Bullets Drugs and Rock and Roll-Dissertation-Giovanni Hortua Vargas-2013-Edited For ETD-11!11!13

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
IRVINE
Bullets, Drugs, and Rock and Roll: Colombian Punk Rock, Heavy Metal Culture in a Time of
Revolt and Terrorism, 1979-1995.
DISSERTATION
submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements

for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in History
by
Giovanni Hortua
Dissertation Committee:
Professor Steven C. Topik, Chair
Professor Mark Levine
Professor Raul A. Fernandez
2013
© 2013 Giovanni Hortua
DEDICATION
FOR MY PARENTS AND FOR MY HOMELAND
IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY GUARDIAN ANGELS ABUELO GONZALO, ABUELO

LUCIO, AND DAVID P. SR.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
CURRICULUM VITAE vii
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1: Creating Colombia’s “Children of the Grave” 21
CHAPTER 2: “Roquerostein”: The Construction of the Colombian Roquer@ 56
CHAPTER 3: Negotiating Spaces—Rocking out in a “Time of Cholera” 103
CHAPTER 4: “¿De Mal a Peor?” “From Bad to Worse?” Rodrigo D: No Futuro 150
CHAPTER 5: El País Podrido-The Rotten Nation 215
CHAPTER 6 6 6: “Sympathy for the Devil”? The Rise of Colombian Black Metal 252
CONCLUSION 315
BIBLIOGRAPHY 326
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
English poet Jon Donne was accurate in stating that “no [hu]man is an island.” Every part in
completing this dissertation would not have been possible without the assistance of the incredible
minds and hearts that I came across prior to and during the onset of this project. I would like to
start off by thanking the staff at the Biblioteca Luis Arango in Bogotá and the library assistants at
the Universidad Nacional and the Universidad Antioquia in Medellín for their help and guidance
with the various resources available. I thank them for the break time conversations on music and
fútbol and for their insight into Colombian politics. I also thank the “informal” archives, which
resulted in the thrust of major primary sources presented here. I also thank Colombian rock fans
and archivists who kept pictures, fanzine digital copies, and sound recordings in blogs, fan sites,
MySpace pages, and Youtube clips. These are unorthodox primary source documents located
thanks to the power of the internet. I also thank Mrs. Castro, Ms. Vicky and Ms. Piedad Castro,
Ms. Monica Moreno and Mr. David Viola, Mr. Alex Oquendo, Mr. “Vincent” from Vincent
Records, Mr. “Soto” from Medellín, Mr. Jorge Mackenzie, Mr. Andres Alvarez and Mr. Julio
Monroy from Delta Records, Mr. Emilio Cuesta from Blasfemia Records, Mr. Lorenzo Gómez,
Mr. Gonzalo Valencia, Mr. Hector Mora, Mr. Mario Lozano, and other interviewees, for their
time and access to their private collection. Until we meet again my brothers and sisters. I would
also like to thank the Fundación Património Fílmico Colombiano, Felipe-Arias Escobar, Jose
Juan Posada, Rafel Buendia, Gustavo Restrepo from corporación Otraparte, Dr. Geoffrey
Kantaris, Ariadna Tucma Revista, Piedad Castro, Gonzalo Valencia, Juan Fernando Gallego
Duque, Gilles Cavin, Maximum Rock and Roll magazine, and Revista Semana for permission to
utilize and incorporate images into this dissertation.
I would also like to thank the faculty and staff in the Department of History at California State
University, Long Beach for planting crucial academic semillas during my undergraduate and
graduate program. A special thank you goes out to Dr. Nancy Quam-Wickham, Dr. James N.
Green, Dr. Catherine Komisaruk, Dr. Omar Valerio-Jiménez, Dr. Brett Mizelle, Dr. Houri
Berberian, Dr. Dennis Kortheuer, and la Hermana Cris Hernandez. I thank you for giving me a
chance to helping students understand that their own histories matter—if not more—than the
traditional elitist historical narratives that many of us grew up with during our primary and
secondary school education. I would also like to thank the Department of History at the
University of California, Irvine for their incredible support and a super special thank you goes
out to Mrs. Alicia Sanchez, for her guidance and support—a true soul, spirit, and champion of
graduate students’ interests and an incredible resource in the department—gracias, siempre. I
would like to thank the coordinators, supporting staff, teaching assistants, and participating
students in the Humanities Out There (H.O.T.) program and the Gaining Early Awareness and
Readiness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) at UCI for allowing me to work with the
youth of tomorrow and have them think about history differently. A thank you especially to Dr.
Kenneth Pomeranz, who saw in me a special ability to reach out to urban teens and show them
that excitement in engaging higher education regardless of culture or class background. I would
like to extend sincere thanks to department faculty and peers at UCI, UCR, CSULA, CSULB,
and East Los Angeles College that were never afraid to utter the words racism, colonialism,
United States, and First World in the same sentence. I would also like to extend a special thank
you to the words of wisdom and passion of Dr. Thomas Parham, the African American and
Asian American Studies Department, the late Dr. Jürgen Kempff and the Spanish and Portuguese
iv
Department, as well as the phenomenal mind and imagination of the late Dr. Lindon Barrett: mi
hermano, I miss you and your heart and soul so much. I know when I see you again and we’ll
share beers and stories like the good old days.
This work is also, of course, dedicated to all my family members in Colombia who put up with
my late night interviews, moments of joy and sadness, helped me with accessing materials, and
gladly opened the house door to let me in and feed me at odd hours of the night. I personally
thank Marcela, Dieguito, Serj, Kike, Fresita, Tio Eduardo, Madrina Julia, La Negra, Tia Lucia,
Tia Diva and primos, Wilson, Lina, Andres, Gustavo, cabecitas, Nana, Fari and everyone else
in Bogotá and Medellín who were there for me in different stages of this work. My madrina,
who I thank dearly, was instrumental in keeping my sanity and always giving me the best advice
while away from my nuclear family. Gracias Madris, un dia te repagaré. I’d like to thank my
family living in the EEUU, who witnessed every stage of my academic career. Gracias to my
Tio Leonel, who saw the Foo Fighters with me back in 1998 and showed me a facet of
Colombian life that taught me many life lessons. Thanks to my Tio Julio, Tia Blanca, and Tio
William for watching over me while my parents worked intensely or simply needed a weekend
getaway. Thanks to my cousins “Liza,” “Leo,” my baby boy “Junior” for being real and never
taking anything for granted. Thanks to Diana, “Dar,” and Dave for being wonderful family
members who were always there for me, whether it was watching Empire Strikes Back and
Rocky IV for the thousandth time or celebrating another addition to the family.
I’d like also thank Dr. Rafael Jimeno S. for his infinite wisdom and words of encouragement:
you were there when I questioned my existence and you have been a brother in every sense of the
word—since the construction and foundation of our international treaties in 1989. I’d also like
to thank my Saenz family (Chepe, Juan, Jen, Meme, mamá, papá) for being there during tough
moments in my life and my Argentine brother Mr. Michael Cos (“Dale Bo! Dale Bo! Dale Boca
Dale Bo!” ) for being there during biggest challenges I had to face: a day doesn’t go by when I
don’t think about how you rescued me from me. I would also like to thank Ms. Juily Phun for her
butt-kicking advice and awesome soul, Ms. Christine Eubank for her excellent vibe and good
spirits, Ms. Ingrid C. Parra for her incredible support in my dissertation’s early stages, Ms.
Aniela López for her support and resources through part of the writing stage, Ms. Lina María
Gómez for her encouraging words, and Mr. Francisco Zaragoza for helping push my project
forward and being there when I needed someone to remind me why academia needs more
latin@s. I’d also like to thank you two incredible counselors that helped me out through tough
moments: Dr. Eduardo López Navarro and Mr. Daniel Factor…gracias a ustedes sigo pa’delante
también. I would like to acknowledge the help and support of Ms. Anne M. Cawley, who has
watched me grow during these years and has never stopped believing in me no matter how bad
the storm: no matter where we are, I hold you close to my heart. Thank you also to mi tio Mr.
Aki Maehara (always indebted to your wisdom), Ms. Monica Hidalgo (hasta siempre hermana
and our practice jams never get old), Dra. Melissa Hidalgo (desde el primer tequilita comadre),
Mr. Nathan “the Baptist” Carrillo and his incredibly awesome esposa y sus tres niñas hermosas,
Mr. José Zeca Acevedo (obrigado e viva na música and jogo bonito meu amigo) for their support
through this intense process.
This entire process would never have been possible without the guidance and patience of my
querido jefe Dr. Steven Topik. I still remember our very first meeting and what I most
appreciate from you, apart from your scholarly contributions to Latin American history, is that
v
you never stopped believing in me or my topic; you were always in my corner giving me the best
advice a graduate student could ask for. I hope that the next time we get to hang out we can jam
together. I also would like to thank Dr. Mark Levine, who without his personality, talent, and
insightful commentary, this work would simply not “rock” and would not have the different
theoretical grounds necessary to talk about an underground music scene. Also, a thank you to
the caballerísimo Dr. Raul Fernández for his comments and assistance on my work and whose
first language, without a doubt, was music. Thank you also to el compadre Mr. Mike Davis for
his comments during the early stage of my dissertation and for his commitment to social justice
at the national and international level; a special thanks also to Dra. Vicky and Victor Ruiz for
their support of Latin@s in higher education and for helping me realize that diplomacy can be
one’s best ally.
Finally, I’d like to thank two of my greatest coaches, influences, supporters, regulators, barras,
porras, members of the “Colombian CIA” (Rafa and Mike know exactly what I mean). This
work is dedicated to two excellent human beings that gave everything so that a young boy could
do their best and be the best. These are two human beings that not only put up with my locuras,
but they also worked very hard to make sure that I never lacked a thing. Papá, me enseñaste a
valorar el fútbol, la familia, y ser humilde. Mamá, me enseñaste a valorar lo que uno lucha, la
educación, y la ternura. Gracias a los dos y a Diós todo poderoso y tendré siempre las mejores
memorias de crecer en un hogar de mucho amor y entendimiento. I love both of you very much:
every hour, every day, and wherever I roam. Que Mi Diós Los Bendiga Siempre.
vi
CURRICULUM VITAE
Giovanni Hortua
EDUCATION
University of California, Irvine, CA

Ph.D. in History Fall 2013
University of California, Irvine, CA

M.A. in History Spring 2007
California State University, Long Beach, CA

B.A. in Philosophy (with Honorable Mention), Minor in History Spring 2000
FELLOWSHIPS
University of California, Irvine, Faculty Mentor Program (2005-2006)

University of California, Irvine, First-Year Graduate Student Fellowship (2004-2005)
GRANTS
University of California, Irvine, Humanities Center (2007)

University of California, Irvine, Humanities Research Grant (2007)
University of California, Irvine, Department of History Award (2007)
PUBLICATIONS
Giovanni Hortua (Research Assistant/Collaborator) Strum, Philippa Mendez V. Westminster:

School Desegregation and Mexican-American Rights. University Press of Kansas, 2010.
Giovanni Hortua Book Review. That Infernal Cuban Republic. The History Teacher,
Forthcoming, Summer 2009.
Giovanni Hortua (Translation from Spanish to English) Quijada, Mónica. 2007. “De España la
Nueva España. Revisitando La Potestas Populi En El Pensamiento Político Híspanico” Journal
of Mexican Studies.
Giovanni Hortua Book Review: The Encyclopedia of Cuba: Vol 1 and 2. The History Teacher.
vii
Giovanni Hortua. “Formation of Latino Identity via Soccer in Los Angeles, 1970s-1980s.”
(translated to Spanish). 2003. Revista de Universidad Piloto de Bogotá.
PRESENTATIONS
Los Hitos del Rock, Transición del Blues al Rock and Roll
Centro Cultural Gabriel García Marquez. Bogotá, Colombia February, 2010
“Resistance, Escapism, and Negotiation in the Midst of Violent and Turbulent Home: The
Critical Eye of Colombian Heavy Metal Music, 1980-1990.”
LASA Conference, Quebec, Canada September, 2007
“Resistance, Escapism, and Negotiation in the Midst of Violent and Turbulent Home: The
Critical Eye of Colombian Heavy Metal Music, 1980-1990.”
Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas November, 2006
“Formation of Latino Identity via Soccer in Los Angeles, 1970s-1980s.”

Universidad de Piloto, Bogotá, Colombia February, 2004
“Colombian Guerrilla Movements and their Impact on the Political Arenas.”

University of British Columbia, Vancouver May, 2003
“Internal and External Factors: A Look Into the Rise of the M-19 and an Analysis of the Failures
Contributing to the Disintegration of the AD M-19.”
Latin American Studies Conference at California State University, San Bernardino April, 2003
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Colombia March-June 2009 and May-June 2010

Conducted dissertation research in Bogotá’s BibliotecaLuis Arango and Medellín’s Universidad
de Antioquia and Universidad Nacional research centers. Conducted oral history interviews in
Bogotá and Medellín as part of my dissertation research.
United States February-March 2003

Conducted thesis research in Los Angeles, California at the University of California, Los
Angeles. Conducted oral history interviews at the California Soccer Association in Los Angeles
as part of my thesis project.
viii
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Instructor
Degree Program Faculty, California International University, Los Angeles, CA
Developed Course Syllabus, wrote lectures, created Powerpoint and multimedia presentations,
led discussion, generated assignments, maintained class website, and administered grades.
Teaching 5 students in summer session.
United States History –Lower Division

United States History: Before 1877 Summer 2013
General Studies Education, Academy of Couture Art, Beverly Hills, CA

led discussion, generated assignments, maintained class website, and administered grades.
Teaching 17 students in summer session and 14 students in fall session.
World History –Lower Division

World History: Up to 1500 Summer 2013
World history: 1500 to1900 Fall 2013
Department of History, California State University, Long Beach, CA

led discussion, generated assignments, maintained class website, held office hours, and
administered grades. Taught average of 25 students per course.
Latin American History –Upper Division

Latin American Nations Summer 2011
Latin American Nations Spring 2011
Senior Seminar in Latin American History Spring 2011
History of Mexico Spring 2011
History of Soccer in the Americas Spring 2011
Central America and the Caribbean Fall 2010
Pre-Columbian History Fall 2010
Colonial Latin America Fall 2010
History of Latin America Through Film and Literature Spring 2009
History of Mexico Fall 2008
Latin American Nations Fall 2008
United States History –Lower Division

Early American History Fall 2008
Early American History Fall 2007
Recent American History Fall 2007
ix
TEACHING EXPERIENCE (CONTINUED)
Department of History, Santa Monica City College, Santa Monica, CA

Latin American History –Upper Division

Latin American History Spring 2011
History of Mexico Fall 2010
Department of History, University of California, Irvine, CA

United States History –Upper Division

20th Century United States History Summer 2009
Teaching Assistant
Department of African American Studies, University of California, Irvine, CA
Organized and supervised weekly discussion meetings, created assignments, administered
grades, maintained discussion website, and assisted with curriculum and exam
development. Taught average of 50 students per course.
African American Psychology –Lower Division

Psychology of the African American Winter 2011
Teaching Assistant
Department of History, University of California, Irvine, CA
development. Taught average of 50 students per course.
World History-Lower Division

The Ancient World Fall 2010
Modern Middle East Spring 2010
Wars, Nations, and Rights Spring 2009
Europeans in the New World Winter 2009
World History: 1650-1870 Summer 2008
x
TEACHING EXPERIENCE (CONTINUED)
United States-Lower Division

Colonial American History Fall 2010
American Society in the 20th Century Summer 2007
Teaching Assistant
Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of California, Irvine, CA
development. Taught 25 students.
Spanish Language Class

Introductory Spanish Spring 2005
Mentor
Chican@/Latin@ Staff Association Mentorship/Familia Program, University of California,
Irvine, CA
Provide guidance for incoming UCI latin@ students: choosing courses, adjusting to the city of
Irvine, locating academic resources, and any inquiries that students may have during their first
year as undergraduates.
Graduate Student Mentor

Mentor Fall/Winter/Spring 2012-2013
Humanities Out There, University of California, Irvine, CA

Advised and supervised 30 undergraduate students in tutoring 80 local middle school
students through a humanities outreach program administered for two quarters
annually. Created weekly lesson plans for tutors to implement in small groups of middle
school students.
10th Grade World History, Lathrop Middle School, Santa Ana, CA

Workshop Leader Fall/Winter 2007
Workshop Leader Fall/Winter 2006
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, University of California,
Irvine, CA
Advised and supervised 2 undergraduate students in tutoring 25 local middle school
students through a humanities outreach program administered for two summers.
Created weekly lesson plans for tutors to implement in small groups of middle
school students.
xi
World History GEAR UP Program Instruction
Workshop Leader Summer 2008
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Program Tutor and Curriculum Developer, Long Beach, CA 2013

Tutor and curriculum designer through THINK Together addressing the needs
of at-risk African American youth at Jordan High School, located in North
Long Beach.
Language Instructor, Whittier, CA 2013

Provide language instruction to ESL international students at Kaplan University
during summer session on the Whittier College campus.
Qualified Spanish Interpreter, Los Angeles, CA 2012-2013

Provide medical interpretation for patients who only speak Spanish during
their consultations.
Program Leader, Santa Fe Springs, CA 2012-2013

Serve THINK Together as program leader, providing instruction in global
politics, sports, ethics, and science fiction.
Associated Graduate Students, University of California, Irvine 2006-2007

Acted as Legislative Liason helping the AGS VP External and representing UCI
in system wide student government meetings. Also acted as
Campus Organizing Director, organizing volunteers, assisting running election polls
for local and national elections.
History Graduate Students Association, University of California, Irvine 2004-2006

Served as graduate student representative in working with the decision process
of electing new graduate students for the following academic year.
AWARDS
Outstanding Graduate Leader Award, Humanities Out There, University of

California, Irvine, CA (2007)
Golden Key Honor Society, Irvine Chapter, University of California, Irvine (2006)
LANGUAGES
Fluent in Spanish
xii
Intermediate Portuguese
MEMBERSHIPS
American Historical Association (AHA)

Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
xiii
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
Bullets, Drugs, and Rock and Roll: Colombian Punk Rock, Heavy Metal Culture in a Time of
Revolt and Terrorism, 1979-1995.
By
Giovanni Hortua
Doctor of Philosophy in History
University of California, Irvine, 2013
Professor Steven C. Topik, Chair
Bullets, Drugs, and Rock and Roll analyses the history and development of heavy metal
and punk rock music in Colombia. The history of heavy metal and punk rock in Colombia
attests to the country’s growing violence and income disparity evident during the late 20th
century: a history filled with violence, growing poverty, increased displacement, and the role of
the Church in people’s lives. This study is an opportunity to tell about spaces of identity and
expression carved out, highlighting youth’s disdain for political and religious corruption, as well
as discontent with guerrilla, paramilitary, and drug trafficking violence. Colombia’s heavy metal
and punk rock movement of the 1980s and early 1990s centers principally in Bogotá and
Medellín—the focus centers of this study. Bogotá, the nation’s capital and centerpiece for
political and economic activity, and Medellín, a metropolitan and modern city home to the
nation’s conservative elite and big businesses, are important sites for research because these
areas are zones of development for the early rock and roll movement of the 1960s and hotbeds of
drug related aggression.
Bullets, Drugs, and Rock and Roll makes significant contributions to Latin American
history, counter and youth culture studies, and studies on global metal and punk music cultures.
xiv
First, my work connects the influence of rural migration into Bogotá and Medellín, the rise in
poverty, and the intensifying drug wars to youth’s embracing of metal and punk music.
Although there have been crucial works on heavy metal and punk rock culture in First World
nations, recent studies have only begun to focus outside the Global North. This dissertation is
also important because Colombian youth’s reception of metal and punk music, unlike its Latin
American neighbors, is wrought through a period of increasing cartel violence that by the early
1990s serves as a major theme in Colombian metal and punk bands’ music. Finally, Bullets,
Drugs, and Rock and Roll interweaves private archive material with first-hand accounts of
pioneering scene members who testify to the trials and tribulations in constructing the metal and
punk rock scenes and communicating with the outside world, finding solidarity through music.
xv
INTRODUCTION
The only law that holds true in [certain parts of Colombia] is the law of gravity
-Colombian film director Victor Gaviria.1
[Rock] is the bambuco of the sardinos [or kids] nowadays

-1995 Rock Al Parque concertgoer.2
Heavy rock music has played—and continues to play—an important role in the
construction of underground music subcultures across the globe.3 There is little academic debate
regarding the relevance and importance of underground music cultures. For instance, heavy
metal4 and punk rock5 served as expressions of youth culture, and such expressions are evident in
regions such as the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe.6 Latin America7 was no exception to
the rise of metal and punk scenes, with musical productions growing and evolving in Mexico,
Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. In Colombia, the creation of the homegrown punk and metal
1
Alonso Salazar J., Born to Die in Medellín (New York City: Monthly Review Press, 1990), 113.
2
“Rock al Parque 1995 (el público),” Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFwUJIMUx3o, accessed 20 January 2013.
3
Rock music has played an imperative role in the construction of global underground cultures in resistance to State power. For an
analysis of rock music’s role in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Wales, the UK, Finland, Sweden see Björn Horgby and Fredrik
Nilsson, Rockin’ the Borders: Rock Music and Social, Cultural and Political Change (Cambridge: Cambridge Publishing
Scholars, 2010). For a discussion on rock music in the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc please see Artemy Troitsky, Back in the
USSR (London: Faber & Faber, 1988), Timothy W. Ryback, Rock Around the Bloc: A History of Rock Music in Eastern Europe
and the Soviet Union, 1954-1988 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), Sabrina Petra Ramet and Lazlo Kurti, Rocking the
State: Rock Music and Politics in Eastern Europe and Russia (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994), and Matthew Collin, Guerrilla
Radio: Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio and Serbia’s Underground Resistance (New York City: Nation Books, 2002).
4
The term heavy metal in this dissertation will employ Denna Weinstein’s and Robert Walser’s definition of heavy metal music
and culture which includes: the use of powerchords, heavy and elaborate guitar and drum solos, heavy guitar distortion and
repeated song riffs, loud vocals, rhythm patterns that have different stresses and tempo changes, and typically performed
extremely loud in live concerts. See Denna Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture (New York: De Capo Press,
2000) and Robert Walser, Running With the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music (Middletown: Wesleyan
University Press, 1993.
5
Because punk rock music is much more rhythmically amorphic, it is more difficult to define a particular rhythm pertaining to the
rock subgenre than heavy metal; punk rock, like much heavy metal music, also employs bar chord progressions, and follows the
4/4 time scale. However, depending on the band and punk rock style, such rhythm patterns can change. The music can be played
at a slow or quick tempo and solos are not usually incorporated into the music style because they are considered self-indulgent, a
key feature in heavy metal music. For this dissertation, punk rock will be defined as a rock subgenre employing politicized
lyrics, loud vocals, heavy guitar riffs, and quick drum beats.
6
For an excellent documentary on the role of heavy metal in Iraq, featuring the band Acrassicauda, see Heavy Metal Baghdad
Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti, dirs., Arts Alliance America, 2008. For an analysis on Asian underground music, see Jennifer
Milioto Matsue, Making Music in Japan’s Underground: The Tokyo Hardcore Scene (East Asia: History, Politics, Sociology &
Culture (New York City: Routledge, 2008). For a documentary on the global diffusion of heavy metal music see Global Metal,
Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, dirs., Warner Home Video, 2009, DVD.
7
The term Latin America and latinomérica will be used in this work to describe areas south of the Rio Grande River as well as
parts of the Caribbean that are Spanish speaking, Portuguese speaking, and other indigenous languages.
1
movements came during a historical time of peril and distress. What can the rise of punk and
metal inform us about the history of Colombia and its society during the late 1970s, 1980s, and
early 1990s? What social conditions paved the way for some youths to find solace in heavy
metal and punk rock in Colombia?
I argue that the heavy metal and punk rock movements in Colombia grew out of an
extremely impoverished, insecure, and dangerous sociocultural environment. These conditions
gave local metalheads and punk rockers an opportunity to contextualize and express their distaste
by utilizing music forms that divorced themselves from Colombian mainstream music culture
sounds such as salsa, merengue, cumbia, vallenato, and other types of pop music of the time
period. This work underscores both the heavy metal and punk rock scenes because both groups
surfaced in Colombia around the same time period, created their own spaces, and were brought
to stand together to confront the increasing violence of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Put
simply, the collaboration, between metalheads and punkers, in the face of terror, kept both scenes
alive.
Both scenes’ “do-it-yourself” ingenuity was absolutely necessary during the 1980s and
early 1990s because many of them did not have the means to buy instruments or any of the
imported rock paraphernalia arriving in Colombia. Furthermore, as stated above, I argue that the
growth of both rock subgenre music scenes in Colombia would not have been possible without
metalheads and punk rockers carving spaces to celebrate their music styles.8 The public and
private spaces that these subgenre rockers located served as zones to reaffirm their identity and
also as spaces of escapism. These get-togethers were also an opportunity for heavy metal and
punk rock aficionados to play their favorite bands using the technology of the era: a turntable or
8
Here and throughout the dissertation, I will be using the term metalhead and punker to refer to any member of the heavy metal
community and the punk rock scene, respectively.
2
cassette deck; the hangouts were also an excellent opportunity for local groups to test out their
music by performing live in front of an audience. Unfortunately, the price for adopting a
metalhead or punk rocker identity in Colombia during this time was harassment by the local
forces and by citizens who associated metal and punk rock music fans with drug addiction and
devil worshipping. The situation for Colombian metal and punk scene members would not
improve by the late 1980s.
In 1987, Victor Gaviria completed filming his first full-length motion picture entitled
Rodrigo D: No Futuro. I argue that Gaviria’s film created a generalization of metal and punk
scene members as co-perpetrators of the era’s violence. To make matters worse, by the end of
the 1980s and during the early 1990s, private armed forces that surfaced in different parts of
Medellín set out to cleanse the city of “undesirables.” Victims of these paramilitary groups
included punk rockers, metalheads, the homeless, street children, and prostitutes. In response to
the nation’s rising violence, by the mid to late 1980s and early 1990s, Colombian punk and
heavy metal productions were musically and lyrically more aggressive. Heavy metal and punk
bands showcased the nation’s ongoing urban and rural violence, the hypocrisy in religion, the
country’s corrupt political machine, and First World imperialism in their music. In order to
support my argument, my work seeks to bring into conversation scholarly productions from the
United States and Europe as well as from Latin America. This work blends perspectives from
different disciplines: studies on rock music in Latin America, scholarship specifically on
Colombian heavy rock music, key works on heavy metal and punk rock culture, studies on youth
countercultures and subcultures, works on the role of the public sphere, scholarship on the
development of social and new social movements, Latin American film studies, and works on
memory and violence.
3
The first scholarly works on Latin American rock music were published in the late 1970s
and throughout the 1980s. Such works documented foundational bands, band member and fan
experiences, and albums that paved the way for rock’s increasing popularity south of the Rio
Grande River.9 By the 1980s, works on Latin American rock music, such as Pablo Vila’s
analysis of Argentine rock, looks at how rock music served as a way to question national
identity. Vila asserts that national rock, or rock nacional—a term that has been used to describe
local rock music composed specifically in Spanish—“has no fixed ideology . . . and changes not
only over time, but also among the different branches of the [rock] movement.”10 Latin
American nations producing rock nacional was important because along with songs composed in
Spanish, the songs reached national and international notoriety, spoke directly to the region’s
sociopolitical conditions, and the sound and style blended local music styles (e.g., cumbia) while
also employing North American and British rock music techniques.11 With the onset of the
1970s, rock music across Latin America incorporated African and indigenous instrumentation
into its repertoire—about two decades before Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura would
experiment with such instrumentation in their 1996 Roots album.12 Subsequent academic works
on rock music in Latin America incorporated other nations where rock music also crossed its
borders.
9
Some of the works published during this time period include Agarrate!!! Testimonios de la música joven en Argentina (Buenos
Aires; Editorial Galerna, 1978), Marcelo Fernandez Bitar, Historia del Rock en Argentina (Buenos Aires: Distal, 1987), Eduarto
Berti, Rockología (Buenos Aires: Editora AC, 1989), Osvaldo Marzullo and Pancho Muñoz, Historia del rock argenitno (Buenos
Aires: Editorial Galerna, 1986), Carlos Lean, Rock satánico y su influencia en la juventud (Santiago: Arancibia Hnos. Y Cí Ltda.,
1986),
10
Pablo Vila, “Argentina’s ‘Rock Nacional’ the Struggle for National Identity,” Latin American Music Review 10, no.1 (1989): 1-
28.
11
Some of the differences between Latin American nations’ rock nacional included incorporation of local slang into lyrics, lyrical
content reflecting local concerns, as well as the use of indigenous instruments.
Laura Ramos and Cynthia Lejbowicz, Corazones en Llamas: Historias del rock argentines en los ’80 (Buenos Aires: Aguilar-
Clarín, 1991).
12
Sepultura’s Roots was in-part influenced by indigenous instrumentation found in Mato Grosso and can be heard in Sepultura.
Roots. Roadrunner Records, 1996.
4
Academics in the 1990s and at the turn of the century in North America and Latin
America looked to rock’s sociocultural relevance and transnational importance.13 These works
unveil how the discourse taking place in the production of rock and its subgenres, such as heavy
metal and punk rock music, are used to challenge the status quo.14 For instance, Eric Zolov’s
Refried Elvis provides an intricate assessment of the absorption, rejection, and transformation of
rock music in Mexico.15 Rock music in Mexico became a symbol of resistance by youths against
the older and conservative generation. Although Zolov does an excellent job showing the
evolution of rock music in Mexico, my work correlates Colombia’s post-La Violencia period’s
urban sprawl, the nation’s rising poverty, the rising violence during the drug wars to the
development of the heavy metal and punk rock scenes.
In 2003, Luis A. Ramos-García’s work argues that Peruvian rock bands, such as Las
Mojarras, were blasted by music critics for allegedly polarizing Peruvian society with lyrics
containing “unfair” social commentary.16 In Rockin’ Las Américas, contributors to the
compilation open conversation to the transnational influence of rock music in Latin America.
Employing race, class, and gender analysis, authors in this work look at rock music and rock
subgenres’ influence in nations such as United States, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, and
13
Some works include Ana Mourín, Un Sentimiento: Historia de la Banda Precursora del Heavy Metal Argentino (Buenos Aires:
Idependiente, 1993), Tito Escárate, Frutos del País: Historia del Rock Chileno (Santiago: Fondart, 1993), Avila Castillo, El
Rock: sonido y testimonio de la energía y desencanto generacional (Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Católica Cardenal Raúl
Silva Henríquez , 1999), Luís A. Ramos-García, “Rock ‘n’ Roll in Peru’s Popular Quarters: Cultural Identity, Hybridity and
Transculturation.” trans. María Elena Cepeda in Candida F. Jaquez, Frances R. Apacio, Luís A. Ramos-García, et al., Musical
Migrations: Transnationalism and Cultural Hybridity in Latin/o America, Volume I (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
199-206. Lalo Aller Dadá, underground en dictadura (Santiago: La Calabaza del Diablo, 2009), Deborah Pacini Hernandez,
Eric Zolov, Hector Fernandez-L’Hoeste, et al., Rockin’ Las Americas: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America (Pittsburg:
University of Pittsburg Press, 2004).
14
An article looking at the production of heavy metal music following Brazil’s dictatorship is Idelber Avelar, “Heavy Metal
Music in Postdictatorial Brazil: Sepultura and the Coding of Nationality in Sound” in Journal of Latin American Cultural
Studies, Vol. 12, No.3, 2003: 328-346.
15
Eric Zolov, Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1999).
16
Luís A Ramos-García, “Rock ‘n’ Roll in Peru’s Popular Quarters: Cultural Identity, Hybridity and Transculturation.” trans.
María Elena Cepeda in Candida F. Jaquez, Frances R. Apacio, et al. Musical Migrations: Transnationalism and Cultural
Hybridity in Latin/o America, Volume I, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 199-206.
5
Colombia.17 In this compilation, historian Héctor D. Fernández L’Hoeste argues that Colombian
rock music is exceptional because there is no group or artist that serves as the symbol of rock
nacional for Colombia.18 Furthermore, L’Hoeste adds that though there is no rock nacional,
Colombian heavy metal and its subgenres directly address national conflicts of the 1980s and
1990s, a topic further assessed in my own work. Scholars from Colombia also posited their
analysis on the influence of rock music in the country.
Omar Alonso Urán Arena and Eduardo Arias’ pioneering work on Medellín youth culture
and Colombian rock music argues, in Medellín en Vivo: La Historia del Rock, that the Ancón
festival was the quintessential moment in Colombia’s rock history. 19 This was the event that
demonstrated a change in relations between Medellín’s youth and the older generations.
Eduardo Arias’ work demonstrates that the entry of rock music in Colombia, like other cultural
elements, was not only imported from the United States and Europe, but also came directly from
Mexico.20 Meanwhile, Reina Rodríguez’s analysis of heavy rock music in Bogotá holds that
heavy metal went through three phases in its development in Colombia: (1) conquest, (2)
colonization, and (3) assimilation and legitimization.21 In contrast to Reina Rodríguez’s
assertion, I argue that heavy metal (and punk rock) in the nation exhibited a period of (1) arrival,
(2) absorption, (3) appropriation and expression, and (4) ambivalence. I argue metal (and punk)
continues to be thought of in Colombian society as something foreign, or non-Colombian. Other
17
Deborah Pacini Hernandez, Eric Zolov, Hector Fernandez-L’Hoeste, et al., Rockin’ Las Americas: The Global Politics of Rock
in Latin/o America (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press, 2004).
18
Hector Fernández L’Hoeste “On How Bloque de Búsqueda Lost Part of its Name: The Predicament of Colombian Rock in the
U.S. Market” in Rockin’ Las Americas: The Global Politics of Rock in Latin/o America, by in Deborah Pacini Hernandez, Eric
Zolov, et al., (Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press, 2004), 179-199.
19
Omar Alonso Urán Arenas Medellín en vivo: la historia del rock: una aproximación histórica y visual a la escena rock
(Medellín: Corporación Región, 1997).
20
Eduardo Arias “Surfin’ Chapinero. Historia incompleta, cachaca, subjetiva, irreflexiva e irresponsable del rock en Colombia”
Gaceta 13 (Mayo-Junio 1992): 14-19.
21
Carlos Arturo Reina Rodríguez, Bogotá: Más que Pesado, METAL con Historia (Bogotá: FELCAR Editores E Impresiones,
2009), 29.
6
works on Colombian heavy rock music show how metal and punk were important for youths to
confront and contextualize their day-to-day experiences.
Complementing Urán and Arias’ work, Cano Ospina’s scholarship unveils that heavy
rock music in Medellín captured the local government’s push for modernity (e.g., inviting
international investment, erecting new building structures) and the problems that society could
not mask such as severe class inequalities, rampant poverty, and cemented local traditions.22
Historian Andrea Restrepo Restrepo argues that punk rock music was ideal for a Colombian
youth who witnessed an economically devastated Medellín, a city ruled by drug lords, broken
treaties among the national government and guerilla movements, the rise of paramilitaries, the
entrance of North American neo-liberalism into Colombia, and the failure of Colombia’s
banking system in the face of the International Monetary Fund.23 Furthermore, Carlos Feixa
Germán Muñoz holds that the construction of Bogotá’s subcultures (e.g., metalheads, punkers,
hip-hoppers, and graffiti artists) are examples of expression for a Bogotá youth negotiating their
relationship to the capital city.24 Recently, the authors of Historia, Memoria, y Jóvenes en
Bogotá argue that Colombian youths were historically classified under a good versus bad binary
in which the jóvenes buenos (good youths) were those that did not veer away from or challenge
the status quo and were exemplary citizens versus jóvenes malos (bad or misguided youths),
desadaptados (misfits), or de abajo (from lower classes) who were “potential delinquents.”25
22
Iván Dario Cano Ospina, "Identidad desde el caos, el caos de la identidad. Una historia del rock en Medellín" En: México.
2002. Evento:IV Congreso Latinoamericano de la Asociación Internacional para el Estudio de la Música Popular. IASPM,
Mexico, 2002 Iaspm 2, 2002.
23
Andrea Restrepo Restrepo ,“Una lectura de lo real a través del punk” Historia Crítica No. 29 (Enero-Junio 2005): 9-37.
24
Carlos Feixa, Germán Muñoz, et al., Historia, Memoria, y Jóvenes en Bogotá: De las culturas juveniles urbanas de finales del
siglo XX a las manifestaciones identitarias juveniles en el siglo XXI (Bogotá: Sectaría Distrital de Cultura, Recreación y Deporte-
Asociación Metalmorfosis Social, 2011).
25
Carlos Arturo Reina Rodríguez, “Jovenes, Historia, Memoria, y Manifestaciones Identitarias” in Carlos Feixa, Germán ñoz,
Luisa Fernanda Cortes C., et al., Historia, Memoria, y Jóvenes en Bogotá: De las culturas juveniles urbanas de finales del siglo
XX a las manifestaciones identitarias juveniles en el siglo XXI, 103.
7
Along with works by Colombian scholars on metal and punk music culture, looking at key works
on metal music also proved useful for my work.
Donna Gaines, Robert Walser, and Denna Weinstein’s pioneering scholarship on heavy
metal music looks at the role of heavy metal music in First World societies. Gaines’ Teenage
Wasteland documents “decadent” youth’s relationship to metal music and experiences, and
argues how cultural productions, such as heavy metal music, are influenced by economic and
institutional transformations.26 Sociologist Deena Weinstein’s work posits that although metal
music’s imagery and performance is hyper-masculine, it would be an error for scholars to
categorize metal music as simply sexist and degrading toward women.27 For Weinstein, the
complexity of heavy metal culture is not only the reasonable product in rock music’s evolution
(e.g., from rock and roll’s early days to the rise of progressive rock and eventually the birth of
heavy metal), but this rock subgenre is also mischaracterized by critics and the media as music
that is ignorant, poor quality, Satanic, and decadent.28 Walser’s Running with the Devil argues
that although there are unfair critics of metal music and its followers, scholars who simply
analyze music lyrics are only shedding light on one facet of heavy metal culture and dismissing
the means of production in the intricate development of the culture itself.29 For Walser, lyrical
analysis is as important as looking at the symbols, practices, and productions in heavy metal
culture.
26
Donna Gaines, Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia’s Dead End Kids (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).
27
Deena Weinstein, Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology (New York: Lexington, 1991) and Deena Weinstein Heavy Metal: The
Music and Its Culture (New York: De Capo Press, 2000).
28
Deena Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture.
29
Robert Walser, Running With the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music (Middletown: Wesleyan
8
More recently, Levine’s Heavy Metal Islam30 and the authors of Metal Rules the Globe31
demonstrate how metal music, from Morocco to Singapore, provide youths with a way to deal
with modernity, consumerism, pop music, class divides, war, and globalization. Both works also
show how metal music is practiced by individuals who are from different class backgrounds, an
important academic contribution considering the roots of the metal music draw from working
class spaces.32 Furthermore, Dawes’ What are You Doing Here? provide readers with first-hand
experiences of “black women musicians and fans” in heavy metal scenes that are believed to
preach equality in music spaces though “fail to block out the race and gender issues that exist in
the outside world.”33 Although my work does not specifically focus on racial relations in rock
music spaces, the dissertation takes into consideration acts of discrimination experienced and by
metal and punk scene members. Along with studies on heavy metal music and culture, my work
strongly benefits from punk rock scholarship.
Similar to works on heavy metal music and culture, punk rock scholarship of the 1990s
looks closely at identifying, unpacking, and defining British and U.S. punk culture. The
different essays in Punk Rock: So What? The Cultural Legacy of Punk focus on the British and
U.S. punk movement and explore how punk spoke to issues of race, class, identity, and gender.34
McNeil and McCain’s Please Kill Me35 and the authors of We Got the Neutron Bomb36 provide
oral history vignettes of band member experiences, promoters, and fans, unveiling the
30
Mark Levine, Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam (New York: Three Rivers Press,
2008).
31
Jeremy Wallach, Harris M. Berger, Paul D. Greene, et al., Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music Around the World (North
Carolina: Duke University Press, 2011).
32
Whereas English bands like Black Sabbath was formed in Birmingham and surfaced from a working class background, studies
on Nepal unveil metal bands whose members are from the region’s middle class sector.
33
Laina Dawes, What Are You Doing Here? A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal (New York: Bazillion Points,
2012).
34
Roger Sabin, Punk Rock: So What? The Cultural Legacy of Punk (London: Routledge, 1999).
35
Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Rock (New York: Penguin Group,
1997).
36
Marc Spitz and Brendan Mulen, We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk (New York: Three Rivers Press,
2001).
9
connections and development of 1970s and early 1980s punk culture. Furthermore, Savage’s
England’s Dreaming, while discussing Sex Pistols’ anecdotes, argue that punk music gave
England’s marginalized youth a source of identity and musical inspiration that veered away from
the pop rock music of the era.37 Punk Is Dead, Punk Is Everything looks closely at punk’s visual
power by providing depictions of punk rock culture through posters, pictures, and other sources
that testify to the influence of punk music worldwide.38 Beeber’s The Heebie-Jeebies at
CBGB’s39, MacLeod’s Kids of the Black Hole40, and the authors of White Riot: Punk Rock and
Politics of Race41 assess the contributions of minority groups in the production of punk rock
music as well as demonstrate resistance, through bands’ music, to fascist and racist punk rock
bands. Along with studies on punk rock minorities, Alicia Armendariz (better known in the
punk music world as “Alice Bags”) recounts in Violence Girl42 the trials and tribulations as a
Chicana female vocalist pioneer in Los Angeles’ punk movement. Armendariz’s account shows
her negotiating her Mexican and United States identity while also challenging women’s social
expectations in Latino male-headed households. Along with punk rock scholarship, looking at
theoretical works on youth and subculture helped me better comprehend the connection between
the rise of media, modernity, and youth cultures.
Roszak’s The Making of a Counter Culture argues that the establishment of the
technocratic state paved way for the rise of a youth counterculture—a challenge brought up on
37
Jon Savage, England’s Dreaming, Revised Edition: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock, and Beyond (United States of America:
St. Martin’s Press, 1991, 2001).
38
Bryan Ray Turcotte and Doug Woods, Punk is Dead Punk is Everything (Berkeley: Gingko Press, 2007).
39
Steven Lee Beeber, The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2006).
40
Dewar MacLeod, Kids of the Black Hole: Punk Rock in Postsurban California (United States: University of Oklahoma Press,
2010).
41
Stephen Duncombe, Maxwell Tremblay, James Baldwin, et al., White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race (London:
Verso, 2011).
42
Alice Bag, Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, a Chicana Punk Story (Port Townsend: Feral House, 2011).
10
by groups who did not benefit from the effects of modernity.43 Additionally, Stuart Hall and
Tony Jefferson’s 1976 work on youth cultures explain how mass communications influenced the
rise of a subculture in which youths, who although not divorcing themselves from the hegemonic
culture, sought to create an identity different from the “parent culture.”44 Stuart Hall and Chris
Barker, in a later study, acknowledge and warn of the power of media representation, arguing
that such forms of representation served to reinforce stereotypes of minority groups and other
subcultures.45 Paul Corrigan’s own scholarship identifies how school itself was also responsible
for creating a youth culture, since school itself controlled and molded students to embrace the
notion that if youths worked hard enough then they could supposedly move up the social
ladder.46 Also, Dick Hebdige’s work on defining subcultures acknowledges that subculture
groups’ power was considered a threat to public order since neither local authorities nor public
officials understood the reasoning behind subculture’s expressions.47 Along with Hebdige, Gary
Alan Fine’s discussion of social norms details how “norms” were “predictable” behaviors and
accompanied by various cultural elements such as beliefs, values, and practices, which in this
dissertation proves useful when considering “norms” constructed in other societies.48 Along
with studies on youth culture, works on the public sphere also inform this dissertation.
Jürgen Habermas’ The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere discusses the
historical construction and role of the private versus the public sphere.49 For Habermas, political
43
Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections of the Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition (New
York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1969), 173.
44
Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson, Resistance Through Rituals (London: Hutchinson, 1976), 13.
45
“Stuart Hall-Representation & The Media 1 of 4,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sbYyw1mPdQ14 accessed
January 2013. Transcript of “Stuart Hall: Representation & the Media,” Media Education Foundation Transcript,
http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/409/transcript_409.pdf, accessed 14 January 2013. Chris Barker, Television,
Globalization and Cultural Identities (Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999).
46
Paul Corrigan, Schooling the Smash Street Kids (London: Macmillan, 1979).
47
Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1979).
48
Gary Alan Fine, “Enacting Norms: Mushrooming and the Culture of Expectations and Explanations” in Gary Alan Fine,
Michael Hechter, Karl-Dieter Opp, et al., Social Norms (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2001), 139-140.
49
Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society
(Boston: MIT Press, 1991).
11
discussions taking place in the public sphere serve as ways to balance political authority.
Habermas’ protagonists were those of bourgeois society congregating in public forums such as
coffee houses. Nancy Farris’ complement and critique to Habermas demonstrates how both
genders and different layers of society play a key role in the operation of the public and private
sphere.50 Farris argues that women’s exclusion from the public sphere is not coincidental but
rather an ideological move to erase women’s participation in historical processes; according to
Farris, it is possible for anyone to join public sphere discussions considering there is shared
interest by various social groups. Gerard Hauser also challenges Harbermas’ assertions, arguing
that public spheres are formed from the dialogue surrounding a particular issue versus the
identity of the population interacting within the forum.51 In other words, conversations taking
place in the public sphere around a particular issue supersedes class or specific group interests.
Alongside works that focused on the public sphere, my work benefits from scholarship on social
movement and new social movement theory.
Herbert Blumer’s four stages (social ferment, popular excitement, formalization, and
institutionalizing) explain the development of social movements.52 For Blumer, social
movements occur when widespread discontent lead to group coalition around a specific cause
and produce possible success strategies that, at bare minimum, raise awareness. The
“institutionalization” of social movements results in either success of the movement, its
repression, its cooptation, or failure. Alain Touraine’s work on new social movements
incorporates history as a major actor in the construction of social movements.”53 For Touraine,
50
Nancy Farris, “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy” in Social Text,
No. 25/26 (1990), 56-80.
51
Gerard Hauser, “Vernacular Dialogue and the Rhetoricality of Public Opinion” in Communication Monographs 65(2), June
1988, 83-107.
52
Herbert Blumer, Principles of Sociology (New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1969).
53
Sarah Waters, “Situation Movements Historically: May 1968, Alain Touraine, and New Social Movement Theory” in
Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 13, no.1 (2008): 63-82.
12
social movements are not necessarily directed towards the state or seeking to create a more
modern society.54 Whereas Touraine’s social movements represents individuals who are not
necessarily in search of power, James Chowning Davie’s Why Men Revolt and Why explains
how changes via revolution are not likely to take place by “socioeconomically deprived poor
people.”55 Charles Tilly’s work on new social movements discusses how mobilization
encompasses different causes that did not fit “easily into Touraine’s own postindustrial
oppression.”56 For Tilly, repression and mobilization are inextricably connected:
1. [Social movements] are locally variable, irregular, or even incoherent,

and therefore not amenable to systematic description and explanation;
2. Once we clear away conceptual and empirical debris, they conform to
general laws; and
3. [Social movements] apply names to classes of episodes for which
coherent explanations are possible—but not in the form of general laws at
the levels of episodes or classes of episodes.57
Tilly’s new social movement incorporates groups of people otherwise relegated as being
apolitical and “lacking” mobilization. Along with social and new movement studies, my work
also draws from Latin American film studies.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pioneering film industries in Latin
America, such as in Mexico and Brazil, “shot ‘natural scenes’,”58 making an imprint in the world
of cinematography that would see productions in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Cuba, Colombia, and
other parts of the Americas. Cinema studies professor Ana M. López writes that Latin American
filmmaking in the mid-20th century suffered from financial backing such that funds for film
54
Alain Touraine, The voice and the eye: An analysis of social movements (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 80.
55
James Chowning Davies, “The revolutionary state of mind” in James Chowning Davies, Thomas Masaryk, Margaret M.
Phillips, et al., Why Men Revolt and Why (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 1997), 133-134. Davies argued
that the U.S. and French Revolution would not have occurred without the “disaffected bourgeoisie.”
56
Charles Tilly and Lesley, J. Wood, Social Movements, 1768-2008 (Boulder: Paradigm Publishers, 2008).
57
Charles Tilly, “Repression, Mobilization, and Explanation” in Christian Davenport, Hank Johnston, Carol Mueller, et al.,
Repression and Mobilization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2005), 211.
58
E.Bradford Burns, Latin American Cinema (Los Angeles: The Regents of the University of California, 1975), 2. For more
information on the course of Latin American cinema see John King, Magical Reels: A History of Cinema in Latin American
Cinema (London: Verso, 2000).
13
production were pulled because of regime changes that were not interested in underscoring the
plight of the poor.59 Filmmakers such as Solanas and Octavio Getino were credited with laying
root to the Third Cinema movement, a direction in Latin American filmmaking that focused on
speaking out against neocolonialism and Hollywood’s capitalist mode in producing films.
Glauber Rocha’s “Aesthetic of Hunger”60 and Julio García Espinosa’s “Imperfect
Cinema” are key scholarly pieces that posited the role of Third World cinema.61 Throughout the
1960s, in all Latin American nations, the “cultural and political effervescence” paved the way for
intellectual debates and film societies that led to the New Latin American Cinema (NLAC) during
the latter part of the decade and into the 1970s.62 For Ana M. López, the NLAC, incorporating
approximately 30 years of cinematography, cannot be “properly understood in isolation from
political, social, economic, cultural, and aesthetic forces.”63 What type of Latin American film is
an appropriate one to produce? Fernando Birri, founder of the International School of Film and
Television in Argentina, and member of the NLAC filmmakers, Third World nations need films
that “develop them.”64
A cinema which brings them consciousness; which awakens consciousness;

