35

As the government had authorized the event, they

21:37

didn't expect so many young people to

21:39

gather at one time. They started

21:41

to get worried that they couldn't control the event.

21:45

Perhaps the apex of the fear came around

21:47

midnight on Saturday when the band Peace and

21:49

Love took the stage. Radio

21:51

Hulintu cut the transmission during their

21:53

set after lead singer Ricardo Ochoa

21:55

said a curse word. At

21:58

one point the band began singing. singing their

22:00

English language anthem called, We Got the Power.

22:13

Thousands of young people began to sing in

22:16

unison. Then the band

22:18

decided to sing the lyrics in Spanish. So

22:21

just imagine the government hearing that. They

22:24

were so scared. And now the next thing

22:27

is they wanna say, okay, let's go

22:29

to the national palace and overthrow the

22:32

government, which was ridiculous. Of

22:34

course, it's one thing for a music journalist to say that,

22:37

but while writing his history of rock, Estremecite

22:40

y Rueda, loco

22:42

por el rocenrol, Rubili

22:45

found a way into the secret

22:47

archives of the government and pulled intelligence

22:50

documents from the security services. Historical

22:53

documents backed up Rubili's assertions.

22:56

What I found is that

22:58

they deployed agents, undercover agents

23:00

to Avantara, and they

23:03

were reporting to their authorities in

23:05

Mexico City, you know? That's

23:07

also very important because that

23:09

allowed me to construct this

23:11

hypothesis about what the

23:14

government really had in mind when

23:16

they canceled all rock and

23:19

roll performances after the festival.

23:24

Even before the festival had ended,

23:26

the government was mobilizing against the

23:28

homegrown Mexican rock movement. Lío

23:30

de Chárge was the secretary of the

23:33

interior, Mario Moya Valencia. By

23:35

the time that festival goers were headed

23:37

back home, the press, which largely operated

23:39

under fear of censorship or repression, was

23:42

already smearing Avantara. The

23:46

popular Alarma magazine showcased the festival on

23:48

its September 29th, 1971 edition with

23:52

the headline, El Infierno de

23:54

Avantara. Lá Save

24:00

miento, marijuana, dejenede,

24:03

sexual, mugre,

24:05

pelos, bracie, muerte.

24:08

Basically, strip naked,

24:11

marijuana, sexual

24:13

degeneration, blood, hair,

24:17

dirt, and death. That

24:20

tone was not an outlier. Other

24:23

publications described a festival full of drugs

24:25

and sex and orgy. Some

24:27

claim that several people had been killed,

24:30

hundreds injured. These were

24:32

the kinds of messages that could mobilize the

24:34

middle class against the counterculture movement and

24:36

help the government to clap down with

24:39

justifiable cause. The

24:41

first newspapers that I saw was in the city

24:44

of Toluca, which is about one hour from

24:46

Mexico City on the way to Havana. And what

24:49

we saw was very surprising because we

24:51

saw the headlines of the newspapers would

24:54

say there was a huge orgy of

24:56

sex, drugs, and rock and roll in

24:58

Alandaro. All the newspapers were

25:00

full of that. And when we saw those

25:03

headlines, we said, well, what is this? I

25:05

mean, this is not true. Nothing

25:07

of this happened. The

25:10

press was obsessed with the image of one

25:12

woman who undressed while dancing to the music.

25:14

Her nakedness became a symbol of both

25:16

the growing numbers of women and conservative

25:19

medical calling for political and cultural power,

25:21

as well as what many elites in the

25:24

macho patriarchal culture feared the most. At

25:28

that time, women's liberation was

25:30

of course, very repressed. But

25:33

still, my estimate is that there were

25:35

about 20% girls

25:38

in Alandaro, which is a log for the

25:41

time. Two bands

25:43

featured female singers Maricela Durazo with

25:45

the group Tequila and

25:47

Maita Campos with Los Yaquis. Within

25:51

days of the end of the festival, one

25:53

of the country's major newspapers published a government

25:55

notice declaring that recordings of

25:57

any songs by groups from the festival

26:00

were prohibited from being played on the radio.

