Other observers suggest different forces at work. Some point to a generalized climate of violence that is constantly fed by video games and frequent scuffling in the stands of soccer stadiums, while others interpret the attacks as one more symptom of the polarization that has divided Mexico since socially conservative President Felipe Calderón narrowly won a fiercely disputed election in 2006. Followers of the left-wing runner-up have alleged electoral fraud and vented their fury by occupying Mexico City thoroughfares, preventing Calderón’s predecessor from delivering his final State of the Union address; and recently, leftist lawmakers staged a lockout in both chambers of the Mexican congress. Their example has been less than edifying for the nation’s youth. “The ways in which we adults have resolved our differences in the last three or four years have acquired many forms of intolerance,” says Emilio Álvarez Icaza Longoria, president of the Mexico City human rights commission. “This outburst of intolerance against a sector of the population is the byproduct of a fertile terrain that has been nurtured by political and ideological disputes.”
Music fans have been involved in their fair share of clashes over the years (see sidebar on page 72). And street fights among rival youth groups are certainly nothing new south of the border. The hardscrabble barrios of Mexico City played host to gangs with names like the Tarzans and the Pachucos in the 1940s. The ’70s witnessed the arrival of the Cubans, the Nazis, and the Arabs, and they in turn were succeeded by the Chavos Banda (Gang Boys) in the ’80s.
But the latest spasms of brutality have been sparked by two distinctive ingredients. One is old-fashioned homophobia, which has dogged fans of emo worldwide but is especially rampant in Mexico’s culture of machismo. For many non-emo youths, the androgynous look favored by many emos leads to assumptions that they’re all gay. That take was amplified by a Mexican VJ named Kristoff, who unleashed a profanity-laced tirade on the cable TV channel Telehit that labeled emos a useless bunch of pubescent girls. The prevailing political climate in some locales doesn’t help matters. “In those cities governed by the far right,” notes Javier Hidalgo Ponce, director of the Mexico City municipal government’s Youth Institute, “the environment is even more homophobic.”
What separates the current rash of fighting from the gang warfare of yesteryear is the use of the Internet to muster the troops. In the days leading up to the beatings in Querétaro, hate-mongering bloggers urged readers to purge that city’s Plaza de Armas of emos and posted drawings of severed heads. In a matter of days, the all-too-enthusiastic response elicited by these exhortations inspired copycats in other parts of the country. A Durango-based blogger named Eko wrote about plans to launch an offensive against emos in that city on March 12, and hordes of high school and university students answered his call 48 hours later. Around that same time, unknown individuals in the Pacific Coast state of Colima posted the following message on You Tube: “Let us join forces with our countrymen in Querétaro, let’s cleanse Mexico, let’s cleanse Colima and make it a better place for all.” It was signed, “The Death to the Emos Association.”
N AFTERNOONS THE OPEN-AIR Omarket known as El Chopo becomes a veritable smorgasbord of alternative youth culture in Mexico City. Among the stalls where vendors hawk T-shirts, vintage LPs, and all manner of fashion accessories, glowering punks with dyed mohawks mingle with darks in thick-soled black lace-up boots and leather biker pants. For their part, both Zavala and bandmate Daniel “Sugus” Cruz have arrived in full emo regalia—low-slung, straight-leg jeans, chains dangling from their belts, untied black sneakers, and assorted wristbands and lip rings. Yet this pair of fresh-faced emos exchange handshakes with a number of acquaintances from other groups without the slightest sign of tension or self-consciousness.
El Chopo was the setting for one of two public confrontations in the Mexican capital that involved emo kids earlier this year. On the last Saturday in March, hundreds of emos, gays, and their supporters led a pro-tolerance demonstration through the streets of Mexico City. But as the marchers approached the market, they were blocked by an angry crowd of punks, skinheads, and darks who showered them with
insults and bottles. The 200-plus police in riot gear who accompanied the marchers averted an outbreak of physical violence. But the presence of black-clad punks among the counterdemonstrators was duly reported in local newspaper accounts the next day and reinforced the widespread impression of running battles among the city’s high-profile youth movements.
Some victims of isolated anti-emo violence challenge such media accounts, noting that their assailants were dressed “normally” and had none of the accessories or hairstyles associated with the city’s various youth tribes. Viridiana González was walking along Mexico City’s Insurgentes Boulevard early one Friday evening with another teenage girl when two apparently drunk young women pummeled them while shouting anti-emo epithets. There was nothing unusual about their clothing, says Viridiana, a raven-haired 14-year-old middle-schooler who resembles a young Amy Winehouse. The bruises and scrapes on her daughter’s face infuriated Angélica González, a high school administrator. “It really bothered me, because I felt this great sense of impotent anger,” she says. “I support Viridiana 100 percent, because every person should be free to decide what to do with their lives.”
References:
Archives