which clarifies matters; which strengthens the revolutionary consciousness of
those among them who already possess this; which fires them; which disturbs,
worries, shocks and weakens those who have a ‘gad conscience,’ a reactionary
consciousness; which defines profiles of national, Latin American identity; which
is authentic; which is anti-oligarchic and anti-bourgeois at the national level, and
anti-colonial and anti-imperialist at the international level; which is pro-people,
and anti-people; which helps the passage from underdevelopment to development,
59
Ana M. López, “An ‘Other’ History: The New Latin American Cinema” in Michael T. Martin, Fernando Solanas, Fernando
Birri, et al., New Latin American Cinema, Volume One: Theory Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations (Detroit: Wayne
State University Press, 1997), 135.
60
The translated writings of Glauber Rocha were found in “Aesthetic of Hunger/Aesthetic of a Dream” in Diagonal Thoughts
http://www.diagonalthoughts.com/?p=1708, accessed January 28, 2013.
61
Julio García Espinosa, “From an imperfect cinema” translated by Julianne Burton, Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media
(1979), no. 20: 24-26.
62
López, “An ‘Other’ History: The New Latin American Cinema,” 136.
63
López, “An ‘Other’ History: The New Latin American Cinema,” 137.
64
Fernando Birri, “Cinema and Underdevelopment” in Michael T. Martin, Glauber Rocha, Octavio Getino, et al., in New Latin
American Cinema, Volume One: Theory Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations (Detroit: Wayne State University Press,
1997), 86-94.
14
from sub-stomach to stomach, from subculture to culture, from sub-happiness to
happiness, from sub-life to life.65
Furthermore, theorist Robert Stam argues that the influence of Frantz Fanon’s writings in Latin
American cinema changed the course in the region’s cinematography.66 Julianne Burton-
Carvajal’s work, echoing Ana M. López’s study, regards Latin America cinematography as an
important vehicle for social change.67 Colombian cinema would see its own contributions to the
NLAC, with productions by Luis Ospina, Andrés Caicedo, and Carlos Mayolo specializing in a
style of cinematography that warranted criticism because of their films’ primary focus on
violence.68 During the 1980s, Victor Gaviria’s contribution to Colombian cinema witnesses the
employment of a neorealist filmmaking style addressing Colombia’s social issues couched in a
fiction script.69 Also informing my work are studies on Colombia’s historical violence of the late
20th century.
In the late 1980s, a series of academics described as violentólogos (violentologists)
surface in Colombia to debate and assess the extreme violence taking place in Colombian
society.70 Scholars such as Gonzalo Sánchez, under the direction of the Barco administration,
compile an analysis entitled Colombia: Violencia, y Democracia71, which concludes that
Colombia’s violence is multifaceted and does not all stem from the country’s armed conflict.
Sánchez, along with Carlos Eduardo Jaramillo, Álvaro Camacho, Eduardo Pizarro León-Gómez,
Mauricio Rubio, Juan Carlos Echeverri, Fabio Sánchez, Ricardo Peñaranda, Rodrigo Uprimny,
65
Birri, “Cinema and Underdevelopment,” 86-87.
66
Robert Stam, “Fanon, Algeria, and the Cinema: The Politics of Identification” in Ella Shohat, Robert Stam, Ana López, et al.,
Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality, and Transnational Media (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2003).
67
Julianne Burton, Cinema and Social Change in Latin America: Conversations with Filmmakers (Austin: University of Texas,
1986).
68
Ilene S. Goldman, “Recent Colombian Cinema: Public Histories and Private Stories” in Framing Latin American Cinema:
Contemporary Critical Perspectives (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997).
69
Jorge Ruffinelli, Victor Gaviria: Los márgenes, al centro (Madrid: Ediciones Turner, 2004).
70
“Los violentólogos” in Semana.com http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/los-violentologos/88236-3, accessed January 23,
2013.
71
Gonzalo Sánchez Gómez, Colombia: Violencia y democracia (Bogotá: La Carreta Editores, 2009).
15
Mauricio García and other violentólogos posit different explanations for the persistence of
violence in Colombian society ranging from violence produced from drug trafficking to violence
between youth groups living in abject poverty. Complementing the work of the Colombian
violentólogos, Mary Roldán’s Blood and Fire argues that the violence located in Colombia’s
infamous period known as La Violencia (1948-1958) is not simply a product of partisan politics,
but also attributes the violence to regional identity, local versus national political tensions, as
well as social prejudice.72
Along with Roldán, Marco Palacios,73 Geoff Simons,74 Frank Safford,75 David
Bushnell,76 Forrest Hylton,77 and Winifred Tate78 have also looked at the different facets of
violence that have shaped Colombia’s late 20th-century history. The authors of “Cara y
Contracaras del Miedo en Medellín” argue that “social figures” that have been historically
perceived as “threatening” and unfriendly produce much fear in the region: the hired assassin,
the thief, the drug trafficker, the guerrilla member, the paramilitary, the politician, and the drug
addict. 79 Gilbert Medina Edgar and Arias Orozco’s work, as well as Alma Guillermoprieto’s
scholarship, analyze the construction of violence in Colombia by looking closely at the social
conditions paving the way for violence’s integration into youth culture. According to Medina
72
Mary Roldán, Blood and Fire: La Violencia in Antioquia, Colombia, 1946-1953 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002).
73
Marco Palacios, Between Legitimacy and Violence: A History of Colombia, 1875-2002 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006).
74
Geoff Simons, Colombia: A Brutal History (London: Saqui Books, 2004).
75
Frank Safford and Marco Palacios, Colombia: Fragmented Land, Divided Society (Oxford and New York: Oxford University
Press, 2002).
76
David Bushnell, The Making of Modern Colombia: A Nation in Spite of Itself (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1993).
77
Forest Hylton, Evil Hour in Colombia (London: Verso, 2006).
78
Winifred Tate, Counting the Dead: The Culture and Politics of Human Rights Activism in Colombia (Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press, 2007).
79
Luz Amparo Sánchez Medina, Marta Inés Villa Martínez, Ana María Jaramillo Arbeláez, “Cara y contracaras del miedo en
Medellín” in John Delumeau, Alejandro Grimson, Norbert Lechner, et al., El Miedo. Reflexiones sobre su dimensión social y
cultural (Medellín: Corporación Región, 2002), 225.
16
Edgar and Arias Orozco, the formation of bandas (gangs) creates particular codes of conduct that
become fundamental for them to operate in the city of Medellín.80
In a similar vein, Guillermoprieto also notes how certain youth gangs sought to “patrol”
and “protect” the barrio, naming themselves after 1980s American pop culture figures (e.g.,
“Robocop,” “The A-Team”); the author also mentions that some of the members who were part
of the mini-militias were known to be punk rock music fans.81 Dissecting those reasons
contributing to the overall violence in the nation, Claudia Tamayo posits that women in
Colombia have been victims as well as perpetrators of violence. For Tamayo, women play
different roles in specific moments of tension: as articulators, accomplices, and victims of group
violence.82 As part of this work, youths will be defined as a differentiated population that has its
“own characteristics and its own interests” that speak directly to their own needs with regards to
their immediate future: achieving a quality standard of living, schooling, and employment.83
Works on Colombian violence and memory provided me with a way to contextualize my
interviewees’ testimony.
Vilma Liliana Franco’s collected interviews underscore the influence of violence on
Colombia’s rural populations.84 Before the course of the 1980s and early 1990s, individuals
fleeing the violence fled warfare between the nation’s military and guerrilla forces. Pilar Riaño-
Alcalá’s Dwellers of Memory argues that “memory as a cultural practice functions as a bridge
80
Gilbert Medina and Edgar Arias Orozco, “La Juventud de Medellín: Entre La Espada y La Pared” in Omar Alonso Urán
Arenas, Claudia Tamayo, Wilfer Bonilla Naranjo, et al., La ciudad de los jóvenes, una mirada desde Medellín (Medellín: Ed.
Instituto Popular de Capacitación, 1995), 85-135.
81
Alma Guillermoprieto, The Heart that Bleeds: Latin America Now (New York: Vintage, 1995).
82
Claudia Tamayo, “Mujeres Jóvenes: Generadoras, Cómplices, y Víctimas de la Violencia en Medellín” in La ciudad de los
jóvenes, una mirada desde Medellín.
83
Departamento Administrativo de Acción Comunal, Estado del Arte de La Investigación sobre Juventud para la Formulación de
la Política (Bogotá: DAAC, 2002).
84
Vilma Liliana Franco R., “Violencias, Conflictos Urbanos y Guerra Civil: El Caso de La Ciudad de Medellín en la década de
los noventa” in Carlos Mario Piedrahita Londoño and Vilma Liliana Franco R. Conflictos Urbanos y Alternativas de
Transformación (Medellín: Instituto Popular de Capacitación IPC, 2004), 59-110.
17
between the past, the present, and the future.” 85 In other words, violence needs to be looked
through a multi-dimensional analysis that veers away simply from looking only at “spaces of
death and destruction” or conceptualizing violence “as intrinsic to human behavior.”86 The
author shows that experiencing or producing violence is multi-faceted and varies between
genders, class groups, and age groups. Finally, Alfred Molano’s work also looks at displaced
individuals by collecting victims’ narratives—a product of Colombia’s historic battle among the
paramilitaries, the guerrillas, and the armed forces.87 Molano provides vignettes of different
individuals who share their first-hand experience with rural warfare between different forces
operating in the region. My work, which takes into consideration the scholarship mentioned
above, is therefore divided into six chapters.
The first chapter provides readers with rock music’s historical trajectory in Colombia,
and discusses the socioeconomic and political conditions Colombians faced during the mid to
late 20th century—a time period marked by violence, displacement, economic disparity, and fear.
The growing impoverished sectors serve as prime centers for the reception and production of
heavy metal and punk rock music. Chapter 2 looks at the formation of the Colombian metal and
punk identity and how such identities present a challenge to Colombia’s culture by incorporating
elements (e.g., different hairstyles, dark clothing colors, piercings) that are not only seen as
socially “offensive” but also reject attacks by local forces and other opponents who equate
“different” with “delinquency.” Furthermore, rockers’ usage of private spaces and appropriation
of public spaces to celebrate heavy rock music comprises the third chapter. Both private and
public spaces serve as centers for rockers in which to share music and information regarding
85
Pilar Riaño-Alcalá, Dwellers of Memory: Youth and Violence in Medellín, Colombia (New Jersey: Transaction Publishers,
2010), 11.
86
Riaño-Alcalá, Dwellers of Memory: Youth and Violence in Medellín, Colombia.
87
Alfredo Molano, The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2005).
18
future local shows. Furthermore, the punk and metal print culture is instrumental in addressing
problems related to alcohol and drug abuse in concert spaces, police brutality, and sexism in the
rock scenes. Chapter 4 analyzes Victor Gaviria’s film Rodrigo D: No Futuro and argues that the
film itself, although showcasing the punk and metal talent of Medellín society, exacerbates the
existing stereotypes of the Colombian metalhead and punk rocker and—unintentionally or not—
conflate “rocker” with “hired assassin.” The fifth chapter takes readers into the drug war
violence of the late 1980s and early 1990s. In this section I argue that the violence perpetuated
against citizenry escalates with the sanctioning of a social cleansing project aimed at eliminating
“undesirables.” This particular cleansing project, wrought forth by urban paramilitary groups,
operates under the direction of drug traffickers. This is a critical moment in which punks and
metalheads in Colombia have to put their ideological differences aside and work together to
survive because they, like prostitutes and the homeless, are targets. Finally, the last chapter takes
readers into the world of Colombian Black Metal (CBM) music, its production, and major artistic
proponents. Some of the Black Metal artists seek to expose the hypocrisy of Christianity in the
nation, while others devote their music to the Dark Prince himself: Satan.
Colombia’s punk and metal scene surfaced during an extremely tense and volatile time in
the nation’s history. Colombia’s ears were not conquered by rock music, hard rock, heavy metal,
or punk rock. Rather, rock subgenres such as heavy metal and punk rock have nudged their way
into spaces that welcome challenging the status quo; spaces that have historically been zones of
poverty and limited political power. The course and development of heavy metal music and
punk rock music in Colombia, as mentioned above, took place in three phases which will be
demonstrated throughout my work: (1) arrival, (2) absorption, (3) appropriation and expression,
and (4) ambivalence. This music scene was—and to a certain extent continues to be—
19
challenged by different facets of Colombian society: parents, neighbors, politicians, clergy, the
armed forces, and paramilitary groups. The heavy metal and punk rock scenes of Colombia
challenged the nation’s social norms: the country’s sense of appropriateness and expectations for
the nation’s youths. In other words, the punk and metal movement appropriated the terms of
Colombian citizenry by creating its own “citizenry” in a region which was more preoccupied
with “saving face” on an international level, by extraditing captured drug barons to the U.S., than
about helping to alleviate the rampant inequalities in the country. The different oral histories
collected to substantiate discussion and arguments were drawn from survivors of this era. These
stories testified to living in a war-torn nation and losing friends to state, drug, and paramilitary
violence. This work is a short testimony of over two decades of persistence and perseverance by
those rockers and music aficionados that eventually made it to the very first Rock Al Parque
(“Rock at the Park”) festival in Bogotá in 1995.
20
CHAPTER 1
Creating Colombia’s “Children of the Grave”88
“The 1950s Violencia humiliated the poor classes as they ‘were swept up in a
war, which belonged not to them, but to the political class and then stigmatized
them for being responsible for the barbarity of the conflict.”
Daniel Pecaut quoted in Pilar Riaño’s Dwellers of Memory89
“In any account of Colombia’s violence, [the state’s weakness] must rank as a
principal explanatory factor for the strength of insurgencies and the
paramilitaries.”
Forest Hylton in Evil Hour in Colombia90
“I plead youth as a mitigating circumstance.”

Colombian Nobel Prize Recipient Gabriel García Márquez91
In 2007, Colombia’s National Museum in Bogotá and Modern Art Museum in Medellín
unveiled a special exposition devoted to Colombia’s rock music history. The gallery rooms set
aside for the event showcased a chronological development of rock music and influential bands
in the nation, displaying a collection of band posters and concert flyers, concert tickets, outfits,
homemade electric instruments, music albums, song lyrics, videos, and other paraphernalia
paying homage to Colombia’s rock history. According to Bogotá daily El Tiempo, the galleries
focused on Colombian rock’s development from 1965 to 1994, and showcased “albums
produced by rockers in those years, who counted on top [album] designers and illustrators, each
[album] encapsulating a particular story.”92 An article reporting on Medellín’s rock exhibit
stated that the galleries served as a way to understand how the youth persevered in understanding
and critiquing “the cultural processes in Colombia.”93 In promotion of the exhibit, the national
88
I employ “Children of the Grave” as part of my title to underscore the “Revolution [located] in [Colombian youths’] minds.”
Black Sabbath. Master of Reality. Warner Bros. Records, 1971.
89
Pilar Riaño-Alcalá, Dwellers Memory: Youth and Violence in Medellín Colombia, 10.
90
Forrest Hylton, Evil Hour in Colombia, 11.
91
Gabriel García Marquez, Cien Años de Soledad (Madrid: Harper Ediciones Cátedra, 2000).
92
“El rock Colombiano cuenta su historia” El Tiempo “Cultura y Entretenimiento” 21 November 2007 accessed 22 March 2010
http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-2736655.
93
“El rock: una nación” Medellin.vive.in, http://medellin.vive.in/medellin/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR_VIVEIN-
4572787.html,accessed 22 March 2010.
21
museum of Bogotá produced a documentary entitled “Nación Rock” (“Rock Nation”) which
showed sample sound and video clips of different periods in Colombia’s rock music history:
“¿Quieres ser una esterella de rock and roll? (You want to be a rock and roll star?): 1965-1975,”
“Nueva Generación (New Generation): 1975-1985,” “La Causa Nacional (The National Cause):
1985-1990,” and “El Dorado (The Golden Age): 1990-1995.”94 Though the documentary and
exhibit exposed the influence of the mid-1980s and early 1990s violence on the creation of
Colombian heavy rock music, little discussion in the galleries took place regarding social factors
pre-dating the rise of the nation’s drug trade. But in fact, to understand the rise of heavy metal
and punk in Bogotá and Medellín, one cannot divorce its history from Colombia’s sociopolitical
period known as La Violencia (1948-1958) as well as the violence that followed in the 1970s and
1980s.
This chapter argues that the punk and heavy metal movement in Colombia was not only
rooted in the importation and appropriation of foreign rock music, but also in the nation’s history
of violence, displacement, population growth, and changing youth culture. Rock music’s
development in Colombia was partly an imitation of broader worldwide trends, but carried some
uniquely Colombian characteristics because of the unusual situation in Colombia, especially the
violence. These trends were particularly accentuated in the largest cities, Bogotá and Medellín.
This chapter takes readers through Colombia’s mid-20th century sociopolitical history and
discusses the growth of Bogotá and Medellín’s urban populations. The period known
historically as La Violencia transformed the lives of millions of rural Colombians who sought
94
“Nación Rock 1/4-Historia de rock en Colombia (1965-1975),” Youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd3Hlb4P8vs&feature=related, accessed 22 March 2010. “Nación Rock 2/4-Historia del rock
en Colombia (1975-1985),” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfeaxwGbIUo&feature=related, accessed 22 March
2010. “Nación Rock 3/4-Historia del rock en Colombia (1985-1990),” Youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYXUWzWGsYU&feature=related, accessed 22 March 2010. “Nación Rock 4/4-Historia
del rock en Colombia (1990-1995),” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA6bUPgqIrc&feature=related, accessed 22
March 2010.
22
refuge in the nation’s major economic centers. Those individuals and families fleeing guerrilla
and paramilitary violence in the 1950s and 1960s, arriving in Bogotá and Medellín, searched to
construct new lives in spaces that over time gave rise to low-income communities marginalized
by the local and national governments. These were zones serving as areas for the creation of a
new youth culture and a distinct rock music sound. The growing violence, displacement, and
poverty in the nation saw a youth counterculture seeking a new outlet to define itself in contrast
to the nation’s conservative culture. One answer for many youths was rock music.
For some jóvenes, rock music represented a freedom absent in other practices and forms
of expression available in Colombia. The 1960s were pivotal for Colombia’s youths, providing a
new outlet of rebellion that was both sanctioned and praised in Colombian society. The 1960s
rock music opened an important avenue for rockers to carve out spaces of identity that by the
1970s welcomed an appropriated rock music style known as la nueva ola or “the new wave,” a
rock music style incorporating indigenous instruments and lyrics in Spanish reflecting local
conditions. This chapter also discusses the historical course of Colombian rock music,
addressing its arrival in the 1960s, and its transformation in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
taking into account the landmark 1971 rock music festival known as Ancón.
The Ancón festival was an important litmus test because it directly challenged Medellín’s
conservative culture: authorities, the Catholic Church, the local government, and the antioqueño
family. The show, causing panic in Medellín, reflected fears of a radical change among youths
looking beyond preserving the established customs and order in Colombian society. Ultimately,
rock music’s arrival, reception, and evolution reflected the inequality, rural violence, growth of
slums, and lack of opportunities. The rise of violence among the left, the right, and government
23
forces paved the way for a new youth culture reflected in rock music, lyrics, concerts, and
lifestyle.
Colombia’s Historical “Reign in Blood”95: A Perfect Recipe for Latin American Slumvilles
The seeds of influence for the heavy metal and punk rock movement in Colombia, as well
as rock and roll in the nation, took root before the first rock album appeared on the country’s
airwaves. The influence was not just a musical one but also one filled with terror, violence,
displacement, and urban sprawl. Prior to the 1940s, Colombia’s rural population
overwhelmingly surpassed its urban population. For example, the Antioquia department, an area
stereotyped for its conservative attitude and the ruggedness of the paisa96, witnessed a rise in
urban population (See Table 1-1).
Table 1-1: Evolution of Rural and Urban Population in Colombia97
1951 1964 1973 1985 1993
Urban Pop. 4,459,345 9,239,211 13,656,107 19,628,417 26,573,924
Rural Pop. 6,995,415 8,077,100 9,221,614 10,427,019 10,848,867
Total Pop. 11,454,760 17,316,311 22,877,721 30,055,436 37,422,791
% Rise in N/A 107% 48% 44% 35%
Urban Pop.
In Colombia’s case, migration accelerated following the late 1940s. The assassination of Liberal
party candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, on April 9, 1948, incited a full-scale riot in the nation’s
capital (known historically as El Bogotazo), and marked the beginning of a bloody period in
95
“Reign in Blood” is a reference to the Slayer’s third album entitled Reign in Blood. I employ this reference as another way to
think about Colombia’s violent history during the course of the 20th century. Slayer, Reign in Blood. London Records, 1986.
96
The term paisa refers to the inhabitants of the Department of Antioquia.
97
Table information from Nicolás Rueda-García, “The Case of Bogotá D.C., Colombia” in Universidad de los Andes,
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/pdfs/Bogota.pdf, 1, accessed 20 March 2011.
24
Colombia known as La Violencia. This cataclysmic period, responsible for the deaths of
approximately 200,000 people, served as a catalyst to accelerate the rise in population of Bogotá
and Medellín’s urban spaces.98
La Violencia, which spread to different rural parts of the nation, resulted in the
displacement of thousands of people who became known as desterrados, or those banished and
landless, due to the rise in rural violence by supporters from both political factions. According to
journalist Mabel González Bustelo, desterrados ought not to be thought of “as a consequence or
a collateral effect of actions perpetrated by armed actors.”99 It is more important to think of
displacement not only as a product or “effect” of the historical violence, but as a “weapon of war
and part of a strategy to accumulate economic gains.”100 Displacement has historically taken
place in zones which have demonstrated great wealth in natural resources. Bustelo also
remarked that historical displacements took place in different forms, which could occur
simultaneously including: “human rights violations, armed conflicts, social conflicts (such as
workers’ demands), land reforms, [the] implementation of mega-projects, fights for (or against)
illicit crops.”101 The historical relationship between the privatization of land, the various
violence-induced methods to protect the land, the influence of foreign interests, and the
expansion of farmland borders were themes clearly reminiscent of the construction of Macondo
in Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude, which referred to a
period half a century earlier.102 La Violencia also exhibited some of the most brutal forms of
execution between liberal and conservative supporters.
98
Academic mortality estimated 200,000 deaths due to La Violencia. Roldán, Blood and Fire: La Violencia in Antioquia,
Colombia 1946-1953, 5.
99
González Bustelo translated in Alfredo Molano, The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia, 201.
100
Bustelo. translated in Alfredo Molano, The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia.
101
Bustelo.
102
García Márquez, Cien Años de Soledad (Madrid: Harper Ediciones Cátedra, 2000).
25
Mary Roldán’s work unveiled different forms of brutality from extremists operating in
Antioquia who during La Violencia used the machete, the “Colombian necktie,” and other forms
of terrorism to instill fear into political rivals.103 León Maria Lozano, known as “The Condor,”
was the most infamous assassin and torturer, and was heavily supported by the nation’s
Conservative party which considered him to be a patriot.104 Furthermore, Javier Corcuera’s
documentary Invisibles captured the life of desterrados, paying close attention to the displaced
community members residing in “El Encanto.”105 In one testimonial, an unidentified displaced
female farm worker confessed that she was a desterrada as long as she could remember. She
confessed that when she was five years old, her family was displaced and “they took [them] out
because this region [was and arguably still is] very wealthy in terms of land, water, and minerals
. . . there’s petroleum . . . it’s a very wealthy region but also very poor.”106
According to Luz Marina Hortua Vargas, her father survived the period of La Violencia
because he was smuggled out of the rural region in a potato sack by his persecuted parents who
were ardent supporters of the Liberal party.107 Colombian displacement historically by no means
represented—nor currently represents—a singular global case, as evidenced by displacements
that have occurred in different parts of Latin America and across the Third World.108 During La
Violencia, as apparent in other global scenarios, less economically fortunate farmers were forced
off the best lands “and valleys and forced into urban areas or toward farmland borders and
103
Roldán, Blood and Fire: La Violencia in Antioquia, Colombia 1946-1953.
104
A novel underscoring the life of León María Lozano’s assassinations see Gustavo Alvarez Gardeazábal, Los Cóndores no
entierran todos los días (Bogotá: Panamericana Editorial, 1998).
105
Invisibles, Isabel Coixet, Wim Wnders, Fernando Léon de Aranoa, Mariano Barroso, Javier Corcuera dirs. Pinguin films y
Reposado, 2007.
106
Invisibles.
107
Luz Marina Hortua Personal Interview 20 March 2009.
108
For excellent studies on global cases of displacement in and outside Colombia, historical and contemporary, attributed to
modes of colonization and other factors, see Thomas G. Wise and David A. Korn, Internal Displacement: Conceptualization and
Its Consequences (London: Routledge, 2006). Also, see Roberta Cohen and Francis Mading Deng, The Forsaken People: Case
Studies of the Internally Displaced (Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1998).
26
colonization areas.”109 As mentioned above, the bloody battle between supporters of the Liberals
and the Conservatives created one of the first mass exoduses of the nation fleeing from different
rural areas and spilling into and around urban sectors. The political direction of the nation rested
on a weakened Liberal party and a Conservative party that was divided.
In 1953, General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla led a successful coup, supported by exiled
Liberals and divided Conservatives, where the government’s power rested in the hands of the
nation’s military commander. General Rojas Pinilla, who in 1954 became president of the nation
through approved congressional legislation, was a ruthless anti-communist, responsible for the
massacre of Bogotá student activists, and outlawed periodicals that expressed political dissent.110
Although responsible for modernity projects that included construction of hospitals, dwellings,
and airports, President Rojas Pinilla was quick to censor El Tiempo when the paper was allegedly
publishing against the interests of the general’s regime.111 His ruling was cut short not by
Colombia’s political factions but by a populace who was exhausted by the general’s anti-
democratic practices. In response to widespread discontent, Rojas Pinilla was removed, and
Gabriel París Gordillo and four other armed forces officials took control of the nation and
formed the Colombian Military Junta (1957-1958). By the late 1950s, a change in national
politics paved the way for an escalation of rural violence which resulted in the entry of migrants
into the nation’s economic and political centers of Bogotá and Medellín.
In 1958, a truce, known as the Frente Nacional (National Front), was declared between
the Liberals and Conservatives which guaranteed an exchange of presidential power between
109
Bustelo, translated in Alfredo Molano, The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia, 203.
110
Esteban Mesa García, “El Frente Nacional y su naturaleza antidemocrática,” Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Políticas 39, no.
110:167-168.
111
“Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, la única dictadura del país en el siglo XX,” El Tiempo,
http://www.eltiempo.com/100/dk100/cronologia_centenario/ARTICULO-WEB-PLANT_NOTA_INTERIOR_100-
7821736.html, accessed 13 April 2013.
27
both parties in the direction of the nation every four years.112 From 1958 to 1974, the spoils of
the political system were divvied between Liberals and Conservatives, an agreement which
stipulated that both parties would periodically exchange political control.113 According to
political scientist Esteban Mesa García, the Frente Nacional was anti-democratic from its onset
in 1958. Along with favoring modernity projects, this political coalition was also—just as
General Rojas Pinilla—fervently anti-communist.114 The Liberals and Conservatives who
exchanged power during the course of the late 1950s and 1960s were successful in reducing
political violence, yet political challenges to the National Front surfaced in rural areas of the
country. The consolidation of political power between Liberals and Conservatives left little if
any room for dissent in the political arena. The course of the 1960s would witness an escalation
of violence in the nation.
The late 1950s and early 1960s were marked by wars for national liberation across the
world against brutal dictators, colonizers, and leaders favoring First World interests. In 1959, the
fight against Fulgencio Batista in Cuba and (eventually) the United States led to July 26th
Movement’s victory led by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Camilo Cienfuegos.115 In 1962,
Algeria’s National Liberation Front successfully drove out French colonial forces that had ruled
the region since the 1830s.116 In Southeast Asia, French colonists backed forces by the British,
112
The exchange of power between Liberals and Conservatives soon sought third party allies who opted to align themselves with
either party in order to achieve political representation. Alfonso López Michelsen, through the Liberal Revolutionary Movement,
and General Rojas Pinilla’s National Popular Alliance are examples of third parties vying for congressional representation. For a
discussion on Colombia’s National Front see Jonathan Hartlyn, The Politics of Coalition Rule in Colombia (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2008).
113
Jenny Pearce quoted in Alfredo Molano, The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia, 29.
114
Mesa García, “El Frente Nacional y su naturaleza antidemocrática,” 157.
115
For an overview of the Cuban Revolution see Aviva Chomsky, A History of the Cuban Revolution (Malden and Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing, 2011), Lars Schoultz, That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution
(Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2009), as well as Marifeli Perez-Stable, The Cuban Revolution: Origins,
Course, and Legacy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). For a documentary on different aspects regarding the Cuban
Revolution see Three Cubans, Robert Carl Cohen, dir. CreateSpace, 2006.
116
For an overview of the Algerian Civil War see Alistair Home, A Save War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York: New
York Review of Books, 2006). For a good film on the Algerian Civil War see The Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo, dir. The
Criterion Collection, 1965.
28
and then the entry of the U.S. in Vietnam was met with direct challenge by insurgent forces in
South Vietnam that fought against First World interests, resulting in mass casualties and lasting
through the 1970s.117 Colombia proved to be an exception. The agreement taking place between
the traditional political parties paved the way for an insurgent offensive against the region south
of Medellín and northwest of Bogotá: Marquetalia.
Marquetalia, known during the La Violencia period as La República de Marquetalia (The
Republic of Marquetalia) was, according to the united Liberals and Conservatives, one of the
regions filled with communist farmers that needed to be subdued and reincorporated under the
mandate of the national government. The 1964 attack on the Republic of Marquetalia paved the
way for the rise of one of Colombia’s oldest insurgencies still active in the region: the Armed
Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC). The rise of the FARC also witnessed the appearance
of one of the most notorious rebel commanders in the Western Hemisphere who—until his recent
death in March 2008—was responsible for the effective offensive against the national
government (and later against the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia paramilitary or AUC)
and also responsible for contributing to the displacement of different communities in the nation:
Pedro Antonio Marín, nom de guerre Manuel Tirofijo or “Sure Shot” Marulanda.
Along with the rise of the FARC, 1964 also witnessed the rise of the National Liberation
Army (ELN), an insurgency heavily influenced by Marxism and liberation theology, as well as
the Marxist-Leninist guerrillas known as the Popular Liberation Army (EPL) in 1967. The
violence during this time period influenced the shifts in population taking place in Medellín and
Bogotá.
117
For works on the Vietnam War see Robert D. Schulzinger, A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941–1975 (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1997), Fredrik Logevall, Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in
Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), and Kim N. B. Ninh, A World Transformed: The Politics of Culture in
Revolutionary Vietnam, 1945–1965 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002).
29
In Antioquia, the 1960s witnessed the expulsion of more peasants from their land than in
any other part of the nation.118 The founders of a number of barrios created by displaced
fieldworkers resulted in the purchase of small lots from pirate developers.119 The unexpected
rise in population prompted the contracting of several “experts,” who included the North
American and Spanish urban planners Paul Lester Wiener and José Luis Sert, respectively, to
execute an ambitious project to accommodate the population rise. Under Plan Piloto, also
known as the “Medellín Master Plan,” the Medellín River was to be canalized, a stadium was to
be erected, and a political center just outside the city was to be constructed. Unfortunately, the
“experts” failed to recognize the sociohistorical issues affecting the local populace and favored
modernizing the better off sectors of Antioquia.120
Table 1-2: Medellín’s Rise in Population, 1905-1993121
Census Years Total Population Percent growing base
1905
1905 59,815 N/A
1951 358,189 599%
1964 772,887 1292%
1973 1,077,252 1791%
1985 1,468,089 2454%
1993 1,630,009 2725%
118
Riaño-Alcalá, Dwellers Memory: Youth and Violence in Medellín Colombia, 39.
119
Alonso Salazar J. and Ana María Jaramillo, Medellín: Las Subculturas del Narcotráfico (Medellín: CINEP, 1996), 24.
120
Jorge Restrepo Uribe, Medellín, su Origen, Progreso y Desarrollo (Medellín: Servigráficas, 1981).
121
Suramericana de Seguros, Historia de Antioquia (Medellín: Editorial Presencia Ltda, 1988), 299.
30
By the 1960s and 1970s, Medellín’s new migrants lived in illegal spaces that spread over
the base of Antioquia’s mountains. The city could expand no further due to geographic
constraints, which led to new barrio settlements in dangerous areas that did not have basic public
services and facilities.122 As a result, in less than 20 years the city of Medellín more than tripled
its population, causing a direct impact to the industrial crisis of consumer goods. The job offers
did not increase as fast as the number of job seekers, which led to marginal employment (See
Table 1-2).123 By 1964, Medellín held 772,887 inhabitants, which was approximately a 55%
total of the department’s population.124 Like Medellín, Bogotá also exhibited a rising population.
Bogotá’s population grew from 715,220 residents in 1951 to 1.6 million in 1964.125 A
case study on Bogotá explained that the rise of Bogotá’s slums was the result of a quick increase
in population that settled without having adequate housing and basic services.126 The population
crisis in Bogotá was adversely affected not only by the La Violencia period, but also by the city’s
move during the 19th century to transform itself into a zone that was “industrial, military, and
other [such] functions adjacent to the urban centre."127
The Bogotá urban perimeter expanded rapidly through illegal subdivisions,