26:03

Producers at Radio Huentud were

26:05

fired. Soon concerts and

26:07

television performances by Mexican rock were

26:09

all prohibited. Piedra

26:13

Rodante attempted to correct record

26:16

by documenting that Avantaro was

26:18

largely a peaceful celebration in

26:20

its October 30, 1971 issue.

26:24

The magazine declared, Avantaro was a

26:26

stomach punch to the gut of

26:28

the oligarchy. And then

26:30

continued, It spread panic among the

26:32

powerful. Avantaro symbolized change that none

26:35

of them had planned, a change

26:37

undoubtedly revolutionary. By

26:39

early 1972, the magazine had been

26:41

shuttered by the government. Ruble

26:44

said he was told to write about anything but

26:46

national rock. The

26:50

repression of Mexican rock would become known

26:52

as El Vanderaso. In

26:56

response, some Mexican rock bands sought to dialogue with the government, but that

26:58

went nowhere. Each of them faced a no-win situation. They

27:02

could try to continue to play rock in defiance of

27:04

the government by going underground. They

27:06

could go abroad. They could give

27:08

up music altogether. Or they could adapt to

27:10

the new reality. Even

27:16

powerful artistic figures in Mexico faced repression for giving

27:18

Mexican rockeros a stage. The

27:20

last major concert by Mexican rock bands in the

27:23

era was probably held at El Palacio de Beas

27:25

Artes. According

27:30

to Ruble, whose 2023 book from Etheo S and

27:37

De Uno recounts the event, organizers have obscured

27:40

the role of rock bands in the show by marking

27:43

it as theatrical. Three Souls of My Mind, Peace

27:45

and Love, and Santana Mentor have yet to be

27:48

performed. The director of the Palacio de Beas

27:50

Artes had been ousted, a warning

27:52

shot to anyone who dared to find the government

27:54

shut down on Mexican rock. to

28:00

the evolution of Mexican rock

28:02

as a cultural expression. I

28:05

would say that because of Avantaro, rock

28:07

as a cultural expression

28:10

got stopped for about a

28:12

decade. Of

28:14

all the musicians that were invited to Avantaro, two

28:17

of the most important names missing from the festival

28:19

were La Revolution and Batiste. La

28:23

Revolution had already booked a gig in Monterey

28:25

in the north of the country. Martín

28:29

del Campo again. He

28:49

says even though they weren't able to show

28:51

up, the prohibition of Mexican rock after Avantaro

28:53

affected them deeply. At

28:56

first, the band tried to continue touring, but

28:58

Campo said the audiences had turned on

29:01

them. During one show, he

29:03

said people destroy the auditorium, breaking the

29:05

glass fixtures and refusing to pay.

29:09

The band joined other groups and underground concerts

29:11

at what artists called Funky Holes, which

29:14

were basically hastily organized shows and warehouses

29:16

or abandoned stores in the

29:18

worst neighborhoods of Mexico City. Campo

29:21

remembered one time his band was playing with El Trit

29:24

and Batista in a large empty store, and there

29:26

was nothing but a dirt floor. The

29:28

crowd was kicking up dust as

29:30

they strained to listen to the band over

29:32

the haphazard sound system. It

30:02

was just a bad scene. Mexican

30:04

music historian Antonio Garranza told me

30:06

in an interview over WhatsApp that

30:09

he recalled those underground rock concerts

30:11

as dirty and suffocatingly hot buildings that

30:13

were not made for music shows.