occupation and the development of marginal areas by immigrants. Bogotá’s inner-
city slums, on the other hand, were mostly the result of urban transformation
process, whereby certain downtown areas underwent progressive social and
physical deterioration and, increasingly, accommodated lower hierarchy social
strata and economic activities.128
Bogotá and Medellín’s migrant “invasion” was not coincidental. The rise in “slumvilles” in and
around central economic zones such as Bogotá and Medellín, and in other parts of the nation,
122
Alonso Salazar J. and Ana María Jaramillo, Medellín: Las Subculturas del Narcotráfico, 28.
123
Suramericana de Seguros, Historia de Antioquia, 299.
124
Suramericana de Seguros, Historia de Antioquia.
125
Alfredo Molano, The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia, 205.
126
Nicolás Rueda García “Understanding Slums: Case Studies for the Global Report 2003,” UN-Habitat: For a Better Urban
Future, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-projects/Global_Report/cities/bogota.htm, accessed 20 March 2011.
127
Rueda García, “Understanding Slums: Case Studies for the Global Report 2003.”
128
Rueda García.
31
was the outcome of unplanned and informal urbanizations.129 Furthermore, in Bogotá, the
increasing social disparity was due to inhabitants being excluded from job opportunities and an
opportunity for income stability, and access to housing, education, and health care services.130 In
other words, the average Colombian migrant family heading to the “big city” could not afford to
purchase a house, forcing families to find alternative modes of living that ultimately bound them
to desperate measures of building illegal establishments. Moreover, the growth of the urban
regions, combined with a deplorable mass transportation system, facilitated the rise of an
underground market that included prostitution as well as the illegal distribution of imported
liquors, cigarettes, and stealing of gravestones. Such conditions in both Bogotá and Medellín
paved the way for a new Colombian youth culture receptive to a different form of music. One
outlet was rock music.
¡Llegó el Rocanrol a Colombia! Rock and Roll has arrived to Colombia!
The history of rock music in Latin America began with its development and production in
the United States and Great Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. Rock music’s first port of
arrival in Latin America was Mexico, a region where this new music form was welcomed by
Mexico’s youths and tentatively abhorred by its older generation.131 Rock music’s arrival in
Colombia followed not long after its reception in Mexico. Not coincidentally, the appointment
of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla to Colombia’s presidency witnessed his commitment to the
U.S. by fighting communism and its supporters. General Rojas Pinilla, in his attempt to
modernize Colombia, brought into the South American nation a technology that revolutionized
communication and entertainment: television. Whereas radio technology was active in Colombia
129
Rueda García, “Understanding Slums: Case Studies for the Global Report 2003.”
130
Nicolás Rueda-García, “The Case of Bogotá D.C., Colombia,” Universidad de Los Andes, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu-
projects/Global_Report/pdfs/Bogota.pdf, accessed 13 April 2013.
131
Eric Zolov, Refired Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture.
32
by 1928, the first television broadcast included an “interpretation of the national anthem by the
Colombian Symphony Orchestra” and a speech given by General Rojas Pinilla.132
According to Colombian rock historian Reina Rodríguez, radio, as much as the arrival of
television, was fundamental to the beginning a national rock sound.133 Rocanrol in Colombia
was not solely packaged in what was imported from the United States or England, or heard over
the nation’s airwaves, where disc jockeys such as Jimmy Reisback in 1957, and later Carlos
Pinzón, showcased the music of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and Chuck Berry. 134
The artists that were also imported into the South American nation were refritos, or cover bands,
from Mexico as well as Argentina. Arias noted that “rock and roll came to Colombia like
Cantinflas, ranchera music, the Chapulín Colorado, and Verónica Castro.”135 In other words,
Colombia was receptive to Mexico’s own rock superstars who included César Costa, Enrique
Guzmán, Los Teen Tops, and other groups from their North American neighbors. Colombian
youths listened and were enamored by songs such as “Oye Niña” (a refrito of “Let’s Dance”),
“Tu Cabeza en Mi Hombro” (refrito of “Put Your Head on My Shoulder”), “La Plaga” (refrito of
“Good Golly Miss Molly”), as well as “Chica Mala” (“Bad Girl”). While the music was
certainly influential in Colombia and other parts of Latin America, films showcasing rock and
roll provided Colombian youths with a visual as to what the music looked like and how to
celebrate the music.
132
“La radio suena en Colombia (1929),” El Tiempo, http://www.eltiempo.com/100/dk100/cronologia_centenario/ARTICULO-
WEB-PLANT_NOTA_INTERIOR_100-7670993.html, accessed 14 April 2013. “En 1954 llegó la television a Colombia,” El
Tiempo, http://www.eltiempo.com/100/dk100/cronologia_centenario/ARTICULO-WEB-PLANT_NOTA_INTERIOR_100-
7821742.html, accessed 14 April 2013.
133
Carlos Arturo Reina Rodríguez, Bogotá: Más que Pesado, METAL con Historia, 36.
134
Umberto Pérez, Bogotá, Epicentro del Rock Colombiano Entre 1957 y 1975: Una Manifestación Social, Cultural, y Juvenil
(Bogotá: Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá, 2007), 27.
135
Eduardo Arias, “Surfin’ Chapinero. Historia incompleta, cachaca, subjetiva, irreflexiva e irresponsable del rock en Colombia”
in Eduardo Arias, Gabriel Villarroel, José Alejandro Cepeda, et al., Revista La Tadeo: Rock-Voz urbana, lenguaje universal
(Bogotá Universidad de Bogotá, 2006), 200-211.
33
Films arriving in Colombia, such as Rebelde Sin Causa (Rebel Without a Cause),
Semilla del Maldad (Blackboard Jungle), ¡Salvaje! (The Wild One), and Al Compás del Reloj
(Rock Around the Clock) in the late 1950s, created a visual for Colombia’s youths to engage
rock music. These films not only reinforced what rock and roll looked like, but the films also
underscored youth rivalries, serving as an inspiration for the existing and growing gang violence
taking place in Bogotá and Medellín. The inspirations for the nation’s youths were not only
limited to renowned Mexican artists Pedro Infante or Jorge Negrete or Cuban singer Celia Cruz.
The younger generation looked to Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, and other rock stars
of the era.
By the early 1960s, Colombian teens, as well as youths in other parts of Latin America,
drew inspiration from their rocanrol idols, creating bands that covered some of rock music’s
now classic hits. These Colombian refritos included bands such as Los Speakers, Los Yetis, Los
Flippers, Los Desconocidos, Los Pelukas, Los Caminantes, and Danger Twist, as well as soloists
Harold, Óscar Golden, and Vicky—the latter singing sensations comprised the nation’s famous
televised rock show known as El Club del Clan.136 According to Flippers’ member Arturo
Astudillo, the first time that the band travelled to Miami they went to a music store to
specifically buy a guitar like George Harrison’s, “a bass like Paul . . . and a drum kit like
Ringo.”137 The mentioned bands were booked to perform in venues and clubs in Colombia such
as La Gioconda, Las Mazmorras, La Bomba. During this time period, Colombian youth culture
also enjoyed homegrown band songs such as “Tendrás Mi Amor,” “Todo Está Muy Bién,”
“Danza Go-go,” and other songs emulating the imported rock music. By the latter part of the
136
Eduardo Arias, “Surfin’ Chapinero. Historia incompleta, cachaca, subjetiva, irreflexiva e irresponsable del rock en Colombia,”
202-203.
137
“Los dinosaurios no van a desaparecer,” Encuentro, 14 April 2008,
http://bogota.vive.in/musica/bogota/articulos_musica/abril2008/ARTICULO-PRINTER_FRIENDLY-VPRINTER_FRIENDLY-
4098923.html, accessed 14 February 2011.
34
1960s, Colombia’s rock music scene, as in different parts of the world, had changed. Included in
such change was the nation’s changing population in Bogotá and Medellín.
The late 1960s was important in Colombia not only because of the student movement
protests taking place there and all over the globe138, or because of the escalating wars taking
place in the nation’s countryside between the national military and the different guerrilla factions
and those involving the United States in Southeast Asia, or the series of meetings set out in
discussion of the Catholic Church’s position on liberation theology.139 This era was important
because the influences on Colombia’s growing rock music culture also included absorption of
new rock music styles. Local aficionados expanded their own pallet to foreign bands like
Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, to name a few. The late 1960s and
1970s showcased bands that engaged a new subgenre of rock music: experimental rock. Bands
such as Génesis, Malanga, The Time Machine, Columna de Fuego, Siglo Cero, Los Electronicos,
and Gran Sociedad de Estado comprised the new music rock scene in Colombia.140
This was an important moment in Colombia’s rock history because it presented the
“crème de la crème” of Colombian rock. This era was also when Latin American rock, thanks to
the contributions and music fusion of Latino artists such as Carlos Santana, made its presence
felt in the South American nation. This was also a shift in musical production since the majority
of the bands in Latin America were no longer simply photocopies of North American and
European bands. These bands were producing music in Spanish and, in certain cases,
incorporating indigenous instrumentation. Colombian rock historian Umberto Pérez argued that
138
1960s was marked by the student movements taking place across the globe in, for instance, Colombia, Mexico, the United
States, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and other nations and Third World colonies of the era.
139
The discussions regarding liberation theology began in Medellín in 1968. The Church and Society in Latin American or ISAL
began in the early 1960s and sought to incorporate social justice to gospel teachings for Latin America. Many of the clandestine
movements in Latin America took place in cities such as Bogotá and Medellín. For a discussion on the rise of liberation
theology in Latin America see Christian Smith, The emergence of Liberation Theology: Radical Religion and Social Movement
Theory (Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 1991).
140
“Grupos Rock Colombiano,” Liberro.it, digilander.libero.it/rockolombia/, accessed 14 February 2011.
35
although the music material was much more creative, Colombian rock music was—in the eyes of
businesses, radio, and the press—something neither “danceable nor trendy.”141
Despite the apathy of private interest groups, rock music in Colombia gained fans who
were adamant followers of the deep-rooted meanings behind the evolution of the music form
itself. Those engaging in the aesthetic of “peace” and “love” of the time period veered away
from the one expressed by their North American counterparts. These South American hippies
redefined themselves through musical and cultural expressions that exhibited a deep search for
their cultural roots.142 By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bogotá’s rock music scene witnessed
some of its first underground publications such as Olvídate Periódico Total and concerts such as
the 1970 El Festival de la Vida in the Parque Nacional in Bogotá.143 Eduardo Arias remarked
that there were other concerts that took place, including shows at the Parque Nacional de
Bogotá, the Escenario de Lijacá, and the Pedregal de Cali. Also, by 1970, while rock music in
the nation took course, just barely over 10% of the total population in Bogotá resided in illegal
dwellings.144 1971 was an important year for Colombian rock because as the nation’s poor grew
poorer, thousands of youths in search of an identity divorcing itself from Colombia’s traditions
flocked to the outskirts of Medellín to one of the most important events in Colombian rock music
history.
141
Umberto Pérez, Bogotá, Epicentro del Rock Colombiano Entre 1957 y 1975: Una Manifestación Social, Cultural, y Juvenil,
69.
142
204. The expressions of “hippy-ism” in the Colombian context went past simply notions of “free love” and “peace”. For
example, Genesis band member Humberto Monroy discussed that this was a different historical moment since the idea was
experimenting with different instruments as a synthesis of different individuals residing in different parts of the nation: the
indigenous, the Afro-Colombian, the urban citizen, etc. See “Nación Rock ¼-Historia del rock en Colombia (1965-1975),”
Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd3Hlb4P8vs&feature=related, accessed 14 February 2011.
143
87.
144
Umberto Pérez ,14.
36
Colombia’s Woodstock: The Ancón Festival
The 1971 Ancón festival was Colombia’s response to both the influence of the rock
music’s local and global development and the 1969 Woodstock Festival in New York, which in
the words of Eduardo Arias was the festival that one could see “rich hippies and poor hippies”
gathered together to listen to rock music “responding to an excess of [the world’s] hate with an
excess of love.”145 The festival in Colombia was organized by the Gonzalo “Carolo” Caro, a
passionate rocker who searched for collaborators in Bogotá. In the nation’s capital, Caro found
Gustavo Arenas and Colombian “hippie president” Manuel V.146 The Ancón festival was also a
three-day event that brought together some of Colombia’s rock music talent including La
Columna de Fuego, La Banda del Marciano, Carne Dura, La Planta, and Los Laser, as well as a
“Frankenstein” rock band comprised of members from different tropical music orchestras such as
Los Black Stars and Los Graduados (See Picture 1-1). Estimates of the festival’s attendance
ranged from 30,000 to 300,000; and though it was not known for sure how many people the
concert drew in, the concert’s importance extended itself beyond the music that was showcased
and beyond the actual number of attendants at the show.147 The concert attracted thousands of
young people from different parts of the nation who wanted to rock and
[o]ver the course of three days, marijuana and other psychoactive drugs were
actively consumed by youth who screamed “‘peace verses’” and defied dominant
social values and the mainstream culture’s double morality concerning sex,
religion and ethics. For the youth that attended the festival, smoking marijuana
was a recent and trendy discovery.148
145
203.
146
94. Manuel V was known as the “hippie president” because of his run-in with then-president Carlos Lleras Restrepo and an hour-
long conversation with Colombia’s president over hippie ideology.
147
Umberto Pérez, 97.
148
37
Picture 1-1: Ancón misspelled in promotional flyer149
Ancón was also important because it drew a large amount of attention from one of rock music’s
largest foe in the region: the conservative elite of Antioquia. This is not to say that only the elite
in Colombia questioned the “appropriateness” in rock music or any rock performances, let alone
rock festivals, but the paisa conservatives, including the Catholic Church, preferred to burn in
hell than see their city go to waste to a bunch of wasted youths. According to Medellín’s
149
Feloarias, “Cartel del Festival de Ancón,” Wikipedia, http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Anc%C3%B3n1971.JPG, accessed
14 February 2010.
38
Archbishop Tulio Botero Salazar, the show’s attendees were a bunch of “vagabond kids, hippies
that aren’t really seen around, [and] one of them is [obviously] a foreigner.”150 Damning
youths was not the only means to openly refuse rock music and their associates. There needed to
be a scapegoat, someone to blame for the event even for having permission to perform. The
antioqueño anti-rock brigade needed a culprit, and the culprit was the mayor of the time: Álvaro
Villegas.
Supporting the concert festival was an action that backfired against the mayor and his
career in politics. According to Archbishop Botero Salazar, it was inconceivable that the mayor
of the city would even consider hosting a rock festival especially considering that this would
place las buenas costumbres (the good customs) and la moral católica (the Catholic morale) into
question.151 The Archbishop was concerned about keeping intact the “traditional Colombian
family.” In Antioquia, Cundinamarca, and other parts of the nation, the conservative patriarchal
household wedded to the ideals of Catholicism sought to produce upright citizenry.152
Challenges to “tradition” were met by the Church, which considered the rock music festival as an
excellent display of decadence. As a result, the Church declared that all festival attendants, and
Mayor Villegas, were to be excommunicated.153 Other opposition to the festival and its
attendants came from landowners who banded together to literally ride their horses and trample
any of the concertgoers off their property. Along with spiritual and local condemnation, the
director of the police force ordered the women and mechudos, or long-haired males, to evacuate
150
Archbishop Salazar quoted in Alejandro García Gómez “Festival de Ancón: 40 años,” El Mundo.com,
http://www.elmundo.com/portal/opinion/columnistas/festival_de_ancon_40_anios.php, accessed 21 April 2013.
151
152
Pablo Rodríguez, Martine Selegane, Christiane Kaplisch-Zuber, et al., La Familia en Iberoamérica 1550-1980 (Bogotá:
Universidad de Colombia, 2004). Other excellent studies on the Colombian family structure include Cecilia Muñoz and Ximena
Pachón, La niñez en el siglo XX (Bogotá: Editorial Planeta, 1991), as well as Ligia Echeverri de Ferrufino, La familia de hecho en
Colombia: constitución, características y consecuencias socio-jurídicas (Bogotá: Editorial Tercer Mundo, 1984), Carmen Elisa
Flórez et al., La transición demográfica en Colombia. Efectos en la formación de la familia (Bogotá: Uniandes, 1990), and
Myriam Ordóñez Gómez, La Familia Colombiana de finales del siglo XX (Bogotá: Profamilia-UNFPA, 1998).
153
“El Woodstock Criollo Cumplió Cuarenta Años,” CARTELURBANO.COM http://www.cartelurbano.com/node/3730, accessed
20 April 2013.
39
the region in 24 hours.154 Ancón was considered to be the largest celebrated moment in the
nation’s counterculture movement. What was it about rock music and those supporting the
music that would prompt such anxiety and repression against concertgoers, organizers, and city
officials?
The answer lies apparently in the way that rock music was perceived in the country. This
festival was definitely a good litmus test to see how well rock music’s evolution would be
embraced in one of Colombia’s most conservative regions. During the previous decade, rock
music was something that was fascinating and interesting, and it was found in the nation’s
airwaves and local clubs, though nonetheless—for sure—considered foreign or rather non-
Colombian. Bands that surfaced in the 1960s, like The Speakers and The Flippers, were clearly
reminiscent not only of their Latin American neighbor refrito bands but also the Beatles and
other English and U.S. rock bands. Rock music was not threatening, I argue, because there was
enough radio, television, and advertising exposure in the 1960s that presented rock music in a
positive light. Furthermore, Colombian parents were well aware of the music’s content and
popularity among youths, though they were still wary because of the foreign nature of this music
form. Also, rock music, including other rhythms, was incorporated into the parent-supervised
teenage dance parties better known as agüelulo or the Coca-Cola bailables. These were dance
parties that supposedly served non-alcoholic drinks, such as Coca-Cola, and provided meat-filled
pastries known as empanadas while blasting the latest rock tunes heard in Colombia at the
time.155
154
“El Woodstock Criollo Cumplió Cuarenta Años” in CARTELURBANO.COM accessed 20 April 2013
http://www.cartelurbano.com/node/3730.
155
A conversation with Juan Adelmo Hortua and Ligia Hortua unveiled the “high possibility” of alcohol having been added to
whatever soft drink provided at the party. The type of alcohol added ranged from rum to aguardiente. Juan Adelmo Hortua
Personal Interview 22 November 2010. Ligia Hortua Personal Interview 24 December 2010.
40
In Colombia, rock music during the 1960s was not as socially threatening as, unlike other
parts of the globe,156 the subgenres that followed in the subsequent decades; by the 1970s, rock
music’s evolution in and outside Colombia was not as clean-cut as it was in the early stages of
rock music in Colombia and other parts of the world. The music produced and created in the
1970s did not veer away from love songs. However, rock music aficionados and performers
were no longer the clean cut, mop-topped, suit-wearing youths like the great Harold Orozco or
Oscar Golden. Music in the 1970s, as former Malanga and Crash member Augusto Martelo
stated, was “still rock” but entering the “rock Latino stage.”157 As mentioned, Martelo
considered Santana [and other Latino artists of the era] a huge influence on the new rock
produced in the region. Music by Colombian bands like Génesis focused on topics such as
peace, war, and existentialism. Their 1974 hit "Sueñas, Quieres, Dices" questioned an
individual’s commitment to making the world a safer and better place.158 What was an
individual willing to do to ensure peace and tranquility in our world? According to Génesis,
people ought to tell those who were in favor of war that “those without land” would not be in
favor of fighting and that the best answer was promoting “peace and meditation.”159 However,
the “peace and meditation” promoted by Génesis was neither a possible dream nor would it
become an actuality in the 1970s or 1980s, or even today, in Colombia.
While rock music in Colombia evolved, the 1970s also witnessed the rise of the April
19th Movement (M-19) following the fraudulent election of Conservative candidate Misael
Pastrana which declared him the “clear” winner over ANAPO candidate General Rojas Pinilla.
156
In the United States, rock music of the 1950s was considered dangerous because it was considered “Negro music,” and
because it was sensual and exotic. Rock music in the United States, and other parts of the First World, had to be essentially
“sanitized” before it would appear on the radio and on television.
157
Augusto Martelo interviewed in “Nación Rock 1/4-Historia del rock en Colombia (1965-1975).”
158
“Lyric, Géne-sis-Sueñas, quieres, dices,” Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnYFawSmrgU, accessed 14 February
2011.
159
“Lyric, Géne-sis-Sueñas, quieres, dices.”
41
What at first seemed full civilian support for this urban-based insurgency saw repercussions by
the national government and supporters’ disdain after the M-19 moved to take over the Palace of
Justice in 1985. The result was a disaster for both the guerrilla movement and the national
government: dead justices, dead guerrillas, and massive infrastructure damage. The
government’s initial scorched-earth stance against the M-19 changed once the Colombian
government granted amnesty to guerrilla members in 1989 and an invitation to partake in the
electoral process.160 The M-19 was not the only guerrilla group to take the government’s
invitation. Members from the FARC received such invitation in 1984. Although the M-19 won
seats in Congress, demobilization for either guerrilla group proved to be disastrous. The FARC’s
political arm, the Unión Patriotica (UP), was ultimately dismantled with the assassination of
over 3,000 UP activists, while the M-19 Democratic Alliance (AD-M-19) suffered an incredible
blow with the assassination of their presidential candidate, Carlos Pizarro Leongómez, in
1990.161 Unfortunately, historical counterfactuals could only let us imagine what would or could
have been of the nation in the 1990s had the demobilized groups been given an adequate
opportunity to partake in party politics. To complicate matters, in both Bogotá and Medellín,
rising poverty created the right conditions for the further construction of illegal housing units.
By 1985, approximately 35% of the total population in Colombia’s major cities such as
Bogotá and Medellín lived in poverty, with 14% living in abject poverty. The results were far
more astounding when statistics focused primarily outside the major metropolis. They revealed
that approximately 54% of the population lived in total poverty, while 26% in abject poverty.162
For the same year, Medellín’s poverty rate reached 40% of the total population, with about 19%
living in absolute poverty (the population lived in incorporating the major economic
160
Riaño-Alcalá, Dwellers Memory: Youth and Violence in Medellín Colombia, 30-31.
161
Riaño-Alcalá, 31.
162
Riaño-Alcalá, 2.
42
Picture 1-2: “In Colombia, there’s so much unemployment that Worker’s Day is for a
minority”163
industrial center into the figure). Excluding the metropolis, the percentages increased to 58% of
the population living in poverty, while 32% lived in abject poverty, excluding the major
metropolis.164
El Colombiano newspaper published a cartoon acknowledging the extent of
unemployment by the end of the 1980s (see Picture 1-2). The result for both Bogotá and
Medellín was the formation of barrios in the impoverished zones and slum sectors that became
key focal points for enthusiasts of the Colombian heavy metal and punk rock scene. One of the
most impoverished zones located in southern Bogotá became known as Ciudad Bolivar (See
Map 1-1). Furthermore, the “unending Civil Wars in Colombia likewise have added more than
400,000 [internally displaced people] to Bogotá’s urban poverty belt,” which included large
163
“Dia del Trabajo,” El Colombiano, May 1, 1988, 5a.
164
Riaño-Alcalá, Dwellers Memory: Youth and Violence in Medellín Colombia.
43
informal settlements of Sumapaz, Ciudad Bolivar, Usme, and Soacha.165 Another element
influencing the nation’s growing violence and the course of mass displacement was the rise of
the drug trade and paramilitaries.
According to sociologist Alfredo Molano, “the drug cartels and the paramilitaries . . . rose
side by side, as the major drug cartels in Medellín and Cali financed and armed many of the
original paramilitary forces.”166 In the 1970s and 1980s, peasant farmers facing abject poverty
“turned to coca production as a lucrative and easily transportable crop.”167 The change in
farming economy led guerrillas to quickly move to tap the wealth. Guerrillas established a series
of taxes on coca transporters who took the coca from the fields to the different cartels, which
permitted the guerrillas to provide a host of services for the countryside’s impoverished
communities. The guerrillas who taxed the transporters also found profit in kidnapping the
relatives of the drug traffickers. The narcos furiously fought back forming the paramilitary
“Death to Kidnappers” (MAS), which not coincidentally paralleled the national government’s
desire to fight the guerrillas through a “loophole in Colombian law” that paved the way for the
United Self-Defense Forces.168
The formation of armed and organized paramilitaries working in rural sectors of
Colombia resulted in the escalation of the number of massacres, displacements, and
disappearances. According to AUC co-founder and co-leader Carlos Castaño, “[i]t’s difficult to
mark the exact date [of the rise of the urban anti-subversive movement] because by 1980, and
following the persecution of my father’s kidnappers, guerrillas were already being executed in
165
Mike Davis, Planet of Slums (London: Verso, 2006), 49.
166
Molano, The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia, 32.
167
Molano.
168
Molano.
44
towns.”169 As mentioned above, paramilitary activity in Colombia was not new since the period
of La Violencia witnessed small paramilitary bands formed in search of rival political factions.
Although paramilitary violence, as much as guerrilla and national military violence, has served
to accelerate the displacement of Colombians, another element influencing displacement and the
sociopolitical course of the nation was United States intervention.
Cold War Assistance? The United States in Colombia
The U.S. presence and influence in the South American country began with the
independence of Panama from Colombia in 1903.170 In 1928, the United Fruit Company,
operating in different parts of the Americas and employing the U.S. forces when deemed
necessary, used the Cienagá local army to quell a month-long strike by local union activists
seeking better working conditions. This resulted in the deaths of protestors and several of their
family members.171 During the onset of the Cold War, Colombia was not as high a priority as
was Cuba. The Colombian government in power was a U.S. ally and fervently anti-communist,
though North American operations in the nation were small.
The rising influence of guerrillas in the rural and urban spaces, combined with student
unrest of the 1960s and 1970s, kept Colombia under Washington’s watchful eye. U.S. president
John F. Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress program (AP) in 1961 was the North American
response to Cuba’s political and socioeconomic revolution. The AP aimed at reducing poverty
169
Mauricio Aranguren Molina, Mi Confesión: Carlos Castaño revela sus secretos (Colombia: Editorial La Oveja Negra, Ltda.,
2001), 107.
170
The United States played an instrumental role in accelerating the independence of Panama from Colombia. Despite the active
independence movement in Panama prior to U.S. involvement, it was not until U.S. intervention that the isthmus seceded from
Colombia in 1903. For more information on Panama’s independence see Robert C. Harding, The History of Panama (Westport:
Greenwood Press, 2006) and Julie Greene, The Canal Builders: Making America’s Empire at the Panama Canal (New York: The
Penguin Press, 2009).
171
The 1928 Banana Massacre took place in the outskirts of Santa Marta and had the nation not sent its military to quell the
strikes, the United Fruit was more than willing to call on the U.S. Marines to protect their interests. For more on the U.S.
intervention in Colombia, see Garry M. Leech, Killing Peace: Colombia’s Conflict and the Failure of U.S. Intervention (New
York: Information Network of the Americas, 2002) as well as Stephen J. Randall, Colombia and the United States: Hegemony
and Interdependence (Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1992).
45
by incorporating land reform and ensuring democratic friendly governments, economic
collaboration between Latin America and the United States, and infrastructure modernization
projects. However, it also sought to ensure the elimination of any form of communist
organizations evident in the country through “sabotage and/or terrorist activities against
Communist proponents.”172 The School of the Americas (SOTA), known today as the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, was the U.S. government’s response to
revolutionary activity and Soviet influence in Latin America. The objective of the “school” was
to train inter/national officers and soldiers in counterrevolutionary tactics. The SOTA welcomed
thousands of Colombian officials, training them using the latest weapons and strategies to
dismantle Leftist activity in the Western Hemisphere. North American military training of
paramilitaries was only part of U.S. Cold War politics in Colombia and other parts of Latin
America. The AP also subsidized huge housing projects, such as in Ciudad Techo (80,000
people) in Bogotá and also Villa Socorro (12,000 people) in Medellín.173
Ciudad Techo/Ciudad Kennedy: Hotbed of Heavy Metal and Punk Rock
Ciudad Techo, like the marginalized sector of Ciudad Bolivar, unlike other Bogotá barrios such
as Usaquén, was not considered an upscale zone in Bogotá. Ciudad Techo (See Map 1-1) was a
product of John F. Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress program (See Picture 1-3), which provided a
$2.5 million loan under the Social Progress Trust Fund to finance 59% of the entire construction.
Ciudad Techo was eventually renamed Ciudad Kennedy in honor of the assassinated North
American president in 1963.174 According to local historian Fidel Juez, the establishment of a
172
Molano, The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia, 34.
173
Davis, Planet of Slums, 200.
174
The first registered homeowner/resident of Barrio Kennedy was Argenil Plazas García, reported to have received his deed by
both Colombian President Carlos Lleras Camargo and President John F. Kennedy in 1961. For a short video on Mr. Plazas
García’s testimony see “Historia Barrio Kennedy,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mg5Qjzokx0, accessed 20
March 2011.
46
Map 1-1: Bogotá and its major sectors. Usaquén is located north of the city, Kennedy and
Bolivar in southern sector. 175
population, surpassing 1 million inhabitants today, was made possible by the increasing number
of displaced farm worker families heading into the city during and following the La Violencia
period searching to “preserve a sense of family.”176
Ciudad Kennedy also witnessed the arrival of families fleeing rural violence and
establishing themselves in and around the region in illegal dwellings. In the 1970s, witnessing
the rising presence of newcomers to the region, the national government sought to increase
employment in the area for its residents. With push by both the nation’s president and the city’s
mayor for the construction of a wholesale market foods facility, known as CORABASTO
(Central Supply of Bogotá), Kennedy and Bogotá residents were ensured access to previously
175
Bogotá map in “Mapas de Bogotá,” Bogotámiciudad.com, http://www.bogotamiciudad.com/_Images/mapa.gif, accessed 21
March 2011.
176
Fidel Juarez interviewed in “Historia de Kennedy Parte 2. Instituto La Pola,” Youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=espcw_UtQas&feature=related, accessed 20 March 2011.
47
Picture 1-3: JKF (left) and Alberto Lleras Camargo (right) promoting the North American
leader’s Alliance for Progress program in Colombia in 1961.177
unattainable foodstuffs. CORABASTOS created the jobs that President Carlos Lleras Camargo
and Mayor Emilio Urrea Delgado believed would help the populace; however, the results created
a new concern. The rise in the number of jobs meant an increase in the number of incoming
laborers that needed to access some form of local housing. As a result, the rise in the number of
jobs was not enough to reduce the unemployment rate in this region.
A study on Ciudad Kennedy explained that some of the major concerns the area has
historically faced included high unemployment, a high number of persons in poverty, a high
number of businesses leaving the region, and a “high number of people not attaining a basic
standard of living.”178 The rising population created a youth culture with limited opportunities
that paved the way for the rise of some of Bogotá’s gangs. Areas such as Ciudad Kennedy were
177
Picture from “Alianza para el Progreso, el sendero hacia el sueño latinoamericano,” 25 February 2004, Ariadna Tucma
Revista latinoaericana, http://www.ariadnatucma.com.ar/?p=168, accessed 18 August 2012.
178
Ursula Mena Lozano, Localidad de Kennedy Ficha Básica (Bogotá: Secretaría de Cultura, Recreación y Deportes, 2008), 86.
48
prime locations for youths searching for different avenues of identity, including engaging in
heavy rock music. According to Perea Restrepo’s study on Bogotá gang culture and history,
1985 marked a pivotal year that saw a sharp rise in gang crime and violence, resulting in
approximately 66 homicides per 100,000 habitants.179 Ciudad Kennedy’s current number of
gangs (tabulated at 162, while Ciudad Bolivar held over 180) sprouted from the era of a 1980s
Colombian citizenry opting to circumvent the socioeconomic hardships unaddressed effectively
by the local government. By the time a heavier rock music sound landed on the ears of residents
from Ciudad Kennedy and other Bogotá barrios, the local conditions were more than ripe for the
music’s reception. In Medellín, the Las Comunas region unveiled a new youth, heavy rock
music culture influenced by the region’s historical conservative identity.
Las Comunas: Medellín’s Hotbed for Metal and Punk Rock Music
Medellín’s impoverished sector labeled as Las Comunas was the birth of Antioquia’s
heavy rock music scene. The region labeled as Las Comunas was a product of the “process of
urbanization that was characterized by illegal acquisition of land (through invasion and pirated
lots), recurring to violence as a form of resistance, the self-construction of housing, and resisting
eviction and private interests in public services.”180 The Comunas (See Map 1-2) were created
by the municipal councils of Medellín that believed dividing the city’s sectors into specific
comunas would help adequately determine the specific needs of the regions. In other words,
statistics based on local income and population helped determine the amount of taxes levied by
the local government. The poorer the region, the less taxes imposed on its inhabitants and the
cheaper the rates implemented on public services (i.e., electricity, telephone, etc.). In Medellín,
179
Carlos Mario Perea Restrepo, “Pandillas y Violencias Urbanas: El suroriente de Bogotá” in Journal of Iberian and Latin
American Studies, December 2001, 47.
180
Vilma Liliana Franco R., “Violencias, Conflictos Urbanos Y Guerra Civil: El Caso de la Ciudad de Medellín en la Década de
Los Noventa” in Carlos Mario Piedrahita Londoño, Conflictos Urbanos y Alternativas de Transformación (Medellín: Instituto
Popular de Capacitación, IPC, 2004), 29.
49
Map 1-2: Medellín’s and its barrios and comunas181
16 comunas were constructed, of which the wealthiest sectors were located in the south side of
the city. Comunas such as Manrique, Santa Cruz, Popular, Castilla, 12 de Octubre, and Aranjuez
were particular zones that were wrought forth by the “displacement problem” and that the
“structural problems of the city, unemployment, modes of housing, and lacking basic public
services” affecting “70% of the population” during the course of the 1980s and 1990s.182 During
the 1980s, this region also witnessed the rise of galladas, or gangs, in the northeastern and
western sector of the city vying for territorial control. According to Naranjo, the 150 galladas
that ultimately recruited over 3,000 youths would make their presence known, as will be
181
“Mapas de Medellín y sus corregimientos,” Medellin.gov.co,
http://www.medellin.gov.co/irj/go/km/docs/wpccontent/Sites/Subportal%20del%20Ciudadano/Cultura/Secciones/Mapas/Docum
entos/2010/Mapas%20tur%C3%ADsticos/mmhct.gif, accessed 20 March 2013.
182
Gloria Naranjo, Medellín en Zonas: Monografías (Medellín: Corporación Región, 1992), 3.
50
discussed in Chapter 5, as hired assassins for drug dealers during the course of the 1980s and into
the 1990s. Furthermore,
the general characteristics these populations from these barrios, that we shall label
popular, are identified by the low quality of life and can be described as follows:
low production and unstable levels of income, very large population, under
employment, informal employment and sheer unemployment, limited capacity for
savings, low levels of education and training, and that is how they live in the
middle of epidemics, plagues, diarrheas, and malnutrition.183
The abysmal state of antioqueños and non-antioqueños living in this region, and those residing
in Bogotá’s impoverished sectors, paved the way for different challenges to the existing
conditions. Such challenges veered away from depending on the State to accessing better
housing, employment, schooling, and a stable and minimum standard of living. This was, I
argue, a form of consciousness represented through arduous resistance, persistence, and
survival.184 Forms of resistance were exhibited by impoverished Colombians by accessing
employment in the informal sector and/or by youths who formed gangs as a nuanced form of
local identity. Survival ensured that marginalized communities lived to see another day.
Resisting the existing conditions meant that there was still a chance to dream. Such persistence
allowed for the youth to understand that change was possible; inclusion into the education
system, the ranks of employment, and access to adequate housing and health care were not
remote or working class fantasies.
Survival in this region was not simply stealing from one’s neighbor or attending Sunday
service and praying for wealth to shine upon one’s family. Survival meant collaboration
between those affected by displacement. Survival meant organizing one’s community to address
the needs of the community. Unfortunately, many people would perish during the 1980s and
183
Naranjo, Medellín en Zonas: Monografías, 4.
184
For scholarly works on Third World resistance see James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: everyday Forms of Resistance (New
Haven: Yale University, 1985) and James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance (New Haven: Yale University, 1990).
51
early 1990s attempting to survive. The youths were not necessarily looking to change the world,
but rather create a new world within a failed system for them to live in. The poverty in
Medellín’s comunas was such that basic services for an adequate standard of living were absent.
The decrepit conditions experienced by those residing in the hardest areas of Las Comunas, and
in Bogotá’s spaces, placed into question what sort of future was possible for the nation’s youth.
There were other outlets in which the youth were gravitating towards that in Colombian
society were unquestionably socially acceptable: joining a church group, playing sports, or
partaking in local politics. Some youths of the 1980s and early 1990s steered away from
“traditional institutions and spaces” such as church, family, and school.185 There were also
outlets that the same society applauding a soccer tournament frowned upon. Such outlets were
deemed inappropriate and considered a hotbed for drug addiction and devil worshipping. These
“inappropriate” alternative outlets challenged the course of Colombian society’s expectations of
its younger generation. Despite uncertainty for Colombia’s future, one outlet for youths came in
the form of heavy metal and punk rock music.
Colombian rock music’s social acceptability waned following the rise of a localized rock
music form that, as mentioned above, did not simply replicate what was “foreign” and
“intriguing” from the United States, England, Mexico, or any other part of Latin America. The
1970s evolution in rock music challenged the established conservative imaginary, in both Bogotá
and Medellín, by showcasing the evolution of rock and roll music. The music, to the dismay of
certain parts of Colombian society, only grew darker and more aggressive. By the late 1970s and
early 1980s, Colombian rockers and music aficionados witnessed the entry of two subgenres in
the historical course of rock music’s global diffusion. Accessing the music was an opportunity
to have a music style that adequately reflected what youths faced in Colombia during the 1980s:
185
Naranjo, Medellín en Zonas: Monografías, 6.
52
a nation that offered limited opportunities, warfare, and crooked politics. Having a chance at a
solid education, getting a good job, and a good future were reserved for privileged groups. The
welcoming of heavy metal and punk rock into parts of both Bogotá and Medellín could not have
come at a better time. The music itself could not have been a sweeter symphony to the ears of a
Colombian youth culture that used metal and punk to construct a fitting soundtrack to their lived
experiences.
Conclusions: “I Wanna Rock! ROCK! ROCK! ROCK!”186
In 1948, the course of Colombia’s sociopolitical history shifted following the
assassination of Liberal party candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán. The assassination not only
propelled Colombia into the bloody La Violencia period, but it also ignited the mass exodus from
the rural areas of the nation to its major cities. Both Bogotá and Medellín, two of the nation’s
major political and economic centers, witnessed the arrival of thousands of people establishing
themselves in and around the cities throughout the second half of the 20th century. This resulted
in the formation of illegally built settlements in Bogotá’s Ciudad Kennedy and Ciudad Bolivar
and in the impoverished barrios located in Medellín’s Comunas sector coupled with a rising
unemployment and poverty rate. Although, by 1958 the agreement made by the Frente Nacional
sought to demonstrate political stability in Colombia, the 1960s and 1970s witnessed the rise of
guerrilla movements, influenced by global revolutions, which were not content with the nation’s
traditional parties’ tactics—something that would be monitored by their North American
neighbor. Along with sociopolitical changes taking place in Colombia, the nation also witnessed
the arrival of a new musical rhythm: rock and roll.
Rock music arrived in Colombia from the U.S., the U.K., Mexico, and other parts of
Latin America. The 1960s unveiled a host of Colombian refrito bands that emulated some of the
186
Lyrics from “I Wanna Rock” from Twisted Sister Stay Hungry. Atlantic Records, 1984.
53
top performers of the era that included Enrique Guzman, Sandro, the Beatles, and other artists.
The rock music produced by bands like Los Speakers and Los Flippers was not considered
threatening to Colombia’s social fabric. By the 1970s, rock music styles not only changed
globally, but rock music in Colombia—as in other parts of Latin America—spoke to local
concerns. Bands like Génesis wrote about love and reflected on national and global issues such
as poverty, war, and ecology. The 1970s was an important moment in Colombian rock history
because of the three-day Ancón festival that took place in the outskirts of Medellín. Equally
important was the backlash that accompanied the event by conservatives who considered the
event an abomination to youth culture and Colombian society. By the late 1970s, the rural
conflicts forced more and more people to migrate to Bogotá, Medellín, and other major cities in
the nation.
The late 1970s and early 1980s witnessed escalating violence in Colombia, with the rise
of the drug trade and the assassinations of political leaders. The war, which was previously
contained to rural areas, reached the cities. As both Bogotá and Medellín shed blood, the rising
poverty and limited economic opportunities for youths residing in the new zones of conflict
created a desire for a new outlet that divorced itself from Colombia’s failed “traditions,” a
concept relegated to preserving the conservative Catholic Colombian family imaginary. The
arrival of heavy metal and punk rock in Colombian society was one outlet emphatically
embraced by certain Colombian youths. This was not vallenato, salsa, or cumbia, or any popular
rhythm found over Colombia’s airwaves. Colombian heavy metal and punk rock permeated the
marginalized urban sectors and was embraced by Colombian youths who immediately identified
with its look, sound, and delivery. The next chapter looks closely at the absorption, adoption,
construction, and creation of the Colombian metalhead and punker.
54
CHAPTER 2
“Roquerostein”: The Construction of the Colombian Roquer@187
They numbed your brain the years of education/And without even telling you /
They programmed me and you / They made you a man/The kind that engenders/A
series of men / That are silenced because of fear to speak out (for fear to speak
out!)
Carbure “Hombres en Serie”188
I never made it, I always lost / but I survived / I go through life the same / running
far away from you . . . Everyone from around here / Are never ready to die / They
don’t forgive you for acting bad / So they rip you apart.
Pestes “Nunca Triunfé”189
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Colombia’s sociopolitical and economic conditions
were ripe for the youths’ reception of metal and punk rock music. The growing poverty in the
urban sectors—exacerbated by rising unemployment, unending war, forced displacements, and
inadequate housing—paved the way for a Colombian youth culture that created new avenues that
both veered away from imposed social expectations and created a forum that spoke to their lived
experience. Heavy metal and punk rock was one form of catharsis for a Colombian youth
searching for something outside Colombian music culture. Like rock and roll, heavy metal and
punk rock were foreign sounds imported into the nation. However, unlike rock and roll, these
rock music subgenres were absorbed by a certain group of youths who found these heavier
rhythms intriguing, rebellious, dark, and a way for them to better contextualize their country’s
sociopolitical climate. The early days of Colombia’s heavy metal and punk rock scene unveiled
bands that—just as during the nation’s early rock and roll days—covered songs from well-
known bands from the United States and England.
187
The “@” will be utilized here to signify both male and female participation in the metal and punk scenes. For instance, the
term Chican@ refers to female and male members of the Chicano movement. Similarly, I use roquer@, punker@, and metaler@
to refer to both female and male participation in the punk, and metal movement, respectively, in Colombia.
188
“Hombres En Serie” from Carbure, Carbure. EP Discos Victoria, 1983.
189
Pestes “Nunca Triunfé” in the Rodrigo D. No Futuro Soundtrack. Madman Productions, 2007.
55
The late 1970s through the early 1980s was an important period in Colombian heavy rock
music history. There were groups that were known for their excellent covers of North American
and British bands, and there were bands that wrote their own material. For example, the
antioqueño hard rock band Nash became well known locally such that they not only toured the
nation, but by 1982 they released their first self-titled extended play (EP) record paying homage
to bands such as Journey, Angel, and Uriah Heep.190 In 1981, Medellín band Carbure,
influenced by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and the Spaniard rockers Baron Rojo, released an EP in
1983 that included the tracks “Carne y Hueso,” “Hombres en Serie,” and “El Faltón.”191
Carbure was important not only because of the number of appearances they made on national
television, but also because they laid groundwork for a subgenre known as “ultra-metal.”192
Elkin Fernando Ramírez contributed to the history of rock music’s local scene with his
collaboration in the band Lemon Juice in 1981, Hertz in 1982, the bands Krizpy and Ferrotrack
in 1983, and Kraken in 1984.193 Medellín’s metal music scene persisted through the mid-1980s
with the appearance of new groups (discussed in more depth in Chapter 5 and 6) such as
Parabellum, Blasfemia, and Reencarnación. Bogotá’s metal scene was also growing during the
1980s.
Bogotá’s own metal scene, which appeared in different parts of the city during the 1980s,
was not only inspired by foreign bands but also by the rock music created in Antioquia. Such
influence paved way for a series of Bogotá bands and band productions from Minga Metal,
Darkness, and Excalibur. By 1984, metal bands in Bogotá, as in Medellín, worked incessantly to
190
Nash. Nash. Discos Victoria, 1982.
191
Carbure. EP Discos Victoria, 1983.
192
The term “ultra-metal” is a local term that referred to performing heavy metal using “extreme” vocals and guitar riffs to
accentuate the “heaviness” of the music sound. Colombian “ultra metal” was the predecessor to rock subgenres such as
Colombian Death Metal.
193
“Kraken: El Titán del Rock,” Popayán Virtual,
http://www.popayanvirtual.com/pv/principal.php?link=musica&sublink=kraken, accessed 22 November 2011.
56
play live and have their songs recorded in a decently well-equipped studio. According to a band
member interviewed in a TV spot entitled “Bandas, las de Bogotá,” creating lyrics for music had
to be different from what was produced in the United States. It was not possible to talk about the
same things that “Metallica talked about [in their lyrics] because it was written by a different
youth.”194 After 1986, bands like Neurosis posited a more aggressive style of metal music, as
demonstrated by their production “Más Allá de la Demencia.”195 Metal music was not the only
heavy rock music sound produced in the country. The late 1970s and 1980s in Colombia also
unveiled the rise of punk rock.
The first punk rock band known in Colombia was Complot. Complot appeared during the
late 1970s and was heavily influenced by the early British punk scene, covering songs from
bands such as The Clash and The Sex Pistols. Although there were other bands that were lesser
known in Colombia during this time, there were prominent punk vocalists in Medellín such as
“‘el Chino’ [R.I.P.], ‘el Panelo’ [R.I.P.], Mario ‘Chaqueta’ [R.I.P.], ‘El Rata,’ [and] ‘El
Volketo’.”196 The early to mid-1980s unveiled an evolving Colombian punk rock music scene
that reflected local conditions. In the early to mid-1980s, the Medellín punk scene actively had
bands such as P-Ne, Pestes, Pichurrias, Mutantex, Los Podridos, and N.N. performing in private
spaces. Bogotá’s punk scene played itself out differently in the 1980s with the presence of the
band Morgue. Morgue‘s founder, singer, and guitarist Ever Tovar produced one of the scene’s
most celebrated and recognized punk songs entitled “Déjenme” in a Bogotá that had no other
punk bands until late in the decade.197
194
“bandas las de bogotá 1993,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab4zcIVoTrI, accessed 22 March 2012.
195
Neurosis. Más Allá de la Demencia. Mort Discos, 1991.
196
David Viola, Punk Medallo (Medellín: Fondo Editorial Ateneo Porfirio Barba Jacob, 2009), 8.
197
“Déjenme” in Morgue. Philokalia. Producciones Morgue, 2002.
57
In 1986, compilation album “Punk Medallo” brought together the mentioned Medellín
punk bands and included tracks such as “Queremos Mierda” (“We Want Shit”), “La Bota
Militar” (“The Military Boot”), “Estupidas Miradas” (“Stupid Looks”), “Dinero” (“Money”),
“Puta Sociedad” (“Fucking Society”), “No Más Clases” (“No More Classes”), “Destrucción”
(“Destruction”), and “Quiere a Medellín (“Love Medellín”). According to the punk
compilation’s insert, the music was certainly
a product of what had been made by 1986, although very bad quality, but
containing an adolescent energy. If you take the dirt out of your ears what you
will hear will tear your eardrums [because this is] an authentically
underdeveloped Punk Rock discharge on the planet.198
The compilation served as testimony to the dissent and lack of conformity located in a Medellín
youth culture. Such roquer@s produced an alternative to the nation’s conservative culture
packaged in a format repelling—while at the same time embracing—death, violence, and
destruction. What did it mean to be part of the heavy metal and punk movement in Colombia?
How could one come to identify oneself—or be identified—as a metalhead or punker in
Colombia? How was music accessed and disseminated? How was this identity received in
Colombian society? How did “tradition” in Colombia attempt to impede both men and women
from participating in either scene?
This chapter discusses the construction and evolution of the heavy metal and punk rock
identity in Bogotá and Medellín during the 1980s and early 1990s. The influence of metal and
punk rock produced in the United States and Great Britain played a role in the construction of the
roquer@ identity in the South American nation. The seeds of influence were, as mentioned in
Chapter 1, located in the arrival of rock music to Latin America following the genres’ explosion
198
Giovanni Oquendo quoted in “VA-Compilado Punk Medallo (volume 1, 2 y 3) ‘Con Las Uñas’, ‘El Cartel Punk de Medellín’,
‘Ruido De Cloacas’,” Crucified For Your Sins, http://crucifiedforyoursins.blogspot.com/2009/08/va-compilado-punk-medallo-
volumen-1-2-y.html, accessed 20 March 2011.
58
during the late 1950s and 1960s, and its appropriation during the 1970s. This chapter argues that
Colombian metalheads and punkers, during the 1980s and early 1990s, searched for ways to
physically identify with their preferred music form. This was a historical moment in which
Colombian roqueros and roqueras drew upon limited resources in order to sport a clothing style
that went beyond what was apparently “acceptable” during the 1960s and early 1970s generation.
Clothing was not only an important feature in becoming part of the heavy metal rock scene, but it
was also quintessential to the identity of the Colombian metaler@—albeit not necessarily the
same for the punquer@.
The “uniform” located in the metal movement in Colombia was not necessarily true in
the punk movement since not all forms of punk rock music ascribed to a clothing “style.”
However, for metalheads and other rockers, adopting such distinct clothing defined one’s stage
of commitment to the metal movement in Bogotá and Medellín. Failure to prove oneself as a
true rocker to the self-elected “rock authorities” could land one into trouble. I also argue that
trouble could be found in other ways, considering that looking different was threatening to the
status quo. As in other parts of the world, it was dangerous to be a metalhead or punk rocker in
Colombia during the 1980s and early 1990s. One important commonality between metaler@s
and punquer@s was the constant harassment by the police, the church, and family members.
Such harassment prevented metalheads and punk rockers from getting jobs and, for a good while,
congregating in public spaces because being different was apparently wrong. More than
anything, this type of “different” threatened the social fabric of Colombian society—family,
religion, and that which was deemed as “decent.”
59
“The Non-Conformist”: The Roots of the Colombian Metalhead and Punker199
In 1983, youths residing in the impoverished sector of Medellín’s comunas formed the
ultra-metal band Black Snow, which was changed to Danger by 1985. After gaining notoriety
for their excellent performances in different parts of the city, Danger recorded a couple tracks
which included the songs “Las Brujas de Salem” and “El Inconforme.”200 The track “El
Inconforme” unveiled precisely the cries echoed by some of the Colombian youths of the time
period:
Escucháme ciudadano de la congestión Listen to me citizen of the congestion,

Y paciente de la viva contaminación And Patient of the live contamination,
El future que anhelamos nunca llegará The future that we long for will never come,
Pues el rico contra el pobre siempre ganará Because the rich will be victorious over the poor
No sufras más y lucha por tu libertad Don’t suffer anymore and fight for your freedom,
Hay que acabar a quien quiera tu vida aplastar We have to do away with anyone who wants to destroy
your life
De su máquina el obrero esclavo sera The worker will always be a slave to his machine,
Mientras que el rico en su club brinda con champagne While the rich toasts with champagne in their club,
No te rindas que el dinero es solo illusion Don’t give up because money is just an illusion,
Ni le vendas nunca a nadie nuestra rebellion And don’t sell out our rebellion to anyone
your life
No queremos asesino en nuestra nación We don’t want a killer in our nation

Ni ministros en sus sillas de la corrupción Nor politicians in their chairs of corruption
No más curas disfrazados que te alienarán No more disguised priests who will alienate you
Ni mas “cerdos” en patrullas que te golperarán Nor more “pigs” in patrol cars who will beat you
your life201
The song lyrics echoed the sentiment of certain youths who understood that despite social
inequality, one’s liberty was not worth compromising. The lyrics identified the wealthy as
responsible for marginalizing the youths’ future; the song also denounced anyone who
engendered violence or who was a crooked politician, a corrupt priest, or an abusive police
199
”El Inconforme” from Danger. Grito de Libertad. Faster Producciones, 1987.
200
“El Inconforme.”
201
“Grito de Libertad” lyrics in Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives, http://www.metal-
archives.com/albums/Danger/Grito_De_Libertad/240040, accessed 20 March 2010.
60
officer. For many different metalheads and punkers in Colombia, searching for a different way
to respond to the social ills of society came at a very young age.
When Alex Oquendo,202 also known as Alex Masacre, key founder and contributor to the
metal scene in Medellín, first became interested in heavy rock music, he was riding a bus on the
way to school in Medellín. According to Oquendo, there was something peculiar about this bus
ride. He noticed the person who jumped on board and walked passed him. The passenger would
have been otherwise forgettable for Oquendo except that this person had really long curly hair,
wore black clothing, wore dark sun glasses, and had a Black Sabbath record with him. Alex
Masacre was intrigued how the peludo (long-haired) was stared at by other passengers in the
bus.203 Oquendo felt both respect and fear towards the rocker. While the bus ride continued, he
recalled having so many questions for the rocker that were not going to be answered because he
was too afraid to ask. Without the peludo noticing, Alex Masacre looked carefully at the detail
of the LP cover and realized he had no clue who or what Black Sabbath was, what that meant,
where they were from, or what they sounded like. Oquendo was so captured by the LP cover
that he took out his sketch pad from his backpack and drew the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath logo so
that he would never forget what he had just witnessed. Oquendo was only nine years old and
determined to find other rock album covers to sketch. Without hearing a guitar chord, a bass
line, or a drum beat, he became an instant rock fan and knew that this had more to offer than
what he understood at that moment.
Oquendo was captured by the anonymous rocker’s style. He explained how having long
hair and wearing dark clothing was exceptional, especially since it seemed to “[laughing] piss a
202
Alex Oquendo’s last name can also be seen written as Okendo in album credits and in other media. To be consistent, for the
purposes of this work I will be utilizing “Oquendo” versus “Okendo.”
203
Alex Oquendo Personal Interview 7 June 2009.
61
bunch of people off.”204 In fact, Alex Masacre’s admiration for this distinct clothing style was
important for many other reasons. Clothing was—and is—a visible marker of personality and
can in many ways make a statement. Clothing tells much about an individual’s personal interest
and musical tendencies. It could say how close one follows or does not follow popular fashion
trends of the time. For many Colombian rockers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, one challenge
was walking outside the household with a different hairstyle and clothing style. Any style of
clothing that turned people’s heads, dropped their jaws, and caused them to cross themselves
could be met with disdain. The challenge for anyone during the 1980s and early 1990s in Bogotá
and Medellín, who wished to veer away from socially acceptable clothing styles was to walk
with precaution from street block to street block on the lookout for anyone “reestablishing
order.” The question that punkers and metalheads in Bogotá and Medellín raised was how were
they going to sport the clothes they wanted to wear in an intensely conservative culture?
As in other parts of Latin America, bureaucrats and church officials in Colombia who
were worried over the possible decay of the country’s youth during the late 1950s, the 1960s, and
the 1970s feared that the next generation of Colombian citizenry in the 1980s and 1990s were
also being lost in perdition. As mentioned previously, the Ancón festival of 1971, which was
approved by the local mayor, was vehemently rejected by the local clergy and local population
on the grounds that the show and its attendees were immoral. What were the youths wearing
during the 1980s? Was being in style a threat to Colombian morality? Clothing styles were not
the only markers of what was en vogue, but they also provided their potential for providing youth
identity that could be seen in music countercultures across the globe. Clothes that symbolized
rock music were subject to appropriation by the nation’s clothing industry. Such appropriation,
204
62
according to scholars on youth culture and fashion as well as roquer@s, was considered to be the
death of the clothing style itself.205
Whereas in the 1960s and 1970s certain Colombian youths sported “Italian jeans . . .
shirts from [the store] ‘El Romano’ . . . wool jackets, spaghetti strap dresses” and petroleum jelly
as hair product, some youths of the early 1980s and into the 1990s had a different idea of what
constituted as “style.” 206 Elements of North American culture, as mentioned in Chapter 1,
without question trickled through television and ads in national periodicals. For instance, in one
section published by El Colombiano, youth style was qualified by the report as “seemingly
raggedy” while at the same time “fashionable.”207 The clothing Oquendo observed was, in his
opinion, not “raggedy.”208 It was different and daring. His curiosity over the clothing style
needed to be fueled by the music itself. Radio and television were media in which Oquendo and
many Colombian youths looked to seeing and hearing the latest rock music.
Colombia and Rock and Roll Radio
Rock music arrived in Colombian music stores, as well as on the nation’s airwaves and
television.209 The 1950s and 1960s were imperative because radio and television technology in
Colombia paved the way for the creation of the National Institute of Radio and Television
(INRAVISIÓN), a major stepping stone in the dissemination of Colombian rock.210 Radio station
Nuevo Mundo and RCN (National Radio Channel) promoted the famous Coca-Cola dances as
previously mentioned.211 By the 1960s, the Cadena Radial Colombiana (Colombian Radio
Channel), or CARACOL radio station, was crucial in providing listeners samples of rock and roll
205
Mario Margulis and Marcelo Urresti “Moda y Juventud,” Estudios Sociológicos XIII: 37, 1995, 109-120.
206
Reina Rodríguez, Bogotá: Más que Pesado, METAL con Historia, 38.
207
“Casual-mente Jóvenes,” El Colombiano, 1 March 1989, 20A.
208
Alex Oquendo Personal Interview 7 June 2009..
209
“Una Parte de la Prehistoria del Rock Colombiano,” Musicmachine.com, http://musicmachine.com.co/recomendados/306-
rc.html., accessed 20 March 2011.
210
211
Reina Rodríguez.
63
through the “subversive” radio voice of Jimmy Reisback, who showcased the Beach Boys and
the Beatles on his show.212 According to El Tiempo, the North American deejay fought hard
with station directors to have a spot reserved for rock and roll on Nuevo Mundo radio station.213
Reisback’s show, originally labeled as “modern music,” was transmitted for half an hour starting
at 11:00 p.m.; though it was apparently not appreciated by many listeners of the station.214 This
station, along with Radio Quince (Radio 15), promoted homegrown and imported rock and roll
music that was co-opted by Colombia’s media, presented as a friendly music form that, although
not part of nation’s imagined music space, was considered non-threatening.
Bogotá and Medellín directed their broadcasting to a younger generation such that “Radio
15 [was] an idea [by] CARACOL for the youth of Colombia! On this frequency, [they have] the
youngest music in the world!”215 For only a couple years, starting in 1979, Radio Fantasía also
provided listeners with samples of North American rock music. In 1981, Stereo 1-95FM was
born, though offering limited opportunities for listeners to request music through the station. A
couple major radio stations on the AM dial that incorporated a little rock and roll and introduced
a heavier rock sound during the early 1980s were Radio Tequendama AM 610 and Radio
Fantasía 1550 AM. In fact,
[The] Radio Tequendama AM 610 and Radio Fantasía on 1550 AM stations were
pioneers in transmitting something more than Disco and Pop [music]. On these
stations, full concerts by Deep Purple or KISS, even Black Sabbath or the early
stages of Spanish bands such as BARON ROJO, OBUS, LOS ANGELES DEL
INFIERNO or BANSAI were heard. It was [through these stations] that rock
arrived; a heavier version of what was considered conventional. After 1982, there
212
Fernandez L’Hoeste, “On How Bloque de Búsqueda Lost Part of its Name: The Predicament of Colombian Rock in the U.S.
Market,” 191.
213
“El Rock Colombiano ya tiene su historiador,” El Tiempo, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-2804759,
accessed 16 August 2013.
214
Pérez, 27.
215
“Identificacion Radio 15, Nueva Ola, Colombia,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f-oDAX3isg, accessed 20
March 2011.
64
were many different [radio stations] on the FM dial [such as] Todelar Estereo,
Caracol Estereo, and the Super Estación 88.9 [FM].216
The evolution of rock music over the radio dial gained steady momentum. By the late 1980s,
Colombia had a local defender of homegrown and foreign heavy rock music. The promoter and
music maverick was Lucho Barrera, also known as “Lucho Metales.” In 1987, Barrera’s Metal
En Estereo program aired on Radio Tequendama at 10:00 p.m. on Sundays and featured the
sounds of “Rage, Slayer, Metallica, Exodus, Testament, Hellowend (sic), Angel Dust, Dark
Angel” as well as local bands like “Masacre, Reencarnacion, Parabellum, Confusion, and other
national” groups.217 His program, at the time, was the only forum for people to hear heavier rock
music, an important addition to the radio music panorama in Colombia which by the 1980s the
radio still privileged salsa, merengue, and vallenato.
In 1989, according to Andrés Durán, most of the major radio stations playing North
American and British rock music did not play anything heavier than Def Leppard, which was
considered to be a heavy metal band during the course of the 1980s.218 For Andrés Durán, it was
ridiculous that radio programming playing English language rock music did not incorporate
groups such as Metallica and other heavy-hitting bands into their playlist.219 The response by
1990 was the creation of Expreso del Rock programming, which made its home on 88.9 FM until
2001.220 This station, which transmitted some of the latest heavy rock sounds, was available to
listeners on Sundays at 8:00 p.m.221 Thus, listening to heavy rock music by the late 1980s and
216
“La Radio Del Rock Pesado En Bogota Años 80,” Pagina del Profesor Carlos Arturo Reina Rodriguez-
Colombia,.http://carlosreina.espacioblog.com/post/2008/08/05/la-radio-del-rock-pesado-bogota-anos-80, accessed 20 March
2011.
217
“La Radio Del Rock Pesado En Bogota Años 80.”
218
“Entrevista a Andrés Durán,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3AXqAzuKrQ, accessed 20 March 2011.
219
“Entrevista a Andrés Durán.”
220
“Los Hitos Del Rock Por Andres Duran,” El Expreso del Rock, https://sites.google.com/site/hitosdelrockdeandresduran/,
accessed 20 March 2011.
221
“ Los Hitos Del Rock Por Andres Duran.”
65
early 1990s, albeit piecemeal, was still possible. The nation’s airwaves were accompanied by
television programming that gave a face to the early and evolving rock scene in Colombia.
Colombia and Rock and Roll Television
As mentioned in the previous chapter, television and movies played an important role in
the diffusion of rock music and its look. While the 1960s unveiled the local adaption of the
famous Club del Clan program in Colombia and other parts of Latin America, by the 1970s and
early 1980s, rock music on the silver screen and television went beyond films that showcased
Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Bill Haley, or James Dean. Rock music evolved and so did its
appearance.
By the late 1970s, while some people in Colombia and around the world embraced disco
music and John Travolta’s dance moves on Saturday Night Fever, the early 1980s brought new
rock subgenres along with new rock music films, such as Pink Floyd’s The Wall, to the South
American nation’s theaters. Piedad Castro recalled waiting in line with her sister and friends just
to catch the premiere screening of both The Wall and Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the
Same.222 She remembered how impatient she was to grab a good seat and hoping that the police
would not shut down the event simply because a bunch of peludos were standing around waiting
for the theater to open.223 In fact, the Castro sisters and their friends were able to attend multiple
rock music films because some of the film events were not clandestinely operated but rather
sponsored by Radio Musical de Todelart and the Tropicana Concert Club, which advertised
show times during Saturdays and Sundays, declaring that these were “musical films for minds
desiring positive energy” (see Picture 2-1). Along with this promotion, the Cine Mundo
Universitario (CMU) sponsored and showcased rock music films such as Woodstock and The
222
Piedad Castro Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
223
Piedad Castro.
66
Picture 2-1: Rock Movies released during the early 1980s. (Author’s photograph)224
Song Remains the Same. The CMU, in one of its festivals devoted to youth culture, explained
that showing movies emphasizing teens from the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s told a story about
Hollywood’s vision of youth and the changes in relationships between older and younger
generations. The films at the festival also demonstrated how there was an intrinsic bond among
global youth, community, rock and roll, and a constructed imaginary regarding youth culture.225
Colombian television, like film, also played a role in the local production of rock music.
For example, the program Espectaculares JES, with television host and personality Julio
E. Sánchez Vanegas, debuting in 1976, showcased a segment known as “Rock Express” where
Colombian bands including Ship, Carbure, and Nash performed in front of a live studio
224
The flyer was obtained and photographed from Piedad Castro’s private collection of rock movie flyers.
225
67
audience.226 Television, although providing exposure to progressive and hard rock music,
showcased a much lighter and arguably friendlier version of what was to develop during the
1980s and early 1990s. The songs presented on television (and on the radio) were hard rock
ballads and, with the exception of punk rock bands such as Complot, the image was not remotely
representative of a heavier and much more raw scene growing in Bogotá and Medellín.
Although the mentioned bands were forerunners in the metal and punk scene in the
nation, both scenes were more radically attuned to keeping to themselves during the 1980s. The
idea, as expressed by punk rocker and performer David Viola and metalhead Alex Oquendo, was
that corporate money, trendy people, and politics should be kept out because they could “infect”
either the metal or punk scene.227 By the mid-1980s, the Colombian metalhead and punker
roamed the urban spaces of Medellín in Bogotá. However, due to limited resources as compared
to their North American and European counterparts, much of the metal or punk “fashion” was
imagined.
Constructing the Colombian Roquer@s
What was the “look” or “fashion” that grew out of the Colombian metal and punk scene?
One answer to this question had to do with what was actually available for metaler@s and
punquer@s at the time. According to Vicente, member of the original Bogotá metal scene in the
1980s and owner of rock music store Vicente Discos in Bogotá, the famous rock concerts
performed by Iron Maiden, Slayer, AC/DC, and Judas Priest in the mid-1970s and the early
1980s had to be imagined because such bands would not play—until recently—in Colombia and
there were no videos or magazines available in Colombia to see such shows.228 When
226
“Espectaculares Jes,” Colarte, http://www.colarte.com/colarte/titulo.sp?idtitulo=1861&iconografia=true, accessed 20 March
2011. Also, see “carbure complete,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAEqpHoysDk, accessed 20 March 2011.
227
David Viola Personal Interview 6 June 2009 and Alex Oquendo Personal Interview 7 June 2009.
228
“Vicente” Personal Interview 20 March 2009.
68
Colombian-born Jorge Mackenzie returned to his homeland from Spain in the mid-1980s, he
recalled having problems accessing heavy metal music and realized that Bogotá did not have an
active or a large metal scene as compared to in Spain.229 He explained that he saw the band Iron
Maiden in Spain and was able to buy music and find information on the top international acts
without a problem while living in Europe. Not surprising, much of what Colombian metalheads
and punkers depended on was what they could get their hands on: vinyl records. For Vicente,
albums were not only the central source of music, but the images on the albums helped create a
particular image of what looking like a metalhead was supposed to be.230 Again, having a good
imagination was important because sometimes albums were not enough, especially considering
that sometimes LPs did not come with band photos. Where could Colombian rockers find heavy
rock albums?
In Bogotá, the spot where people could find rock vinyl albums for sale was downtown off
of Avenida 19 between 4th and 9th street. Also known as calle joven or “young street,” Avenida
19 was historically the center of youth culture activities dating as far back as the 1960s.231
Vincent explained that the kiosks located off that street in Bogotá were important because
there were no malls or shopping centers here. There were three popular stores [of which two of
them were] La Rumbita, Bambuco, and no main shopping center . . . [You wouldn’t see] Quiet
Riot, nor Voivod, nor Dio . . . nothing. No Bathory, no Sodom . . . and so from 19th Avenue
there were kiosks from one end to the other
. . . and the tin kiosks you had access to three types of albums, which were North
American . . . which were a great treasure worth quite a lot of money, there were
Venezuelan ones that were on the same level as the Colombian ones and had a
229
Jorge Mackenzie Personal Interview 5 April 2009.
230
231
69
few defects . . . and there were the Mexican ones which were very nice . . . [The
Mexican records] were about 30% cheaper than the Venezuelan copies.232
The kiosks were the prime location to check out rock albums, and because of the relatively large
number of kiosks established on the avenue, there was plenty of competition between them to
garner the most customers. Each kiosk adorned its spot with daily news periodicals as well as
the latest international band albums (e.g., Iron Maiden, Hellhammer, Black Sabbath, Sodom,
etc.), a spot which today could be found alongside the Transmilenio Las Aguas metro station
(see Picture 2-2). Vincent noticed one particular kiosk display that had an album by the band
Possessed. He remembered an upside down cross embedded within the band’s name Possessed
on the album cover and sarcastically remarked that the album was “obviously” captivating
because it was as if looking at “[laughing] medieval art with an orgy of 50 people, including
goats and cats.”233 What made metal and punk albums stand out from salsa or cumbia records,
apart from the music itself, were the detailed graphic covers on the albums. Whether or not one
was a rock fanatic, an album cover by Slayer, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Bathory, The Plasmatics,
or The Misfits would capture anyone’s attention when walking by a kiosk that showcased any of
them. Although albums imported from the United States were more expensive than those from
Venezuela or Mexico, price was a major factor influencing whether or not the album was
purchased. Music collector, distributor, and pioneer in helping launch the metal movement in
Bogotá, Lorenzo Gómez also knew that buying international heavy rock music during the 1980s
was a challenge, since much of what actually arrived in Colombia’s record shops was nowhere
near the music that could have been brought.234 Gómez remembered that “they used to have Rod
Stewart, Air Supply, and other artists that were far from the stuff the gringos were actually
232
“Vicente.” Personal Interview 20 March 2009.
233
“Vicente”.
234
Lorenzo Gómez Personal Interview 2 April 2009.
70
Picture 2-2: Today’s downtown Bogotá with kiosks selling Colombian souvenirs and rock
paraphernalia. (Author’s picture)
listening to.”235 Mario Lozano, rock aficionado and member of Ciudad Kennedy’s original metal
movement in Bogotá, stated that there was nothing but “one’s imagination” to figure out exactly
what the groups actually looked like playing a live show.236 In Medellín, the story was not all
that different.
Getting a hold of heavy rock music in Medellín proved equally difficult. David Viola,
mid-1980s pioneering punk musician in Medellín, explained that those responsible for bringing
metal and punk into Medellín (and other parts of the nation) were usually people who were better
off economically:
I learned about [punk and metal] in the streets with my friends [and] hanging out
with them. We came to know about vinyl records and bands from England [and
the] United States. It was because of my friends that this actually stuck because
235
236
Mario Lozano Personal Interview 1 March 2010.
71
what my family would listen to was what was considered traditional: música
carrilera, vallenato, salsa, things that weren’t necessarily American or English.
The majority of the vinyl records would be brought by people [who were] from a
higher class, who could go to the United States and Europe. There were some that
really liked the music and others not so much, though they would arrive in
Medellín with that music.237
Viola expressed that in order to hear any heavy rock music in Medellín, it was best to know
someone who was actually traveling abroad. Purchasing a rock album was difficult, though
wealthier antioqueños were able to travel and bring back the musical treasures. For Monica
Moreno, rock enthusiast and one of the original and few participating female punkers in
Medellín’s 1980s punk scene, finding a vinyl record was much easier because of her
socioeconomic background. Moreno, raised in the wealthier section of Medellín known as
Envigado, secretly listened to her brother’s collection of rock vinyl albums, which included the
Police, Pink Floyd, and Queen, while he was at school. One day, after a trip to the supermarket,
she purchased an Iron Maiden album that she shared with a fellow rock fan. It was not until
hanging out with her neighbor, who had a wide collection of vinyl records, that she began
connecting with more music from rock’s subgenres.
Purchasing an album was certainly a privilege that was not available to David Viola,
Alex Oquendo, or Vicente from Bogotá, who had to struggle much more to have access to the
same record collection that Moreno had. Oquendo, as well as Vicky and Piedad Castro, recalled
having to save up his lunch money to buy rock albums.238 Although they received money from
their parents for food at school, the amount of money to purchase a foreign record was out of the
question. For many of the roquer@s during this time, purchasing a rock album meant something
237
David Viola Personal Interview 10 June 2009.
238
Vicky Castro and Piedad Castro Personal Interview 20 June 2009. Alex Oquendo Personal Interview 7 June 2009.
72
Picture 2-3: “Mmm! . . . I won’t let you borrow it” “Asshole! Greedy Motherfucker!”239
more than just owning an album. Buying a metal or punk record, especially considering its
limited availability, meant building a music archive that was not available to those who were
fans but could not afford the albums.
Unfortunately, the archive was not accessible to anyone who wanted to hear the latest
music coming in from across the globe (see Picture 2-3). Piedad Castro, key female original
scene member in Medellín’s rock movement of the 1980s, noted how some of the new music that
was in the hands of certain fellow rockers was reserved for a small select group of friends.240
Oquendo could not understand why many of his fellow metalheads did not loan him their latest
rock acquisitions.241 Vicente mentioned that not having a “good” album to share could prevent
one from getting ahold of someone’s record, especially if the person felt that the record was not a
“fair trade.”242 In one fanzine, hoarding albums was depicted as something that was selfish and
counterproductive to the spread heavy metal and punk music across Colombia.
239
“Opiniones” Visión Rockera, November 1986, no.3 10.
240
241
242
73
Oquendo mentioned that such people were also casposos, or losers, because they hoarded
“information” that belonged to everybody, since the music scene needed everyone’s
collaboration.243 Was withholding music antithetical to spreading the music scene? On the one
hand, preserving the music to a select few prevented it from getting into the hands of those
individuals who had not “earned” the right to listen to it. Although people who could afford to
buy such albums did not have to go through any middleman, excluding people who could not
possibly understand the music was a stance taken by radical subgenre roquer@s that were self-
appointed gatekeepers of the rock music heard in the region. Piedad Castro expressed how she
despised people who refused to share their albums with anyone.244 The fanzine was justifiably
harsh on rockers who were not willing to share their music.
That we should not criticize the rockers? The hell we aren’t. How are we not
going to criticize the selfishness that goes from not borrowing an LP, a badly
recorded tape, a magazine, a photocopy, a video, and going to the extreme of
having private get-togethers. What assholes! What an asshole who just because
you don’t have anything to exchange they won’t trade with you. [Those]
motherfuckers are creating an elitism or class structure within Rock. [These
people] are usually those who have a lot of money to buy everything that arrives.
One example [of this selfishness] was what happened with Metallica’s “Master of
Puppets” video and the CELTIC FROST concert video . . . What losers!!!!245
Having a good-sized collection, the topic of the next chapter’s discussion, influenced
metal and punk get-togethers, although hoarding music was looked upon by many rockers as
“bourgeoisie.” When music was shared, it did not have to be strictly LP albums. Metalheads
and punkers in Medellín and Bogotá copied records onto cassettes, which was a process
requiring patience, because most albums were at least 30 to 40 minutes long. Metal fanatic
Román González commented that it would not be uncommon for someone to copy an album on
243
244
245
“Opiniones,” Visión Rockera, 10.
74
four to five tapes to distribute among close friends.246 Again, the idea was that the music would
only circulate among those who “deserved” to hear it. For those who were able to observe
albums, what did Colombian metalheads and punkers see on the records?
What Colombians saw on album covers, wherever they could access them, was what
believed to be cutting edge for the rock music subgenres. Along with the detailed artwork and
band logos, observers saw some albums with men wearing leather jackets, dark sunglasses,
jeans, spandex, long hair, and earrings, while posing with their guitars for a studio picture or
during a live concert.247 Some album covers displayed pictures of the band, while other albums
without band shots kept rock fanatics wondering, as Vincent mentioned, what the band looked
like.248 Fans and anyone observing the band pictures gave one a good impression as to how
heavy metal or punk rock was represented through the music industry.
In the North American context, metal clothing was a “declaration of identity as a
metalhead/headbanger.”249 The movement was as much auditory as it was visual, transmitting
particular verbal codes250 and “fans display[ed] their genre loyalty with shirts and jackets
emblazoned with the names of favorite groups.”251 In the early to mid-1980s, fans of punk rock
did not have any particular “uniform” per se; though, at times—as in the case of heavy metal—it
depended on which subgenre of punk rock one followed.252 Using a ripped t-shirt, safety pins,
studded belts, military or work boots (e.g., Dr. Martens), and wearing a brightly-colored
246
Román González interviewed in Masacre: Más Allá del Dolor. Claudia Arango and Andrés Giraldo. directors. Post-
Producción 390 TV, 2011.
247
Denna Weinstein argued that the non-verbal communication taking place between metalheads in the U.S. context included the
cues of identity: rock shirts, long hair, jean or leather jackets, rock buttons, and other accessories that would be affiliated with
heavy rock music culture. Denna Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture (United States of America: First Da Capo
Press, 2000).
248
Vicente” Personal Interview 20 March 2009.
249
Jeffery Arnett, Metalheads: Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent Alienation (United States: Westview Press, 1996), 9.
250
Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture, 8.
251
Weinstein, 32.
252
For instance, the t-shirt, motorcycle jacket, and jeans, which harked back to the U.S. greasers of the 1950s, was seen nowhere
vividly than the North American punk rock group known as the Ramones. By no means is this limited assessment of “punk
clothing” indicative of the breadth of styles that have come to be labeled as “punk.” One source of observation for the global
punk rock movement is Brian Cogan, The Encyclopedia of Punk (New York: Sterling Publishers, 2010).
75
Mohawk haircut was a post-/Sex Pistols phenomenon.253 However, in the Colombian context,
according to the rock fanzine Nueva Fuerza, punks did not ascribe to a particular clothing style,
declaring there were “no fashions” in punk rock.254
[Clothes were] more than [just a] way to identify. It [was] a way of being and [a
way] to reject fucking fashions, the society of consumption. The leather jackets
and boots, the shirts with band prints or statements printed [were not necessary];
in other words “I can do it on my own without wearing what other people wear.”
Though some admit that there [was] no specific way to look to be PUNK . . . the
pins and chains, everyone has their own taste and many people wear them because
they like it and that’s that! [The pins could serve as a] symbol to hold on to one’s
ideas or as a symbol of the chains of oppression.255
In the Colombian punk scene, as in other parts of the world, there was no actual specific
clothing that made one “more punk” than the next person. However, in both the punk and metal
scene of the 1980s in the U.S. and in Western Europe, tattoos or piercings were not a
requirement to fulfill the “look”; however, they were not necessarily discouraged either. Finding
albums, clothing (concert t-shirts), and other accessories in the U.S. and Western Europe, as in
Jorge Mackenzie’s experience, was much more possible, though this is not to say that every punk
and metalhead living in these regions could afford the clothing. What it did mean was that the
materials were available. In Colombia, especially throughout the 1980s, this was more of a
dream than a reality.
There were no stores that catered to heavy rock music fanatics’ taste in Bogotá or
Medellín until the mid-1980s. Affording real leather or a Levi’s jeans jacket, or getting Doc
Martens boots or a pair of Chuck Taylor tennis shoes, was out of the question. According to
Alex Oquendo, one of the most important elements in the proper Colombian metal attire was—
and to a certain extent still is—the color black. He mentioned that during the 1980s, wearing
253
This type of punk rock music, or street punk, surfaced during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Street punk bands include The
Exploited, Charged GBH, and Discharge.
254
“Punk La Nueva Fuerza,” Nueva Fuerza, July 1987, no.6, 2-3.
255
“Punk La Nueva Fuerza,” Nueva Fuerza.
76
anything but black, with the exception of a plain white t-shirt, was considered casposo.256 What
else were the metaler@s or punquer@s of Colombia wearing? The Colombian metalhead, more
so than the punker, was highly encouraged to wear blue or black jeans. However, the jeans had
to be perfectly fitted, meaning that they could not sag and the pant legs had to be fitted. This
outfit was combined wearing botas grulla, or black work boots, that could only be purchased in a
surplus outlet store called Grulla in Envigado. These work boots were sold, according to
Oquendo, during the first couple Sundays of the month.257 The boots were relatively
inexpensive, approximately $8 to $10 U.S. The reason they were cheap was because they were
labeled as factory imperfections. These bulky coveted boots, highly encouraged by the metal
scene, were known to rip up socks instantly.258 The best part of the boots was their durability.
A metalhead in Colombia could not have his boots too shiny or he was labeled a loser. It
was very common to use charcoal to remove the shiny new look and make the boots look like
they had already been worn. According to Oquendo, it was very common to see friends from
barrio Castilla or Bello hanging out in Envigado shopping for those boots.259 The person who
had the most “opaque and shitty looking” boots was the coolest person.260 You could not have a
brand new pair of sneakers because that meant you were part of the petit bourgeoisie and were
labeled as simply uncool. The privileged or fortunate few to have a band logo painted on a t-
shirt had an opportunity to have something that no one else did and could not purchase at any
store in Colombia. Official heavy metal or punk rock band t-shirts from the U.S. or the U.K.
were not available in Colombia during the early 1980s. If anyone during the early or mid-1980s
happened to come across an official shirt for sale, it was imported and usually very expensive.
256
257
Alex Oquendo.
258
Alex Oquendo.
259
Alex Oquendo.
260
Alex Oquendo.
77
Oquendo and other talented contemporaries were instrumental in providing rock aficionados
with band logos painted on a blank t-shirt for a reasonable price. His talent was profitable, such
that it helped take care of his daughter. He stated,
I managed to provide for my daughter by painting on shirts. People painted logos

very badly and then there were guys from Envigado, Manrique, Itagui, a dude
known as Toridia who was very well known because he was the best artist to
draw the Venom goat logo. I started to paint logos as well at the age of fifteen and
I started drawing album covers at eighteen. I used to sell the shirts at about 3,500
pesos.261
Alex Oquendo’s talent was not only making logos for fanatics. He used his talent, as did other
local artists, to support family members. Apart from painting logos and album covers on t-shirts,
Oquendo also painted logos on jean and leather jackets. Oquendo explained that leather jackets
were not common at all in Medellín (or in Colombia), because they simply were very expensive.
In fact, the leather jacket that was available, or rather affordable, was described as criollo or
“creole,” meaning locally produced and not very good quality. It was not enough for metalheads
or punkers to walk the streets wearing their logo proudly. Somebody wearing a particular band
logo and heading out to roam the streets needed to be well informed about the band he was
sporting.
The price to pay for wearing a band logo without knowing what it was or what it meant
was violence. It was not uncommon to see someone attacked for wearing a band t-shirt because
the person wearing the shirt knew nothing about the band. Scene members from both camps
were known to confront “questionable” fans and conduct a “rock music inquisition” to verify that
the person was not wearing the shirt simply to make a fashion statement or because they thought
it was “trendy.” Some questions in the “trial” included: Who are the members of, for instance,
Slayer? How many albums do they have? Name three songs from this band? If the person
261
78
answered the questions without any hesitation, then they were left free to go. However, if the
person was unable to respond correctly, their t-shirt would be ripped, typically with a
switchblade, by the interrogators on the grounds that the person “did not have a right to wear that
particular shirt.”262 Oquendo, like Vicente, expressed that from 1983 to the end of the decade,
there were radical members in the metal and punk scene who felt they were authorized to elect
who was and was not a real fan.
The idea behind such radicalism, explained Moreno, was that this would help weed out
anyone who thought heavy rock music was a trend like disco music or the latest salsa or cumbia
sensation.263 The attitude in preserving the “purity” of the music was also done because many of
the founding members of the Colombian punk and metal scene felt that wearing a band shirt was
also parallel to wearing an emblem. This emblem, whether wearing a Metallica, Slayer, or
Ramones t-shirt, represented a rebellion against anything that was considered mainstream in
Colombia. Furthermore, members from the heavy rock music scenes knew how hard it was to
get music albums and felt that this should not be taken for granted. They felt that anyone
wearing a band shirt should be well-informed about the band, because if one wore the shirt, it
meant he struggled to get his music. The logic was that getting rid of casposos would keep the
scene from being corrupted. If a shirt with a band print or not was worn, the color was
sometimes a plain white t-shirt, but as mentioned, the shirt’s color was usually black. This was
as crucial in the heavy rock scene in Colombia as it was in other parts of the world.
The black shirt, quintessential to the heavy metal movement in Colombia and across the
planet, represented something distinct and specific to Colombia’s case. According to Medellín
resident and punk aficionado Soto, black was an important color to wear, because wearing this
262
263
Monica Moreno Personal Interview 10 June 2009.
79
particular color was a way to “show anguish and mourning unto the world.”264 Although Soto
was not part of the initial punk or metal scene of the early 1980s in Colombia, his experience,
which will be addressed in Chapter 5, echoed the hardships of Colombian heavy rock’s
forerunners as well as those metalheads and punkers surviving the escalated urban and rural
violence of the late 1980s and early 1990s. According to Soto, original member in Medellín’s
punk scene of the 1980s, one way to interpret wearing black was by thinking about it as a form
of resistance against the “crimes of the state.”265 In other words, wearing black decried the
government’s hand in the rising violence in the nation.
For Alex Oquendo, wearing black encompassed all forms of violence perpetrated not
only by the national government, but also violence produced by guerrillas, drug barons, and
paramilitaries on innocent people.266 Soto’s association of black with “death” and “mourning” is
similar to the Western idea of the color, as opposed to relegating the color to simply “evil” was a
conscious act of resistance. Black shirts (or even white shirts) worn with band logos that
incorporated skulls and pentagrams into their logo were not supposed to be trendy. Although
looked down upon in Colombian society, wearing a band shirt was a way to communicate many
different emotions—dissent, dissatisfaction, sadness, frustration, hatred, and love—without an
individual uttering a word.
In the Colombian case, the individual wearing a band shirt was not only supporting rock
music or a metal or punk band. Although considered troubling and/or repulsive by Colombian
society, the shirts represented one layer of non-verbal communication that expressed dissent and
dissatisfaction against the socioeconomic conditions imposed on its most affected population.
Many young adults and their families, as mentioned previously, residing in the impoverished
264
265
“Soto” Personal Interview 17 June 2009.
266
“Soto”.
80
sectors of Bogotá and Medellín, and having migrated from different parts of the nation to the
outskirts of the nation’s major cities, did not have access to a basic standard of living. The shirts
also expressed sadness and frustration for the limited opportunities and outlets available to the
youth of Colombia. Not all youths wanted to play sports, participate in the political process, or
join a religious-based youth group. Not all youths wanted to go clubbing or cared about listening
to the latest pop song or wearing the latest fashion trends imported from the United States and
Western Europe.
Wearing the band shirt also symbolized a person’s hatred and love; this was a hatred
imposed on the individual by society’s disdain for metal and punk rock music, and at the same
time hatred expressed by the individual for the different layers, as mentioned above, of
oppression in Colombian society: the country’s ongoing violence, the Catholic Church, the failed
political system, and the traditional family dynamic. Most importantly, the shirt, with images
printed on it or not, acknowledged a nation in peril, a Colombia whose youngsters’ future was
uncertain and a country whose citizenry was in a constant state of mourning. Those heading out
into the streets with their homemade band shirts, inexpensive jeans, and boots, along with an
anti-establishment attitude, were up against the social grain of Colombian society.
¡A la Batalla! (To the battle!): Heading Out into Colombia’s Public Sphere
When Colombian metalheads and punkers headed out into Colombia’s streets, they knew
that it was not going to be very easy. Although there was no telling what precisely would
transpire, the roquer@s knew that the reactions were not going to be friendly. As many of my
interviewees mentioned, the metalheads and punk rockers wanted to just do their own thing
without being pestered by anyone. Alex Oquendo, for example, believed that the rocker he
encountered in the bus when he was younger had the right attitude: worry about yourself and not
81
about what anyone thinks or says about you.267 For Colombian metalheads and punkers hitting
the streets of Bogotá and Medellín, their attitude helped create a layer of tough skin when jeers
and comments were given by onlookers.
The way the rocker was perceived in Colombian society changed dramatically during the
1970s, especially after the Ancón festival. For instance, El Tiempo reported that the 1970
Colombian rocker’s social contribution was consuming hallucinogens:
The “hippies” main attraction [was what they found] at the end of the river stream
. . . a mushroom with hallucinogenic properties that are found in India, Mexico,
and the United States. The hippies disseminate through the fields . . . searching
for the plant produced by livestock’s excrement. Each [hippie] ingests eight or
more of these mushrooms and . . . they are in la onda, as they say. When they are
under the effects of the vegetable hallucinogen—with properties similar to
marijuana—the region turns into a scene where men, women, and children toss
their clothes wherever.268
There was no question that a “drug culture” grew out of the 1960s and 1970s. Drugs such as
LSD, coca (leaves), pills, and marijuana were available during the Ancón festival.269 However,
although there were rock music listeners that engaged in drug use, there were also rock listeners
who certainly did not. Relating drug use to rock music helped construct the stereotype in
Colombia that people who listened to rock music must have been on some kind of illegal drug.
Those who listened to rock music must engage in some sort of drug in order to appreciate and
understand the lyrical content of the music.270 Rock music’s opponents were more than happy to
remind Colombian society about the “dangers” and “evils” of rock music. Heavy metal and
punk rock were not going to be treated much differently. How was this attitude handled by scene
members of the 1980s?
267
268
El Tiempo, June 1971, quoted in Reina Rodríguez, Bogotá: Más que Pesado, METAL con Historia, 55.
269
Oscar Domínguez G. “Ancón, La Leyenda Continua,” Lo Paisa
http://www.lopaisa.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=817&Itemid=67, accessed 20 March 2011.
270
Conversations with Juan Hortua and Enrique Criollo unveiled that there continues to be false belief that enjoying rock music
required using drugs. Juan Hortua Personal Interview 22 November 2009 and Enrique Criollo Personal Interview 20 March
2009.
82
Ignoring malicious comments was one strategy against discriminatory bogotanos and
antioqueños. This was certainly difficult. For people who saw anything but good stemming
from metal or punk culture, it was the “idiot” rockers who were being rude for having the
audacity to step into the streets and look like one of Satan’s minions. The dirty looks
accompanying the condescending dialogue did not help either. Piedad Castro mentioned that it
was not rare at all to hear sly remarks or get dirty looks.271 She felt like an “alien” in her own
city. When she and her friends would go on the bus, she noticed how people would hold their
personal belongings tighter and quickly get out of the way to let them by. Piedad and her friends
oftentimes would walk through neighborhoods where people watching them go by would
instantly close their doors.272 Piedad and her sister, Vicky, also a key member of the 1980s
heavy rock scene in Medellín, “didn’t give a shit” about any of these reactions because they felt
proud to be rockers, even if it meant being an outsider. The punk rocker known as “El Alacrán”
(“The Scorpion”) mentioned on many occasions that even using public transportation was a
challenge, leaving him and many other heavy rockers using their own two feet to travel around
the city.
I opened the [bus] window and the bus was filled with nothing but punks [who
did not pay because] the bus driver [never opened] the door. Everyone [ignored
the driver] and the bus took off and we all got [to our destination] and everyone
got off. I was the last one to get off. Do you know how they took me off the bus?
I was [personally escorted]. They grabbed me by my mohawk and yelled at me:
“Get off faggot!” They hit me with the bus fare box and on the way [off the bus I
got] an ass kicking by batons.273
For this individual, the beating of his life was followed by police officers who were ready to
continue the beating if he and his friends did not get lost. Sometimes comments were difficult to
ignore when they came from the people closest to you.
271
272
Piedad Castro.
273
Augusto Bernal Jiménez, Rodrigo D: No Futuro. Historias Recobradas (Bogotá: Escuela de Cine Black María, 2009), 61.
83
One challenge, and fear, was being ostracized by family. Questions about what one’s
parents would say or how they would react ruminated in the minds of many roquer@s.
Oquendo’s family was not a great fan of his music by any means. He mentioned that his mother,
who currently resides in New York, was absolutely surprised to hear that people knew who her
son was and in what band he played.274 Oquendo, despite expressing that he did not worry about
what people thought of him, felt that his mother was his “worst enemy.”275 He confessed that
despite his talent and having a stable career, his mother still wondered when he would mature.
Oquendo was not the only one to experience parental doubt and questioning. “Luz Oscura”
admitted that his parents detested his choice of music and his lack of “seriousness” with his life’s
choices.276 This attitude was also very familiar to Vicente and “Dominus,” who were told that
they needed to “grow up” and leave behind a music that held no future for them. In these and
other cases, parents relegated rock music to a facet of adolescent behavior. 277 In other words,
rock music was not really to be taken seriously because it should disappear after adolescence.
As was the case in the United States, there appeared to be a generation gap considering
the parents’ response to their children continuing to rock out was that it was time to grow up.
Oquendo’s mother imagined her son as a “good” Colombian citizen: having short hair, wearing a
tie, and working a corporate job.278 He believed that his mother’s disapproval of his career
choice in life damaged his relationship with her.279 Soto’s father, who was also wary of his son’s
interaction in the heavy rock scene, despised his rocker friends to the point that he would stick
around just to see what they would do. Soto’s dad supervised the peludos to make sure that they
274
275
Alex Oquendo.
276
“Luz Oscura” Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
277
“Vicente” Personal Interview 20 March 2009 and “Dominus” Personal Interview 12 June 2009.
278
279
Alex Oquendo.
84
weren’t doing anything “wrong.”280 According to an opinion piece in rock fanzine Vision
Rockera, it was wrong for parents to believe that they could shelter their children from all that
was “bad.”281 Instead of “educating” their children, parents were “castrating their ideas . . .
creating psychological trauma that only favor those that govern the nation.”282 In other words,
parents were creating “drones” for the nation to control and use at their disposal. The cases
presented above focused on male family members. What happened when the women of the
family wanted to rock out?
According to Vicky and Piedad Castro, being part of the punk and metal scene in
Medellín was apparently worse than dropping out of school for their parents.283 For Vicky and
Piedad’s mother, there was “absolutely nothing good” that could possibly come about listening
to heavy metal or punk rock.284
Interviewer: And do you think anything good has come about for (Vicky and
Piedad) with rock music?
Mrs. Castro: Not even a little bit.
Piedad: Why not mom?
Mrs. Castro: They don’t go to mass.
Interviewer: [Mrs. Castro], for you religion is fundamental?
Mrs. Castro: FUN-DA-MEN-TAL
Interviewer: Why?
Mrs. Castro: Because I love God with all my heart. Because I do. I’m very sad
with them because they don’t believe in anything.
Interviewer: Do you think rock music hasn’t been at all positive [for Vicky and
Piedad]?
280
”Soto” Personal Interview 17 June 2009.
281
“Opinion,” Visión Rockera, Julio 1986, 15.
282
“Opinion,” Visión Rockera.
283
Vicky, Piedad, and Mrs. Castro Personal Interview 22 June 2009.
284
Vicky, Piedad, and Mrs. Castro.
85
Picture 2-4: Mrs. Castro and daughter Piedad Castro heading home from downtown
Medellín. (Author’s picture)
Mrs. Castro: (shaking her head assertively) No. It hasn’t been useful for anything
at all.
Mrs. Castro (see Picture 2-4) was convinced that neither heavy metal nor punk rock music
brought anything good to the world or for her daughters. She asserted that it was their choice of
music that led them astray, “preventing” them from attending church on Sundays. How
fundamental was religion to the antioqueña mother? Church was extremely crucial since church
provided a churchgoer with morals that were not going to be found in heavy metal or punk rock
music.285 Mrs. Castro knew that Vicky and Piedad earned part of their living selling rock
paraphernalia, which helped to supplement the household income. Their parents’ disapproval of
heavy rock music manifested itself once Vicky and Piedad started becoming more and more
285
Mrs. Castro Personal Interview 22 June 2009.
86
involved in the heavy rock music scene. Although Vicky and Piedad’s parents were determined
to “save” them, the sisters’ passion for the music and curiosity for more music material was well
under way.
Their involvement in the heavy rock music scene led them to want to wear much of the
clothing that their male friends sported. They wanted their homemade studded belt, the rock t-
shirt, jeans, a leather or jean jacket, the chains, and the chokers. They wanted to hang with other
rockers, share music, and learn about other bands. They did not drop out of school, but were not
too concerned about being high school valedictorians. They wanted to learn how to play some of
their favorite songs, have their own rock band, and have the opportunity to just rock out
whenever possible. However, their parents heavily disagreed. Unfortunately, there was a clash
between the music that they enjoyed versus what their parents considered appropriate.286 Piedad
Castro mentioned that her father was an enemy of metal and punk and completely against his
daughters listening to that “garbage.”
My father did not agree with [us listening and partaking in the rock scene]
because he was from a small town where a woman had to wear a dress, where the
woman had to be subservient, and listening to [this] music was the worst thing
imaginable. [For him,] listening to rock was going against everything.287
Castro acknowledged that what she and her sister were doing was going against “tradition.” This
“tradition,” as discussed in the previous chapter, was a tradition that underscored the family unit
as crucial to development of the nation and one with cemented gender roles that ultimately
expressed sexism, misogyny, discrimination, and religiosity. Her father believed that rock music
Castro acknowledged that what she and her sister were doing was going against “tradition.” This
“tradition,” as discussed in the previous chapter, was a tradition that underscored the family unit
286
287
Piedad Castro.
87
Picture 2-5: “Music is just a complement!!” But not necessarily a good complement to many of
Colombia’s households.288
as crucial to development of the nation and one with cemented gender roles that ultimately
expressed sexism, misogyny, discrimination, and religiosity. Her father believed that rock music
was undermining these core values. In the “Opinion” section of the rock fanzine Visión Rockera,
the author commented that many of the women that wanted to participate in the heavy rock scene
were blocked by parents who interrogated their daughters before allowing them to step outside
the household.289 Apparently, if some of the women’s friends were rockers then “[the women
would] degenerate” because they would be “getting high” and “returning home pregnant.”290 In
one comic strip (see Picture 2-5) an “upright” and conservative father refuses to let his daughter
hang out with her rocker friends. The daughter requests that her father let her go with her friends
on a camping trip, to which the father tells his daughter to not even “dream” about hanging with
“those guys” especially taking into account their facha or appearance. The young woman’s
friends, who are waiting for her to go with them, commented that the father has been angered
288
“Opinion: Sociedad o Monopolio,” Visión Rockera, July 1986, 15.
289
“Opinion: Sociedad o Monopolio,” Visión Rockera.
290
88
and this was expected because he was “an old man anyway.”291 The comic strip identified the
experience of many women who faced barriers from parents who felt that they were giving their
daughters away to decadence. To parents, the Colombian household needed to be free from
disruption, especially if the disruption was none other than Satan himself or any of his “allies.”
Piedad Castro mentioned how her mother hated her music so much that there were a number of
times that she destroyed Piedad’s albums.292
Let me tell you a funny story. My mom ripped many of my vinyl albums up. She
ripped my Hellhammer Apocalyptic Raids album three times because it was
supposedly Satan [on the cover]. One time Vicky and I got home and they had a
priest and according to my mom we were possessed because [what they listened
to was demonic] and the priest poured holy water on us and during the night my
mom would throw holy water on us (laughing) and she would wet us. The priest
would not put holy water on our faces but he would talk to us asking why we
listened to that music [and tell us] that the music was not any good. We would
tell the priest that we didn’t believe in Satan and that we loved our music and our
clothing style. They never changed us.
Whether or not the picture of the Hellhammer album cover was Satan, it was without a doubt the
Devil for the Castro sisters’ parents. Was this or any album really poisoning the minds of the
Castro sisters? Mr. and Mrs. Castro refused to accept anything possibly resembling the Dark
Prince himself to enter the ears of their children and remain in the household. For Mr. and Mrs.
Castro the Hellhammer record, and other albums that they felt had questionable covers,
prompted a series questions: What does this mean? What does this music sound like? What is a
“Hellhammer”? These were definitely logical questions. For Mrs. Castro, the album cover was
enough to get rid of it. In order to remove the influence of Satan in the Castro household, the
parents decided that if the young ladies were not going to seek help from the church, then the
church would be brought to their household.
291
292
89
Vicky and Piedad Castro’s parents believed they needed to act fast. They needed help to
rid their household from “evil,” and the only entity that could make it happen was Satan’s
enemy: God. If God was not available, then His local representative could be: the family’s
parish priest. The Castro sisters’ parents were afraid that the music that their daughters listened
to was turning them into full-fledged Satan worshippers. The priest was apparently the solution
to their daughters’ “decrepit” state. Unfortunately, neither sister, to the dismay of their parents
and the priest, stopped listening and supporting punk, heavy metal, or any form of rock music.
But this was not the only challenge for either of the Castro sisters or other heavy rock fanatics. It
was no secret that the scene was primarily comprised of men. The women that hung out with
these males veered away from the image of the appropriate Colombian female.
Vicky and Piedad’s father was so distraught over “losing” his daughters that he did
everything he could to “get them back.” Piedad explained that one way her father tried to “turn
them around” was to tell his friends in public that he was ashamed to be their father, because “he
could not have such disgusting daughters associated with that type of music.”293
He would see us with 20 guys and he would deny that we were his daughters. He
was with a friend one day and he turned to his friend and told him that “hey look
at those ugly broads.” Those broads were supposedly us. He would say that he
was ashamed to be our father.294
He even tried to bribe his daughters to drop heavy metal and punk rock by promising them cars,
although it was questionable whether he could afford to buy one. Mr. Castro also promised to
take the family to live in a better barrio, and he promised to buy them expensive clothes as long
as both Vicky and Piedad dropped that “diabolical” music. They explained to their father that
the music was something they really enjoyed. According to Piedad, their father was so crushed
to see long-haired guys with spikes visit his daughters that he eventually left the household.
293
Vicky and Piedad Castro Personal Interview 22 June 2010.
294
Vicky and Piedad Castro.
90
Though Piedad believed that her father abandoned the home to live with another woman, Mrs.
Castro was convinced that her husband left because of their daughters’ disrespect. The attempts
to release the “demons” from the Castro household were not limited to parental advice and holy
intervention.
Apart from the different creative ways that the Castro parents used to veer their daughters
away from punk and heavy metal, they also used physical violence to get their point across. 295
Vicky recalled how her mother did not hesitate to try and literally beat the rock music out of her,
while her father, on one occasion, beat her so bad that she was bedridden for over a week.
Parental physical abuse was by no means case-specific to Colombia, although it was something
that some parents felt was the appropriate measure to be taken. In the United States, heavy metal
rock videos, such as Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” underscored the trials and
tribulations of teens repressed by conservative parents who disagreed with their children rocking
out.296 Some parents in the United States (and other parts of the world) threatened their children
with sending them to reform school or the military if they did not change their ways. Perhaps if
Vicky and Piedad were males, they would have been threatened to be sent off to Colombian
military school. Fortunately, Vicky survived the attack, and the sisters persisted in preserving
their musical preferences. If things were so bad in the Castro household, why did the Castro
sisters not move out of the household?
In the U.S. context, many heavy metal and punk youths who felt their parents just “did
not understand” pulled together and rented out an apartment.297 In Colombia, such freedom to
move out of their parents’ home was not possible because, as in the case of the Castro sisters’
295
296
“We’re Not Gonna Take It” from Twisted Sister. Stay Hungry. Atlantic Records, 1984.
297
One example of heavy rockers in the United States pulling together to live independently was the heavy metal band Anthrax.
More on Anthrax’s experience could be found in thrash metal documentary Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal. Rick Ernst.
dir. Lightyear Video, 2008.
91
and their male counterparts, they could not afford to do so. Accessing employment proved to be
difficult. Employment that paid enough to be able to rent an apartment, pay utilities, and buy
food was practically a dream. Even if they had the money, because of discriminatory attitudes,
renters would have been hesitant to rent their spaces out to metalheads and punkers. Staying at
home proved to be the most realistic option. The problems that roquer@s faced in the household
had to be endured at all cost. The rules of the house were one thing, but comprising one’s
identity was certainly another. When young roquer@s left the household during the day, who
made sure that they were acting appropriately? The police were an added layer of repression that
attempted to rescue the “youth of tomorrow” while preserving law and order.
“Policia de Mierda” (“Piece of Shit Police”)298: To Protect and Serve . . . and Preserve
“Tradition” in Colombia
Y los tombos And the pigs

No concienten Don’t even allow
Ni un minuto Not one minute
Verme mas To see me
Me quieren They want to
Pescar Catch me
Pescar Catch me299
When Medellín punk rock band Mutantex wrote “Estupidas Miradas” in the mid-1980s,
part of the song alluded to a rocker’s experience of being stared at by people with “stupid looks”
in any “street corner,” while the second part of the song focused on the watchful eye of the
police.300 The song captured how a roquer@ in Colombia was treated like social pariah, waiting
for the authorities to move in and take them away from society. Colombia’s police, as in
different parts of the world, were notorious for enforcing “morale” and order in the nation’s
public and private sphere. For Colombia’s police force, the roquer@ was no more than a
298
“Puta Policia” in Polikarpa y Sus Viciosas. Libertad y Desorden. Self-Released, 1999.
299
“Estupidas Miradas lyrics,” LyricsVIP, http://www.lyricsvip.com/Mutantex/Estupidas-Miradas-Lyrics.html, accessed 20
November 2011.
300
“Estupidas Miradas lyrics.”
92
“decadent, Satan worshipping junkie” who listened to “loud,” “annoying,” and “diabolical”
music that, without question, needed to be monitored.
As mentioned above, the association of rock music to the occult and drug use was
established in the 1970s. During and following this decade, discrimination against any form of
heavy rock music surfacing in the late 20th century was justified. For Vicky Castro, the police
were apparently [sarcastically] “in love with [their] clothing style,” because they kept staring at
her and her friends and constantly accused them of being devil worshippers and potheads.301 On
many occasions, the authorities in Medellín arrested her and her friends, forcing them to stand up
against the wall.302 Piedad Castro added that metalheads and punk rockers’ relationship with the
police could be qualified as tense.
There has always been a war with the police and they have never liked us and we
didn’t like them of course. For concerts they would go to give bolillo [baton hits]
or in the parches or sollis [hang out spots] they would enter by force [and say]
“Everybody against the wall! [Bring out your] documents!” They would jail us,
even women, and I [remember I] was jailed twice [for being a rocker].303
For the police, both male and female rockers needed correction through incarceration. Piedad
Castro also remembered one arrest where she was thrown into the paddy wagon during a get-
together with her friends. After being tossed into the vehicle, Castro burst into tears and prayed
aloud repeatedly: “¡Ay Dios Mio!” (Oh My God!). While in the paddy wagon, she screamed
desperately how her parents were going to kill her and that there was no way she could go to jail.
The authorities, tired of her incessant crying and whining, released her.304 Although Piedad
Castro was lucky on this occasion, some of her rocker male counterparts were not.
301
Vicky Castro Personal Interview 18 June 2009.
302
Vicky Castro.
303
304
Piedad Castro.
93
Soto mentioned that the police treated the women rockers much better than the men, such
that the women were placed in a jail cell that was much cleaner than the men’s cell.305 The
difference in treatment, according to Piedad Castro, had to do with the authorities’ attempt in
rescuing the “purity” in Colombian females from the musical “poison” that the “disorderly” men
infected them with.306 The idea of “rescuing” women from the heavy rock scene implied that
women were not conscious of their own actions and that they were being manipulated by fellow
male rockers. Piedad and Vicky Castro, Monica Moreno, and other heavy rock music female
aficionados who invested themselves in the metal or punk scene were far from being
brainwashed into joining the heavy rock music scene. There were women who tried to join the
punk or metal scene because it looked “cool.” However, as Alex Oquendo commented, these
“women did not last long at all” because the heavy rock scene was far from being something
trendy, and women who were there for the long run believed in the music.307 Piedad Castro
acknowledged that when the police felt a show needed to end, it was done so with violence.
Soto, having experienced a baton or two to the skull, lucked out during one police roundup.
Following a police raid at a show in Medellín, Soto and other rock fanatics were taken down to
the Pedregal police station.308 Soto and other fellow roqueros were ordered by the commanding
officer to line up against the wall. One of the staff sergeants went down the line insulting each
person and beating them, using closed fists and kicks to the abdomen. By the time the officer got
to the end of the line where Soto was, the official was so tired of beating people that Soto was
spared from being brutalized. As he put it: “Me salvé de la pela” (“I was saved from the
beating”).309 He also mentioned that while the police officer struck the other roqueros that stood
305
306
307
308
309
“Soto”.
94
Picture 2-6: “Adventures of a Hangout” depicting rockero/a repression by the authorities.310
against the wall next to him, the sergeant yelled at them that he did not want to see “[those]
motherfuckers ever again at the bar!”311 Such repression was captured and depicted through a
comic strip known as “Adventures of a Hangout,” which emphasized and depicted how rockers
were treated by Colombian authorities (see Picture 2-6). In one episode of “Adventures of a
Hangout,” four rocker youth, imprisoned and ignored by the police, believed that they were
310
“Aventuras de Un Parche 2,” Visión Rockera, Julio 1988, no.6 , 11.
311
95
going to be locked up for the weekend.312 The police, who were quick to identify the roqueros
as mechudos who were apparently part of some gang, labeled one of the rockers as a sicario, or
hired assassin. The males, waiting for either water or food from the authorities, were profiled on
television as being the “dangerous gang known as Los Metales who were finally captured.”313
The news report was watched by a concerned mother who believed that her son was one of the
“bandits” arrested and that this was the reason her son did not make it home. Discrimination and
acts of violence against heavy rock music aficionados was certainly not only restricted to
Medellín.
Bogotá’s rock bar owner, Henry, recalled that the police had always been abusive
towards rockers and rock music.314 Always rock music has been seen as [being a form of music
where people who are] problematic or [who are] drugged. It has always been associated to that.
And whoever does not recognize this [could not be any one more] blind than the
one who refuses to see it. So the person who is unfamiliar with such music sees it
as bad. [They are] junkies, ugly, and everything. That’s how it is [and] cops try
to keep their distance because ‘rockers’ are supposedly diseased. 315
For Henry, authorities’ stereotypes regarding the rock culture of Colombia in today’s world were
a clear reminder of a not-so-distant past. As a bar owner and rock fanatic for over 20 years,
Henry observed how the discrimination and harassment that he faced growing up during the
1980s was still alive and well in the 21st century (see Picture 2-7). For other bogotanos and
antioqueños surviving the 1980s in Colombia and other parts of the globe, the authorities did not
hesitate to label male rockers as homosexuals. For both Vicente and Alex Oquendo, and many
Colombian males, their upbringing played a role in how they were supposed to understand and
312
“Aventuras de Un Parche 2,” Vision Rockera.
313
“Aventuras de Un Parche 2,” Vision Rockera.
314
“Henry” Personal Interview 4 March 2009.
315
“Henry.”
96
Picture 2-7: “Random” Police Checkpoint for apparent rocker “delinquents” of the 21st Century.
(Author’s picture)
men who had long hair in Colombia. Both were raised with the notion that men could not have
long hair because this was not “manly.” However, as much as they disagreed with their parents,
the conservative attitude towards men with long hair relegated any male with long locks as
homosexual. Whereas Vicente’s father threatened to cut his “queer” hair while he slept,316
Oquendo’s mother consistently insulted him by telling him that he looked like an “old and used
mop.”317 Luz Oscura despised his school because he could not have long hair until he graduated,
a school rule that his parents fully supported.318 Certainly, other male rockers who wanted to
have long hair were discouraged—if not threatened—in their respective households or the
schools they attended. Heavy metal youths were not the only ones who wanted long hair.
316
317
Oquendo’s mother called him a “trapeador,” Spanish for “mop,” which was used by Alex to refer to himself as Alex
“Trapeator.” Alex Oquendo Personal Interview 6 June 2009.
318
97
Jerónimo Rivera expressed that his school was strict on no males having long hair, and he felt
that such forced conformity was an attack on one’s “individual liberty.”319 The authorities were
also not keen on seeing men walking the streets of Colombia with long hair.
The police were quick to label Vicente, Oquendo, as well as other Colombian roqueros as
homosexual. Colombia’s authorities, as did other police forces around the globe, questioned the
sexuality of male rockers, because some of the scene members had long hair or “strange” bright-
colored hair and/or pierced ears. Police repression against males wearing long hair dated back to
the youth counterculture of the 1960s, where having a hairdo like any of the members of the
Beatles was considered “long hair.” Oquendo recalled being approached several times only to be
told that he was a “faggot” and that he needed to “get a haircut” and “get off drugs.”320 Vicente
remembered on several occasions how certain bus drivers were reluctant to let rockers board
their bus because of their long hair and clothing apparel.321 Such characterization said much
about what constituted as being “manly” or gender appropriate in Colombian society. On one
occasion, Vicente was imprisoned for having long hair and for “having homosexual
tendencies.”322 Alex Oquendo also mentioned being harassed by the police for having long hair.
He remembered how it was common for police officers to detain a rocker, ask him for
identification, and hold him until the police felt that there was no crime that could be attached to
the rocker. Plain and simple: If the police did not like a metalhead or punk rocker, then they
would even go as far as threaten to hurt you or actually cut your hair.323 Did all members of the
police force believe this was the best treatment?
319
Jerónimo Rivera, “En defensa de los ‘peludos,’” Blog de Jerónimo Rivera,
http://jeronimorivera.lacoctelera.net/post/2008/06/13/en-defensa-los-peludos, accessed 20 November 2011.
320
Alex Oquendo Personal Interview 20 May 2009.
321
322
“Vicente”.
323
Vicente”.
98
In 1980s, Fernando Ferrucho served Bogotá’s southern sector as police captain.
According to the now retired officer, the idea behind going after the peludos was to keep a close
eye on their activities. According to the captain, many of these youths were “bandits,” because
most of them were “unemployed” and stealing from people just to get “high.”324 He admitted
that there were times when the police did, in fact, go too far, but for Captain Ferrucho it was a
matter of protecting local businesses and keeping neighborhoods “safe” and in “order.”325 When
asked about what he thought about heavy rock music, he explained that it was not a particular
music he cared for, and that his preferred music styles in the 1980s were not tunes in English but
Spanish ballads and vallenato.326 Ferrucho believed that what he thought about certain types of
music had nothing to do with how he patrolled the streets in the 1980s.327 His job was to make
sure that the streets were free from criminals prowling on other “honest and upstanding”
Colombian citizens and, especially by the 1990s, protect the “innocent” because of the rise of
drug violence in the nation. The crimes that were supposedly committed by the metal and punk
communities were denounced through fanzine forums that pictorially depicted acts of repression
by the police against metalheads and punkers.
A declaration posted through Vision Rockera fanzine stated that heavy rock music fans
were “tired of the daily repression” which has only led to being “kicked, given haircuts, jailed,
and gone to the extreme of being killed” (see Picture 2-8).328 The declaration called for rockers
to take action and fight against the unjust beatings and incarcerations as well as the forced
“removal of attire.” The cartoon shows a clean-cut and uniformed officer happily beating a
rocker who, as he is falling down, listens to the officer tell him that one strike to “the little ribs
324
Capitán Fernando Ferrucho Personal Interview 3 March 2010.
325
Capitán Fernando Ferrucho,
326
Capitán Fernando Ferrucho.
327
Capitán Fernando Ferrucho.
328
Vision Rockera July 1987, no. 6, 4.
99
Picture 2-8: The rock community tired of the abuse by the local authorities.329
is for being a long-haired” and one “little kick is for being disorderly.”330 Captain Ferrucho, who
apprehended many rockers during that time period, did so under the pretense that they were
involved, as will be addressed further in Chapter 5, in acts of sicariato (hired assassinations).
Unfortunately, some of the “criminals” singled out even before the rise of the drug violence in
Colombia’s urban spaces by Captain Ferrucho and his colleagues were no more dangerous, for
example, than a group of soccer fan teens getting together to play a pick-up matches at the local
park. The difference here was that soccer was an accepted activity and not alien to Colombian
culture. Heavy metal and punk rock, on the other hand, were considered an abomination by
authorities (and families) who believed such music could only lead to nowhere. The metalheads
329
Visión Rockera, July 1987, no. 6, 4.
330
Vision Rockera, July 1987.
100
and punkers of Bogotá and Medellín disagreed wholeheartedly, focusing their energies on
appropriating urban spaces and constructing forums to celebrate the music that spoke to their
experiences and create music to address their frustration, angst, disgust, and rejection of a
Colombian society that refused to acknowledge the numerous ills afflicting the youth of the
nation.
Conclusions
The late 1970s paved the way for the entry of a much heavier rock music sound that took
root in Colombian cities including Bogotá and Medellín. The first challenge for many
metalheads and punkers in the 1980s was getting hold of the music itself. Colombia metalheads
and punkers could not depend solely on the nation’s airwaves or television, because there were
not enough shows that truly focused on heavy rock music until the late 1980s. In Bogotá, the
kiosk played a crucial role in providing interested individuals with some of the heaviest rock
music produced in the United States, Great Britain, and other parts of the world. In Medellín, as
well as Bogotá, listening to the latest Slayer album was possible because of people who were
fortunate to travel abroad and bring back a collection of records. For metalheads, more than
punkers, adopting a clothing “style” required a series of items (e.g. black shirt, jeans, jacket, etc.)
to be incorporated into the scene. However, “looking” the part did not guarantee “authenticity,”
and there were rockers who ensured the “purity” of the heavy rock scene by weeding out people,
by using violence, who were suspected to be frauds. Although punkers of the early 1980s
discouraged any form of a “punk uniform,” many adopted some of the dress styles from the
United Kingdom, incorporating colored hair and piercings into their look. For a majority of the
metalheads and punkers in Bogotá and Medellín, neither the music nor the clothing style was
accepted.
101
For some of Colombia’s metalheads and punkers, the household was the first line of
repression that heavily discouraged engaging heavy rock music. Parents who felt their kids were
out of control because they listened to Judas Priest, had long hair, or had friends who “looked
questionable” were willing to do anything to ensure that their children were not lost to
“decadence.” Women who wanted to partake in the metal or punk scene of the 1980s were
challenged by parents who could not bear to see their daughters’ “purity” lost to the Devil and
his helpers. The police, the next layer of repression who were also instrumental in preserving
women’s purity, sought to establish “tradition” and “order” by using violence and incarceration
to transform the “lost” youth into upright citizens.
Despite acts of repression, the metalheads and punkers of the 1980s continued to
celebrate their music by hosting get-togethers and concerts in public and private spaces. How
was the scene taken from private to public spaces? What spaces were utilized to celebrate the
music? What concert events brought Colombia’s underground metal and punk culture into the
mainstream media? The next chapter looks closely at the construction of Colombian rock music
spaces and unveils metalheads and punkers doing everything they can to “rock out” in spaces
hosting and showcasing a vibrant and persistent music culture.
102
CHAPTER 3
Negotiating Spaces—Rocking out in a “Time of Cholera”
The parche [hang out] could be a corner, a plancha [a rooftop], a sports arena, a
cemetery, a basement, an abandoned house, someone’s house, a park . . . . They
are generally places where few concurridos [busy zones] that provide a
clandestine air . . . specifically because they recognize their differences, attacked
violently or sutilmente [subtly]. In their parche they feel safe. The parche is the
place where Punks [and Metalheads] socialize.
– Olga María Hurtado331
The best remedy for us THE Music (sic), it is our “refuge,” it is where problems
are forgotten, it is where we are rejected; [rock] opens doors, it is who we feel
safe with, it is our second home, it is what we are fighting for, it is our shield of
protection, it is a goal to achieve, it is to feel wants, it is our life beat, it is a
vibration that runs through the veins, that’s why this is crazy. . . STRUGGLE!!!!
– “La Mejor Dosis”332
What’s this! . . . . METAL! What’s this! . . . . METAL!