30:16

On the other hand, he said that the funky

30:18

holes were the only places people could go to

30:20

hear their favorite bands. By

30:26

1972, the revolution de Mignano Zapata

30:28

had moved to Puerto Rico, Morelos, a

30:30

city where the revolutionary hero had

30:32

made his base during his uprising. They

30:36

had also been invited to play themselves in a

30:38

feature-length movie. Capo

30:41

found himself in the lead male role

30:43

of a romantic comedy opposite the famed

30:45

actress Angelica Maria. The

30:48

movie was called A Verda Dera Ocación

30:50

de Magdalena. His director

30:52

was Jaime Humberto Adelmósillo. Despite

30:56

the backlash against A Vandero by the

30:58

government, the film producers made the bold

31:00

decision to cast Capo playing himself along

31:02

with his fellow bandmates. A

31:05

key plot point involves the band at

31:07

the festival, which was reenacted with the

31:09

help of dozens of Hipideca extras. Capo

31:12

was about 17 at the time. He

31:15

said the entire experience was crazy, and he

31:18

felt uncomfortable that they cast him opposite

31:20

the then 27-year-old Maria. He

31:23

remembered thinking, I'm a musician. What am

31:25

I doing here? The

31:28

band ended up releasing an EP along with the movie.

31:31

As Governor Sosa told me, there was

31:33

no prohibition against recording rock music. He

31:36

just couldn't promote it on the radio. He

31:38

couldn't play it live. Basically,

31:40

that meant it was impossible to sell music and live

31:42

off of it. Realizing

31:45

their careers were at a crossroads, Gampo and

31:47

his bandmates turned to their manager. He

31:50

also managed other bands that had turned away from

31:52

rock, including the Balladeurs of Inyo.

31:55

So let's get romantic for a moment with

31:57

their song, Como de Extráño. The

32:07

manager suggested that the revolution try

32:09

performing ballads. Campo

32:12

said they decided to try playing como te castaño

32:14

as a joke. It wasn't so

32:16

bad, so they recorded it. How

32:18

I Miss You was a surprising hit on the radio when it

32:20

was released in 1974. Here's

32:24

their version.

32:36

The response from rock fans and fellow

32:38

musicians was brutal. They

32:40

were called sellouts. But

32:42

for Campo and his bandmates, it was all

32:44

about survival. They did survive.

33:09

Other bands were alone that took different turns. Members

33:11

of Los Dougs and Pismo fled to the

33:13

United States or went underground. Many

33:16

others broke up and their members left music altogether.

33:20

La Revolution became associated with what was

33:22

then an emerging transnational sound that had

33:24

been born on the borderlands of

33:27

Mexico and the U.S. It

33:29

was a mix of cumbia, boleros,

33:31

ballads, and rock known as La

33:33

Una Grupera. It would

33:35

become Mexico's most commercially

33:38

successful musical export. Carrizosa's

33:42

book La Una Grupera, La

33:44

Historia del Movimiento Grupera, recounts

33:47

the emergence of the genre, pointing out that

33:49

many of the biggest figures were actually frustrated

33:52

rock musicians who could find no other means

33:54

to make a living in music. Among

33:58

the musicians that adopted this style

34:00

included Mike Lowry and Chico

34:03

Che. Perhaps the most

34:05

frustrated influential rocker among them was Rigo

34:07

Tovar. Carrizosa wrote that

34:09

Tovar's dream was to follow in the

34:11

footsteps of his metal heroes, like

34:14

the Scorpions. Tovar

34:17

emerged in 1974 and his

34:19

music revolutionized Kumbia. Instead

34:21

of traditional instruments, he incorporated

34:23

electric guitars and synthesizers. La

34:26

Cidinita may be among his biggest hits, Escuchala.

34:44

Although he got a start in Houston, Texas,

34:46

it was in his hometown El Matamoros and

34:48

the border state of town Mount Lipas, Mexico,

34:51

where Tovar found success in 1974. Not

34:55

for the Kumbia beat up his music, Tovar might as

34:57

well have been a rock star. He

34:59

dressed in leather jackets, wore shades,

35:02

had his own signature dance move,

35:04

and had a legion of fanatical

35:06

fans. Journalists declared

35:08

him the Mexican Jim Morrison,

35:11

and bigger than the Pope, able to draw

35:14

larger crowds than El Santo Padre

35:16

himself. He even recorded one

35:18

of his albums at the famous Tabby Road

35:20

Studios. In

35:22

1980, Tovar appeared as a fictional character

35:24

named Tony in the film Viver Para

35:26

Amar, in which he led a band that

35:29

was competing with none other than La

35:31

Revolucion de Emiliano Zapata. Campo

35:37

retold meeting Tovar and realizing they shared

35:40

the same passion for rock. Campo

35:42

said that even though they

35:45

became affiliated with La Una

35:47

Grupera movement, he

35:53

argued that his music was somewhat

35:55

different. It was neither Grupera or

35:57

rock. He felt a bit unmovable.