– Ramon Reinaldo Restrepo, Parabellum333
“Punkers in Medallo were a legitimate bastard race, sons of hate, the intolerance
of a Third World, and a broken nation.”
– Gilberto Medina334
Colombia’s heavy metal and punk scene would not exist today had it not been for the
perseverance of those metaleros and punqueros in the 1980s who believed in the music and
struggled to carve out spaces in which to celebrate it. Punkers and metalheads from Bogotá and
Medellín wanted to find good venues to play the vinyl albums and dubbed tapes obtained from
sources discussed in the previous chapter. Finding a good space to rock out was no easy task
considering the watchful eye of the police, the community, and anyone who was vehemently
opposed to the heavy rock music culture. Regardless of any repression, the roquer@s made it
possible to rock out in urban (and rural) spaces. They redefined and appropriated such spaces by
331
Olga María Hurtado quoted in Gilberto Medina, Medellín En Vivo: La Historia del Rock (Medellín: Corporación Región,
1997), 100.
332
“La Mejor Sobredosis,” Vision Rockera, November 1986, no. 3, 9.
333
Ramon Reinaldo Restrepo interviewed in “Historia del metal en Medellín Colombia (2-7),”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvS3APwu5lY&feature=related, accessed 20 March 2011.
334
Medina, Medellín En Vivo: La Historia del Rock, 101.
103
congregating with other fellow heavy rockers who were excited to hear the latest music arriving
in Colombia and some of the well-known heavy metal and punk songs already circulating in
Bogotá and Medellín. Aside from gathering to hear foreign bands, the spaces obtained were also
used to listen to homegrown metal and punk bands. Where did the hangouts take place and what
were they like?
This chapter argues that constructing a metal and punk scene, whether in Bogotá or
Medellín, required the collaboration of both metalheads and punks who understood that
collaboration and mutual respect were vital for the survival of heavy rock music in Colombia.
Although certain radical punkers and metalheads were not interested in working with each other,
creating more tension between heavy rock group supporters, Colombia’s punk and metal scene
prospered with the help of those roquer@s who saw past defending their own rock music
preference. Moving the music from the private to the public sphere was a direct challenge to a
conservative culture that was not impressed with the evolution of rock music or its supporters.
Finding a place to rock out and host local bands required a particular ingenuity on the part of
roquer@s who knew that the local authorities would not think twice about restoring “decency”
and “order” to public spaces. Unfortunately, in the struggle to “rock out,” women were
marginalized by fellow male rockers arguing that women had no place in the heavy rock music
scene. Women fought such discrimination and were crucial in helping organize concerts,
publishing fanzines, and hosting some of the get-togethers. As a result, the hangouts helped
expose up-and-coming talent from some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Medellín
and Bogotá.
Colombia’s underground metal and punk bands made their debut in parking lots, patios,
rooftops, garages, basements, and anywhere that would host a group of musicians that could not
104
wait to play for a live audience. There were bands that had easier access to rock music
instruments (e.g., electric guitar, bass, drum set, etc.), and there were those that were not so
fortunate. For bands coming from low-income neighborhoods, the “do-it-yourself” method was
a powerful tool in creating instruments and amplifiers that were unaffordable. By the mid-1980s,
bands such as Parabellum, Mierda, Kraken, and others unveiled a new direction in the course of
Colombia’s heavy metal and punk rock movement. In fact, the 1985 Battle of the Bands at the
La Macarena bullfighting arena in Medellín was the historic venue that introduced the
underground music to curious record producers and journalists, witnessed the divide between
band and rock subgenre supporters, and saw the local authorities attempt at reestablishing
“order.” This music competition, apart from pitting bands against each other, unveiled the
frustration and angst of the region’s socially and economically marginalized. This was the forum
in which impoverished rockers could vent and scream at the multifaceted forms of injustice
experienced at the time.
“Recuerdos de Garages . . . Dias Inolvidables” (“Garage Memories . . . Unforgettable

Days”): Hangouts for Rockers!335
Colombian metalheads and punkers were determined to listen to their preferred music
regardless of the social stigma against their music. They were determined to construct spaces to
celebrate these music styles—a space where the metal and punk identity could be a shared
identity. This was not going to be easy, considering resistance from the local population and the
local authorities. Finding where to play the music depended on what was available. According
to Alex Oquendo, there was a point where playing the music at home was not very well received
and was often looked down upon by one’s family members.336 Vicente explained that he had to
quietly play the radio in his room so that his mother would not bang on his door to have him
335
“El Garage” from I.R.A. Firmes. Medellín, 2009.
336
105
“shut that crap off.”337 Heavy rock music aficionado and album trader Lorenzo Gómez
commented that his mother would often order him to turn down the volume because the music
was simply unintelligible.338 For Emilio, producer and owner of Blasfemia Records in Bogotá,
his father monitored what it was that he was listening to and disagreed with Emilio wearing only
black t-shirts.339 For “Manuel Vegetariano” (Vegetarian), his parents were repulsed by heavy
rock music, arguing that it was “weird” and influenced “by the Devil.”340
For each narrator above, playing metal or punk music in the household was difficult
because parents and family members did not see eye to eye with this type of music. “Manuel El
Vegetariano” expressed that his parents were more accustomed to listening to Colombian and
Mexican ballads, music forms known to him as música para planchar or music for ironing, than
metal and punk rock music. Delta Records founder and producer Julio Monroy mentioned that
his parents were not overly critical of his choice in music, something not typical among the
narrators.341 Some parents were frightened that their children listened to metal or punk rock
because it was an unfamiliar and “strange” type of music. It was considered music unfitting for
the nation’s youth. If playing metal or punk at home proved to be too difficult, then where could
one go? One answer was to head over to a good friend’s house whose parents did not mind
youngsters gathering to listen to their records or tapes. The other option was to go over to a
friend who happened to live on his/her own—though this was rare because, as mentioned in the
previous chapter, the majority of youths could not find a job let alone pull enough resources
together to live away from home. For Piedad Castro, the best place to share the music was at the
sollis.
337
338
Lorenzo Gómez Personal Interview 15 March 2009.
339
Emilio Cuesta Personal Interview 7 April 2008.
340
“Manuel El Vegetariano” Personal Interview 5 April 2008.
341
Julio Monroy Personal Interview 31 March 2008.
106
Piedad Castro recalled that the closest thing to the concert experience was attending the
hangouts or sollis.342 The term sollis (soh-yees) was created in Medellín’s marginalized
communities and was part of the vernacular lexicon known as parlache (parr-lah-cheh). Sollis,
in the parlache dictionary, was something that “felt great” or was “good.”343 To sollar (soh-
yarr) meant to “feel”; and in the case of the metal and punk music scenes, it meant to physically
and emotionally “feel the music.” The solli was the place that served as host to the “rock-outs.”
Another word found in the parlache dictionary describing the location of a specific hangout was
parche (parr-cheh).344 The parche, synonymous with the solli, also referred to hanging out; it
was also the location of a live show taking place. To parchar (parr-charr) meant hanging out
with a particular individual or group.
For Medina and Orozco, parches were zones used by “juvenile groups” to organize
themselves within a culture that was quintessential to the “history of those populating the city.”
345
These parches were in response to the “very rough environment” that youths experienced,
placing them at odds with “old belief models” that have been wrought through the reproduction
of “homogeneous structures.” 346 The barrio was the site of negotiation for youths to construct a
new future, so the parche needed to be a space refuting the “old belief models,” because young
adults were not buying into a model that was only serving to meet the needs of a tradition to
which they felt no longer connected. Cano Ospina defined the parche as a “party” and
“locations defined according to the music genre and the social class hosting it: from new wave
342
343
Another word that was used in the scene to describe a sollis or parche that will not be employed in this chapter or work,
serving as another synonym found in salsa music gatherings, is nota. Luz Stella Catañeda Naranjo, Caracterización
Lexicológica y Lexicográfica Del Parlache Para la Elaboración De Un Diccionario, Thesis (Ph.D.), Universitat de Lleida, 2005.
344
Catañeda Naranjo. Caracterización Lexicológica y Lexicográfica Del Parlache Para la Elaboración De Un Diccionario.
345
346
Medina, Medellín En Vivo, 96-97.
107
and metal bars for the middle class, even streets or empty buildings for the less fortunate.”347
Parches did not only have to be music oriented, since a parche could be “a group of people
privately gathering and partaking in quotidian activities.”348 Parches were typically formed
among friends who were generally from the same neighborhood, and some of the first metal and
punk parches were small, typically no more than three to four people.349 With time, parches
took on specific identities and grew in membership.
In order to be part of a particular parche, an invitation from the host and affiliates was
necessary. “Membership” was based on whether other participants considered you “worthy” or
felt that you understood, in this case, the music genre enjoyed in the parche. Parches, because
they grew in different parts of the city, became zones of identity that sometimes pitted one
parche against another. In the 1980s, parches sprung across different parts of Medellín, but the
majority of them were located in low-income barrios. There were parches named after demons,
animals, organized groups. The Mortigans were from Bello, and the Porkies and Chivas were
from Guayabal. There were also parches named Podrida Sociedad from Villa Hermosa, Los
Perros, Los Monjes, and Los Kaytole. Some of these and other parches were founded in the
barrios of Itagüí, Miraflores, Buenos Aires, in “the Amarilla, the fields in Floresta, in Colpisos . .
. [as well as] the ruins of Aranjuez, the bus terminal station in Santa Cruz, and at La Playa
Avenue.”350 The rules for “admission” were distinct for each group, although labeling them as a
gang or banda was something determined by the authorities.
The local authorities labeled the parches as bandas or gangs, arguing that these were
youths that were up to no good and were actively recruiting delinquents. Although some
347
Cano Ospina, "Identidad desde el caos, el caos de la identidad. Una historia del rock en Medellín".
348
“parche,” tuBabel, http://www.tubabel.com/definicion/9852-parche, accessed 20 March 2011.
349
350
Medina, Medellín En Vivo: La Historia del Rock.
108
parches, like the Escorpiones and the Monjes, were known to engage in criminal activity, the
police did not hesitate to stereotype all groups as law breakers. Piedad Castro, when asked
whether she thought she was part of a gang, responded that they were no more than a group of
different looking teenagers who congregated to listen to and talk about heavy rock music.351
Alex Oquendo believed that the parche he would often go to hang out was an extended family
where he could express his music knowledge and find an outlet from the violence affecting
Medellín society.352 Other interviewees who participated in a parche did not feel that they were
part of a gang. To them, the parche offered a celebration of a shared music identity that
underscored heavy rock music. The term banda justified repressing punks and metalheads who
simply got together to share new music and information about get-togethers and private concerts.
353
Sollis and parches were music temples for the metal and punk movement in Medellín as well
as in Bogotá.
During the 1980s, Bogotá’s Avenida 19, between Carrera 4 and 10, was the prime zone
for punkers and metalheads to hangout. 354 Using the streets was important because it was a
direct means of reclaiming city spaces. Henri Lefebvre’s discussion of urban spaces identifies
space as a “social product” with a complex social construction influenced by “spatial practices
and perceptions.”355 For Lefebvre, such production is key to the sustaining of capitalism itself
and was spearheaded by hegemonic class groups. The redefining of spaces was challenged by
groups not in power in Bogotá as well as Medellín. Colombian streets, regulated by local
authorities, witnessed small groups of rock youths congregating in urban public spaces. The
kiosks in Bogotá were important because, as mentioned, they supplied music otherwise
351
352
353
Ospina, "Identidad desde el caos, el caos de la identidad. Una historia del rock en Medellín."
354
355
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, (Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 1992).
109
inaccessible in a standard record store. They were also important because that was where many
of the metalheads and punk rockers hung out and discussed some of the key events affecting the
rock music world. For Jorge Mackenzie, the Avenida 19 kiosks were spots in which he came
into contact with people who were also interested in putting together a band.356 Vicente
acknowledged that without the kiosks there would not have been much hope for a metal and
punk music scene in Bogotá.357 Another part of the city pivotal to the growth of the metal and
punk movements was Ciudad Kennedy.
According to Mario Lozano, rock-outs in Bogotá were sometimes at a friend’s place; but
when there was a show to play, the bands needed enough space to host more than a few
people.358 Lozano remembered that one of the best spots in Ciudad Kennedy to have a show was
a ballroom usually rented out for quinceañera celebrations or first communions. These spaces
were ideal mostly because “there were electric outlets and you did not have to worry about
figuring out where to plug in your equipment.”359 Although sometimes the lights went out
because the voltage required by an amplifier, Lozano believed it was better than nothing.360 He
mentioned that ballrooms were not very easy to acquire because the hall owners often thought
twice about renting the space to anyone “worshipping the Devil.”361 On more than one occasion,
Lozano sent family members who were socially “acceptable” and sympathetic to his music to
rent the halls. For roquer@s in either Bogotá or Medellín, spaces outside the inner city were
also good places to rock out. Black metal aficionado Dominus mentioned that when there was
nowhere to hangout without hearing complaints from the neighbors or the police, he headed
356
357
358
359
Mario Lozano.
360
Mario Lozano.
361
110
outskirts to a finca or rural estate to host a solli.362 Dominus recalled heading out to his uncle’s
finca on many occasions so that he and his friends could rock out without being harassed. He
believed that his uncle’s own admiration for rock music was the reason his uncle handed over the
keys to the finca.363 For Soto, as well as Vicente from Bogotá, and others who were not able to
escape to the rural sectors of the nation, the rooftop also served as ideal to hang with one’s
friends and play heavy rock music.364 The azotea, or rooftop, was a great spot to host a parche;
because the taller the structure, the less likely the gathering would be interrupted by annoyed
neighbors or the police. The basement also served as an excellent place to hold a solli. Soto
remembered that hosting sollis on the azotea of his parents’ home was not only a good time to
see his rocker friends, but also a chance to see what new music the people had acquired.365 So
what constituted a parche?
The parche could be a dingy “hole in the wall” space. It was someone’s home, an empty
or abandoned house, a basement, a garage, a rooftop. Victor Gaviria’s film Rodrigo D: No
Futuro, the topic of the next chapter, showcased parches that ranged from rooftops to dilapidated
buildings, challenging the use of space in the antioqueño city.366 The film had several scenes
that captured different places where punks and metalheads rocked out: the outskirts of the city,
the streets located in impoverished sectors, the living room, and the rooftops.367 Athanator band
member Jaime Ocampo stated that finding places to rehearse were limited to the basement in his
house in Manrique, because it was one of the only spots where his group and other bands could
362
“Dominus” Personal Interview 12 June 2009.
363
“Dominus”.
364
365
“Soto”.
366
Rodrigo D: No Futuro. Victor Gaviria. dir. FOCINE, 1990.
367
Rodrigo D: No Futuro.
111
rehearse.368 In Medellín, spaces that were abandoned were good spots for rocking out, because
one did not have to ask for anyone’s permission to use the property. These abandoned spots
included warehouses, war destroyed homes and business structures, and empty lots. Though
there was no electricity to plug in the equipment, the radio-cassette player was taken to these
spots because it ran on batteries. Though some parches today (see Picture 3-1) have good sound
equipment to host many concerts, the sollis of the 1980s and early 1990s were fortunate to have
candles or a light bulb for lighting and a few outlets to plug in amplifiers and other music
equipment. Not coincidentally, some of the most coveted places during the 1980s and at the turn
of the decade were zones where authorities or anyone would least likely harass roquer@s. John
Jairo Usme discussed one parche that was kept a secret between scene members:
The parche was a rented home that was empty and all the locos would arrive there
secretly. There was not much publicity made and we would appear with the LPs
under our arms . . . everyone proud of their latest acquisition and we would [rock
out].369
Keeping the gathering a secret was important because the police would be quick to move to shut
down the event. The solli, which was typically held during the course of the weekend, was also
not very well published, because the host did not just welcome anyone to the gathering. As
mentioned, the parche was exclusive to those who had proven their music knowledge and were
deemed fit to hang out with those hosting the parche. Punk rock band I.R.A. guitarist and co-
lead vocalist David Viola mentioned that “punk get-togethers were closed and they did not
permit anyone to get close.”370 Tenembraum’s band member David Rivera admitted that one had
368
Jaime O Campo interviewed in “Historia del metal en Medellín Colombia (3-7),” Youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=fvS3APwu5lY&annotation_id=annotation_369520&v=AlW2IaXnHG0&feature=iv,
369
John Jairo Usme interviewed in “Historia de metal en Medellín Colombia (3-7),” Youtube.
370
David Viola, Punk Medallo (Medellín: Fondo Editorial Ateneo Porfirio Barba Jacob, 2007), 35.
112
Picture 3-1: Modern Day Parche in Medellín, Colombia (Author’s picture)
to “earn [one’s] spot to go to a parche.”371 Rivera also mentioned that being accepted into a
parche was important, because it was the easiest way to obtain information about the next
concerts and rock-outs happening in the city.
Although there were no sources testifying to finding a “poser” in the sollis, the majority
of the informants explained that if there were, in fact, “posers” who made their way inside
parches, they were quickly removed. The screening process was clearly subjective; and because
some sollis brought folks together from different parches, there were rifts between parche
members as to who could or could not enter. Sometimes entry into a get-together had nothing to
do with an individual’s music knowledge or having the right clothing. There were cases reported
where being the “wrong” gender was enough to disqualify someone from rocking out. In the
mid to late-1980s and early 1990s, women were often discouraged by radical members from
371
David Rivera interviewed in “Historia de metal en Medellín Colombia (3-7),” Youtube,
113
joining the metal or punk scene on the grounds that they were “poisoning” the essence of the
scene.
“I’m Not Man Enough to Rock Out?” Gendering Spaces in Colombia’s Heavy Music Scene
Women were (and are) an integral part in organizing the metal and punk scene in
Colombia as in other parts of the globe. 372 However, there were male members surprised to see
females involved in the scene. David Viola recalled his astonishment when he encountered
women, known in the scenes as las nenas or “the chicks” or “babes,” at the rock-outs.373 Monica
Moreno acknowledged that the term nenas was not meant to offend women, but was used in the
punk and metal scene as a term of endearment.374 She, as were Piedad and Vicky Castro, were
not taken aback when guys would call them nenas. The nenas, mentioned Moreno, were well
protected by the men at the sollis when the crowd would be a bit rowdy. Viola recalled that
When [he] first encountered [women], [he] felt surprised and could not talk to
them because [he was afraid of them] . . . But [he] was wrong [and] they were
very cool. For [him] . . . it was a visual shocker to appreciate the Nenas . . . [who
he believed to be just] quiet.375 .
He, as other interviewees, acknowledged that there were not as many women as there were men
in the scene. According to Vicente, the ratio of men to women in the mid-1980s in Bogotá’s
metal scene was 10 to 1.376 Viola’s amazement in finding women who wanted to join the punk
scene paralleled Vicente and Piedad Castro’s experience in witnessing a relatively low number
372
The contributions of women punk solo artists and bands have still yet to be unveiled. Some headway accomplished on
unveiling women carving out spaces to enjoy and celebrate heavy rock music could be found in Hector Fernandez-L’Hoeste,
Deborah Pacini, Eric Zolov, et al., Rockin’ Las Americas: The Global Politics in Latin/o America (Pittsburg: University of
Pittsburg Press, 2004).
373
David Viola, Punk Medallo, 35.
374
375
David Viola, 35.
376
114
of women that wanted to party with male metalheads and punk rockers.377 Monica Moreno also
saw that there were not that many women in the punk scene. 378
Monica Moreno: I was a girl . . . and women were very few . . . there were very
few . . .
Interviewer: How many were there would you say?
Moreno: Let’s say in a parche there were 200 guys and 10 girls . . .
Interviewer: Why do you suppose that was?
Moreno: I think it has to do with how women being late in everything . . . women
have been late in everything (laughing) guevón [dumbass] . . . . I think women
arrived late in punk . . . . In other words, I think it was harder for women to get
out of the house to hang out in the streets, for women to chill out and listen to
rock, for women to speak to different men in the streets one-on-one . . . so we
were about 10 women and I was the youngest.
Moreno: During that time, I would get there and I would see Vicky, Piedad, la
Infeste [the “Infested”], la Demencia [the “Dementia”] . . . they were already
women and I was just a girl . . . and I was really fucking scared of them . . . they
were rocked out with wild hair and I was a girl who was really scared . . . . I
would stand against the wall because I thought I was going to get stabbed . . .
[though] they never did anything.
Interviewer: Why were you scared?
Moreno: Scared? I was scared because they would jump on stage to play and I
wasn’t playing in [the band] IRA yet, and I would sit right under the stage . . . .
I’d say fuck that . . . . I’d stand against the wall . . . but I was never attacked . . .
not even verbally. I was never disrespected or mistreated . . . . If there was a nena
in the scene, they would protect her.
The number of women present in the “rock-a-thons” during that mid- to late 1980s could
be counted on two hands. Moreno believed the low number of female participants was due to
women being “late” to the different stages of rock music. Women’s “tardiness,” however, was
not a product of their lack of interest in the music but stemmed from social pressures and
377
“Vicente”. Piedad Castro Personal Interview 20 June 2009.
378
115
expectations to adhere to forms of “respectability” and “appropriateness.” As mentioned in the
previous chapter, Colombian society’s preservation of women’s purity was as important as
ensuring that men were and remained upright respectable citizens. Although she was frightened
by the commotion occurring during sollis, Moreno understood that she was very well protected
and neither she nor any other woman was disrespected in the scene. Viola was shocked and
intimidated to find there were women in the parches; furthermore, he—as other male-heavy
rockers—witnessed women taking on a socially unexpected role outside the household; these
women were listening to an “undesirable” music style and sharing it with males of
“questionable” character. Viola believed that the reason why there were not as many women in
the heavy rock scene was due to the “traditional family conservatism” and because women were
discouraged from leaving the household unaccompanied because of the “great violence of the
1980s and early 1990s” affecting Colombian society.379 Another reason that there were not as
many women in the metal or punk scene was because certain males felt women did not belong
there.380
Both Piedad and Vicky Castro, pioneers of the heavy rock music movement in Colombia,
confessed to being discriminated against by men who believed that women had no place rocking
out, listening to heavy metal or punk rock, or being part of either scene. According to some of
the male punks and metalheads, women had “no idea” what they were doing and were only there
to make the music scene trendy. The truth was that the women that participated in the scene, like
the Castro sisters, were not “poisoning” anything and collaborated wholeheartedly with their
men to keep the punk and metal scene alive. They shared the same passion for music as the men.
379
David Viola Punk Medallo, 36.
380
Piedad Castro and Vicky Castro Personal Interview 21 June 2009.
116
According to sociologist Deena Weinstein, in the North American context the presence of
men to women in the heavy rock music concert spaces was disproportionate. Weinstein stated
that such spaces were not sexist but rather forums reaffirming a sense of masculinity since
“masculine in Western culture mean[t] freedom.”381 Heavy rock music concerts such as metal
shows were not sexist but rather places for men to reclaim their masculinity. Was this also the
case in Colombia? To a certain extent, male participation in parches reaffirmed a sense of
masculinity that was delegitimized by Colombian society’s prejudice against punk and metal hair
and clothing styles. Men wearing long or different colored hair, as well as earrings, were
frowned upon and labeled as homosexual. The sollis and parches were spots that removed social
discrimination of what a male in Colombian society was supposed to look like, though radical
members did not see eye to eye having women in these spaces. These spaces were also zones
which allowed young men (and women) to negotiate their identity and relationship to a violent
nation offering limited opportunities for them. Exclusionary practices against women by males
in the Colombian punk and metal scene was sexist.
Ironically, the same male rockers who fought against the social norms of Colombian
society also considered women a nuisance and “out of place” in the public sphere. Women were
not supposed to be in the male centers of the public sphere, because that would compromise their
“respectability” (e.g., bars, soccer stadiums, etc.). Vicente mentioned that the women who were
hanging out with them listening to the music during parches were “great to look at,” but they
were “not to be taken seriously.”382 He also stated how women arrived to the hangouts dressed
in “such a way” that everyone knew they were zorras or hookers.383 Piedad Castro believed that
381
Deena Weinstein Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture, 135. Deena Weinstein quoted in Heavy Metal: A Headbanger’s
Journey, Sam Dunn, dir. Warner Home Video, 2006, DVD.
382
383
“Vicente”.
117
the women present at the hangouts were misperceived to be interested in anything else but the
music.384 Women who wished to partake in the scene were either accused of being “posers” or
“opportunists.” Those were not the only charges brought up against women.
Women also apparently harbored and produced corruption—a late 20th century version of
“Eve,” the biblical temptress and deceiver. Why did certain men consider women frauds?
Women who were enthusiastic about joining the metal and punk scene were unfairly accused of
not being familiar with the music and not knowing any of the music’s content. They were
accused of being there to hook up with guys because it was the “cool” thing to do. For certain
radical members, love and relationships had no place in the metal or punk scene. For these
radical Colombian roqueros, relationships destroyed the purity of the scene. Relationships,
recalled Oquendo, were distractions for people who should devote themselves to ballads and
trendy music.385 It was not apparent to these radical metaleros and punqueros that music could
be a shared experience between genders. Sadly, as mentioned above, some of the same radical
Colombian rockers believed that if there was a function for women in either scene, it was solely
for sexual pleasure. Piedad and Vicky Castro showed male adversaries that they were about the
music. The Castro sisters (see Picture 3-2) realized that being part of the heavy rock scene was
not going to be easy.386 In fact, it became a real challenge to show their male counterparts that
women could also rock out. The Castros and other women were interrogated on different
occasions by male rockers about the latest heavy rock music albums: Name members from
certain bands, discuss which band members left in which albums, what year certain albums were
released, and to name four or five songs from a record.387 It was, as they described it, a
384
385
386
Piedad and Vicky Castro Personal Interview 21 June 2009.
387
Piedad and Vicky Castro.
118
Picture 3-2: (left to right) Vicky, Piedad, and fellow rocker getting fired up for another rock show!
painstaking ordeal. Ultimately, the Castros passed the challenge and removed any doubt about
their commitment to the heavy rock scene and about joining the sollis and parches. They wanted
to rock out, hear any new music, and share what they were able to obtain; and nothing more
solidified their “authenticity” than demonstrating even more knowledge about bands
underdiscussion. Piedad Castro noted that sometimes they embarrassed male metalheads and
punkers because she knew more about the music than they did.388 Having more knowledge
about the topic was definitely helpful, especially when it came to warding off doubts. Whereas
the Castro sisters endured criticism and disdain by radical males, not all women went through the
“test of fire” to be accepted into the metal or punk scene.
388
119
Monica Moreno’s experience with the punk scene was different from that of the Castro
sisters.389 She did not have to go through any interrogation, presumably because she arrived on
the scene in the late 1980s. She acknowledged that she was always taken care of by the males in
the punk rock house parties because of her age. Moreno was not put through the “test of fire” or
any sort of challenge coming anywhere close to what the Castros had to endure. She felt her
toughest challenge was being accepted into the punk parches in downtown Medellín and other
areas such as in Poblado Park. Moreno grew up in the affluent region of Envigado and felt that
her class background would bar her from being invited to a parche or solli.390 She was afraid of
being discriminated against or even physically harmed by rockers for being part of Antioquia’s
upper-middle class community; her fears were legitimate.
Envigado was—and continues to be—the sector in Medellín harboring some of
Colombia’s wealthiest public officials, sports stars, and serving home to some of the most
notorious drug trafficking criminals. Moreno feared that she was going to be told that she had no
right to listen to heavy rock music. This was going to be difficult because many radical punk
rockers wanted nothing to do with the petite bourgeoisie. Although she did not have to answer
countless questions about the music scene, Moreno’s commitment to the heavy rock music scene
overshadowed her class background. She not only helped organize many different sollis, but she
also helped film some of the shows with her parents’ camcorder. How extreme were the
attitudes of metalheads and punkers?
Colombian punkers and metalheads in the 1980s and early 1990s were not only
combating authorities and other opponents of the music scenes, but they were also rivaling each
other. Radical members from both groups avoided each other and only attended punk or metal
389
390
Monica Moreno.
120
parches and sollis. The divide between supporters of both metal and punk in the 1980s was
based on the idea that having the right to listen to a type of rock sub-genre was class dependent.
Punk rock in Colombia was regarded as the “working class” rock sound, and only those who
lived in impoverished communities could possibly understand punk rock. Heavy metal and hard
rock music was, according to radical punkers, reserved for Colombia’s middle class or the petite
bourgeoisie.
According to Soto, the conflicts between punks and metalheads spilled onto the streets of
Medellín.391 He remembered countless fights between metalheads and punkers who exchanged
insults and fists while heading to their respective parches. Alex Oquendo remembered disliking
punkers because he believed they were the ones who gave heavy rock music a bad name in
Colombia.392 For radical metalheads, punk rock music was trash, and its listeners were the scum
of the earth and aesthetically uncouth. Vicente believed that metalheads were more respected
than punks in Bogotá because punk rockers were “dirtier” and “more prone” to becoming
criminals.393 There were punk rockers that were quick to label heavy metal and its listeners as
metaleros burgeses (bourgeois metalheads), while metalheads labeled punkers as punqueros de
mierda (piece of shit punkers). Radical punkers believed that “middle class” metaleros could
own lavish instruments that their parents purchased for them and played gigs in well-to-do
neighborhoods; punkers, on the other hand, were accused of being thieves and junkies. The
clash between heavy rock music styles kept radical metalheads and punkers in their respective
scenes until, as will be discussed in Chapter 5, the exacerbation of drug trafficking violence
forced the scenes to form an alliance. A fanzine column in Visión Rockera explained how some
391
392
393
121
of the differences between metalheads and punkers apparently did not include any ideology that
either music scene supported.
1. Musical differences: The punks of Medallo try to make their music original,
although they take on some characteristics from foreign bands. With [m]etal
the difference is that the songs are more rhythmic and much shorter as well as
the vocals being much faster.
2. Ideological differences: Such differences are not set since many neither know
nor accept ideologies [and they] simply take the music, listen to it and that’s
it; that is why it is not strange to know of people who used to criticize [p]unk
to death and were metalheads and today are hardcoreros [hardcore fans].
3. The main difference between [m]etal and [p]unk is that while [m]etal does not
express inconformity and its lyrics talk about many other things (Satanism,
sex, etc.), punk is much more critical and its themes include social
commentary. Regardless, to reiterate, ideology seems to not matter much,
although we know people that do take it into account and practice it in their
quotidian lives. 394
The fanzine column pointed out that ideology was not very important, although it mentioned that
punk music was more socially critical than heavy metal. The truth was that both metal and punk
rock music produced in Bogotá and Medellín was very politically and socially critical, as will be
demonstrated in Chapter 5. The music heard and produced in the nation ascribed to a particular
“non-ideology.” Colombian metalheads and punkers ascribed to a non-ideology, a rejection of
corruption in organized politics and bourgeois intellectuals. The fanzine column also raised the
conflicts occurring between different rock parches.
Punks and metalheads, the column argued, should each be allowed to listen to what they
wanted, and that if one “likes [m]etal and not [p]unk and [one] dislikes pogo [slam dancing],
then [do not] go to those parches.”395 For a good period during the 1980s, many metaler@s and
punquer@s demonstrated their intolerance toward each other, causing bloody street brawls that
394
“Diferencias Con Los Metaleros,” Visión Rockera, June 1988, 12.
395
“Diferencias Con Los Metaleros,” Vision Rockera.
122
led to the incarceration of members from both scenes.396 According to Oquendo, many of his
friends were beaten badly by punkers who felt that metalheads had no place in Antioquia.397 For
Soto, he recalled having to run out of the barrio Manrique because there were metaleros chasing
him down with bats and chains.398 Despite the battles between radical scene members, the sollis
and parches were the spots that metalheads and punkers could not wait for.
“De Parche en Parche o de Sollis a Sollis” (“From Parche to Parche or from Sollis to
Sollis”): Heading Out to Rock out!
The sollis and parches were weekend events that Colombian roquer@s could not wait to
attend. By the mid- to late-1980s, there were enough get-togethers to choose from for
metalheads and punkers to weigh out where it was that they wanted to head. If one was well
connected with the heavy rock music scene or able to obtain the latest fanzine circulating in
Medellín or Bogotá, then finding a sollis was not going to be a problem. However, the majority
of roquer@s usually found out about a sollis or a good parche by word-of-mouth. The
advantage of word-of-mouth was that it would be more difficult for the police to shut down a
get-together or a concert. Using word-of-mouth was also a way for members to filter who was or
was not worthy to attend a parche or a sollis.
The events could take place as close as down the street in the same barrio where one
lived, across town, or even outside the city limits. The decision depended on how far was one
willing to travel. Who was going along to the sollis or to a parche was equally important. This
was usually not a problem, because those who rocked out with you also attended the hangouts.
For Alex Oquendo, heading out to a weekend hangout required good preparation, because he and
some of his friends helped provide some of the music albums for the event.
396
397
Alex Oquendo.
398
123
Let’s say a Saturday night parche one would take off [from home] around three
o’clock or four in the afternoon to see the guys [and meet] where we would all get
together. We would start picking out music and we would start putting them in
bags and by six o’clock or seven at night we would head on a ‘walk-a-thon’ to
another barrio.399
Oquendo, as well as other contributors to the evening’s music, needed to search through his
record collection and take the latest acquisitions and “classics” that no parche or sollis would be
good without. Having a record collection was not cheap, and having other scene members
collaborate made each event a success. According to Oquendo, so as to avoid confusion, people
kept track of whose albums belonged to whom.400 Heading out to a good parche or sollis was no
easy task.
When we lived in Manrique, we would walk from Manrique to Castilla. We

would head over drinking and I remember walking down to the Universidad de
Antioquia and crossing the bridge by Coca-Cola and we would go walking and
drinking and we would stop by the empanada stands to see if they would let us
have some empanadas. We would share them [and] this was very cool [because]
when you were 14 or 15 being with your friends was better than being in any
other place. We know that where we were going to it was like going to heaven
because the music was there, other friends were there. [For example,] there were
people from Castilla from [barrio] 12 [de Octubre]. We would get there with our
records under our arms and we would show what we had [and] they would show
what they had [and] we would share the music that night and put it on and sollar
the music all night. [W]e would leave our collection there [and] they would let us
borrow theirs [and] we went back home the next day call and ask how many tapes
were needed to copy the albums.401
The experience was definitely important because sharing music at the parche was a sure way to
see and hear what other LP collectors came across. What selections were going to be available?
The process of preparation for the sollis had as much to do with how to get to the rock-out as it
did with what music was being brought.
399
400
Alex Oquendo.
401
Juan Henao and Luz Castañeda interviewed in “Historia del metal en Medellín Colombia (3-7),” Youtube,
124
What music did people bring? As in Oquendo’s case, packing up one’s special collection
of albums was important to share at the get-togethers. There were albums that people knew were
going to make it to the sollis. Dominus stated that the one original Slayer album that made its
way around Medellín for copying on cassette was going to “have to show up to one of the
sollis.”402 The original album needed to be present and ready to be played at the sollis. There
were rock-outs that were coveted because the crowd wanted to hear the original album playing
and not a copy. Sometimes the albums did not make it to the sollis because there were fellow
rockers who refused to loan “an LP, [or even] a badly recorded tape, a magazine, a photocopy,
[and] a video.”403 Having the original album made the experience, as Soto put it, “more
authentic.”404 Some albums that were reported to have appeared at different sollis included
KISS’s Destroyer, Venom’s Black Metal, Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Metallica’s
Kill ‘Em All, and Bathory’s self-titled album. This, as mentioned in the previous chapter, was
difficult for individual roquer@s to do because imported records were expensive.
In punk circles, albums by the Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, and,
with the course of the 1980s, The Dead Kennedys were expected. Metal and punk music in
Spanish was also present at the sollis. Bands that made their way into the sollis included
metalhead Spaniard’s Barón Rojo and Angeles del Infierno, Venezuela’s Arkangel; in the punk
sollis were the Spaniard’s Eskorbuto, as well as Brazilian punkers Colera and Ratos de Porão.
Local productions also made their way into the evening’s playlist on a recorded cassette. Bands
from the mid- to late-1980s did not have the luck that heavy metal bands such as Carbure and
Fenix had in being able to record their music in a professional studio. Bands such as
Parabellum, Danger, and Mierda—as well as those surfacing during the late-1980s—at most had
402
403
“El Bastardo,” Visión Rockera, November 1986, no. 3, 10.
404
125
a tape recorder at their disposal. Although the sound quality was not at all great, Colombian
metal and punk bands did their best to make their music known in the scenes. If recording in a
professional studio seemed out of reach, their goal to perform for a live audience was not
necessarily as remote.
One of the biggest challenges that bands in the mid-1980s faced was getting hold of good
instruments. Owning brand new electric instruments was something rare in metal and punk
circles in Colombia, because they were too expensive or unavailable. There were music stores in
both Bogotá and Medellín that certainly had excellent instruments, but acquiring a high-quality
North American guitar, a brand name bass guitar, effects pedals, quality strings, amplifiers, and
an excellent drum kit was a different story. Unfortunately, as mentioned, the wealthy or the
better off were the ones who could afford high quality instruments.
For the rockers, there has always been the problem that the riquitos (little rich
kids) have it easy. Because it [was] not easy for our band [Witchtrap]. [We
worked] with an acoustic guitar and taburete [stool] to compose music. That’s
not easy. Those means to compose music made us create an extreme form of
music. In the [social] classes where there was more access [to money] they could
get better instruments, good amplifiers, good drum kits and we would see this as
too easy[and] this created the sense of ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ in the rock scene. 405
David Viola and Monica Moreno recalled how it would not be uncommon to see people bring
their instruments—typically acoustic guitars—to parches and have a “jam session.”406 If there
was no money for instruments, how could one possibly have a rock band? Many of the metal
and punk musicians from the lower income sectors of bogotano and antioqueño society found a
different way to have instruments. Sharing was one solution. When electric guitars and
amplifiers could be obtained, they were often shared between bands. As Fredy “El Chino”
Rodas mentioned,
405
Hugo Uribe interviewed in “Historia del metal en Medellín Colombia (2-7)” Youtube accessed 20 March 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=fvS3APwu5lY.
406
David Viola and Monica Moreno Personal Interview 10 June 2009.
126
If there were instruments here they were worth a lot of money. In other words, the
idea was make it yourself, buckets, tiestos [pots], acoustic guitars, second hand
store guitars, everything was good. Original guitars were loaned for a few
minutes, enough time to check it out and become “hechizado” [mesmerized], the
amplifiers, a recorder, it was enough. The worst was rehearsing, which was for
me pure energy [but] for neighbors it was noise and they would call the police”407
Rodas underscored the value in the do-it-yourself method in order to make it possible to have a
band. Much like their Soviet comrades during the course of the 1980s, Colombian heavy rockers
looking to build their own electric guitars used telephone pickups and acoustic guitars.408 If
there were no amplifiers to connect an electric guitar, then any speaker system was modified to
serve as an amp. If there were no microphones available, the singer’s vocal chords sufficed.409
Masacre’s first lead guitarist Antonio Mosquera created his own electric guitar by
incorporating a switch to change tones from a clean sound to a distorted one, as well as a special
FM nob that he used in his friend’s car radio to tune his guitar on his way to rehearsals.410
Sharing or figuring out how to make the instruments was better than having nothing at all.
Along with sharing microphones and guitars, sharing drum kits was also very common between
bands and folks rehearsing their material. By 1985 many punk rockers already learned a few
guitar chords to rock out for a good session.411 Posguerra members Jhony Rivera and Andres
Nieto struggled to find the best sound possible because they did not have a drum set. Both
Rivera and Nieto discussed their experience with constructing their own instruments:
Nieto: In any case the technical part here was very difficult because we did not
have easy access to an amplifier or an electric guitar . . . well the beginnings of
Posguerra practice sessions consisted of acoustic guitars . . . [points to Jhony’s
hand] you have a callous there (laughs)
407
Fredy Rodas quoted in Giberto Medina “Rock y Punk: Punk Se Escribe Con Odio” Medellín En Vivo: La Historia del Rock,
101.
408
For a documentary on Soviet Union rock culture and do-it-yourself methods for instrumentation see How the Beatles Rocked
the Kremlin. LeslieWood. dir. BBC FOUR, 2009.
409
How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin.
410
Masacre: Más Allá del Dolor. Claudia Arango and Andrés Giraldo. directors. Post-Producción 390 TV, 2011.
411
Giberto Medina, Medellín En Vivo: La Historia del Rock, 101.
127
Rivera: We would rehearse at my house and my leg served as the snare . . . and
rehearsing like this parce [dude] . . . to later be able to practice on an acoustic
drum set [was a dream] . . . after being used to air drumming and my leg and the
wall . . . the right side was the ride, the other side was the crash . . . like that . . .
our first production was actually produced in that way . . . using leg meat,
acoustic guitars, and [our lead singer] singing with everything he had . . . . We
were all empirical . . . minus the guitars . . . the vocals and what I was doing was
empirical . . . . I was beating those buckets . . . and I was using my own leg as a
drum because there was no way that anyone could afford a drum kit.412
Posguerra, as other bands during this time period, managed to pull it off and continue rocking
out. Creativity was important in order to keep the dream alive to one day use instruments that
were not one’s body parts. Both Nieto and Rivera believed that the struggle to attain good
quality instruments was much harder than in places like the United States.413 Such experience
was echoed by Brazilian metal band Sepultura, as well as other bands across Latin America, who
knew that in order to have a heavy rock band it, was necessary to employ a certain amount of
creativity.414 For heavy rockers in both Medellín and Bogotá, there were no barriers that were
going to prevent many metalheads and punkers from starting their own band. There may not
have been much money or moral support from the nuclear family, but the will and desire to rock
out was there. Prior to heading out to the sollis or parche, was there anyone who got in their way
and tried to prevent them from going?
Oquendo admitted that his family was not happy at all every time he headed out to a
parche. He became so fed up with his family’s disapproval that he tuned them out, oftentimes
leaving his household without even saying goodbye. When his mother would ask him “¿pa onde
va mijo?” or “where are you going son?” he did not hesitate to sarcastically respond back by
412
Andres Nieto and Jhony Rivera Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
413
Andres Nieto and Jhony Rivera Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
414
In an interview with Max and Igor Cavalera, they mentioned how the early days of Sepultura was complicated by not having
sufficient funds to purchase high quality instruments. The Cavalera brothers recalled having started their band using marching
band drums and acoustic guitars. For the full interview see “Max Cavalera Discusses Sepultura’s Early Days and His Lyrical
Subject Matter From Then to Now” in Roadrunner Records http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/news/max-cavalera-discusses-
sepultura-s-early-days-and-his-lyrical-subject-matter-from-then-to-now, accessed 10 September 2011.
128
saying, “pa’ delante” or “straight ahead.”415 For Oquendo, like many other metaleros and
punqueros, justifying going to “rock out” with friends was frustrating. Frustration with family
members was a common theme found in the majority of the interviewees. On the one hand, many
argued, family disapproval was an immediate reaction to the unknown, a form of parental
protection. On the other hand, such parental “protection” was a means to “save face” publicly.
The idea of one’s son or daughter dressing “stranger” than what was considered “norm” was
disturbing to them; not so much because they dressed in black, wore graphic t-shirts, or had
colored hair, but because of the que dirán or “what would the neighbors would say.”
Dominus felt that his parents were more concerned about the barrio chisme (gossip) than
about recognizing his happiness.416 Luz Oscura also felt that his parents were not interested in
his personal tastes as opposed to making sure that the neighborhood knew that his family raised a
“good boy.”417 As mentioned in the previous chapter, the Castro sisters’ parents were ashamed
of their girls being involved with the heavy metal and punk rock scene of Colombia.418 For Soto,
his father was, at times, disturbed to see all these peludos in his house.419 Vicente’s mother tried
to keep her son from attending the rock gatherings by encouraging him to get a job.420 Although
not every member of the scene experienced lectures and criticism for wanting to rock out with
their friends, as in the case of Monica Moreno, the majority of those interviewed said that their
parents attempted to dissuade them from heading out to the parches or sollis. Also part of the
challenge to getting to an event was going through neighborhoods unfriendly to punkers and
metalheads.
415
416
417
418
419
420
129
Piedad Castro remembered that on many occasions, she and her friends would head to a
sollis through neighborhoods with families who “were afraid of [them],” and would react by
“lock[ing] their doors, whisper[ing] to each other . . . and in some cases they would tell [them] to
go to church.”421 She felt like the people from the barrios in which they crossed through looked
at her and her friends as if they were “aliens.”422 When asked why it was important for Castro’s
group to go to church, she explained that perhaps it was a way to [laughing] “release the devil
that supposedly possessed them.”423 Castro felt that there were barrio folks who thought that
metalheads and punkers were terrorizing their neighborhood. Were they terrorizing any
neighborhoods? The only thing “terrorizing” was that they walked in groups and were visibly
different: they wore black, different colored hair at times, different haircuts, chains, boots and
jeans. If the hippies of the 1970s were “terrorizing” Medellín society, then these new rockers of
the 1980s and early 1990s needed to be monitored and controlled. Vicente’s run-in with people
who were not rock friendly forced him into several fights that he stated he could not avoid.424
The Colombian metalhead and punker were not accepted but tolerated during the 1980s.
Bogotá resident Julia Criollo mentioned that when she would see “one of those weirdoes”
walking down the street, she would cross the street to avoid them.425 Medellín retired nurse
Lucia Villamil remembered crossing herself every time she would see “all those people dressed
in black, as if they were going to a funeral.”426 Bogotá Liberal party campaign manager Enrique
Criollo felt that “those people did not add much to our society.” He was not a big fan of metal or
punk rock because he believed that “the music was too obnoxious and anyone listening had to be
421
422
423
424
425
Julia Criollo Personal Interview 10 May 2009.
426
Lucia Villamil Personal Interview 7 June 2009.
130
on some kind of drug.”427 To disapproving interviewees, someone who was punk or metal was
the same. Although neither of them expressed that they should not exist in Colombian society,
they shared a belief that the existence of such a subculture was equivalent to social decline. So
what precisely went on in some of the parches?
The typical parche and solli consisted of either a battery-operated stereo or a sound
system with a record player and a tape deck, a host of dubbed music tapes, LP albums, and
plenty of alcohol. People’s physical responses to the music played a large part in the reception
of the music. In heavy metal parches, it was typical to see people cabeciando, or headbanging, a
jerking motion of the head going back and forth. This was an imperative marker specifically in
heavy metal culture that was (and continues to be) a universal form of expression in metal
music.428 This was not to say that punk rockers did not headbang, but the action itself was
historically located in the heavy metal culture. There was no actual protocol on how to properly
cabeciar per se. However, the idea behind headbanging was to motion the head to the intense
beat of the music. In other words, codes of gestures were created in appreciation for the music.
Sociologist Deena Weinstein explained that headbanging was
[a] downward thrust of the head with gentler upthrust. The move is distinctive
enough to metal to serve, by metonymy, as a designation of the metal audience:
‘headbangers.’ Done correctly and with long, loose hair, the downward thrust
repositions the hair so that it falls down around the face as one faces the floor.
The upthrust neatly repositions it down the back. As one headbanger remarks, the
feeling achieved by headbanging is diminished if one does not have long hair.429
The faster the music went, the faster they moved their heads. In heavy metal, hair length
was important. Having long hair was quintessential to the metal “look.” There were Colombian
male metalheads who grew their hair out and others who did not to avoid conflicts on the home
427
Enrique Criollo Personal Interview 11 May 2009.
428
Deena Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture, 130-131.
429
Deena Weinstein Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture.
131
front or harassment by local authorities. For Lorenzo Gómez, having long hair was something
that his father was not going to permit.430 Although he did not have long hair, he mentioned that
he headbanged just as if he had hair that went down his back.431 Whether or not a male had long
hair, there was not just one correct way to headbang. For metaleros like Oquendo, cabeciando at
parches was more than just having a chance to let your hair fly back and forth. Headbanging for
him was a chance to release anxiety, social pressures, rejections, harassment, and personal
betrayals, while feeling the music at the same time.432 It was also a chance to enjoy the music
and go “insane,” something that to Mrs. Castro was parallel to “demonic possession.”433
Another feature that complemented an evening’s rocking out experience was playing air guitar
while listening to the music.
Air guitar was “[the] imaginary guitar that one pretends to be playing”. 434 The imaginary
guitar could be invisible or any object that could resemble holding a guitar, such as a broomstick
or a tennis racket. Anyone could play air guitar at parches and sollis, and doing so did not
require any special musical knowledge.435 The individual playing air guitar followed along with
the riffs and solos heard through the sound system. Combined with cabeciando, playing air
guitar mimicked the expressions provided by the local artists performing on stage or those
imagined while listening to an album recording. Engaging in air guitar and listening to a
recording or checking out a live show were also other ways to connect with the music and artists.
Air guitar was a way, in Colombia and other parts of the world, for heavy rock music aficionados
to appreciate guitar techniques employed in a band’s repertoire by mimicking their finger

430
431
Lorenzo Gómez.
432
433
Mrs. Castro Personal Interview 20 June 2009.
434
“Air guitar” definition in Dictionary.com accessed 20 March 2011 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/air+guitar.
435
There are currently national and international air guitar competitions. For the United States air guitar competition see “The
2011 US Air Guitar Championships” in usairguitar, http://usairguitar.com, accessed 31 October 2011. For the international
competition, see “Air Guitar World Championships,” Air Guitar World Championships,
http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com/en/event/agwc-2012, accessed 31 October 2011.
132
movements and body motions. This did not have to be a shared experience, since this could be
done in the comfort of your own home. Heavy metal’s employment of electric guitars (both
guitar and bass) in live performances was important. Though there was no such thing as a bad
air guitarist, the idea was to “play” along with the performers. Both headbanging and playing air
guitar were key components in the celebration of the music by metalheads. If this was how
metaler@s were celebrating the music, how were Colombia’s punks celebrating their music in
parches and sollis?
Punks celebrated heavy rock music by engaging in pogo, or slam dancing. Slam dancing
did not require more than one other person who listened to the music to “dance” to it by either
shoving each other, jumping, or running into each other. In fact, in the early 1980s, slam
dancing in Colombia was limited to no more than three or four people at a time.436 The pogo,
which eventually became visible in both the metal and punk scene, was (and still is) the dance
expression in celebration of punk rock music. Better known in the United States and other parts
of the world as “moshing” or “pitting,” someone who was unfamiliar with the heavy rock music
scene would think that there was raucous activity taking place during the pogo. Though at times
slam dances could get carried away, for the most part they were not zones of “combat” where
“anything goes.” Moshing was “imported, along with some other conventions, into thrash metal
from the punk/hardcore subculture.”437
In the U.S. context, moshing was a “circle dance, which [was] similar to numerous folk-
dance patterns found around the world.”438 The “eye” of the moshing circle, known as “the pit,”
was where the moshing took place. The pit was created within the concert space where people
jumped in and went around in a circle running and “slamming” randomly into people. Again, the
436
437
Deena Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture , 228.
438
Deena Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture.
133
idea in participating in the moshing was not to intentionally hurt someone. As Slayer’s Tom
Araya suggested during a concert performance, “If you see somebody going down, help ‘em out
all right? That’s what you’re here to do . . . help each other out.”439 The pogo in Colombia was
practiced differently.
David Viola defined the pogo as a “punk dance” that was “rough but kind.”440 He
explained that the pogo was a “combination of euphoria, laughter, roughness, brotherhood,
catharsis, harmony, and dance” and that it was not a “dance to take out one’s partner,” as in salsa
or tango, but the pogo was a dance that simply “sucked you in if you were close.”441 The pogo
was very different from the way it was practiced in the U.S. The pogo in its early form in
Colombia did not witness people going around in circles like the North American mosh pit. In
fact, in the pogo of the 1980s (and even today) participants prepared to receive a punch to the
face. Those ready to enter the pogo entered throwing punches indiscriminately. The punches
were not intended nor taken as an act of aggression, although there was a chance that one could
come out of the pogo with a busted lip, bloody face, or perhaps broken nose. Why would anyone
want to pogo if this was the case?
The pogos are the greatest part of the music. They are very misunderstood. The
pogos let you release everything you got. All the bullshit that you have to deal
with, your debts, your family, your novia [girlfriend], your novio [boyfriend].
People you hit aren’t getting crazy or offended because they feel it too. And
when it’s all over people come out with having left something at the pogo.442
According to Moreno and Viola, pogueando (the act of partaking in a pogo) was a way to
let everything out, and nobody embodied this experience better than the nation’s rockers of the
439
Tom Araya speech after Slayer’s performance of “The Antichrist” from Slayer. Decade of Aggression. Def American Records,
1991.
440
441
442
Monica Moreno and David Viola Personal Interview 10 June 2009.
134
1980s.443 It was not uncommon to see punks coming out of the pogo with “their t-shirt ripped,
their nose broken, beaten, with a missing shoe, a twisted hand, limping, with a bump on the
forehead, with their mohawk fallen, close to drowning” but most importantly “laughing their
asses off.”444 Viola also pointed out the misconception of the pogo when an older gentleman
wondered why it was that he and his friends were fighting in the concert.445 He explained to the
man that they were not fighting, but rather dancing, to which the older man “raised his eyebrows,
gave a look of shock, walked away saying . . . . ‘In my youth, we danced [the song] La Gallinita
Josefina . . . . Who understands these youths of today!”446
In some circumstances, the pogo was taken to the next level: the “slam.” The slam was
when an individual jumped on stage and threw themselves onto the audience. This particular
move was very daring, because the results ranged from safe landings to fracturing bones and
injuring those who were unaware of an oncoming flying body. “Slam survivors,” such as
Monica Moreno, experienced a boot to the head from someone who decided to toss themselves
not from the stage, but from a tree which happened to be located in the middle of the crowd.447
Viola, another “slam survivor,” who at the time was no more than 120 pounds, remembered that
One time a guy who was about eighty kilos [176 pounds] landed on me (I will not
mention his name to avoid payback) and almost squashed me. I had to use an
orthopedic neck brace for a couple weeks and I think I used to be 1.77 meters tall
[5’8” feet] but after that I was 1.75 [5’7”], in other words he literally squashed
me.448
Viola and Moreno were certainly not the only “victims” of a slam or pogo gone wrong. Soto
recalled having been launched by a fellow pogueador (someone who engaged in the pogo) across
443
Monica Moreno interviewed in I.R.A.: Batallón 25. David Viola and Monica Moreno. dirs. Medellín, 2010.
444
445
David Viola Punk Medallo.
446
447
448
135
the room,449 resulting in bruises and scrapes, while Vicky Castro, while performing in a show,
remembered having to physically calm down a pogueador because too many people were getting
hurt.450 Regardless of the pain experienced, the pogo was a space that was not designed for
fighting, and it was reinforced with the phrase used in gigs and get-togethers: NO FIGHTS,
POGO WITHOUT FIGHTING!451 Whether engaging in the pogo, cabeciando, or playing air
guitar, the heavy rock music scene was incomplete without some form of alcohol.
While Colombian metaleros headbanged and punkers jumped in the pogo, they also
welcomed a source of inspiration that could help further adequately augment the experience.
The substance employed in parches and sollis was alcohol. The type of alcohol consumed by
Colombian bogotano and paisa roquer@s of the 1980s and early 1990s depended on what they
could afford. Imported liquors were pretty much out of the question, though sometimes
metalheads and punks came across good liquor that was treated like national treasure.
Aguardiente, sugar cane liquor, which was more affordable than imported liquors, was also a
possibility, but not always the first choice. National beer was also a possibility and definitely
much more affordable than liquor. But even sometimes beer was not affordable by some
roquer@s.
In fact, if beer could not be accessed, then the next layer in the list of inexpensive liquors
was the nation’s wine industry. The wine making its way to parches was—and is still—called
Alelí. The majority of the interviewees admitted that Alelí was one of the most affordable and
quick-buzz wines consumed and the one that appeared most often at parches. The side effects of
the wine were horrendous. The horrors experienced by drinking this particular wine earned its
nickname tres patadas, or “three kicks,” because after the liquor was consumed, it felt like you
449
450
451
136
were literally kicked three times in the stomach. Apart from tres patadas, there were other
liquors that challenged the digestive tract.
What if the parche was out of tres patadas? Then a Colombian “moonshine” was an
option. This was by far the least expensive way to get buzzed or drunk, though the likelihood of
becoming ill was high. The amalgamation consisted of the following ingredients: condensed
milk or a flavored powder (Colombia’s “Kool-Aid” brand known as Frutiño) and rubbing
alcohol purchased from the local pharmacy. If, for whatever reason, rubbing alcohol could not
be obtained, then the next choice was to buy an inexpensive perfume. The perfume was poured
out into a container and lit to quickly get rid of the scent. The remaining substance, the alcohol,
was then used for the mix. The ingredients were poured into a large vat, stirred, and then ready
for everyone to grab a cup, dunk it in the vat, and enjoy. This alternate form of getting a quick
buzz was not a new invention in Colombia. According to Juan Hortua, as mentioned in Chapter
1, the parties he attended as a teenager in the 1960s, because of parental supervision, could not
include beer or wine.452 To circumvent the situation, Hortua and his cousins brought rubbing
alcohol and mixed it with the Coca-Cola bottles that were provided for the party. Along with
homemade alcohol, cigarettes were also present in the parches and sollis.
There were punkers and metalheads who smoked and smoked out at the rock-outs. Much
like with the alcohol they drank, imported cigarettes were too expensive and not common in
parches and sollis. The most common brand of cigarette that made its way to gigs and hangouts
were unfiltered smokes known as Piel Roja (“Red Skin”), a cigarette brand that placed a profile
shot of an “indigenous chief” on the pack. There were other cigarette brands that made their way
into the scenes, but Piel Roja cigarettes were cheap and quickly became part of the heavy rock
culture in Colombia. Bareto, or marijuana, also made its presence in metal and punk spaces.
452
Juan Hortua Personal Interview 20 July 2010.
137
Although not as prevalent as alcohol, smoking bareto, a practice borrowed from the hippie
movement of the 1960s and 1970s, was known to make its way to the parches and sollis.
Ironically, members of both the punk and metal community were stereotyped as also being
nothing but a bunch of marihuaneros (pot heads). For Enrique Criollo, there was no way to
understand heavy rock music without being “high” on some substance.453 The presence of weed
cigarettes did not mean that there was no cocaine or acid at the parches. However, the
interviewees discussing the parches did not make reference to any other illicit substances present
at the shows or rock out parties. That did not mean that cocaine and other illicit drugs were too
expensive or just unavailable in Colombia. What it did mean was that the metalheads and punk
rockers in Colombia preferred alcohol over any other substances. In celebration of the evolution
of metal and punk in Colombia, the 1985 Battle of the Bands in Medellín, although centering on
the city’s local talent, was unfortunately slammed by periodicals for hosting an event for drug
users.
La Batalla de las Bandas (The Battle of the Bands): Medellín under Siege!
In 1985, while Colombia experienced a devastating volcanic eruption in Armero, and the
April 19th Movement (M-19) entered to take over the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, metal and punk
bands were preparing to participate in the Battle of the Bands in Medellín. Although this was not
the first time a heavy rock music concert took place in Colombia,454 or the first time a heavy rock
music concert was sponsored by a corporation, this event was important because it pitted bands
from different rock subgenres against each other. The Battle of the Bands was also important
because the locally produced heavy rock music made its way from the underground and into
453
Enrique Criollo Personal Interview 14 May 2009.
454
For example, in 1979, at La 70 locale, both Fenix and Judas performed. In 1982 Fenix, Piro, and Nash performed at the Plaza
de Banderas. Band challenges took place in Colombia and there were bands such as Nash and Carbure who, for instance,
showcased their music “rivalry” at Bello’s Coliseo Cubierto Polideportivo arena on February 13, 1983. Also, in December of
1984, Parabellum performed at the park in the comuna known as Manrique. “Nash vs. Carbure” concert ticket stub, owned by
138
state-sponsored spaces. This event demonstrated bands that were adamant about their metal and
punk style; and although they were influenced by foreign bands, their music was not just
rehashing the same sounds produced in the United States or Great Britain.
The venue to host the music competition was Medellín’s bullfighting arena known as the
Plaza de Toros La Macarena.455 This bullfighting arena, which opened in 1945, with a maximum
capacity of approximately 18,000 spectators, served—and continues to serve—as a venue for
local and international artists including Argus, Soda Stereo, Charly Garcia, and various salsa
performers. In 1983, the bullfighting arena served as host to North American metal band
Argus,456 with local acts Fenix and Complot opening for the U.S. group.
The concert festival, set for March 23, 1985 at 1:00 p.m., was organized by the record
company J.I.V.LTDA, Veracrúz Estereo 98.9 FM, and the El Mundo periodical and promised to
be “one of the largest [shows] in Colombia in terms of the level of organization.”457 Scheduled
to perform (See Picture 3-3) were Mierda, Excalibur, Spol, Danger, Glöstergladiato, Lasser,
Kraken, and Parabellum.458 The show itself showcased heavy metal, hard rock, and punk rock,
something that the organizers did not take into careful consideration about the existing tension in
the air between the different parches attending; they believed it would be prudent to bring
together the different subgenres in one event. Little did they know that the rifts created between
different heavy rock music subgenres would manifest themselves during this event. Each band
brought its fan base to the concert, and the crowd celebrations of the music were much the same
as witnessed in the parches and sollis: cabeciando, pogo, air guitar, and freely moving their
455
“Plaza de Toros de Medellín: La Macarena,” Toros y Corraleja.com,
http://www.torosycorraleja.com/plaza_de_toros_de_medellin.htm, accessed 20 March 2010.
456
For the Argus’ 1983 live in Medellín show see “Buy Argus Live in Medellín Colombia,” MUSPARADE: Ultimate Music Store,
http://musparade.com/album/Argus/Live+In+Medellín+Colombia+11+03, accessed 20 March 2012.
457
“Medellín-Batalla de Bandas (1985),” Underground Medellín, http://undergroundmedellinugm.blogspot.com/2011/03/batalla-
de-bandas-1985.html, accessed 20 November 2011.
458
Concert program from Batalla de las Bandas in 1985. Piedad Castro Personal Interview 18 June 2009.
139
Picture 3-3: Advertisement for the Batalla in 1985. (Author’s picture)459
bodies around, sollando the music.
Prior to the show, bands participating were interviewed by the El Mundo periodical.
Members from Glöstergladiato commented that metal music was their “form of expression”
because it “broke away from [life’s] monotony.”460 Band members from Mierda told reporters
that heavy metal, although socially rejected, “[was] the only thing that filled the void in our
lives” and stated that they make “violent lyrics and music” though often misinterpreted by some
people as “making noise.”461 Lasser members remarked that the concert festival demonstrated
that rock music was “going through a good period” because there were originally “16 bands that
459
Picture of Batlla de Bandas advertisement from Piedad Castro’s rock music memorabilia album. Piedad Castro Personal
Interview 18 June 2009.
460
“La Batalla de Las Bandas,” El Mundo, March 22, 1985.
461
“La Batalla de Las Bandas,” El Mundo.
140
Picture 3-4: Roquer@s at the polls ready to choose which band they preferred at the show
(Author’s picture)462
signed up for the preliminary round” of the Batalla de las Bandas.463 Those reporting on the
event remarked that as the bands played, the fans raised a large amount of dust from the arena
floor as they danced.464 Piedad Castro also remembered that the show was an opportunity to
vote for her favorite performance (See Picture 3-4). According to contest rules, the band with
the most votes received the chance of a lifetime opportunity to record an album in a professional
studio. Picking a winner was not an easy choice, because the competition was fierce and no
band was willing to show less than their best. The concert winner depended on the audience’s
votes. But this show was far from cordial because fans were not shy about showing whom they
favored.
462
Picture of Batlla de Bandas ballot from Piedad Castro’s rock music memorabilia album. Piedad Castro Personal Interview 20
June 2009.
463
“La Batalla de Las Bandas,” El Mundo.
464
Fernando Cadavid Pérez, “Una Explosión de Libertad . . . İvigilada!,” El Colombiano March 25, 1985.
141
John Jairo Usme explained that the show was divided into two acts; four bands were to
play in each act. Usme remembered that only four out of the eight groups actually performed:
Danger, the only group with en English name for the band, Glöstergladiato, Mierda, and
Parabellum.465 For bands such as Spol, the evening came to a quick close, as rocks were hurled
at the group as they tried desperately to get on stage and perform. El Mundo periodical noted
that
A trace of subterranean violence surfaced in the crowd. Spol had to get off stage
listening to how the crowd called them “caspa” (losers). This is a sad beginning
from a crowd that massacred their own [people]. It hurts to see a band who
creates their music to have it massacred [in that way]. It seems that metal brings
out that crazy horde.466
The article employed the term “massacre” to describe the crowd’s reaction at Spol’s attempt to
play their set. But the “crazy horde” was not going anywhere, and the conflicts continued.
Kraken’s lead singer Elkin Ramírez was unsure why there were so many conflicts at the Battle of
the Bands.
We did not understand why there were social divisions and conflicts because they
did occur and without wanting them you had enemies with those you had never
seen before in your life. [This show] created a huge divide. 467
Ramírez was not sure why there were problems between different fan bases. An apparent lack of
awareness of the rifts created between heavy rock musical tendencies, as described above, as
well as the class conflicts in Colombian society. Kraken, according to Oquendo, swam upstream
during this competition because the majority of the people present at the festival were not
465
John Jairo Usme interviewed in “Historia del metal en Medellín Colombia (2-7),” Youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvS3APwu5lY&feature=related, accessed 22 November 2010.
466
“El Mundo 1985” quoted in “Medellín-Batalla de Bandas (1985):” Undergroundmedellinugm.blogspot.com,
http://undergroundmedellinugm.blogspot.com/2011/03/batalla-de-bandas-1985.html, accessed 20 November 2011.
467
Elkin Ramírez interviewed in “Historia del metal en Medellín Colombia (2-7)” Youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvS3APwu5lY&feature=related, accessed 20 March 2011.
142
looking for a “melodic” and “clean” version of metal.468 In other words, the attendees were not
fascinated with the idea that hard rock music, and not heavy metal, was going to be coming out
of the concert festival’s speakers. Kraken was regarded as the bourgeois metal band that was
clearly different and not from the same barrios as the other bands. They were believed to be
from the wealthier sector of society, while bands such as Parabellum, because of their darker and
more aggressive sound, were from the “poorest rung” of Medellín society. 469
Carlos Mario Pérez, unlike Elkin Ramírez, was aware of the radicalisms existing in the
region’s heavy rock music scene. For him, the majority of the fans were there for an intense
form of heavy rock music; their frustration was like “expecting a rock show and [vallenato
superstar] Diomedez Diaz” all of a sudden hit the stage.470 Pérez added that it would be just the
same if there was a vallenato show going on and a metal band went on stage to perform.
Clearly, the crowd would be more than irate.471 Usme compared the Battle of the Bands to
watching a football match, where fans despised the opposing team that was playing.472 Despite
the crowd’s clamor for Parabellum to be the winner of the event, it was ultimately decided by
organizers that the champion of the Battle of the Bands, although they did not perform, was
Kraken. Why did Parabellum not win?
According to Usme, the reason Parabellum did not win was because J.I.V.LTDA felt that
their music was not as easily marketable as Kraken’s.473 “Leox” commented that “everyone
wanted Parabellum to win, since they were the major attraction for those attending, but the J.I.V.
468
469
John Jairo Usme interviewed in “Historia del metal en Medellín Colombia (2-7)” Youtube,
470
Fernando Cadavid Pérez, “Una Explosión de Libertad . . . İvigilada!”.
471
Fernando Cadavid Pérez, “Una Explosión de Libertad . . . İvigilada!” .
472
John Jairo Usme interviewed in “Historia del metal en Medellín Colombia (2-7)” Youtube accessed 22 November 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvS3APwu5lY&feature=related.
473
143
producers wanted [softer type of rock music,] so they decided that Kraken should win.”474 The
organizers wanted something that was sellable. For David Viola, Parabellum did not just win
the event, they were its main attraction and they owned the event, meaning the crowd was in full
support of that band, and it did not seem reasonable for the winner to be anyone else but them.475
But the winner for the record books, regardless of not having performed was Kraken and they
were given the chance to record their music in 1985, producing their first LP “Todo Hombre Es
Una Historia” (“All Mankind Is a Story”). For many people who attended the show, the concert
was an opportunity to celebrate heavy rock music in a large venue. For others, the show was
fascinating because it was a shared experience with one’s parche. For others, it was a chance to
see the biggest local bands of the era in the same venue. For Colombian roquer@s, it was an
absolute success; the media, however, disagreed.
To critics and the media, the 1985 Battle of the Bands concert was the epitome of the
downfall of Colombian society. Pérez mentioned that there were news reports blaming the bands
for the violence taking place at the concert, to which he countered by explaining that no band
advocated open violence and neither his nor any band wanted anyone to get hurt at the show.476
There were, according to Usme and other informants, radicals who felt that the spaces for such
different forms of the heavy rock genre could not be shared on stage.477 The bands could not
control the audience’s behavior; however, the police did their best to quell the “disorderly”
crowd. The concert was patrolled by the local police, who were there to ensure “order” by
474
“Leox” posted on “Batalla de las bandas 1985,” Facebook,
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=18707572783&topic=5344, accessed 20 November 2011. On this particular blog, some
of those commenting on the event remarked how Parabellum should have won without question.
475
476
Fernando Cadavid Pérez “Una Explosión de Libertad . . . İvigilada!”.
477
144
Picture 3-5: Colombian youths watching the fire department taking “control” at La Macarena
bullfighting arena in Medellín.478
preventing any illicit substances in the arena and frisking all the concert attendants. The
authorities confiscated beer bottles, knives, bareto joints, belt buckles, chains, and anything that
they felt would serve to disrupt the peace. The police were also completely aloof to the divisions
in the heavy rock music community, and had no problem introducing bolillo (batons) if needed.
There were definitely problems at the show, but the police indiscriminately attempted to punish
those they felt were “obviously” out of line. Ultimately, “crowd control” was established with
the arrival of the fire department who hosed down concertgoers who were believed to be out of
control, while youths looked on from the stands (See Picture 3-5). El Colombiano qualified the
event as a horrid ordeal for the city.
A rock music festival celebrated in the La Macarena Plaza last Saturday resulted
in a general bath not because of rain but because the low number of police agents
in charge of vigilance called the fire department, who with the water from the
478
Picture of newspaper caption from Piedad Castro’s rock music memorabilia album. Piedad Castro Personal Interview 18 June
2009.
145
hoses put down the people’s energy who the majority were exalted more from
drug use than from the music itself. During the whole spectacle, the crowd acted
abnormal, the loud screams and words served as chorus to the melodies. There
was a moment in which all the attendants, in chorus, expressed themselves in
words that could not be printed [here] and those who were in the arena of the
Macarena opted for writing on the walls. In the bathrooms, recently renovated by
the CORPAUL, owner of the Macarena Plaza, other spectators under the
influence of drugs, wrote vulgar phrases. From the seated areas, rocks were
thrown that injured not only those who were close to the stage, but also many of
the musicians as well. This was a type of orgy taking place in the center of the
city, which the low number of officers to keep order was [ultimately] impotent [to
prevent]. Only with the arrival of the firefighters, and the water launched from
hoses, was it possible to put an end [to this]. The common denominator [at the
show] was drugs, vulgarity, and the scandalous conduct.479
According to the report, attendants were on drugs, unintelligible, vulgar, and not strictly
focusing on the music itself. Were fans possessed? Were they really on drugs and screaming
profanities? The newspaper report above suggested that they were possessed by illegal drugs
and not by the music. El Colombiano published a scathing review of the Battle of the Bands
claiming that the show ended with a “bath,” meaning that the police had to call on the fire
department to hose down the crowd because they were apparently too “drugged up.”480 The
same report also mentioned that the crowd was “abnormal,” and that the only thing going on
apart from shouts were the “unintelligible” words echoed by the artists on stage. The column
also noted rocks having been thrown on stage and inquired how long the bullfighting arena was
going to serve as a forum for these “vulgar” and “scandalous” events.481 The periodical
successfully expressed the stereotype of heavy rock music and its followers as “degenerate,” but
failed to report on the overreaction displayed by Medellín’s police force. The journalists had no
clue that Parabellum had amassed an incredible following of music radicals that demanded that
the band prevail in this event.
479
“El sábado en La Macarena: Con Baño General Termino festival de Rock,” El Colombiano, March 27, 1985.
480
“El sábado en La Macarena: Con Baño General Termino festival de Rock,” El Colombiano,
481
“El sábado en La Macarena: Con Baño General Termino festival de Rock,” El Colombiano.
146
In response to such reporting, and other reports to follow, Visión Rockera published an
article protesting the media’s repugnant representation of the heavy rock scene.
Let’s raise our voices in protest against Medellín’s media of communication such
as the article from the “EL MUNDO” periodical where you can tell how METAL
parches were portrayed, as they say, as a tribe of Indians and [ill comments about]
the heaviness of the music. We tell them not to tell lies, because those of us who
follow METAL music [do] not [consider our music] a trend.482
The publication attacked periodicals such as El Mundo for mischaracterizing the heavy rock
music scene. Contrary to the apparent success by promoters who helped organize the Argus
concert, the 1985 Battle of the Bands was far from adequately organized despite condemnation
from the press. This concert festival was significant for many reasons.
The show was important because it placed a spotlight on the underground heavy rock
music scene by showcasing it in state-sanctioned spaces. Second, the show pitted different bands
of the sub-rock genre against each other and underscored local talent. In other words, the Plaza
de Toros La Macarena was not only reserved for international acts headlining and national bands
serving as supporting acts; local bands were the main attraction in this event. Also, the show
was important because it demonstrated authorities’ disdain for scene members and the media’s
stigma against heavy rock music and aficionados. The show was also important because, as
Kraken frontman Elkin Ramírez explained, it was the impoverished who, for the first time were
the ones in control of the show.
The people from the low rung of the comunas touched a nerve and they protested
in this [manner] in support of their groups and by not allowing other groups to
play even if they were from a non-wealthy class. Why? Because they had the
power. What power? They were only going to allow [the bands they wanted] to
play, [those] who they considered were worthy [which] turned into an all-out
battle. [Ultimately,] I did not go on stage and my group did not play. (my
italics)483
482
“Defensa Radical,” Visión Rockera, July 1987, 11.
483
Elkin Ramírez quoted in “Medellín-Batalla de Bandas (1985),” http://undergroundmedellinugm.blogspot.com/2011/03/batalla-
de-bandas-1985.html, accessed 20 November 2011.
147
For the first time, members from Medellín’s marginalized community, if at least for a brief
period of time, called the shots. The majority in La Macarena arena were those that Colombia
could no longer keep silent. The majority, in the 1985 Battle of the Bands, were the
impoverished communities that, at the top of their lungs, proclaimed themselves champions not
only of the festival, but victors, if not at least for this day, over their nation’s stigmatization,
abuse, and criminal disregard for those opening their own avenue for survival.
Conclusions
During the course of the 1980s, punks and metalheads in Medellín and Bogotá searched
for locations to celebrate their music. Some of the zones selected for rocking out included a
friend’s rooftop, a basement, an empty lot, a street corner, a rented ballroom, and anywhere
roquer@s could congregate and rock out in the way that they felt was appropriate: headbanging,
slam dancing, or just plain feeling the music in their own way—with or without the introduction
of drugs or alcohol into the scene. The number of parches and sollis that grew in different parts
of the city were enclaves carved out by a youth culture rejecting the idea that they had no future.
The hangouts organized brought together heavy rock music aficionados who were not interested
in listening to how they did not fit in Colombian society. These rockers got together, drank,
smoked, rocked out, and confronted the urban and rural violence, discrimination, harassment,
displacement, and rise in poverty and unemployment affecting the nation. Although there was
friction between metal and punk supporters as to which music scene was better, discrimination
and battles between subgenre fans did not match the discrimination against women fanatics.
Women, who were few in numbers, who worked endlessly to keep the metal and punk scene
moving along, were discriminated against because they believed to be there just for the men and
not for the music. Also, the bands that performed at sollis and parches in the mid- to late-1980s,
148
because of lack of funds, employed the do-it-yourself method to making electric instruments and
drum kits. Such creativity, combined with a heavier localized sound, paved the way for a
musical time-bomb set to go off at the 1985 Battle of the Bands.
The 1985 Battle of the Bands witnessed an explosion of raw talent eager to transmit the
energy, angst, happiness, depression, hatred, and love for a music form that was frowned upon in
Colombian society. It was also an opportunity for Colombia’s marginalized community
members to remove the silence imposed by the nation’s society and the sociopolitical conditions
pointing to anything but a promising future for its youths. For bands such as Parabellum and
Mierda, as well as the event’s attendants, the show represented a spotlight not only on the local
heavy rock music but also on the class divisions existing in Colombian society during this time
period. Though Kraken and not Parabellum was the official winner of the Battle of the Bands,
Parabellum won the reputation of being Medellín’s underground heavy music scene
representatives. In 1987, the band was given an opportunity to record its music.
The show ended in a battle royal between different parches who supported their band,
fights between the police and the audience, and a fire department that attempted to “cool off” the
“drugged-up” attendants by hosing them down. The show, receiving scathing comments from
the press, was a historical moment in the nation’s heavy rock music history. The next chapter
dissects Victor Gaviria’s Rodrigo D: No Futuro, a film that showcased the Medellín heavy rock
music scene and its participants, and incorporated various elements that arguably did more harm
than good to the Colombian metal and punk scenes.
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CHAPTER 4
“¿De Mal a Peor?” “From Bad to Worse?” Rodrigo D: No Futuro
“They fill their mouths/Speaking of a future/a future world lost/a future world
defeated . . . . Your future is death.”
—“Tú futuro es muerte” by Dexkoncierto 484
“They fire you from work, you derail/you have cancer that life gives you/you get
a venereal [disease] and nothing works/the cops sing to you: Poor Trash/Take my
advice and you’ll find the exit/don’t get discouraged—kill yourself!/don’t get
discouraged—kill yourself!”
—“No te Desanimes” by Mutantex485
“The movie Rodrigo D. No Futuro was made during this time, but I.R.A. was not
interested participating in it, and did not believe it would have been in the interest
of the scene [to do so] since common crime scenes were mixed with the music.”
—David Viola486
“The Colombian experience is one of extraction [and] displacement, leaving

sometimes nowhere to be . . . . Street experience is very common and is a way of
life for [many people] . . . . Film is one excellent medium to navigate through the
social class divisions.”
—Victor Gaviria487
In 1990, Victor Gaviria’s Rodrigo D: No Futuro (Rodrigo D: No Future) made its way to
the silver screen, adding another intriguing and fascinating film to the repertoire of Colombian
cinematography.488 No one anticipated the film’s screening more than the metal and punk
communities in Medellín. The reason the film was important to them was because Victor
Gaviria employed many of these youths, including the film’s central character, as actors for the
movie. Along with participating in the film, some of the Medellín metal and punk bands’ music
was recorded in a professional studio for the Rodrigo D’s soundtrack. There were certain
expectations by the youngsters in the metal and punk scene members regarding the film’s
representation of the heavy rock music scene that scene members felt were disregarded by
484
“Tú future es muerte” by Dexkoncierto in Rodrigo D: No Futuro Soundtrack, Madman Productions, 2007.
485
“No Te Desanimes Mátate” in Rodrigo D: No Futuro, Soundtrack, Madman Productions, 2007.
486
David Viola, I.R.A.: La Antileyenda (Medellín: Editorial Ateneo Porfirio Barba Jacob, 2007), 28.
487
“Victor Gaviria,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o85R4GGiN04, accessed 22 March 2010.
488
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, Victor Gaviria, dir., FOCINE, 1990.
150
Gaviria. Such misrepresentation solidified the stereotype of punkers and metalheads as “wasted
youth” and “decadent.” A new stereotype surfacing from the film associated scene members
with Medellín cartel’s hired assassins and thieves interested in making fast money.
This chapter begins by analyzing and dissecting Victor Gaviria’s 1990 film Rodrigo D:
No Futuro.489 It guides the reader through an exploration of different facets in the film’s
construction and production: the nation’s escalating violence influencing the film’s content, the
incorporation of “natural” versus trained professional actors for the film, the film’s shedding
light on low-income neighborhoods, as well as Gaviria’s social commentary through the main
character Rodrigo. This chapter also looks at the director’s incorporation of punk and heavy
metal into the film, as well as reactions by scene members who questioned how the heavy rock
music scene was represented on the silver screen. I argue that even though Victor Gaviria’s film
captured an extremely controversial side of late-20th century Medellín and spoke to Colombian
society’s problems during a tumultuous time period that was for the most part not visible in
Colombian cinema, the members of the punk and heavy metal scene of Medellín initially
supporting the film relegated Rodrigo D as a movie distorting the essence of the metal and punk
scenes.
Rodrigo D: An Evolution of Colombian Cinematography and Gaviria’s Pioneering Cine

Realidad (Reality-Based Cinema)
Rodrigo D centered on Rodrigo, a disenchanted, frustrated, Medellín male youth from
one of the rough barrios of the comunas, who listened to punk rock, dreamed of being a
drummer for a band, and expressed absolute disdain and apathy for his life, environment, and
future. The film’s story was set in 1988 Medellín, a city that demonstrated “progress” through
business, modernity, and politics, but failed to provide the youth with opportunities for
489
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, Victor Gaviria, dir., FOCINE, 1990.
151
employment, a decent standard of living, and an adequate education. For Rodrigo, Medellín was
everything that he despised and could not escape: the city’s imposed social mores and its
hypocrisy. Rodrigo’s only form of catharsis was listening to punk music. For other characters in
the film, the life of crime was apparently a viable option for the city’s youth.
Characters such as Adolfo, Francis, Ramón, John, and “Alacrán” were youths in the film
who believed that engaging in a life of crime was the way to negotiate their future. From
engaging in holdups to partaking in acts of indiscriminate acts of violence, the young men in the
film risked their lives to obtain luxury items (e.g., fast money, vehicles, etc.), only to find that the
only way out of such a vicious cycle was death. Although Rodrigo was not drawn to crime, he
was attracted to Medellín’s metal and punk scenes. His participation in the heavy rock music
scene was one of the few outlets that Rodrigo and other rock aficionados embraced.
Unfortunately, the young man’s desire to escape the city’s social trappings overpowered his will
to live, and Rodrigo, ultimately, committed suicide by throwing himself out of the twentieth
floor of a partially abandoned high-rise office building located downtown.
Rodrigo D looked at the challenges of urbanization, the struggle by youths attempting to
pave their own future, and youths’ intersection with violence. As part of the film’s soundtrack,
Rodrigo D incorporated punk and metal music into the film. The movie premiered in several
important spots in Colombia including the Calle Real, Palermo, Avenida Chile, and Iris Theaters
on November 14, 1990, and it was the first Colombian full-length film to be entered into the
1990 Cannes Film Festival in France.490 The film, however, raised many expectations that some
heavy music scene members felt were never met in Gaviria’s final cut of the film.
490
“RODRIGO D NO FUTURO,” Proimagenes Colombia,
http://www.proimagenescolombia.com/secciones/cine_colombiano/peliculas_colombianas/pelicula_plantilla.php?id_pelicula=20
4, accessed 20 March 2011.
152
Latin American cinema during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s looked closely at the
influence of imperialism on the region, the rising poverty and disparity in wealth, and repression
taking place south of the Rio Grande River.491 Colombian cinema did not experience a
cinematographic “golden age” like the one exhibited through Mexican Cinema (1936-1969),
Brazil’s Cinema Novo, or Chilean movies of the 1970s.492 Colombian films during the course of
the 1980s did not veer away from talking about, through fiction and documentaries, population
displacement, urban and rural violence, and issues affecting the youth. Though U.S. cinema also
presented films dealing with social issues, this type of cinema was in contrast to popular U.S.
movies that featured gun-slinging, action heroes fighting Soviets or Soviet-affiliates, terrorists,
and the evils of “communism.”493
For example, in 1982 Jorge Gaitán Gómez’s film Ayer Me Echaron del Pueblo told the
story of a peasant family, displaced by a land hungry landowner, that headed to the city, only to
be met with hostility and few opportunities for employment.494 The family unit was dismantled
after the husband turned to crime, the mother turned to prostitution, and the children wound up
living in the streets.495 Another film in the 1980s, focusing on the effects of urbanization and
war on the displaced, was the 1986 film Pisingaña, a story about a young female farmworker
escaping the nation’s rural violence and finding work as a housekeeper for a dysfunctional
491
Ana M. López “An ‘Other’ History: The New Latin American Cinema” in Michael T. Martin, Fernando Solanas, Fernando
Birri, et al., New Latin American Cinema, Volume One: Theory Practices, and Transcontinental Articulations, 135.
492
It is generally agreed by scholars that Mexico’s “Golden Age” of Cinema was from 1936 to 1969. For a sample of works on
Mexican Cinema see Andrea Noble, Mexican National Cinema (National Cinemas) (London: Routledge, 2005), and Carl J.
Mora, Mexican Cinema: Reflections of A Society, 1896-2004 (Jefferson: McFarland & Company, 3rd edition, 2005). For works
on Brazil’s Cinema Novo see
493
United States cinema during the 1980s was filled with films that were inspired by the Cold War. Movies such as War Games,
John Badham. dir. United Artists, 1983; Red Dawn. John Milius. dir. MGM/UA Entertainment Company, 1984; Invasion USA.
Joseph Zito. dir. Cannon Films, 1985; The Hunt For Red October. John McTiernan. dir. Paramount Pictures, 1990; Rocky IV.
Sylvester Stallone. dir. MGM/UA Entertainment Company, 1985; Rambo: First Blood Part III. Peter MacDonald. dir. Carolco
Pictures, TriStar Pictures, 1988; Commando. Mark L. Lester, dir. 20th Century Fox, Silver Pictures, 1985; American Ninja. Sam
Firstengberg. dir. Cannon Group, 1985; American Ninja 2: The Confrontation. Sam Firstenberg. dir. Cannon Group, 1987;
American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt . Cedric Sundstrom. dir. Cannon Films, 1989 as well as many other movies.
494
Ayer me echaron del pueblo. Jorge Gaitán Gómez. dir. Acevar Division Cinematográfica, 1982.
495
Ayer me echaron del pueblo.
153
middle class family in Bogotá.496 The 1982 documentary Nuestra Voz de Tierra, Memoria y
Futuro explored the indigenous community from Cauca in their efforts to preserve their land,
locating the struggle during Spanish colonization and in 1970s Colombia.497
In 1986, the film El Tren de los Pioneros focused on the challenges in constructing the
Antioquia railway during the late 19th century, which included the region’s topography, political
corruption, and the wars of the time period.498 Meanwhile, Ciro Durán’s 1985 documentary La
Guerra del Centavo looked at the extreme pressures that public transportation drivers in Bogotá
faced, because most of them did not work for any type of salary yet competed furiously with
each other to attract the most riders to make ends meet.499 Two fiction films in Colombian
cinema during the 1980s that underscored the trials and tribulations of the future of the youth
were Con Su Música a Otra Parte500 and Visa USA.501 Whereas Con Su Música a Otra Parte
looked at a young aspiring female dancer’s return to Colombia from the United States, Visa USA
underscored the quest of a young male radio deejay looking to make it big in the U.S., only to
find himself hopelessly roaming Bogotá after being denied a visa to the United States. Victor
Gaviria’s Rodrigo D was certainly “part of a Latin American film tradition about adolescents
growing up and living amid poverty.”502
Rodrigo D has been compared to classics films such as Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados,503 a
film about impoverished youths in Mexico’s crime filled barrios, as well as the movie Sid and
Nancy, Alex Cox’s portrayal of the controversial relationship between Sex Pistols’ bassist Sid
496
Pisingaña. Leopoldo Pinzón. dir. Proimagenes Colombia, 1986.
497
Nuestra Voz de Tierra, Memoria y Futuro. Jorge Silva and Marta Rodríguez. dirs. Proimagenes, 1982.
498
El Tren de los Pioneros. Leonel Gallego. dir. Proimagenes Colombia, 1986.
499
La Guerra del Centavo. Ciro Durán. dir. Producciones Cinematográficas Uno Ltda (Colombia), ZDF, Das Kleine
Fernsehenspiel (Germany), 1985.
500
Con Su Música a Otra Parte. Camila Loboguerrero dir. FOCINE (Colombia), 1984.
501
Visa USA. Lisandro Duque Naranjo. dir. FOCINE (Colombia), ICAIC (Cuba), 1986.
502
Tim Barnard and Peter Rist, South American cinema: a critical filmography, 1915-1994 (New York: Garland Publications,
1996), 262.
503
Los Olvidados. Luis Buñuel. dir. Televisa, 1950.
154
Vicious and Nancy Spungen.504 Gaviria’s film was also compared to Pixote: A Lei do Mas
Fraco, Hector Babenco’s film about a homeless boy’s life trapped by poverty, looming death,
and state corruption, along with Ciro Duran’s Gamín, a controversial documentary looking into
Bogotá’s homeless children and families during the late 1970s.505
Rodrigo D also resonated with the 1965 Argentine production of Crónica de un Niño
Solo, a film banned by the military junta of the 1970s, where director Leonardo Favio studied the
struggle of an 11-year-old boy named Polín who was abandoned by his family and placed at the
mercy of state institutional care.506 Another film compared to Gaviria’s film was Gregorio, a
1985 film directed by Fernando Espinoza and Rafael Hernandez that focused on the challenges
of an impoverished child named Gregorio who moved with his family from Peru’s countryside to
the city, while engaging in acts of delinquency as a means of survival.507 The majority of these
films, including Rodrigo D, underscored the trials and tribulations of youths confronting poverty
in the “big city.” Although this was Gaviria’s first feature film, his repertoire incorporated years
of cinematographic experience with short films and documentaries.
Gaviria’s film experience included the 1979 production of Buscando Tréboles,508 Los
Habitantes de la Noche in 1983,509 Que Pase el Aserrador and La Vieja Guardia in 1985,510 Los
Músicos (“The Musicians) in 1986,511 Los Cuentos de Campo Valdés (Stories of the Valdés
Camp) in 1987,512 along with other productions demonstrating Gaviria’s growth as director and
producer.513 Gaviria’s Los Habitantes de la Noche (see Picture 4-1) focused on youth culture
and delinquency. This film studied a late-night variety radio program, known as “The
504
Sid and Nancy. Alex Cox. dir. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1986.
505
Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco. Hector Babenco. dir. Agita Productions, 1980 and Gamín. Ciro Durán. dir. UNO Ltda, 1978.
506
Crónica de un niño solo” Leonardo Favio. dir. Argentina, 1965.
507
Gregorio. Fernando Espinoza and Rafael Hernandez, dir. Gropo Chaski, 1985.
508
Buscando Tréboles. Victor Gaviria. dir. FOCINE, 1978.
509
Los Habitantes de la Noche. Victor Gaviria. dir. FOCINE, 1983.
510
La Vieja Guardia. Victor Gaviria. dir. FOCINE, 1985.
511
Los Músicos. Victor Gaviria. dir. FOCINE, 1985.
512
Los Cuentos de Camp Valdés. Victor Gaviria. dir. FOCINE, 1987.
155
Picture 4-1: Victor Gaviria’s early look at youth culture through cinematography.514
Inhabitants of the Night,” that took audience music requests and commentaries, and hosted an
Afro-Colombian fortune teller. After a series of bicycle robberies by a group of bored youths,
the radio program denounced the culprits over the air, only to get a phone call from one of the
robbers’ friends who resided in a mental institution. The thieves’ friend explained to the radio
host that he knew who the authorities were looking for and he, hoping his friends were listening
to the radio program, asked his friends over the air to meet him in front of the hospital gates.
Although the young man was able to see his friends, the youths were apprehended by the
513
“Victor Gaviria,” ColArte
http://www.colarte.com/Actores/DIRECTORES/GaviriaVictor/recuento.htm?nomartista=Victor+Gaviria&idartista=15529,
514
Screenshot from Los Habitantes de la Noche from “LOS HABITANTES DE LA NOCHE 2/2 (PROGRAMA RADIAL) LA
PELICULA”, Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=hnKBOi0oou4. accessed 20 March 2011.
156
authorities.515 Rodrigo D’s release in 1990 came at a crucial point in Colombia’s history and
was important for various reasons.
One of the reasons the movie was important was because it was released during the
nation’s escalating violence of the late 1980s and early 1990s—battles and bloodshed among the
drug cartels, the guerrillas, the national government, and the local police forces. The film also
came at a time when the rise in unemployment led to a rise in poverty and an increase in crime
and homicide in Bogotá and Medellín. By the late 1980s, this resulted in an “inflation estimated
at 25 percent.”516 By 1987, the influx of U.S. dollars, combined with a rising unemployment
rate, paved the way for growth in the informal economy.517 As mentioned previously, Colombia
was painted in red with a series of assassinations of left-wing political party members, students,
and politicians by paramilitary death squads “cleansing” the nation of any form of insurgency. 518
In Bogotá, the rising violence in the city increased from 20 individuals per 100,000 habitants in
1980 to approximately 50 individuals per 100,000 inhabitants in the mid-1980s.519 In Medellín,
the number of deaths in 1980 per 100,000 habitants was 713, and the number skyrocketed to
4,099 by 1989.520
The late 1980s also witnessed an increase in power by the drug cartels in Medellín and
Cali, and an increased concern over Colombia’s political stability by Washington, D.C.
Colombia’s continued displacement of rural citizenry into the nation’s major cities, also a
product of the era’s violence, expanded the size of illegal housing sectors in the nation’s major
515
“LOS HABITANTES DE LA NOCHE ½ (PROGRAMA RADIAL) LA PELICULA” Youtube accessed 20 March 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4h699zEuyU and “LOS HABITANTES DE LA NOCHE 2/2 (PROGRAMA RADIAL) LA
PELICULA” Youtube accessed 20 March 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=hnKBOi0oou4.
516
Dennis M. Hanratty and Sandra W. Meditz, Colombia: A Country Study (Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress,
1988), 47-52.
517
Dennis M. Hanratty and Sandra W. Meditz, Colombia: A Country Study.
518
Dennis M. Hanratty and Sandra W. Meditz, Colombia: A Country Study.
519
Carlos Mario Perea Restrepo, ¿Qué Nos Une?: Jóvenes, cultura y ciudadanía (Medellín: La Carreta Editores, 2008), 212.
520
Jorge Orlando Melo, “Hacia una pólitica de convivencia: la experiencia de Medellín” in Revista de Cultura Política, no. 2,
Bogotá, July 1994, 8.
157
cities. Amidst the violence and growing fear in Colombian society, by the late 1980s, metal and
punk music in Bogotá and Medellín gained momentum and strength, with the appearance of
musical productions, discussed in detail in the next chapter, by Masacre, Neurosis, La
Pestilencia, and I.R.A., that reflected on the multifaceted atrocities affecting the nation. Another
reason the film was important was because Rodrigo D used non-professional actors.
Victor Gaviria sought out an informal cast for Rodrigo D after having employed a few
trained actors to play some of the film’s major roles. This type of film technique was labeled by
the Colombian director as Cine Realidad or “Reality Cinema.” Gaviria relied on his encounters
with different communities to construct his movie script. Gaviria’s cast for Rodrigo D was
ultimately not comprised of professional actors, a choice driven by the director to capture a
“natural” display of authenticity in the film. The raw talent that Gaviria found for the film came
straight out of the low-income barrios in Medellín, the same zones that gave birth to the
underground heavy rock music scene in the city.
Ramiro Meneses, Mutantex band member and star of the film, mentioned that film
producers from Tiempos Modernos put out a casting call in the local newspaper. Approximately
thirty students showed up for the audition.521 A few months after the initial casting call, Meneses
and some of his friends felt that it was a waste of time because no one was contacted, until one
day Meneses’ friend, Ramón, received a call from film producers to requesting that young men
head down to the studio for taping. Prior to actually being cast, Meneses mentioned how he
tagged along with Ramón to the rehearsals, until he was offered the lead role in Tiempos
Modernos.522 He confessed this was a difficult decision because he did not like to talk very
much, and there were certain scenes involving criminal activity in which Gaviria wanted
521
“Ramiro Menses 1 de 2 (baterista y voz Mutantex),” You Tube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQXMVD_WKnU&feature=related, accessed 22 April 2010.
522
“Ramiro Menses 1 de 2 (baterista y voz Mutantex)”.
158
Meneses to participate, to which Meneses was completely opposed.523 Apart from Menses, other
community members such as Vicky and Piedad Castro, Parabellum drummer Cipriano, and the
bands Blasfemia and P-Ne were also cast for the film. They were interested in contributing to a
movie that was going to shed light on the heavy rock music scene.524 In order to find such
actors, Gaviria traveled to different parts of the city.
Gaviria’s method in locating “natural” actors was by going to different city spaces (e.g.,
barrios, schools, etc.) and looking for individuals with a certain experience that could not be
found in a trained actor.525 Such experiences collected by Gaviria were adapted to a script and
showcased on the silver screen. Although he confessed that the idea for the film came from a
news report in El Mundo regarding a young man named Rodrigo Alonso who was going to kill
himself, Gaviria remarked that the development and casting for the film came from his
interaction with the youths of the region. 526
When I met all the youngsters, I started asking them about themselves and
without knowing it they started providing me the groundwork for the film that
they would be punkers, they would be pistolocos [paid assassins and] that in one
instance they would sell all their music tapes because they needed a weapon.
Sometimes they would rent the weapon.527
Gaviria also admitted that his schooling in psychology helped with coming up with the idea for
Rodrigo D, because it was, as he mentioned, through psychoanalysis that allowed him to speak
and effectively listen to youths who recounted their experiences and day-to-day problems.528 He
523
“Ramiro Menses 1 de 2 (baterista y voz Mutantex)”.
524
525
“Entrevista Victor Gaviria 1,” Youtube, accessed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyE4T6yKx-A&feature=related, 13
September 2011.
526
Augusto Bernal Jiménez, Rodrigo D: No Futuro Historias Recobradas, 17-18.
527
Luis Duno-Gotterg “El espectador asesinado. La incomunicación como estrategia discursive” in Imagen y Subalternidad, Julio
2003, no. 9, 59.
528
Luis Duno-Gotterg, “El espectador asesinado. La incomunicación como estrategia discursive”.
159
also mentioned that using non-professional actors was a “bridge to reaching information not
found in books, impalpable information that some scripts [could] not capture.”529
In listening to the potential actors, Gaviria found a localized language that was not used
in Medellín society, a vocabulary, described previously as part of the parlache dictionary that
was found specifically in the low-income areas of the city. Gaviria chose his actors after
establishing good rapport and locating what it was that made a certain actor distinct and
memorable.530 Such relationship between director and potential actors “turned into a profound
friendship.”531 Along with finding the most “natural” actors for the film, the movie was also
important because of its production location.
Rodrigo D was also important because it shed light on the low-income sectors of the
comunas: barrio El Diamante, barrio Robledo, and the northwestern comuna.532 Gaviria’s
decision to juxtapose the impoverished barrios with the downtown area and outskirts, as well as
other well-to-do neighborhoods, provided a window for viewers to observe the friction between
social classes in late-20th century Medellín society. This window also allowed viewers to
observe the main character, Rodrigo, navigate through each of the different worlds, and attempt
to carve out his own space in an urban environment that negated his identity and succeeded in
limiting any hope of a prosperous future. This notion was not coincidental for the film’s
production considering Gaviria admitted that it was important to connect different facets of
social life, because doing so was crucial to understanding Colombia’s reality. 533 The film was
529
“Entrevista a Víctor Gaviria,” elmultecine.com , http://www.elmulticine.com/entrevistas2.php?orden=576, accessed 20 March
2010.
530
“Entrevista a Víctor Gaviria”.
531
“Entrevista a Víctor Gaviria”.
532
“RODRIGO D NO FUTURO,” Proimagenes Colombia,
http://www.proimagenescolombia.com/secciones/cine_colombiano/peliculas_colombianas/pelicula_plantilla.php?id_pelicula=20
533
“El cine como herramienta pedagógica-Victor Gaviria,” Youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yFTqUtNeYI&feature=related, accessed 20 March 2010.
160
also important because it addressed many of Colombia’s social realities couched in a fictional
plot.
Although the film was labeled as “fiction,” Gaviria believed that this movie, as well as
other full-length films he later directed, was a documentary with a fiction storyline that aimed at
bringing to light issues of the time period that could not be discussed openly through any form of
media.534 According to Gaviria, this was so because the drug trafficking and political violence in
Colombia during the late 1980s and early 1990s made it difficult to directly talk about the day-
to-day atrocities. Whereas Gaviria felt restricted—if not partially censored—to speak openly
about Colombia’s affairs, the nation’s papers were also monitored by powerful men who ensured
that no one engaging in illicit activities was represented in a negative light. For instance,
Guillermo Cano, the former director of El Espectador, along with other journalists, lost his life
after denouncing the “illegal trafficking of narcotics.”535
Gaviria tried to find a way to talk about the rough life of the barrios in the comunas. He
understood that openly talking about any form of drug trade or their hired assassins put his life at
risk. As he acknowledged, “In countries where [one has] to investigate who was murdered [one]
cannot do documentaries which is why fiction [was] so important.”536 Fiction was a way to get
at a truth and, as in the case of Rodrigo D and other future productions by Gaviria, the safest way
to talk about Colombia’s crisis. Rodrigo D’s production earned the film national and
international attention after its release.
Rodrigo D: No Futuro premiered in Colombia on November 15, 1989 in Medellín,
Bogotá, and Cali.537 El Espectador mentioned that the film was a “reflection of the antioqueño
534
This type of fiction documentary cinema should not to be confused with one known as “mockumentary.”
535
Virgilio Barco Vargas, “El Narcotráfico y la Violencia: Una amenaza mortal a la democracia” in Varios in Colombia
Internacional, No. 6, Abril-Junio 1989, 23-28.
536
“Ficunam Víctor Gaviria,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljxtROMfDD0, accessed 10 March 2012.
537
“Estreno Nacional de Rodrigo D. Una Película del Presente del País,” El Espectador 15 November 1990.
161
truth,” but it was also “a reflection of any city in Latin America.”538 In 1986, Rodrigo D was
awarded FOCINE’S (Cinematographic Development Company in Colombia) Best Film
Adaptation in the National Script Award.539 The film’s content and its nomination to the 1990
Cannes Film festival captured the attention of the nation’s periodicals.
El Espectador quoted Victor Gaviria explaining that the purpose of the film was to “show
the lives of the youngsters with their violence and show that the real culprit of this violence is the
entire nation.”540 He explained that Medellín was undergoing “a new culture based on an
inversion of values where what [was] good [was] bad, and what [was] bad [was] good.”541
Gaviria, a native-born paisa, was not aloof to the social, economic, and political changes taking
place in Medellín. The inversion of values he spoke of referred to the wave of violence
occurring in the antioqueño metropolis and across the nation. Gaviria was no stranger to the
corruption and violence by the national government and the influence of the local drug lords.542
El Colombiano mentioned that “No Futuro [was] a film that implie[d] violence [more]
than actually expressing it.”543 The article argued that people should not be surprised or turned
off by the film’s subject matter, since it should be compared to “any of the brutal Colombian
television series shown every day with wretched films continuously occupying our movie
theaters.”544 Some of the “wretched” films that the article was referring to were the ones
imported from the United States. According to El Espectador columnist Alfredo Vazquez
Carrizosa, people had an opportunity to “see on the silver screen what Medellinenses put up with
538
“Estreno Nacional de Rodrigo D. Una Película del Presente del País” in El Espectador.
539
“RODRIGO D NO FUTURO,” Proimagenes Colombia.
540
“Rodrigo D. no futuro con éxito en el Festival de Cannes,” in El Espectador 12 May 1990, 10a.
541
“Rodrigo D. no futuro con éxito en el Festival de Cannes” in El Espectador.
542
“Entrevista a Víctor Gaviria,” elmultecine.com, http://www.elmulticine.com/entrevistas2.php?orden=576, accessed 20 March
2010.
543
Luis Alberto Alvarez, “No Futuro’ de Victor Manuel Gaviria en Cannes: Nuestra Grandeza y Nuestra Miseria,” El
Colombiano, 13 May 1990, 8d.
544
Luis Alberto Alvarez, “’No Futuro’ de Victor Manuel Gaviria en Cannes: Nuestra Grandeza y Nuestra Miseria,” El
Colombiano.
162
every day.”545 The film was not simply a fictional story about a young troubled punk rocker.
The film spoke to the social mores, contradictions, fears, and concerns located of a battered late-
20th century Colombian society. Some of the film’s supporters came from the United States as
well.
The curator for the Museum of Modern Art in New York proclaimed his admiration for the
movie, stating that there was an incredible “quality in this picture and the movies accompanying
it as displayed by FOCINE,” and expressed that it ought to be widely distributed in the United
States.546 On January 11, 1991, Rodrigo D opened at New York’s Public Theater.547 Other
accolades for the film were reported by El Espectador, which mentioned that Rodrigo D received
“the bronze hand” at the 6th Latino Festival in New York.548 Another report confirmed that
Rodrigo D was the recipient of the Bronze Hand and was labeled Best Film at the 6th Annual
Latino Film Festival in New York in 1990.549 According to journalist Luis Alberto Alvarez,
neither the director nor producers of the film dreamed that the movie would ever reach the
renowned film festival. Gaviria expressed that being part of the cinematographic festival and
having his film chosen for the event gave him “great joy and a surprise.”550
The film also received the Premio Glauber Rocha award at the 12th annual International
Festival of New Latin American Films in Havana, Cuba.551 The film’s acceptance into the
Cannes Film Festival (see Picture 4-1) was not a miracle; however, Gaviria was quite astonished
to discover that the movie had been “by chance watched by festival directors in New York [who]
took the immediate decision to nominate the film, in no way serving as film to fill [the list of
545
Alfredo Vazquez Carrizosa, “Los Horrores de la Guerra,” El Espectador, May 15, 1990, 3A.
546
Luis Alberto Alvarez “’No Futuro’ de Victor Manuel Gaviria en Cannes: Nuestra Grandeza y Nuestra Miseria” in El
Colombiano.
547
Caryn James, “Rodrigo D.-No Futuro (1990) Review/Film; Living in a Violent World” in New York Times, 11 January 1991.
548
“La Película Rodrgio D Ganó Premio en el Festival Latino,” El Espectador, September 1, 1990.
549
RODRIGO D NO FUTURO,” PROIMAGENES COLOMBIA.
550
“Rodrigo D. no futuro con éxito en el Festival de Cannes,” El Espectador, May 12, 1990, 10a.
551
“Rodrigo D. no futuro con éxito en el Festival de Cannes,” El Espectador.
163
Picture 4-1: Gaviria making history at the 1990 Cannes Festival.552
nominations,] but one of sixteen films chosen in the entire world.”553 Furthermore, the film was
the only Latin American film chosen for the festival. The challenge in the festival was evident.
Rodrigo D went up against David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, Clint Eastwood’s White Hunter, Black
Heart, Pavel Lounguine’s Taxi Blues, and other films such as Ken Loach’s Hidden Agenda and
Raymond Depardon’s La Captive Du Désert.554 Unfortunately, Rodrigo D did not capture a
festival award in any category, though Gaviria would revisit the festival with a different
production a few years later.555
El Tiempo reported Lynch’s victory at the festival and stated that Gaviria apparently
552
“Homenaje a Victor Gaviria: Recuerdo de los tréboles,” corporación Otraparte
http://www.otraparte.org/actividades/literatura/recuerdo-treboles.html, accessed 22 March 2012.
553
Luis Alberto Alvarez,“’No Futuro’ de Victor Manuel Gaviria en Cannes: Nuestra Grandeza y Nuestra Miseria,” El
Colombiano.
554
“Official Selection 1990,” Festival de Cannes official website,
http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/archives/1990/inCompetition.html, accessed 22 April 2010.
555
In 1998, Victor Gaviria directed La Vendedora de las Rosas (The Rose Seller), which reached the Cannes Film Festival in that
year though unfortunately it did not garner any prizes either. La Vendedora de las Roasas. Victor Gaviria. dir.FOCINE, 1998.
164
“arrived [at the festival] with high expectations,” only to receive not one prize.556 According to
the article, the reason that the film did not win was the film’s controversial topic. The movie’s
theme, according to the report, was “anchored to a social reality very distant from the concerns
and personal tastes of the festival and its critics.”557 El Espectador believed that the film’s
strength was precisely the fact that it dealt with Colombia’s realities. The periodical mentioned
that the film “forces us to look directly at the depressing situation endured by many youths in the
northeastern sectors of Medellín.”558 Apart from the film’s international and national appeal, the
film itself, as mentioned by the newspaper, unveiled a host of themes that spoke to Medellín and
Colombia’s 20th century reality.
Dissecting Rodrigo D: Resisting Urbanization, Authority, Poverty, “Justice,” Tradition,