36:00

more from the scene. But

36:04

they continued to record music, and their ballots

36:07

continued to chart and make up and reach

36:09

American audiences. And perhaps

36:11

that's how it would have continued, except

36:13

that the pre was slowly losing control

36:15

of power through forces they could not

36:17

repress or co-opt. Mexican

36:20

political historian Alejandro Quintana told me

36:23

the election of President Lopez Portillo

36:25

in 1976 was boycotted

36:27

by the opposition parties that

36:29

were unwilling to continue playing the charade

36:31

of a democratic Mexico. An

36:34

economic crisis that began in 1979 and spiraled

36:36

out of control in the early 1980s outraged

36:40

the public and fed animosity toward the

36:42

pre. Meanwhile,

36:45

underground, Mexican musicians were still exploring

36:47

the possibilities of rock. And

36:50

Mexico City shows took place at

36:52

forums and concert halls with names

36:55

like La Ropola and Caridme. El

36:58

Chopo, a sort of rock theme

37:00

market, flourished on Aldama Street in

37:02

the Guerrero neighborhood, which remains

37:04

a vibrant gathering place for music fans. Here's

37:07

the love again. There's going to be

37:10

a shift in intellectual

37:13

discourse and

37:17

understanding of what rock meant.

37:19

Because in the 1960s and

37:22

peaking out of Ondro, Mexico's

37:24

leading left-wing intellectuals

37:28

all saw rock music, Mexican

37:30

rock music, not foreign rock music,

37:32

but Mexican rock music as

37:35

an inauthentic emulation

37:38

of something from without,

37:40

as cultural imperialism. It's not

37:43

until the mid-1980s when they'll

37:45

come full circle and acknowledge

37:48

that urban popular

37:50

culture is not

37:52

a manifestation of cultural

37:55

imperialism, but in fact,

37:58

a reflection of—and this was a

38:00

new term that comes about

38:02

is cultural hybridity, right? And

38:04

hybridity can be a form

38:07

of empowerment, of

38:10

transformation of cultural

38:12

and political values. Then

38:16

on September 19, 1985, at 7.18am, an 8.1 magnitude

38:18

birthplace led to widespread devastation

38:26

of Mexico City. Importantly,

38:29

it also shocked the political elite.

38:33

Built on a plateau that had once been home to

38:35

lakes, the city was not prepared

38:37

for the magnitude of the shifting of the earth, even

38:40

though the epicenter was 250 miles west. The tremors

38:44

led thousands of buildings to fall

38:46

and killed more than 10,000 people. Many more were

38:50

left homeless. The earthquake

38:52

of 1985 reveals

38:55

the ineptitude of the

38:57

PRI, the failures of

39:00

one party governing, in

39:03

the most explicit way. And

39:05

this becomes, the response is very

39:07

much a sort of grassroots, we're

39:10

going to save ourselves attitude.

39:13

On the university campuses, rock

39:15

music becomes the basis for

39:18

solidarity and fundraising and just

39:20

self-organizing. And it gains a kind

39:22

of a new balance. Rock

39:25

as linked to

39:27

political organizing and struggle.

39:31

The rock generation of the 1980s

39:33

emerged from this disarray. But

39:35

rock remained prohibited. They found a way

39:37

to play in concert halls without political

39:39

repression. When asked, they

39:42

sometimes said they played rock pop. Amidst this

39:44

underground native scene were bands that included

39:46

the Future Cafe Tacuba, Madita

39:48

Vessindad, and others. Unlike

39:51

the English language acts

39:54

of the 1970s, that

39:56

gravitated to Spanish. In

39:58

1987, the country saw its largest rock concert hall. concert since

40:01

Alandaro. The

40:03

following year, Mexican rockers Caí Fanes

40:05

released its debut album, and its

40:07

single, Manme Por Que

40:09

Me Muero, became a Mexican radio hit.