and Death
Gaviria’s decision to shoot the movie in different parts of the comunas and other areas of
Medellín provided viewers with people’s usage, appropriation of, and resistance to urban spaces.
Rodrigo D veered away from underscoring the lives of the wealthy, politicians, or the corporate
sector of Colombia. From the very beginning of the film, Rodrigo’s clash with the concrete
jungle in the inner city was demonstrated when he was caught searching for a tool bag that he
apparently lost in different empty rooms while working on the building the previous week.559
Throughout the movie, Rodrigo, like other characters in the film, could not escape the pressures
of living in urban spaces, whether in the comunas or while traveling to the metropolitan area.
Despite the “trappings” of urbanism, the film demonstrated people in this region
constructing zones of camaraderie on barrio streets and street corners. The film, although
fictional, showed the dynamics in barrios where a sense of community was present through a
556
“La Película Rodrigo D. no tuvo figuración. David Lynch ganó en Cannes,” El Tiempo, May 22, 1990, 7b.
557
“La Película Rodrigo D. no tuvo figuración. David Lynch ganó en Cannes,” El Tiempo.
558
Mauricio Laurens, “Celluoid e Nuestra Triste Realidad,” El Espectador, February 16,1990.
559
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, Victor Gaviria, dir., FOCINE, 1990., 1:32-1:48.
165
different type of authority exhibited: a local law executed by people without a badge. Certain
shots by Gaviria introduced viewers to locals playing late-night soccer; children playing in
undeveloped areas; love birds embracing each other off the comunas streets; youths listening to
music on street corners, terraces, and rural estates; people attending church services and funerals;
and folks hanging in corner mini-markets and independent shops. This film was a window into a
dynamic that could not be found in the metropolitan area. The focus on the comunas was
precisely the realism sought out by Victor Gaviria. Rodrigo D also provided viewers with
samples of how people lived in the comunas.
Gaviria’s fiction-documentary film also invited viewers into the homes of several key
characters, including Rodrigo’s household, highlighting certain household spaces as zones of
expression and a space utilized as a personal sanctuary. Rodrigo’s rooftop, for instance, was a
space providing him with comfort and a feeling of security, a space serving as a zone of refuge
during the night hours. Rodrigo used part of the terrace to isolate himself from everyone around
him. His and his friend’s household terraces were spots where they used to play his punk music
tapes. Unfortunately, his music listening in the terrace was interrupted in one scene by a
disgruntled neighbor who requested that Rodrigo turn down the volume so he could go back to
sleep560 and disturbed in another scene by his father who, assuming Rodrigo’s “acting out” was
due to his mother’s death, encouraged Rodrigo to go back to sleep.561 In one particular scene,
the terrace was the site of confrontation between Rodrigo and the main city. Following his bath
in the terrace, Rodrigo was captured by the size of the city itself (see Picture 4-2).562 For a few
seconds, Rodrigo confronted Medellín, the leviathan, the powerful and vicious city that
consumed and killed off its inhabitants; the city that segregated the impoverished from those
560
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, 9:02-9:48.
561
562
166
Picture 4-2: Rodrigo looking directly eye-to-eye at the leviathan563
inhabiting the metropolitan area. Rodrigo’s symbolic confrontation with the urban monster,
which repeated itself at the end of the film culminating in Rodrigo’s suicide, was a way for
Gaviria to show the inescapable power of Medellín’s process of modernization. Along with the
terrace, other parts of the household also served as sites of refuge from life and from the
authorities.
Rodrigo’s bedroom, and anywhere he laid down to rest, was a space where viewers could
see the depression and anguish on the face of a young man who did not have the will or desire to
even get out of bed.564 In one scene, Rodrigo finally decided to get out of bed after his younger
563
Caption from Ella Geoffrey Kantaris, “Allegorical Cities: Bodies and Visions in Colombian Urban Cinema,”
people.pwf.ca.ac.uk, http://people.pwf.ca.ac.uk/egk10/ETAL/rodrid1.jpg, accessed 22 April 2010.
564
167
brother pressured his father to get Rodrigo up and head out to pay his brother’s school tuition.
The household was also a zone of refuge for characters, such as Ramón, fleeing from the
authorities. Ramón and his partner in crime were involved in a carjacking in a well-to-do
neighborhood.565 After the police began searching for the culprits in the comunas, Ramón knew
his days were numbered; he desperately searched for somewhere to hide for a good period of
time. After Ramón arrived at Adolfo’s hideout, he hoped that Adolfo would allow him to stay
while the police went away; not only was Ramón not granted sanctuary, but he was also told by
Adolfo’s friends that Ramón even arriving at Adolfo’s place and asking for help gave the police
reason to take them all to jail.566 In contrast to Ramón, Adolfo was fortunate to find refuge at his
friend’s home after believing that there were people searching for him.567 Apart from a space to
flee from the police, the household also served as a source of memory and a space to celebrate
heavy rock music.
Rodrigo’s visit to Mrs. Nohemi’s home was a way to reconnect with his family’s past.
Mrs. Nohemi was Rodrigo’s connection to discussing his mother. Through photographs and
stories, Mrs. Nohemi shared details about Rodrigo’s mother, a moment in the film which
demonstrated Rodrigo’s admiration and longing for his deceased mother.568 The household was
also the site, as mentioned in the previous chapter, that served as metal and punk parches or
sollis. Several scenes in the film showed how the living room and terrace were spaces used by
bands to rehearse, rock out, and share their music with each other. In one scene, female rockers,
played by Vicky and Piedad Castro, visited a fellow rocker’s house to see if one of them could
become the new lead singer for a metal band.569 In this same scene, Rodrigo and a fellow rocker,
565
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, 1:04:38-1:05:12.
566
567
568
569
168
witnessing the abrupt ending of the tryout session, decided to borrow the band’s equipment in the
living room to rehearse and play “Ramera del Barrio.” In two other scenes, the terrace was the
site of performances by the bands Blasfemia and P-Ne, a drum jam by ex-Parabellum member
Cipriano, and slam dancing by roquer@s. The household was also used in the movie as a space
to host funeral services and an area which embraced death.
Rodrigo D also showcased households that were not only used for rocking out, but also
transformed into funeral homes. When John, one of the comunas’ delinquents, was picked up by
an unmarked vehicle and later found dead, his family’s household held a viewing of his corpse.
The living room was filled with many people who quietly sat paying their respects to him.
John’s mother, who saw a disturbed Adolfo enter the household, explained to him that no one in
the house needed to cry because she put John’s favorite music on: Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were
Here.” 570 In the same scene, John’s girlfriend was told by one of the mourners that she did not
have to worry about John because eventually he—supposedly—would resurrect and come back
for her just like the story about a boyfriend who kept his promise to revisit and take his girlfriend
with him after he died.571
After Adolfo left the viewing, an older gentleman approached. He opened John’s coffin and
spoke directly to his corpse, telling him that he had done the right thing in dying because that
meant he did not have to continue suffering like everyone who was still alive. This was a
moment in the film that interjected Victor Gaviria’s commentary on the citizens’ anguish in
Medellín and the entire nation ripped apart by violence. For Cultural Studies professor John
Beverly, Gaviria’s film was important because it gives agency to his subaltern subjects, allowing
570
571
169
Picture 4-3: Regulating the poor in the comunas.572
them to directly address the ills of society without any filtering or mediation from the Left.573
Adolfo’s household also welcomed death in his household when one of his friends told a story
about how his friend’s brother came back to life during the funeral after being hit by a falling
brick.574 Gaviria, along with interjecting his commentary on death in Colombia through the film,
also addressed the influence and power of the local authorities.
At the beginning of the film, a suspicious Rodrigo was intercepted and immediately
escorted out of an empty office building by a security officer who caught Rodrigo wandering the
building supposedly looking for “a little green bag.” 575 In another scene, the city police raided
572
Screenshot from “Rodrigo D No Futuro (English subs) [9/10]” from Youtube accessed 25 April 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepaJzIlKiw&feature=relmfu.
573
John Beverly, “’Los últimos serán los primeros’:Notas sobre el cine de Gaviria,” in Luis Duno-Gottberg, John Beverly, Forest
Hylton, et al., Imagen y subalternidad: El Cine de Victor Gaviria. Revista Objeto Visual, (Caracas: Cinmateca Nacional de
Venezuela, 2003), 16-21.
574
575
170
the comunas looking for one of the characters suspected of armed robbery (see picture 4-3).576
When the police arrived in their vehicles, they immediately began searching the area. Ramón,
who saw the police frantically searching the area, ran away from the scene because he believed
the police were looking for him. Gaviria—through Adolfo and Francis—commented on police
tactics used on the region’s impoverished community.577
Francis: Hey man, look at the blondie. He’s the one with the blue shirt.
Adolfo: Yeah, but in a year he’ll be up to no good too.
Francis: The cops are afraid of the kids because they’re so aggressive.
Adolfo: If you shoot a cop they die right away. But when they get you, first they torture
you, and they beat the shit out of you.
Francis: A punker says something and never goes back on their word. But those fags
[the police] always go back on their word.
In this dialogue, as well as with the mysterious death of John, Gaviria demonstrated the
consequences in fighting power.578 The symbols of authority and power were demonstrated in
the movie with John’s bruised corpse. 579 Another feature in Gaviria’s film was the presence of
drug trafficking and crime as way of life and as a means of escaping poverty in Colombian
society.
In other scenes, Gaviria demonstrated how the distribution of drugs influenced all corners
of the barrio culture in the comunas and was a way out of the growing poverty and lack of
opportunities in the region. In one scene, Ramón approached school kids, who worked for him
as drug dealers for their school, to pay him back for the drugs he distributed to them.580 In
another scene, Alacrán casually rolled a marijuana joint while talking about organizing the heist
576
Rodrigo D: No Futuro directed by Victor Gaviria Cinemática, Ministerio de Cultura 1990, 1:19:51-1:20:20.
577
Rodrigo D: No Futuro directed by Victor Gaviria Cinemática, Ministerio de Cultura 1990, 18:00-18:36.
578
579
580
171
with Ramón.581 In celebration of the robbery, Alacrán and Ramón rolled a marijuana joint inside
the stolen vehicle.582 Still, in another scene, Adolfo’s visit to his aunt’s home resulted in a
discussion as to where they could find weed and where to appropriately smoke a joint.583 In
another part of the film, Rodrigo’s older brother advised his girlfriend to smoke the joint she
rolled downstairs because his father might catch her.584 Engaging in crime, another means of
dealing with poverty, was demonstrated when two motorcycle riders pulled over a motorist at
gunpoint to steal his motorcycle.585 As mentioned above, Alacrán and Ramón stole a car at
gunpoint from someone who lived in a well-to-do neighborhood.586 Taken literally, Gaviria’s
film showed how drug consumption and crime activity was well integrated into the comunas.
Gaviria did not show any of the younger characters in the film as having any job
opportunity or a bright future. Rodrigo, Adolfo, Ramón, Alacrán, and Francis were supposed to
crash and burn. Neither the film nor the city’s reality had anything destined for those youths.
Rodrigo D demonstrated a Medellín culture ripped by drugs and violence. Was such
representation adequate? El Espectador mentioned that the film was a “hell in which [people]
had to live.”587
To appreciate this Colombian film, you have to put aside certain prejudices. It’s
true that its sound could make the film difficult to comprehend because of its
[localized] language and because of the limits in filming . . . . With Rodrigo D.,
No Futuro, Colombian cinema has no excuse to elude addressing social issues.588
Along with showing the role of drugs and crime as “good” options for youths, Gaviria also
unveiled the “inversion of values” taking place in the comunas.
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
Mauricio Laurens, “Celluoid e Nuestra Triste Realidad,” El Espectador, February 16, 1990.
588
Mauricio Laurens, “Celluoid e Nuestra Triste Realidad,” El Espectador.
172
The film demonstrated an application of a localized justice carried out by people residing
in the comunas. Ironically, this was a local justice produced by the same perpetrators of criminal
activities. In one scene, for example, Adolfo saw a group of kids chasing down a rat while he
was walking across the grass fields. After seeing this, Adolfo threw rocks at the children, telling
them to leave the rat alone because the rat did nothing to them.589 Towards the end of this film,
this same character, involved in criminal acts throughout the movie, so felt an “urge” to kill that
Adolfo and his friends hunted down and killed Ramón in cold blood. 590 In another part of the
film, Ramón, while hanging out drinking with a friend, decided to give money to an older
acquaintance who was trying to make ends meet by selling trinkets. Ramón gave the man
enough money so that the impoverished salesman could go home to rest for the evening.591
Although this could be viewed as an act of “Robin Hood,” Ramón’s generosity was gained from
the car robbery. Here, Gaviria addressed the ability of criminals to provide a helping hand where
the local and national government looked the other way. Through many of his film’s characters,
Gaviria’s work also underscored Colombian “tradition” as related to gender dynamics.
Victor Gaviria’s film addressed gender dynamics in dialogue between Rodrigo and his
sister; Adolfo and his girlfriend, Vilma; an older woman’s conversation with John’s girlfriend,
Mary; Rodrigo and his mother’s close friend, Mrs. Nohemi; and the appearance of females in
different rock band practices. Rodrigo and his sister were frustrated siblings who did not get
along and argued incessantly. In one scene, several heated conversations between Rodrigo and
his sister focused on sex and household roles.592
Rodrigo: Fat ass bitch, idiot. Had to be a woman.
589
590
591
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, 1:07:13-1:07-43.
592
173
Rodrigo’s sister: And what are you good for?
Rodrigo: For a lot . . . .
Rodrigo’s sister: For fucking nothing! You’re good for nothing, man.
Rodrigo: Women are such farts.
Rodrigo’s sister: Such big farts and men still come after us.
Rodrigo: Yeah, to calm our sexual desires.
Rodrigo’s sister: Well, so why don’t you do it with your own hands?
Furthermore, Gaviria’s employment of Dulce’s song “Tu Muñeca” (“Your Doll”), while
Rodrigo’s sister mopped the living room floor, was not coincidental.593 The song conveyed the
angst and frustration of a woman being treated like a “doll,” where her “role” was to “serve [her]
love” and to be a “love toy.”594 The chorus underscored the unjust treatment: Your doll, that’s
what it is/The one you have dragging at your feet/Your doll, yes sir/The toy when you play
love/Your doll, that’s all/The one you use and toss and throw away and is here again.595
Interjecting this song into the scene was Gaviria’s stab at the misogyny in Colombian
society. Rodrigo’s sister singing along with the song as she mopped the living room floor was a
way for Gaviria to present—briefly—a subversive female who took on the same role, or
“tradition,” left behind by her deceased mother. When Rodrigo entered the living room
completely unaware she was mopping, Rodrigo’s sister snapped at him for being inconsiderate.
Rodrigo’s sister: Can’t you see I’m mopping!
Rodrigo: How was I supposed to know you were mopping?
Rodrigo’s sister: You never know what’s going on around here.
Rodrigo: I have to know what’s going on.
593
“Tu Muñeca” from Dulce. Tu muñeca. Melody Records, 1984.
594
“Dulce-Tu Muñeca Lyrics,” LetsSingIt http://artists.letssingit.com/dulce-lyrics-tu-muneca-wtznzct, accessed 25 April 2012.
595
“Dulce-Tu Muñeca Lyrics,” LetsSingIt.
174
Rodrigo’s sister: Yes, start doing something . . . do something . . . stop wasting
time!
Rodrigo: Stupid bitch.
Rodrigo’s sister: Do something and stop wasting time!
Rodrigo: Stupid bitch.
Rodrigo’s sister: Get out of here! Leave!
Rodrigo: Leave? This house is mine and everybody’s. That’s what my mom
said.
Rodrigo’s sister: This house belongs to those who work!
Rodrigo: Bitch!
Rodrigo’s sister: Get out! Get out!
Rodrigo’s sister: Do something you leech!
The household, according to his sister, was for whoever worked to keep it afloat. For Rodrigo,
his sister was wrong because the household was for everyone, especially since it was something
his mother stipulated before she passed away. Although this would seem like sibling bickering,
this and other scenes centering on Rodrigo and his sister spoke to the lack of balance in the
“traditional” household.
As mentioned in the first chapter, after the mid-1950s and during the 1980s, it was not
uncommon to witness single-headed households, a disruption of the family structure due to war
and displacement. Gaviria unveiled the anxiety and stress in which both Rodrigo and his sister
underwent, ultimately pitting the siblings against each other. Whereas Rodrigo’s sister aimed to
keep order in the household, Rodrigo’s depression and angst kept him from moving ahead. His
encounter with Mrs. Nohemi provided viewers with Rodrigo’s personal struggle in living
without his mother (see Picture 4-4). The bond between Rodrigo and his mother Lucy was
175
Picture 4-4: Rodrigo and Mrs. Nohemi remembering his mother Lucy.596
momentarily strengthened during his visit to Mrs. Nohemi’s household.597 Mrs. Nohemi, as
mentioned above, showed Rodrigo several pictures of his mother in which he commented that
his mother looked like a “virgin.” Rodrigo referred to his mother as “never los[ing] her
femininity” and dressing differently, nowhere what the “girls are wearing now.” Mrs. Nohemi
explained to Rodrigo that his mother had plenty of suitors. The respect for his mother could not
be found in any of the women in Medellín in 1988 because they were not as “angelic” and “pure”
as Rodrigo’s mother. An article published in El Tiempo argued that the “traditional power of the
mother figure in paisa society explain[ed] the proliferation of assassins.”598 According to the
column, because the male figure was usually not around, the father played a very secondary—if
not ambiguous—role compared to that of the mother figure and asserted that the non-
participating father figure was typically more visible in lower classes.599 The article’s author
argued that social behaviors began with household dynamics and the participation of the father
596
Screenshot from “Rodrigo D No Futuro (english subs) [9/10],” Youtube, accessed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepaJzIlKiw&feature=relmfu, 24 April 2012.
597
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, 1:16:06 -1:17:49.
598
Luz Maria Correa, “Matriarcado y Sicarios,” Lecturas Dominicales, El Tiempo, May 27, 1990, 10-11.
599
Luz Maria Correa, “Matriarcado y Sicarios,” Lecturas Dominicales, El Tiempo.
176
figure, just as the love of the mother figure was important to prevent an individual from
becoming “socially and culturally maladapted.”600 Along with Rodrigo’s relationship to his
mother, the gender dynamics between Adolfo and Vilma was an example of Colombian
machismo.
Rodrigo D demonstrated that Vilma was not as secretive about her life as was Adolfo. In
a couple film scenes, Adolfo was adamant about keeping what he did hidden from Vilma, where
he went, where he worked, and anything in which he was involved. In one scene, Adolfo and
Vilma’s hangout was interrupted by Adolfo’s friend who warned Adolfo that there were people
looking for him. When Vilma asked what happened, Adolfo refused to tell her. In a much later
scene, Vilma told Adolfo that she was up for a job interview that she believed would benefit
them both. As she tried to explain to him the benefits in both of them having a jobs, he ignored
her proposal, proceeded to take her clothes off, and commented how excited he was that she was
wearing the cotton panties he most liked.601 Ironically, after having sex, Adolfo confronted his
girlfriend accusing her of never being satisfied.602
Adolfo: You as always enjoying the water, aren’t you? Do you enjoy sex with me
like with the rest? But you know what? I think that you, when I make love to you
. . . you’re not satisfied, you need someone else . . . somebody else so you can
finally feel satisfied. Isn’t that true? I feel you still have the desire, the urge . . .
like you want to . . . .
Vilma: You always say the same thing. Every time we are together you say the
same thing.
Adolfo: You know what? That’s what you need. Your cousin, the little brat . . . .
Vilma: With my cousin or whomever. . . . I like a lot of people but I love you.
Adolfo: That brat is not able to make you happy like I do.
600
Luz Maria Correa, “Matriarcado y Sicarios,” Lecturas Dominicales in El Tiempo.
601
602
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, 59:06-1:00:43.
177
Picture 4-5: Adolfo (right) in disbelief paying his respects to a fallen friend.603
Vilma: Do I dedicate myself to him or what?
Adolfo: You know what Vilma you have to promise me . . . . I know I’m going to
die. . . . After I die . . . you won’t have a kid with that man.
Vilma: Why do you have to think about dying? . . . or me fooling around?
Adolfo: That’s how it happens love . . . . That’s the way love is.
Despite Vilma expressing her commitment to her boyfriend, Adolfo believed that she had an
insatiable appetite for sex that would lead her to look elsewhere, including her cousin. Vilma
was bewildered as to her boyfriend’s insecurity and premonition that he would die soon. Gaviria
demonstrated the uneven power dynamics between men and women, which Adolfo exhibited as
possessive, insecure, secretive, and—to a certain extent—paranoid. Possession of women’s
bodies was also evident in a conversation held during John’s viewing (see Picture 4- 5).
603
Screenshot from “Rodrigo D No Futuro (English subs) [9/10],” Youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepaJzIlKiw&feature=relmfu, accessed 24 April 2012.
178
While many of John’s mourners remained inside the household, a conversation took
place outdoors between Mary—John’s girlfriend—and an older woman, who tried to comfort her
by telling a story about “true love.” 604
Older Woman: Mary, are you sad?
[Mary does not respond, and just looks at the older woman]
Older Woman: Don’t you think John might come back for you? A friend of mine
had a daughter and her boyfriend promised her that when he died he’d come back
for her . . . . And a few later she was dead for three hours . . . . And where was
she? Well of course with him, don’t you agree?
Older Woman: Remember, dead people always keep their promises. And what
the boyfriend promises her girlfriend . . . well it’s a sure thing.
On the one hand, the story conveyed to Mary demonstrated the intense love that a young man
had for his girlfriend. On the other hand, it showed a sense of possession taking place over the
young girl’s body. According to the older woman, John’s death was also Mary’s partial death,
implying that she did not have ownership over her own body because John’s love and devotion
would take her away with him. In contrast to women being sexualized, ignored, and considered
property, Rodrigo D showcased women who were involved in the heavy rock music scene.
Gaviria’s demonstration of women in the heavy rock scene clashed with the gender
expectations in Colombian society of the time period. Gaviria interjected female participation in
the punk and metal scene in Rodrigo D, shedding light on women’s participation in this music
culture. In one scene, two female metalheads arrived at a friend’s home to try out for band
vocalist.605 The women were not dressed in the latest fashion trend nor wore high heels. These
604
Rodrigo D: No Futuro directed by Victor Gaviria Cinemática, Ministerio de Cultura 1990, 1:15:20-1:15:59.
605
Rodrigo D: No Futuro directed by Victor Gaviria Cinemática, Ministerio de Cultura 1990, 42:19-44:48.
179
Picture 4-6: Female roqueras looking to join a band. Here we see Piedad (front) and Vicky
Castro (center) walking up with Ramiro Meneses.606
women were dressed in heavy metal t-shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes, and they had long curly hair
with bangs covering their eyes (see Picture 4-6). In the film, they spoke “un-lady like,” cursing
at the barking dog that “warmly” welcomed them at the house entrance. The women were there
because one of the roqueras loaned their bass to their fellow musician and the other roquera was
trying out lead singer of a band. During the tryouts, the roquera was asked to sing a set of lyrics
to see if she was right for the band. Unfortunately, the band leader was disappointed with her
singing and told her she needed to put more effort because she sounded horrible. She responded
by cussing him out and telling him that she “s[ang] metal motherfucker.” In another scene, on
top of a terrace, where Colombian punk band P-Ne played the song “No Mas Clases” (“No More
606
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3tKfU1_G00&feature=relmfu, accessed 24 April 2011.
180
Classes”), a female punker was slam dancing with two other guys.607 To someone unfamiliar
with the heavy rock music scene of the era, watching a woman slam into men of “questionable
character” was unthinkable.
The young lady did not fit the Colombian female prototype since she had a mullet
haircut, a black jean jacket with buttons and spikes, a rock shirt, ripped dirty jeans, and Chuck
Taylor type tennis shoes. The appearance of women in the film participating in Colombia’s
heavy rock music removed the notion that such music was strictly a male activity. These women
who were in such stark contrast to the “typical” Medellín conservative and “honorable” women
were represented in the film by Mrs. Nohemi, John’s mother, Rodrigo’s sister, Mary, and Vilma.
Aside from the various themes addressed regarding the film, Gaviria’s showcasing of Medellín’s
punk and metal music for Rodrigo D created both exposure for the punk and metal scenes of the
region and the association of rockers to crime and drug use.
Rodrigo D: Showcasing Music from the Metal and Punk from “Medallo”
The soundtrack for Rodrigo D, as mentioned above, included music from Medellín’s
punk and heavy metal scene of the era, as well as homegrown material from many of the
participating actors in the movie.608 According to Gaviria, the “punk and metal bands gave us a
vision of a music world we did not know about.”609 The film incorporated very few international
hits, such as Dulce’s “Tu Muñeca” (“Your Doll”) and Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” and
instead centered on the music well-known in parches and sollis during the course of the 1980s.
The usage of Colombian punk and metal for the film created a specific mood and energy that
would not have been conveyed in the same way had Gaviria decided to use salsa or merengue.
607
608
Rodrigo D. No Futuro Soundtrack. Madman Productions, 2007.
609
Bernal Jiménez, Rodrigo D: No Futuro Historias Recobradas, 28.
181
The end of the 1980s, as noted, was an intense moment in which the comunas were one
of several points of contention among drug lords, the local authorities, small bands of
delinquents, and displaced individuals looking to survive in the “big city.” The aggression of the
metal and punk that was produced locally spoke to the horrors lived by those residing in and out
of the low-income neighborhoods. With the exception of tango music heard briefly in a scene at
a pool hall, Gaviria made certain that the majority of the scenes, especially when Rodrigo
appeared on screen, played a Colombian punk or metal band in the background. The reason the
music was even in the film, as film star Ramiro Meneses mentioned, was because it was
important to the lives of many of the movie’s characters, especially considering that punk and
metal “was part of [their] life.”610 According to Meneses, it would have been much more
embarrassing for the movie to incorporate salsa, for instance, when Rodrigo or another character
was coming on screen.611 For characters such as “El Alacrán,” many of the punks in the film
were listening to Spanish punk rock.
The music we used to listen to while the film was being done in 1986 was
[Spanish punk band] “Siniestro Total.” Then came the “Sex Pistols” and
“Plasmatic[s]” and then even more punk [music] with someone whose head was
shaved and had earrings and all kinds of accessories. We had a band that was
called “Los penes erectos” [“the erect penises”]. We would go to a punk hangout
and we would put on metal or rock and we would break the sound system. 612
The groups that were included in the soundtrack were Medellín punk bands Pestes,
Mutantex, PeNe, Mierda, and Amen; the metal bands included in the soundtrack were Ekrion,
Agresor, Profanación, Dexkoncierto, Blasfemia, and Nekromantie. From the very beginning of
the film, heavy rock music set the tone for the film with a snippet from Agressor’s song
610
“Ramiro Menses 2 de 2 (baterista y voz Mutantex),” You Tube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwluMcN-
8VI&feature=relmfu, accessed 22 April 2010.
611
“Ramiro Menses 2 de 2 (baterista y voz Mutantex),” You Tube.
612
Bernal Jiménez, Rodrigo D: No Futuro Historias Recobradas, 61.
182
“Poseido” (“Possessed”), whose lyrics told about an individual’s bodily possession that drove
them to kill without remorse or mercy.613
Transformaciones y mutaciones se presenta en mi cuerpo, Transformations and mutations are in my body,

Creando un caos de horror maléfico, Creating a chaos of evil horror,
La sangre se regó y luego mis sesos, inmudicia de mi cuerpo Blood was spilled and then my brain and filth
from my body,
Gritos de muerte desatan mi mente, Death cries unleash my mind,
Posesiones infernales a mi alma la atraen. My soul attracts infernal possessions.
La metamorfosis desgarra mi carne, The metamorphosis tears my flesh,

Escupo babaza, la muerte me amenaza, I spit slime, death threatens me,
La transformación posesiona mi alma, The transformation possesses my soul
Convertido en el engendro asesino a todo sin dar, Becoming the monster murderer of everything
without giving,
Misericordia!!! Mercy!!!
Las fuerzas se desarrollan, mi mirada en tiniebla, The forces grow, my sight in darkness,
Mantos se convierten en mi arma mortal, Mantles become my lethal weapon,
Matar casi un placer necrofilico me da, Killing is almost a necrophilia pleasure.
¡Oh que tormento en el que vivo yo! What torment in which I live in!
¡El exorcismo! Oh!! The exorcism! Oh!!
La transformación posesiona mi carne, The transformation possesses my flesh,

Convertido en el egendro asesino, a todo sin dar, Becoming the monster murderer of everything
without giving
¡Misericordia! Mercy!!!
Cuernos de mi cráneo, brotan, Horns from my cranium, sprout,

Algunos dientes, mis labios se cortan Some teeth, my lips are cut,
Mi piel se convierte en hueso, My skin turns into bone,
Mi autocontrol se ha perdido. My self-control is gone.
¡Estoy poseido! I am possessed!

La transformación posesiona mi carne The transformation possesses my flesh,
Convertido en el engendro asesino a todo sin dar, Becoming the monster murderer of everything
without giving,
Misericordia!! Mercy!!!
The use of the song “Poseido” in the beginning of the film conveyed more than just a song about
an individual fantasizing and/or believing they were possessed and did not have control over
themselves, such that they were driven to commit heinous murders. Was this possession
demonic? Was the possession welcomed by the person? Was killing the only way to escape
possession? Although the song referred to the transformation of an individual’s body and soul,
613
“Poseido” in Rodrigo D. No Futuro Soundtrack. Madman Productions, 2007. Lyrics found in “RODRIGO D. NO FUTURO
POSEIDO (AGRESSOR) LYRICS,” lyrics78.com, http://www.lyrics78.com/RODRIGO-D.-NO-FUTURO-POSEIDO-
(AGRESSOR)-LYRICS/103125/, accessed 24 April 2012. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
183
the song’s production—albeit not explicitly—could not divorce itself from the environment in
which it was produced: the multiple and irrational merciless deaths and killings taking place in
late 20th century Medellín and other parts of the nation. In the song, the manto or blanket to
cover a corpse served as a “lethal weapon” for the individual to carry out killing. The
soundtrack also included songs that were heard throughout the course of the film such as
“Dinero,” “Sin Reacción,” “No Te Desanimes, Mátate,” and “No Más Clases.”
The song “Dinero” explained how money was a tool used by the system to turn people
against each other, ultimately leaving them worrying about money and buying into desiring it at
any cost.614
Caminado por las calles Going through the streets,

Sin saber a donde voy Without knowing where I’m going.
Sin angustias ni problemas Without worries, or problems,
Libre del sistema estoy I am free from the system.
El sistema nos da hienas The system gives us hyenas,

Que nos quieren consumer It wants to consume us.
Con promesas con dinero With promises and with money,
De ambición nos llenarás With ambition you will fill us.
Dinero! Angustias! Money! Anguish!

Dinero! Problemas! Money! Problems!
Dinero! Sistema! Money! The System!
Nuestro dios es el dinero, Our god is money,

Y sin el el hambre está, And without it hunger remains,
Cuanta gente se asesinan How many people are killed
Sin poderlo disfrutar Without being able to enjoy it,
Lo deseas lo acaricias You desire it you caress it,

El sistemas lo ha creado, The system has created it,
Y tu lo conservarás You will preserve it.

Somos fruto del sistema We are the fruit of the system,

Que se quiere reveler, That wants to reveal itself,
Y mostrarle a todo el mundo And show the entire world,
Cual es nuestra realidad. What our reality is.

614
“Dinero,” Rodrigo D. No Futuro Soundtrack. “Dinero,” LyricsVIP, http://www.lyricsvip.com/Pestes/Dinero-Lyrics.html,
accessed 25 April 2012. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
184
The song first appeared after Rodrigo’s conversation with a barrio friend who wondered why
Rodrigo had not visited him. Rodrigo explained that he had terrible headaches and that the pain
did not let him work, to which his friend told him that it was a matter of Rodrigo trying harder.
Rodrigo responded that it was not about ánimo or “getting psyched up.”615 As Rodrigo walked
through the barrio, the song played in the film and provided reasons as to why he supposedly
did not have ánimo: Dinero! Angustias! Dinero! Problemas! Dinero! Sistema! Rodrigo was not
motivated to work, go to school, or do anything that did not free him from being forced to take
part in the system. His outlet and means of expression not being employed, not having money,
and dealing with stress and other personal issues was heavy rock music.
While “Dinero” spoke about the inherent evil and greed in the desire for money, “Sin
Reacción,” a song loosely resembling the Sex Pistols’ cover of “My Way,” discussed an
individual’s desperation in no longer being able to “calm” oneself down with any vice.616
Como me calmo yo, How can I calm myself,

Todo rechazo. I reject everything.
Ya no consigo más satisfacción, I no longer get any satisfaction.

Ya ni con drogas, ni con alchol, Not even with drugs or alcohol,
Ya no consigo ninguna reacción. I can’t find any reaction.
Como me calmo yo, How can I calm myself,

Todo rechazo. I can’t get any reaction.
Ya no consigo más satisfacción I no longer get any satisfaction.

Oh, no, no, no! Oh no no no!
Como me calmo yo, How can I calm myself

Todo rechazo. I reject everything.
Ya no consigo más satisfacción I no longer get any satisfaction.

Oh no, no no! Oh no no no!
615
616
“Sin Reacción,” Rodrigo D: No Futuro Soundtrack. “Letra Sin Reacción de Mutantex,” Album Canción y letra,
http://www.albumcancionyletra.com/sin-reaccion_de_mutantex___211534.aspx, accessed 24 April 2012.
185
Picture 4-3: Rodrigo’s opportunity to share his angst through heavy rock music.617
The individual in “Sin Reacción” tried to search for another way to want to feel alive but was
unsuccessful since not even alcohol could help produce any type of “reaction.” Although
reminiscent of the Rolling Stone’s hit “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Sin Reacción” differed
from the Stones’ inspiration in that Colombia’s youth were desensitized not only by
commercialism, but also because of the sociopolitical climate and the status quo of the time
period. This song, as well as “Dinero” and “No Te Desanimes, Mátate,”618 reflected Gaviria’s
film theme where youths believed they indeed had no futuro (no future). “Don’t get
617
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3tKfU1_G00&feature=relmfu, accessed 24 April 2012.
618
“No te desanimes, mátate,” Rodrigo D: No Futuro Soundtrack.
186
discouraged, kill yourself,” which appeared in one of the last scenes right before Rodrigo leaped
out of the high-rise building, justified why it would be okay to commit suicide.619
La reacción te espera The reaction awaits you

Y todo te desespera, And everything makes you anxious
Te hechan del trabajo, sales del carril They fire you from work, you get off track,
Ya tienes el cancer que te da la vida, You now have life’s cancer,
Te cantan los tombos: Pobre Porquería. The cops sing to you: Poor Trash.
Toma mi consejo y hallarás salida Take my advice and you’ll find an exit,
No te desanimes mátate Don’t get discouraged, kill yourself
No te desanimes mátate! Don’t get discouraged, kill yourself
La vida es irónica, nada te reserva. Life is ironic, it saves you nothing

Tu nena tan puta con otro se acuesta Your slutty girl sleeps with someone else,
Te muerde un gran perro se infecta la herida. You get an infection from a large dog’s bite,
Motilan tu vida pobre porqueria. They cut your poor trash life,
Ya aguantaste estop or toda una vida. And you put up with it for an entire life.
Recibe el consejo de un gran genocida Take my advice from someone genocidal

No te desanimes Don’t get discouraged
Mátate mi amigo, mátate Kill yourself my friend, kill yourself

Rodrigo, staring into the busy Medellín metropolis from the 20th floor, hit his head against the
window, as “No Te Desanimes, Mátate” plays in the background. He eventually decided to dive
into the urban environment that he detested, the space that did not provide him with any hope or
a chance at a bright future. Suicide was a very cowardly act. Rodrigo left behind family and
friends. On the other hand, just as John’s death was applauded by a mourner who felt John had
done the right thing in dying, Rodrigo left his family and friends to continue suffering in the city.
Rodrigo did not have to suffer anymore, either in the comunas or as a bystander and victim of
Medellín’s violence. Rodrigo did not want to deal with living in a city which he felt could give
619
“Letra No Te Desanimes de Mutantex,” Album Canción y letra, http://www.albumcancionyletra.com/no-te-
desanimes_de_mutantex___262241.aspx, accessed 24 April 2012. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
187
him nothing. Another song that Gaviria interjected in the film was Pe-Ne’s “No Más Clases,” a
song rejecting education and student commitment to schooling.620
No debes meterte a los libros, You shouldn’t dedicate yourself to studying,

hay que dejarlos en el olvido, you have to forget about them,
los profes dizque enseñando, the teachers supposedly teaching
y ahora no les están pagando. and now they aren’t paying them.
No más clases! No more classes!

Tengo un nudo en la cabeza I have a knot in my head,

Que no sirve para nada, That’s good for nothing,
Para mañana hay más tareas, For tomorrow there’s more homework,
Si no voy a ser capaz de hacerlas. I won’t be able to do it.

Cinco años llevo a la primaria I have five years in elementary school,

Otro año en la secundaria, another year in high school,
Cinco más en la universidad, Five more in the university,
Y listo para salir a vagar. And ready to go out and hang out.

For the film, “No Más Clases” is played live while a group of 15-17 year olds slam dance
and others watch the performance. Youths, who were supposed to be in school, preferred
rocking out to being “overwhelmed” with homework, having to wake up early, working late at
night, and not spending years in an education system that benefitted neither teachers nor
students. The pogo was an outlet, as mentioned in Chapter 3, for Colombian teens to release
their angst and anxieties. Gaviria’s decision to show a parche incorporating the pogo, live
music, and its participants gave viewers a sample of the local punk scene. Also presented in the
film was music directed towards critiquing public authorities.
One particular performance in the film expressed the attitude of Medellín rockers during
this time period. The solo drum performance by ex-Parabellum drummer Cipriano expressed his
view regarding the local authorities.621

620
“No mas Clases,” Rodrigo D: No Futuro Soundtrack. “No Mas Clases Lyrics Pe-Ne,” LyricsVIP,
http://www.lyricsvip.com/Pe---Ne/No-Mas-Clases-Lyrics.html, accessed 25 April 2012.
188
¡Cerdo Policia! Pig Police!
¡Policia Hijueputa! Son of a Bitch Police!
¡Policia Hijueputa! Son of a Bitch Police!

¡Cerdo Político! Pig Politician!
¡Cerdo Narcotraficante! Pig Drug Dealer!
¡Cerda Sociedad! Pig Society!
¡Hijo de Puta! Son of a Bitch!