40:13

But it was their next single, a cover

40:15

of Cuban folk song, La Negra

40:17

Tomasa, that sold more than any other

40:19

single in the history of Mexican rock

40:22

thus far, and caught the

40:24

attention of international record labels. During

40:39

the early 1990s, dozens of bands would

40:41

go on to release albums on major

40:43

labels and even tour with alternative rock

40:45

artists such as Jane's Addiction and play

40:48

Lollapalooza. For its part,

40:50

the Revolution returned to playing rock publicly by

40:52

1994, and perhaps in

40:55

their most prominent film role since the 1980s,

40:58

their song Nasty Sex was featured

41:00

in the 2001 cinematic hit Ito

41:03

Mamá También as the two main characters

41:05

share a joint. The

41:08

band continues to record releasing a single

41:10

of hard rock called El Santuario with

41:12

the Argentine bands El Jeneral, Bass,

41:15

and the Drip Lip Frontera earlier

41:17

this year. Here's a

41:19

sample of that track. Today,

41:32

the rock scene in Mexico is flourishing. While

41:36

mainstays like Cafe Tacua and a

41:38

reunited Caetanes tour the globe, dozens

41:41

of new bands have emerged in recent

41:43

years with a diverse, surprising range of

41:45

music. Unlike

41:47

the bands in the 1990s that broke through and

41:49

embraced the cultural symbolism of Mexico, most

41:52

are boldly experimental and confrontational. There's

41:55

the post-rock of Austin TV based out of

41:57

Mexico City who often perform in masks. With

42:00

no singers, the only voices come from recorded

42:03

clips. Here's them performing

42:05

their 2023 single, De la

42:07

Orphilia y Lea Rispa. Another

42:20

band from the Valley of Mexico, Un

42:22

Pero Andalucensa, at times is experimental as

42:24

sonic youth and as modern as dry

42:26

cleaning. Here's Manos

42:28

de Caca. And

42:40

there's Valgore from Oaxaca. Their

42:43

music stretches the boundaries of rock to

42:45

include everything from anime to off-kilter electronica.

42:48

Take a

42:52

listen to

42:55

Vanidad from

42:59

their album

43:02

Armageddon. These

43:06

bands aren't just redefining Mexican rock.

43:08

They are challenging the global cultural

43:10

production of Vanidad and the idea

43:12

that it has to be contained

43:14

within national identity. The

43:17

members of Valgore told them

43:19

that they embraced some aspects of

43:22

Mexican culture but feel distant from

43:24

many others, quote, especially

43:26

those rooted in nationalism and territory.

43:30

In many ways, this is the

43:33

ultimate rechercio, or rejection, of the

43:35

nationalistic status quo that the formerly

43:37

authoritarian government of Mexico had attempted

43:39

to impose. It's

43:41

also a clear break from the hippitecas

43:44

of La Onda, Chicana, and

43:46

the neo-traditionalism of rock in Espanyol in the

43:48

1990s. It

43:50

is a country that is a major node

43:52

in the global network of culture that touring

43:55

bands, including Arctic Monkeys and Yayay Gaz, can't

43:57

afford to avoid. a

44:00

major force of original innovative music

44:02

that can't be ignored and won't

44:04

be ignored. This

44:08

is the revolution. This

44:21

episode was written and hosted by

44:23

Christian Salazar. Have you heard

44:26

this one is brought to you by Nevermind Media?

44:29

Our sound designer is Madeline McCormick.

44:31

Anna McClain is our producer. Our

44:34

editorial director is Courtney E. Smith.

44:37

And our executive producer is Melissa

44:39

Locker. Thanks to Stephanie

44:41

Aguilar and Joyce Reiser for additional

44:43

production support. Thank

44:59

you.