This song captured the ill-associations among the police, politicians, and drug lords who,
he felt, were the ones terrorizing the country. This was a daring scene to incorporate in the film,
considering that the late 1980s was a tense period in which publishing the “wrong idea” could
mark an individual for death. Cipriano’s performance echoed some of the frustration by punkers
and metalheads who, on many occasions, experienced some form of police abuse: harassment,
beatings, and unjustified incarcerations. The “pig society” was Cipriano’s way of saying that
society was also guilty because it condoned and aided the crooked politicians and police by
continuing to vote for them and hold them in high esteem. The song was also a critique of those
in power who kept the nation’s wealth concentrated in the hands of the few. Another key
element captured by Gaviria in the local heavy rock music scenes was the clothing style. Another
facet of the metal and punk community of Medellín that Gaviria showed in the film was the
available instrumentation for musicians with limited resources.
Rodrigo D: Showcasing Other Facets of the Metal and Punk Culture in “Medallo”
Affording instruments, as mentioned in the previous chapter, was something that many of
the youths or their families could not do. The film showcased performances by Mutantex, Pe-
Ne, No, and Blasfemia, bands that were part of a growing scene but, for the most part, could not
621
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, 1:06:15 -1:07:11. “Cipriano,” “Puta Policia,” 1990.
189
afford expensive instruments. Gaviria captured the “do-it-yourself” inventive nature of many of
the punkers and metalheads in Medellín of the era. In one scene, Rodrigo visited the local
carpenter shop to see if there was someone who could make him drumsticks at an affordable
price. Gaviria does not take Rodrigo to the downtown music store to buy drumsticks, which
would more than likely have been too expensive for Rodrigo. Rodrigo could not make his own
drumsticks and depended on the local talent to help him one step closer to reaching his goal:
becoming a punk rock drummer. In another scene, while Rodrigo and his friend walked together
to meet up with Rodrigo’s younger brother, Rodrigo mentioned that he wanted to build his own
drum set using cowhide.622 Rodrigo’s attempt to do-it-himself was parallel to the experience of
Posguerra’s drummer Jhony Rivera.623 Rodrigo’s unsuccessful search for an inexpensive drum
set did not prevent him from practicing on his friend’s kit to play “Ramera del Barrio.”
Furthermore, the same equipment (e.g., guitars, drums, and microphones) was shared between
bands Pe-Ne and No. Was this just convenient for filming? Again, it was not rare for bands to
share music equipment considering both availability of instruments and prices. Rodrigo D
provides viewers with typical clothing styles used by Medellín punkers and metalheads of the
time period.
Some of the roquer@ clothing visible in the movie included fit blue jeans, boots or tennis
shoes (Chuck Taylor’s), a homemade punk or metal t-shirt, dark sunglasses, jean jackets, leather
jackets with spikes and pins, and varying hair length for men. Rodrigo’s own wardrobe did not
veer away from a t-shirt, jeans, and tennis shoes. Other characters, such as Alacrán, wore boots,
tight pants, a biker jacket, and an earring. Both Vicky and Piedad Castro wore black band t-
shirts, jeans, and tennis shoes—clothes that, as mentioned in Chapter 2, challenged gender norms
622
623
Jhony Rivera Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
190
in Colombian society. In another scene, Rodrigo’s run-in with his friend, Cesar, at the carpentry
shop showed viewers a young man wearing a t-shirt with a swastika, a mohawk haircut, and a
chain used for a belt. The usage of the swastika in the Medellín punk rock culture spoke to the
appropriation of the symbol itself. Similarly to the appropriation of the swastika by Siouxie from
Siouxie and the Banshees and other rock bands, the character wearing the swastika was not
necessarily a supporter of the Third Reich. As Sex Pistol’s Johnny Rotten explained, he wore the
symbol to get “an older generation to make room for younger voices.”624 In Visión Rockera, the
swastika was identified as having “a varied meaning.”625
Its significance is very varied, rejection or insult[ing] because [of its] impact and
many people dislike [its usage] and [we] enjoy [such reactions]; others [define the
swastika] as a past reality that meant death, racism, charisma, and the desire for
power and domination.
Whether or not the swastika was appropriate to use, roquer@s felt appropriating the symbol was
an act of rebellion. Was Cesar wearing the symbol for shock value? It was more than likely that
he was wearing it to be a rebel with a cause. Apart from demonstrating the heavy rock music
style, Rodrigo D also captured the friction and discrimination between metalheads and punkers
during the time period.
When Rodrigo arrived at the home of the young man selling the drum kit, he was greeted
by another person wearing a white, cut-off t-shirt with a red pentagram on it. Rodrigo explained
to the young man that he needed drums to start a punk rock band and that he heard Olimpo was
selling his set. The young man responded by saying that Olimpo would only sell the drum set to
a metalhead because “you know punkers are a bunch of good for nothings.”626 After the young
man excused himself to continue watching cartoons, he closed the door, and Rodrigo, angered at
624
“Punk the Swastika and desire to shock. Part 2” in www.punk77.co.uk accessed 25 April 2012
http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/punkthepart2.htm.
625
“Punk La Nueva Fuerza,” Vision Rockera, Julio 1987 no. 6, 2.
626
191
such discrimination, spat on the front door before going back home. This scene captured the
tensions between the punk rock and metal community of the late 1980s. As mentioned
previously, the difference between punkers and metalheads had more to do with musical
tendencies than real class differences. Although Gaviria successfully showed key elements of
the local metal and punk scenes, there were a few moments in the movie that sparked
controversy over the heavy rock music scenes’ representation.
Rodrigo D: Misrepresentation of the Metal and Punk Community?
Was Rodrigo D an adequate representation of the metal and punk scenes of Medellín?
According to Ramiro Meneses, he believed that it was not true that the “film used the music to
speak further of the violence or that the music was intentionally utilized in the film.”627 Meneses
mentioned that no one stipulated that punk or metal had to be used in order for the movie to be
more violent. If Meneses’ assertions were correct, then the music was incorporated out of
coincidence; however, this was not the case.
As mentioned above, Gaviria was aware of the actors’ lifestyle, and he knew the
importance of punk and metal in the youth’s lives. The correlation between pistolocos (“pistol
crazies”), sicarios (“hired assassins”), drug dealers, and thieves with punkers and metalheads
was evident throughout different parts of the movie. From the beginning of the film,
associations were made when one of Rodrigo’s friends tried to sell him a copy of “old school”
punk rock on cassette while also checking out a nice looking motorcycle to perhaps steal.
Rodrigo’s friend told him that he wished he had a gun to take the bike from the owner.628
627
“Ramiro Menses 1 de 2 (baterista y voz Mutantex),” Youtube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQXMVD_WKnU&feature=related, accessed 22 April 2010.
628
192
In another scene, when Adolfo and a hired hand headed out to steal a motorcycle at
gunpoint, the music in the background was heavy rock music.629 In the scene where Ramón
looked for his schoolyard drug pushers, and when Rodrigo kicked the schoolchildren’s ball clear
over the school fence, the background music was punk rock. Though not specifically stated,
Rodrigo’s intolerance and Ramón’s business deals could be construed as being part of the punk
rock ethic.630 In another part of the film, with punk rock music playing in the background,
Rodrigo rode with the punker delinquents to an abandoned finca (countryside home) to hang out
for the day.631 In this outdoor hangout, while Rodrigo plays air drums with his drumsticks, the
other members of the crew challenge each other to a knife fight. Still, in another scene, two of
Adolfo’s punk henchmen, with heavy rock music playing in the background, stole a vehicle and
smoked a joint in celebration, while saying “How punk!”632
In another scene, where a motorcycle was about to be stolen, metal music played in the
background.633 When the police arrived to the barrio to find Ramón, metal music in the
background played as Ramón fled the scene.634 In a different part of the film, Adolfo and his
friends were slam dancing, listening to punk rock, and drinking hard liquor when Adolfo pulled
out his hand gun and told his buddies that he had an urge to use it.635 In the final scene, heavy
rock music played when Rodrigo committed suicide and Adolfo shot and killed Ramón.
Although one could argue that incorporating metal and punk music added suspense to Gaviria’s
scenes, those involved in criminal activities and playing the role of pistolocos and drug dealers
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
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were, on and off camera, punk and metal fanatics. Did this mean no one in the punk or metal
community participated in illicit business?
For many of the punkers and metalheads in Colombia, working for drug traffickers for a
good amount of money proved to be an excellent option. The documentary “Mas Allá del No
Futuro” (“Beyond the No Future”) interviewed Medellín punkers who admitted that the
opportunities for engaging in illicit activities and being immediately well-off were always
there.636 However, “[t]here were not many choices back in the ‘80s” that would lead to having a
good job, equal opportunity, a high quality education.”637 However, asserted a punker reflecting
on the time period, “We didn’t buy the way of the gun,” but rather “we created an alternative
without even knowing it, and we were just surviving and having fun.”638 One punker who
became a sicario admitted that “[killing and dealing drugs] was a way to make money” though
“music was first but if they got an offer then sure why not?”639 Another punk stated that money
was unimportant, while yet another street punker stated that he “never liked working for the
mob” and that he “never liked terrorism or killing people for money.”640
A punk rocker interviewed confessed turning down an lucrative offer by the drug
henchmen in exchange for every cop she was supposed to kill.641 Apparently the draw to being a
sicario was having “just material values” like “[h]aving money cars, expensive things,” the “best
drinks, going to the expensive places.”642 Was Victor Gaviria completely wrong in correlating
the music with criminal activities in the film, intentional or not?
636
Mas Allá del No Futuro, Jose J. Posada M., dir. A Wide Perspective Production, 2009.
637
Mas Allá del No Futuro.
638
639
640
641
“Punk rocker” Personal Interview 15 June 2009.
642
194
As one paisa punker commented, about 60% of the punks that he knew turned to serving
the drug cartel.643 There were Medellín punks and metalheads who worked as sicarios.
However, not all metalheads and punkers were working as hired assassins. The film’s major
shortcoming was that there was an implied—if not direct—correlation among sicariato, drug
trafficking, depression, angst, destruction, drug consumption, and apathy that was expressed by
the heavy rock music scene of Medellín. For punks like Vicky Castro, Piedad Castro, Monica
Moreno, David Viola, and Soto, the film helped stereotype the heavy rock music scene.
Especially for former cast members Vicky and Piedad, contrary to what Ramiro Meneses stated,
Rodrigo D: No Futuro was not at all what they expected.644
Neither the Castro sisters nor other cast members who were part of the heavy metal and
punk rock scenes could believe what they were watching on screen when they saw the movie for
the first time. According to Piedad and Vicky Castro, Gaviria was doing “a film about the heavy
rock scene of Medellín,” and not a film about sicarios, violence, and drug dealing. Both Monica
and Viola asserted that “there were no punks who were sicarios.”645 Furthermore, they
mentioned that although “Rodrigo D. No Futuro mixed common delinquency with the music”646
and that “the movie had a very punk name, its theme did not help the music scene because
everyone who saw [the film came to believe] all punks were bandits.”647 Though Viola refused
to participate in Rodrigo D, he could not believe the associations that Gaviria was making with
the metal and rock scenes in Medellín.
Like the Castro sisters, Viola and Monica were extremely disturbed when Gaviria simply
refused to talk to them when they asked him about the film. Soto also believed that the film
643
644
Vicky and Piedad Castro Personal Interview 20 June 2009.
645
Monica and Viola Personal Interview 10 June 2009.
646
David Viola I.R.A. punk: La Antileyenda, 28.
647
David Viola I.R.A. punk: La Antileyenda.
195
made particular associations among the illicit drug business, assassinations, and heavy rock
music that concretized a new stereotype for the heavy music scene to battle against: sicario
punquero/sicario metalero.648 Rodrigo D was also a topic of discussion in the heavy rock
fanzine Nueva Fuerza.
The film was shown in various places where it was supposedly to show some
features of the Punks and Metaleros from Medellín in which a few well-known
dudes and some women participated. This film was made a few years ago which
makes it a bit outdated. However, it tries to show the general public
characteristics and styles of the Punk and Metaleros from Medellín. And this is
where the film producers make the grave mistake of MIXING our environment
with a group dedicated to everything except listening and feeling the music.
[Doing so] hopelessly begins an association, for those watching the movie,
between the Punk and Metal scene with hired assassin scene.649
For many of the punkers and metalheads of Medellín and other parts of Bogotá, Rodrigo D
misrepresented their respective music scenes. Vicente mentioned that the film’s premiering in
the nation’s capital further reinforced the idea that “rocker” not only equated “vagrant,” but now
it also meant “criminal” and “assassin.”650 The association of heavy rockers to some form of
delinquency was nothing new considering such association was captured by El Colombiano
periodical
In the caption entitled “Dangerous Corner” (see Picture 4-4), the periodical mentioned
how the authorities should do something about the punkers who sniff sacol (hardware glue),
“assault people who don’t give them money,” and who are “aggressive because they feel
different.”651 The film’s association of delinquency to the punk and heavy metal movement
would not be a shocking revelation to Colombians, considering the media reports presented on
the scenes were condemnatory. In an article discussing the history of heavy metal, the author
648
Soto, Personal Interview 12 June 2009.
649
“Rodrigo D. No Futuro” in Nueva Fuerza November 1989, no.3, 11.
650
651
“Esquina Peligrosa,” El Colombiano.
196
Picture 4-4: The media invading and mischaracterizing el parche punk.652
mentioned how heavy metal bands employed “chicken choking” into their act and commented
that Colombia “was not saved from this [musical tendency]” and Rodrigo D showed “the direct
relationship” between the music and the hired assassins.”653 Although portrayals of punkers and
metalheads in Colombian television, such as in Sábados Felices,654 Don Chinche,655 or game
show El Programa del Millón,656 had been comical if not playful, such depictions shifted during
the nation’s bloody drug wars. For other individuals, people needed to watch the film before
harshly criticizing Gaviria’s work.
652
“Esquina Peligrosa,” El Colombiano, May 23, 1989, 8d.
653
“Tendencias Domingo,” El Tiempo, July 14, 1991, 3d.
654
“Historia de la televisión colombiana: Humor y comedia 2,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-
aM6PIXFfU&feature=related, accessed 10 July 2008.
655
“DON CHINCHE,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g9F-_OZ5dU&feature=related, 10 June 2008.
656
“RECORDANDO A: EL PROGRAMA DEL MILLON (1986),” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIRij0cUJ54,
accessed 16 February 2011.
197
According to journalist Luis Alberto Alvarez, there were many “misunderstandings
taking place” with Gaviria’s film.657 He stated that there were those “who absurdly [spoke] of
profiting over other’s misery and those taking advantage of news material of Medellín,” and that
those people should watch the film first before asserting an opinion.658 There was no question
that each person drew his or her own conclusions about the film. The most significant testimony
to the immediate effect of this film was the tragic death of some of the film’s protagonists.
Before the film proceeds to the credits, a short memoriam read:
The film is dedicated to the memory of John Galvis, Jackson Gallegos, Leonardo
Sanchez, and Francisco Marin, actors in this film, who died in the absurd violence
of Medellín before they were 20 years old. So that at least their images might live
the life span of a normal person.659
It was not known, but only rumored, that the deceased participants were also real life sicarios
who were murdered in Medellín. What was known following the film was that there were
changes in friendships between some of those who participated in the movie.660 According to
Wilson, who played Alacrán in Rodrigo D, splits between friends and coworkers occurred
“because some of the old friends joined other [parches]” and even though they may have been
friends before, now “old friends [didn’t] give a shit about killing [each other]” because joining
new hangouts translated for some into urban turf wars between radical parches.661
Mario Restrepo, known as Adolfo in the film, admitted that friendships were lost because
he could not trust anyone if you went with them to take part in a heist.662 He believed that
money became worth more than your parceros or buddies. Despite the breaks in friendships
657
Colombiano.
658
Colombiano.
659
Rodrigo D: No Futuro.
660
“yo te tumbo tu me tumbas 1989,” You Tube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2r8Y5XtAEg,.accessed 22 April 2010.
661
“yo te tumbo tu me tumbas 1989,” You Tube.
662
“yo te tumbo tu me tumbas 1989,” You Tube.
198
between certain actors following the film’s production, the punk and heavy metal communities
had to figure out how to dodge becoming targets and victims of the growing violence in
Medellín. Such maneuvering would prove to be no easy task for a heavy metal and punk rock
community searching to survive during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Conclusion
Rodrigo D: No Futuro, an important part of Colombian cinematographic history, served
as a crucial movie to communicate to Colombians (and the entire world) the challenges in living
in Colombian society during the late 1980s. Victor Gaviria’s first full-length feature film, a
movie that was welcomed to compete in the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, captured the violence,
drug trafficking, disorder, sexism, and underground music cultures prevalent in Colombian
society during this tumultuous time period. Gaviria’s Rodrigo D, on one hand, was in response
to the social inequalities, relative lack of opportunities for its youth, injustices, and corrupt
practices that were rampant in Colombian politics and society. The film also unveiled an
underground culture that was otherwise relegated as non-existent in Medellín and Colombian
society: the punk and heavy metal scene.
Although the heavy rock music scene received cinematographic exposure, appearing on
camera did not exactly mean being adequately represented. In fact, although the movie’s star,
Ramiro Meneses, asserted that the film had little to do with how the music ought to have been
perceived, other members of the scene strongly disagreed. Members of the scene, such as the
Castro sisters, David Viola, and others, expressed their dissatisfaction with the film’s
representation of the metal and punk scene. The association of the pistolocos and sicarismo with
the heavy rock music genre was, according to certain scene members, evident in the film. The
old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” certainly applied in closely observing the
199
different facets in this movie. Regardless, the reality was that punkers and metalheads were
associated with violent criminal acts. Such ill-association, the topic of the next chapter, led to
the persecution and continuing harassment of Colombia’s heavy metal and punk rock
community.
200
CHAPTER 5
El País Podrido (The Rotten Nation) 663
“When a society does not give hope to its youth, that society does not have hope
for itself.”
Liberal Party Candidate Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento664
“Sometimes I feel like God . . . when I order someone killed—they die that same
day.”
Drug Baron Pablo Escobar665
“[The music] is another way of providing testimony . . . In my opinion . . . they

provide a testimonial closer to the reality [of the violence] than the [documented]
history itself. Because the [documented] history goes through many filters and
when the history is put together, what happens is that it becomes distorted.
Instead, these youths are authentic and they tell it in their [own way] . . . through
their [artistic] expression [especially since] it’s a natural language for them.”
Journalist Luis Alirio Calle666
“Hunger, misery/ South American reality/ Massacres, killings/Daily household

news”
“Decadencia” by Masacre667
By the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, metaler@s and punquer@s, as
well as the rest of Colombian society, witnessed a high number of deaths attributed to the rise of
“drug trafficking, the growth of guerrilla groups, the rise of social cleansing groups, and the birth
of paramilitary organizations.”668 Bogotá and Medellín, as well as other parts of the nation, were
transformed by the day-to-day violence, into rotting cities. Although this time period will be
remembered in Colombia for its achievements in sports, this moment in the nation’s history will
663
My use of “EL País Podrido” as part of the title for this chapter was a based on Colombian punk rock compilation La Ciudad
Podrida (The Rotten City), which referenced the city of Medellín during the late 1980s and early 1990s. La Ciudad Podrida
Volumen I. Medellín, 1990.
664
“Luis Carlos Galan Vive!,” Taringa-inteligencia collective, accessed http://www.taringa.net/posts/apuntes-y-
monografias/14530670/Luis-Carlos-Galan-Vive_.html, 29 April 2012.
665
“Pablo Escobar: Poet-thug of Colombia?,” William C. Rempel, http://williamrempel.com/2011/pablo-escobar-poet-thug-of-
colombia/, accessed 29 April 2012.
666
Luis Alirio Calle interviewed in Masacre: Más Allá del Dolor. Claudia Arango and Andrés Giraldo. dirs. Post-Producción 390
TV, 2011.
667
“Decadencia” in Masacre, Ola de Violencia, EP Medellín, 1991.
668
Pablo Casas Dupuy and Paola González Cepero, Políticas de Seguridad y Reducción del Homicidio en Bogotá: Mito y
Realidad (Bogotá: Fundación Seguridad y Democracia, 2005), 4.
201
also be remembered by the urban warfare carried about by Pablo Escobar. The most notorious
and most heinous acts of violence committed by “el Patrón” (“the Boss”)669 prompted President
Virgílio Barco to declare an all-out war against Colombia’s drug cartels, since there was no
doubt in the president’s mind that those responsible for Galán’s death were members of the
nation’s cartel.670 Ironically, El Colombiano reported that the most violent nation in the world
watched the most violent films in theater.671 For the metalheads and punkers who were caught in
the middle of all the violence of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the challenge was no longer just
playing music live or getting together at parches or sollis.
In the midst of such violence, punkers and metalheads renegotiated their relationship to a
country that shed more blood and buried more dead since the La Violencia period. In Medellín,
metal and punk spaces were challenged by assassinations, massacres, disappearances, and further
displacements caused by cartel violence, threatening any chance or possibility of a secure future
for rockers and all Colombian youths. Meanwhile, in Bogotá, the cartel violence of the late
1980s and early 1990s threatened the political epicenter, also creating a living nightmare for
journalists, police officers, and justices. This time period left youths and other Colombians
contemplating whether or not there would ever be a bright future in the nation or if it was even
worth living in there anymore. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the previous chapter,
exacerbating the violence were some roquer@ youths who found working as an assassin for the
drug lords to be a very lucrative opportunity.
669
Pablo Escobar masterminded the assassination of Congressman Rodrigo Lara Bonilla in 1984, Liberal Party Presidential
Candidate Luis Carlos Galán in 1989, as well as ordering the indiscriminate killing of armed officials, critical newspaper writers,
and the bombing of key government buildings.
670
Virgílio Barco spoke at the United Nations and discussed the “crude reality of the war against drug trafficking.” Virgilio
Barco, “Discurso del Presidente Virgílio Barco a la 44 Asamblea de las Naciones Unidas,” Colombia Internacional, no. 8,
October-December 1989, 32-37.
671
Francisca Ramírez “Cine Violento: El más visto en nuestro país,” Cultural, El Colombiano, January 23, 1988, 5b.
202
Although some of them, albeit a minority, became sicarios for drug lords seeking to
eliminate any opposition, other roquer@s avoided participating in the violence. This chapter
looks at reflections on the nation’s violence by metalheads and punkers who avoided taking part
in the violence and those who found other avenues of expression against it. The “no futuro”
ethos expressed vividly in Rodrigo D: No Futuro was not shared by many heavy metal and punk
scene members who knew that apathy and surrendering to the violence and destruction of
Medellín and Bogotá meant an end to the nation’s youth, its culture, and scenes arduously fought
for during the 1980s. The violence that Colombian teens faced stemmed from other sources that
also included the local authorities.
Although heavy rock music scene members tried to steer clear of police harassment,
those in Medellín—more so than in Bogotá—were also at risk of losing their lives to the region’s
paramilitaries seeking to rid the antioqueño city of “undesirables.” Included in the list of
undesirables, apart from street children, prostitutes, and vagrants were metalheads and punkers.
This chapter discusses the paramilitary project “Amor Por Medellín” (“Love for Medellín”), and
also sheds light on arenas where punks and metalheads continued celebrating their music while
attempting to avoid the growing violence in the region. This chapter also looks at bands that
adopted a much darker and heavier metal subgenre known as Death Metal, and others who took
on a more aggressive metal-punk blend style called Hardcore. Such music subgenres allowed
roquer@s to express themselves in response to the atrocities occurring in Colombia. The chapter
provides samples of the music produced during this time period, and it argues that its production
was a necessary means of catharsis in dealing with Colombia’s seemingly unstoppable violence.
The alliance between metaler@s and punquer@s created a front against death: car bombs, drug
203
lords, assassination plots, crooked cops, and anyone or anything attempting to erase them from
Colombian society or from preventing them from reaching a bright future.
Colombia’s Drug Cartels: Source of Violence and Economic Opportunity for Roquer@s?
Sociologist Johan Galtung defined “cultural violence” as those “aspects of culture, the
symbolic sphere of our existence—exemplified by religion and ideology, language and art,
empirical science (logic, mathematics)—that can be used to justify or legitimize direct or
structural violence.”672 Colombian anthropologist María Victoria Uribe asserted that violence in
Colombia did not “follow linguistic, religious, or ethnic lines of difference.”673 Rather, Uribe
explained, the most important things sparking violence in the nation were the “slightest
disparit[ies] between persons.”674 The violence of the late 20th century in Colombia went beyond
the violence perpetrated by the national government and that produced by countryside guerrillas
and paramilitaries. In a survey taken by El Colombiano in the late 1980s, approximately 50% of
the youth were sure that the violence would only escalate.675 The bloodshed during this time
period came from multiple sides, creating what sociologist Peter Waldmann noted as violence in
Colombia through “massacres” and “sicarios.”676 While massacres “spread terror and [were] a
form of show of strength,” contracted killers “[offered] violence as a service for sale.”677 In cities
such as Medellín, nicknamed by locals as “Medallo” or “Medallion,” the day-to-day massacres
prompted a new nickname for the antioqueño city: “Metrallo” or “Machine Gun.” Alex
Oquendo recalled his experience with the terror during this time.
672
Johan Galtung, “Cultural Violence,” Journal of Peace Research, vol. 27, no.3, 1990, 291.
673
María Victoria Uribe, “Dismembering and Expelling: Semantics of Political Terror in Colombia,” Public Culture, Volume 16,
Number 1, Winter 2004, 80.
674
The differences in political affiliation, in her analysis of La Violencia period and the 21st century violence between guerrillas,
paramilitaries, and the national army, were the political affiliation, created a culture of fear and death turning once neighbors into
complete “strangers.” María Victoria Uribe “Dismembering and Expelling: Semantics of Political Terror in Colombia,” Public
Culture, 80.
675
“Jóvenes pronostican violencia en el país,” El Colombiano, June 21, 1988, 8b.
676
Peter Waldmann, “Is there a Culture of Violence in Colombia?,” International Journal of Conflict and Violence, Vol. 1, no.1
2007, 68.
677
Waldmann, “Is there a Culture of Violence in Colombia?,” International Journal of Conflict and Violence.
204
Everyone who live[d] in this city in that moment remember[ed] the bombs,
remember[ed] the fear of going out in the streets, remember[ed] that if you saw a
car in the street that was old, beat up, badly parked, you had to get out of there
because it was a car bomb. There was always fear [and] I recall that in that time
you would say ‘I’m heading out somewhere’ and you had to constantly call
[home] . . . so there weren’t any cell phones…you had to constantly call . . . you
had to constantly check in . . . so that your parents wouldn’t worry . . . especially
since we were doing our thing.678
Albeiro, from punk band Care 9, sharing Oquendo’s observations, stated that during this time
period there were “killings and massacres taking place in [barrio] Bello . . . 15, 14, 16, 22 dead
daily in street corner.”679 In an interview with Peruvian Deaththrasher Magazine, Masacre
drummer Mauricio Montoya acknowledged that the violence in Colombia was attributed to
“mass assassinations” in the country and that those killings were out of the people’s control.680
The situation was so intense that Kaliche, from punk band Desadaptadoz, mentioned how
children would “kill over a pair of sneakers,” and that it was impossible to hold open-air rock
shows without the fear of becoming another victim.681 In an interview in fanzine Subterráneo
Medellín with punk band I.R.A., the band mentioned that Medellín’s situation was
Disgusting [and that] there was fear, a general distrust, and even though the
violence was [supposedly] decreasing, the fear has not. Even though it has not
been easy, here we are [alive].682
The rampant violence in Medellín was such that Jhony Rivera, Yobany Mosquera, and Andres
Nieto, from the metal band Posguerra, wondered whether or not the members from the growing
Bogotá metal music scene would even want to visit and perform in Medellín. According to
Rivera, “Not even bands from Bogotá would come to play [in Medellín].”683 Nieto added that
there were many rumors circulating in Bogotá about Medellín such as if “[anyone] were to walk
678
Alex Oquendo Personal Interview 20 May 2009.
679
“Albeiro” interviewed in Más Allá del No Futuro. Jose J. Posada. dir. A Wide Perspective Production, 2009.
680
“Masacre,” Deaththrasher, http://www.deaththrasher.com/dtinterviews/masacre1.htm, accessed 20 December 2012.
681
“Kaliche,” interviewed in Más Alla del No Futuro directed by Jose J. Posada A Wide Perspective Production, 2009.
682
“I.R.A.-Ideas D’Revolucion Adolescente,” Subterraneo Medellín, no. 5, 1990.
683
Jhony Rivera, Yobany Mosquera, and Andres Nieto Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
205
to the corner then [they’d] be killed” or that that one was certain to be killed by a car bomb.684
Were these actual rumors? The late 1980s and early 1990s in Colombia was a period where no
one in Medellín or Bogotá was safe. Ironically, despite the terror unleashed on the nation,
Rivera added that Pablo Escobar was a mastermind.
For Jhony Rivera, Escobar was a genius in “his own rollo (field).”685 He stated that the
mafioso was extremely intelligent because Escobar had total influence over the sector in
Medellín and in the sector of the city known as Envigado.
Rivera: I say this because I lived in a barrio where Pablo Escobar had influence in
every way, shape, and form . . . . In Envigado there was never a problem of
sicarios like you probably heard about in the comunas of Medellín . . . . Envigado
was always a municipality where there were los que mandan [the bosses who
called the shots] . . . .
Rivera and Nieto: . . . the office . . . (laughter) . . . the office!
Rivera: And so, in Envigado you would see the duros (the heavy hitters)
[Escobar] would roam around Envigado . . . Pablo Escobar and his “court” . . .
and so in that sense . . . one who has lived that . . . in the 1980s [and 1990s], in the
time of Pablo Escobar . . . Pablo Escobar was a king in Envigado . . . osea (in
other words) that man would go around Envigado and even the police would
protect him . . . he would go to [the Colombian] Congress, he would talk, Pablo
Escobar [here] and Pablo Escobar [there].686
Escobar was in charge and in full control of Envigado, using this sector as his base of support.
Rivera believed that the gringos were fully aware of the amount of cocaine entering the North
American territory; the only reason, he felt, that the United States had to act against Escobar was
due to Escobar’s growing power and connection with the Sandinista government in Nicaragua
and other governments that Escobar used as zones for drug trafficking.687 For Rivera and other
684
Jhony Rivera, Yobany Mosquera, and Andres Nieto Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
685
Jhony Rivera, Yobany Mosquera, and Andres Nieto.
686
Jhony Rivera, Yobany Mosquera, and Andres Nieto.
687
Jhony Rivera, Yobany Mosquera, and Andres Nieto Personal Interview 13 June 2009. According to a documentary on
Escobar, Pablo Escobar negotiated a deal with the Sandinista government to allow Escobar and other drug associates to use
206
Picture 5-1: The evening Escobar’s wrath reached and killed Liberal Party Candidate Luis Carlos
Galán in Soacha. The individual encircled above was the apparent shooter of the candidate. 688
Posguerra band members, Escobar was a killer, but he was also a legend: a powerful and evil
individual and a symbol of antioqueño perseverance and hard work ethic.
Pablo Escobar, despite an impoverished background, gained love and appreciation by
those he helped along the way to becoming a multi-millionaire drug trafficker. Although
Escobar was undoubtedly a major problem for Colombia—and soon enough the United States—
to deal with, the structures of political and judicial power did not leave much hope for
Colombians either. Good patron or not, the violence in Medellín society—and in different parts
of the nation—persisted (see Picture 5-1). According to original punk scene member “Oswaldo
Mierda,” the conditions in Medellín were so tough that the only people one would see at night in
the streets were “whores, transvestites, taxi drivers, and punkers.”689 The violence in Colombia
during this time was exacerbated with the rise of hired assassins to do the drug barons’ bidding,
Nicaragua as a launch pad for distributing drug shipments to the United States. See PBS Frontline: The Godfather of Cocaine.
William Cran. dir.,1997.
688
Javier Cruz, “Asesinato de Luis Carlos Galán,” Revista Semana, htt://publicacionessemana.com, accessed 17 October 2013.
689
“Oswaldo Mierda” interviewed in Más Allá del No Futuro.
207
as evidenced by a news report stating that in only eight months into the year 1990, 15,000 were
“killed by a firearm.”690
Where were drug lords going to find a good size army of killers? Colombia’s politically
and economically disenfranchised community found a lucrative opportunity in working with the
nation’s drug cartels. According to El Tiempo, “approximately 13.7% of Medellín’s population
was unemployed in 1990.”691 The sociopolitical and economic conditions in Colombia’s
metropoles created the perfect storm: a region filled with high-power drug barons doing
everything in their power to take control of the nation and an impoverished populace more than
willing to take on any job for good income. In a special segment on youth culture in Colombia,
El Colombianito periodical published comments by youngsters regarding the nation’s problems.
For instance, tenth-grade student Ana Victoria Ochoa Bohorquez mentioned that “finding easy
money distorted everything,” while Alexander Guerra Restrepo spoke openly about the effects of
extradition.
Extradition was a method that made drug trafficking violence explode and the
innocent are paying for this. Another important thing is that the United States
sent weapons supposedly to achieve peace. The road to peace would be to open a
cafetero pact, talk about the international debt and the exportation of flowers . . . .
We, who are the future of Colombia, should help each other and help those who
are headed on the road towards drug addiction.692
Colombia’s problems were multiplied with the United States government’s cooperation in the
“effective” fight against the drug trade. Furthermore, in an attempt to control organized youth
criminals in the nation, there were “new measures against crime” in which an elite counter-
sicario group would be formed and work closely with the national authorities.693 The formation
690
“Quince Mil Crímenes en Los Ocho Meses de 1990” El Tiempo.com, September 5, 1990, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-
49877, accessed 23 August 2013.
691
“Preocupante el Indice de Desemleo en Medellín,” El Tiempo.com, October 15, 1990. http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-
13397, accessed 23 August, 2013.
692
“Hay que sentir passion por COLOMBIA!,” El Colombianito, September 27, 1989, 3.
693
“Nuevas medidas contra delincuencia,” El Colombiano, May 7, 1989, 2A.
208
of such group would not necessarily diminish the violence in the nation, considering Escobar and
other drug lords found more recruits in any impoverished neighborhood.
Many youths drawn to making quick money did not hesitate to sign up to help Escobar
and the Medellín cartel rid Colombian society of extradition sympathizers. The results were
deadly, and the counterattack against the national government left thousands of officers (and
other public officials) at the mercy of hired assassins known as sicarios. Some of the individuals
drawn to assassinating officers, as mentioned previously, were a minority of Medellín’s roquer@
youth. Colombian historian Restrepo Restrepo stated that, coincidentally, the first sicario groups
and punk bands out of Medellín’s comunas came from the barrios Castilla, Villa Hermosa, and
Aranjuez.694 For Restrepo Restrepo, the same region witnessing the growth of the punk
movement was also a hotbed for sicario recruitment. Although Jhony Rivera recalled that there
were no roquer@s who were sicarios,695 Vicente from Bogotá asserted that there were punk
rockers who were sicarios and that the assassin of the Democratic Alliance M-19 leader Carlos
Pizarro Leongómez was a huge fan of United States punk rock band The Misfits.696 The assassin
of the Union Patriótica party member was also reported to be a fan of the punk-metal band
D.R.I.697 According to Colombian metal scene member Mario Aponte, there were many metal
warriors that abandoned the music and entered the sicariato to improve their standard of living.
Unfortunately by the end of the 1980s the drug trafficking war began and many
warriors moved away from the music because of economic necessities and united
with the sicariato forces. Many of them I knew were assassinated. Many of them
died accidentally [while] walking close to a car bomb.698
694
Andrea Restrepo Restrepo “Una lectura de lo real a través del punk” in Historia Crítica No. 29 June 2005, 26.
695
Jhonny Rivera Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
696
697
“Vicente”.
698
Mario Aponte “Medellín y Su Escena En Los 80’s” in Metaleros de Medellin accessed 28 May 2012
http://metalerosdemedellin.jimdo.com/historia-de-nuestra-escena-en-medellin/.
209
“Street punker” confessed that the majority of his friends in his barrio were recruited to become
assassins. He mentioned that they had good weapons and fancy cars, and sometimes they would
“loan nice guns to make some noise.”699 Whether or not some metalheads or punkers were
drawn to the money-luring opportunity, Albeiro mentioned that “approximately 60% of his
generation,” roquer@ or not, worked for the Medellín cartel as a sicario.700 For those punk
rockers who engaged in killing, “Tavo Punk” thought it was clear they “did not live punk
honestly.”701 “Tavo Punk,” as other narrators commented, knew that being an assassin was not
at all punk ethic. What they mean by not “living punk honestly?”
According to Viola, being punk rock in Colombia was focusing on the music scene and
not being involved in producing the violence.702 For Monica Moreno, as well as the Castro
sisters, abstaining from violence was punk rock because “you were directly rebelling” against
what was happening in Medellín in the time period.703 Former I.R.A. guitarist José Juan
believed that “punk was not life,” but rather it was a “lifesaver.”704 What punk ethic meant in
Colombia was using the music form to serve as a way to unite groups, individuals, and
ideologues from different camps; Colombian punk was not designed for creating more divisions.
Energy was better spent on fighting a system that helped produce more inequalities and created
terrorism as demonstrated in I.R.A.’s “Atentado Terrorista.”705
Atentado terrorista que apoyas la crueldad Terrorist attempt you support cruelty
Sangre, violencia y miseria nos aumentan la maldad Blood, violence, and misery raise evil
La desgracia nos persigue todo es culpa de la guerra Misery follows us, it is the war’s fault
Que estallido más violento me han dejado en la miseria What immense violent outbreak have left me in misery
La gente no quiere paz en esta horrible guerra People do not want peace in this horrible wear
Autoridad corrompida la ciudad es destruida Authority corrupted the city is destroyed
No incrementen el terror por defender la grandeza Don’t increase the terror to defend the greatness
699
“Street punk” Personal Interview 19 June 2009.
700
Albeiro” interviewed in Más Allá del No Futuro directed by Jose J. Posada A Wide Perspective Production, 2009.
701
“Tavo Punk,” interviewed in Más Allá del No Futuro directed by Jose J. Posada A Wide Perspective Production, 2009.
702
David Viola Personal Interview 10 June 2009. David Viola, Punk Medallo, .
703
704
Juan José interviewed in “Voces del Rock en Medellín,” Orus Production, November 29, 2011.
705
“Atentado Terorrista” in I.R.A. Atentado Terrorista. Medellín. 1990. Lyrics found in “Letra de ‘Atentado Terrorista’,”
Musica.com, http://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=919699, accessed 23 August 2013.
210
Ya vivimos en la ruina nos aborda la tristeza We already live in ruins, we approach sadness
Atentado terrorista—me persigue tu maldad Terrorist attempt—evil follows me

Atentado terrorista—no destruyas la ciudad Terrorist attempt—don’t destroy the city
Atentado terrorista—la crueldad nos matara Terrorist attempt—the cruelty will kill us
Terrorismo destructivo deja mi vivienda en paz Destructive terrorism , leave my neighborhood in peace
Atentado terrorista solo buscas destruir Terrorism attempt you only look to destroy
Un sistema de engaños totalmente corroído A system of lies, completely corroded
Tenemos un dirigente que mantiene escondido We have a leader who is hiding
Por que no cumple promesas y esta viendo que esta hundido Because they break promises and sees they are in deep
water
Destruir, destruir sin medida destruir Destroy, destroy without measure destroy
Siembren pánico y destruyan Sow panic and they will destroy
Siembren odio y no huyan Sow hatred and do not run away
Los escombros solo quedan The only thing left is the debris
The trials and tribulations that the punk and metal community faced in Colombia did not
disappear. That said, there was still no love lost between authorities and members of both the
punk and metal community (see Picture 5-2).
An individual described as “Anonymous” interviewed commented that the music and its scene
came first; but if there was a little money to be made then why not, because after all he “hated
cops and if there was a way to help eliminate them” then they were more than willing to do the
job.706 Vicky Castro, on the other hand, although offered good money to eliminate cops, turned
down the cash because her “way of life was music and not murder.”707 “Street punker” also
mentioned that the majority of punks were assassins was just not true. The problem, he
mentioned, was that “there were sicarios who were putting on a “punk costume,” and people
believed that they represented the Medellín punk scene.”708 He asserted that there were punks
who became involved in killing and making “easy money,” but there were also pendejos, or
706
Anonymous, interviewed in Más Allá del No Futuro.
707
Vicky Castro interviewed in Mas Alla del No Futuro.
708
“Street punk” Personal Interview 19 June 2009.
211
Picture 5-2: “No Fascist Control.” Roquer@s battling the police in Colombia.709
dumbasses, who worked as sicarios and happened to like some of the punk music. 710 What if
any of the roquer@s simply refused participating in becoming an assassin?
Catch 22 for Colombian Metaler@s and Punquer@s: A Deadly Price for Saying “No!”
For Monica Moreno and David Viola, many punkers paid a terrible price for rejecting
offers to kill and stand against contributing to the violence in Colombian society.
Moreno: Furthermore, a great many of [the heavy metal fans and punkers] were
exterminated for that reason . . . they did not respect the sicario squads because
they would say “Fuck that!” or stop fucking with me’ and BAM!
Viola: . . . I think narcos [opted] to exterminate the punqueros because they

would not be part of the [sicario] group, resisting them . . . . Maybe there were
drunk and the narco would pass by and they would give a shit and they would tell
[the narco] ‘Go to hell!’ or they would give them the finger… .
Moreno: . . . it was sort of like saying “I could give a shit that you’re the tough
one, [because] I am the punker” and because of such [attitudes] many punkers
[and other rock fans] were killed here.711
709
“No Control Fascista” in Nueva Fuerza no.2 September 1989, 13.
710
“Street punk” Personal Interview.
711
Monica Moreno and David Viola Personal Interview 10 June 2009.
212
The extermination and violence against punkers and metalheads was not just accomplished at
random. Attempts against the lives of male and female rockers, as well as other citizenry, during
this time period came from a paramilitary group calling themselves “Amor Por Medellín.”
According to Vicky Castro and other fellow rockers, there were mysterious flyers
distributed through her barrio Alfonso López in 1990 that stipulated that no one was allowed to
be out of their home after 9:00 p.m.712 These flyers were distributed by a group going around
low-income barrios calling themselves “Amor Por Medellín.” Leaflets circulated in the
community to ensure that every single member of the region was aware that they meant business.
The social cleansing or, in the words of Vicky Castro, “fumigation” organization, was comprised
of an armed group that patrolled the barrios during late hours of the night. According to Castro,
the social cleansing brigade believed that a group of 6, 8, or 10 people was too large of a crowd
in public, and the henchmen would not hesitate to divide the group using tactics of harassment.
These mini-paramilitary groups established checkpoints in different barrios to ensure “justice”
was, in fact, served. She recalled one particular run-in with “Amor Por Medellín” just before
heading home.
I was held up in a taxi and they put a gun to my head, but the guy was really cool
and I was around the corner from the house. [When he asked] “Where do you
live?” [and I replied] “no man, I’m right here” [and he said] “don’t you know
about the curfew that after 9 you’re not supposed to be roaming outside” [and I
replied] “Parce (dude) I’m home.” I was very frightened but cool because [my]
life was pardoned. In any case, they are the ones that had the weapons and the
power.713
Although Castro’s life was spared, many other rockers weren’t so lucky. For Vicky Castro,
witnessing first-hand the death of her friend during a birthday celebration was a very traumatic
experience.
712
713
213
As Castro recalled, she and other punk and metal friends gathered to celebrate a friend’s
birthday, when a petard, or homemade grenade, was thrown into the party’s patio area and
exploded causing structural damage, injuring the party guests, and taking the life of her friend.
The petardo blew her friend’s head off.714 This was a horrifying event, sending a message to
Vicky Castro and her friends that they were not immune from the violence in Medellín during
early 1990s. Castro believed that there was much hatred and resentment towards roquer@s by
sicarios, who perhaps felt that the heavy rocker “anti-everything attitude” was not going along
with the hired assassin’s program. It was never determined who actually threw the grenade—the
victim going down in history as another victim of Medellín’s violence. Along with Castro,
Rivera, as other members of Posguerra, felt that if one of their friends was killed by a sicario, it
was because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. One of the band members’ friends,
nicknamed “Guyaba,” was apparently caught in the crossfire between different sicario groups.715
Andres Nieto alsonrecalled roquer@s constantly under surveillance and physically attacked by
such group.
Nieto: The metal scene was never involved in [sicarismo] . . . and that was best . .
..
Interviewer: . . . there weren’t even threats?
Nieto: What?
Interviewer: There weren’t even threats?
Nieto: Threats? Of course! Many times they tried to “cleanse” us [with a short
semi-nervous laughter] . . . but because we were different.716
714
715
Jhony Rivera Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
716
Andres Nieto Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
214
According to Jhonny Rivera, getting arrested was not necessarily a better option than being
murdered by “Amor Por Medellín,” especially if the perpetrators of such massacres were the
same ones wearing badges.717 Rivera mentioned that out of all the people he hung out with,
there were perhaps at least three of them who were killed by the social cleansing group. Whether
or not the attack on Vicky Castro’s friends or Nieto and Rivera’s friends was done by “Amor Por
Medellín,” the existence of multiple paramilitary groups seeking to cleanse Colombian society
was not at all a rarity during this time.
Colombian paramilitaries, whose existence dates back to the La Violencia period during
the late 1980s and early 1990s, evolved into organizations seeking to smash union organizers,
guerrilla sympathizers, and possible communist agitators. Some of the armed groups floating in
different parts of the nation during the late 1980s included: “Muerte a Revolucionarios del
Nordeste,” “Movimiento Obrero Estudiantil Nacional Socialista,” “Muerte A Secuestradores,”
“Los Tangueros,” and “Amor Por Medellín.”718 The latter paramilitary group was, in a
declaration by Lieutenant Néstor Eduardo Porras Montero, a “habitual practice” by COPES
(Special Forces Commando Operations), a specialized group within Medellín’s police force.719
While also working with Central Directorate of the Judicial Police and Intelligence (DIJIN),
Porras Montero was responsible for coordinating different groups, including “Amor Por
Medellín,” the onslaught of violence against Medellín’s impoverished populace.720 Porras
Montero’s group operating in Antioquia disguised themselves by dressing as civilians so that
717
Jhonny Rivera Personal Interview 13 June 2009.
718
“lista de massacres de antioquia” in VERDADABIERTA.COM: Paramilitarismo y conflict armado en Colombia accessed 22
May 2012 www.verdadabierta.com.
719
“EL paramilitarismo en la Policía Nacional” in Noche y Niebla accessed 18 May 2012
http://www.nocheyniebla.org/files/u1/casotipo/deuda/html/pdf/deuda10.pdf. There were other paramilitary groups, such as
“Robocop,” who dressed in military garb and were responsible for murdering civilians. For more on paramilitary groups in the
1990s, see Alma Guillermoprieto The Heart that Bleeds: Latin America Now (New York: First Vintage Books, 1995).
720
“El paramilitarismo en la Policía Nacional,” Noche y Niebla,
http://www.nocheyniebla.org/files/u1/casotipo/deuda/html/pdf/deuda10.pdf, accessed 18 May 2012.
215
they could identify with the victims and thus “guaranteeing their impunity.”721 The rise of
paramilitarism in the region contributed to the deaths of “61 people every 24 hours” in 1990. 722
Approximately 3,000 youths, between 1988 and 1991, were killed by paramilitary organizations
such as “Amor Por Medellín.”723 Unfortunately for Porras Montero, his death would also
contribute to the nation’s homicide statistics. According to a report on the former lieutenant,
Porras Montero was involved and “connected to the drug trafficking” business. 724 However,
prior to his mysterious death in 1991, the incarcerated lieutenant, convicted of kidnapping and
extortion, confessed in a sworn-in statement that the elite group would find the right spaces so
that “the Dijin (Central Directorate of the Judicial Police and Intelligence) could come in and kill
those people.”725 One response to “Amor Por Medellín” was the construction of clandestine
spaces where punks and metalheads could hang out without the fear of losing their lives.
According to an article in fanzine Subterráneo Medellín, the heavy metal scene, as much as the
punk scene, “was being repressed day after day,” leading bands to play privately in “basements,
terraces, patios, or anywhere a capacity of 10 to 15 people” could attend.726 In Medellín, one
space that was a zone of refuge was the Casa Punk, or “Punk House” (see Picture 5-3). The
Casa Punk was located in “a suburb named Barrio Chino” and owned by Jose Posada, “el
Monito,” “el Conejo,” and “Choza.” 727 It was the perfect space for Medellín punk fanatics to
get together at this private parche and rock out without any fear of being gunned down or being
blown to bits by a car bomb.
721
Javier Giraldo, S.J. “El Paramilitarismo en Colombia, ayer y hoy” in desde los márgenes Javier Girlado accessed 18 May 2012
http://www.javiergiraldo.org/spip.php?article77.
722
“22.468 Homicidios en 1990,” El Tiempo.com, January 3, 1990, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-4465,
723
Más Allá del No Futuro. Jose J. Posada, dir. A Wide Perspective Production, 2009.
724
“Muerto el Teniente Porras,” El Tiempo.com, January 22, 1991, http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-13220,
725
Unidad Investigativa, “Escuche el audio que enreda al hermano del general Santoyo,” El Tiempo.com, September 2, 2012,
http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-12186463, accessed 23 August 2013.
726
“PORQUE LOS CONCIERTOS O PARCHES SUBTERRANEOS,” Subterráneo Medellín, no.1, 1992.
727
Viola, I.R.A. Punk: La Antileyenda, 22.
216
Picture 5-3: Caption of the “Punk House,” a zone refuge for Medellín’s punquer@ youth.728
According to “Kaliche,” the violence in Medellín was such that there was no way that an
outdoor show could take place.729 Furthermore, he mentioned that the shows had to be
clandestinely promoted and needed to take place in spaces that were secure and away from the
terror.730 The Punk House was decorated by “Choza” and David Viola, who placed “punk
murals” and different types of art including the famous booger frame, a “work of art” in which
“anyone arriving [to the punk house] had the privilege of sticking their boogers [on the
frame].”731 It was in this household that the renters also put up a t-shirt silk screen studio and
decided to host a series of private shows.
In short time, it occurred to them to host a show in the main den of the Punk
House [in the same space where] practice sessions had already taken place [and]
this was when the Punk House began to be ruined. Shows were organized with
728
The screenshot of the Casa Punk was taken from Más Allá del No Futuro.
729
“Kaliche” inte\rviewed in Más Allá del No Futuro.
730
“Kaliche” interviewed in Más Allá del No Futuro.
731
David Viola, I.R.A. Punk: La Antileyenda, 22.
217
bands like I.R.A., B.S.N., Dexkoncierto and Reencarnación, [in which] for this
show the house was filled with many punks and the festivities turned wild.732
According to Viola, the Casa Punk was important because it was also an opportunity to meet
punkers and other rockers who lived and survived in Medellín.733 Another space used during this
tense time period was the Ivo Romani Theater.
The Ivo Romani Theater, located in the barrio Lovaina in downtown Medellín, was the
spot where bands such as I.R.A., Dexkoncierto, Ataque de Sonido, and Antioquia Podrida
performed in front of hundreds of punkers who were eager to release their angst and anxiety in
the pogo.734 This space was also important because it was where bands from other cities,
including Bogotá, performed alongside bands from Medellín. According to Posada, Victor
Gaviria’s studio (Tiempos Modernos) also loaned their space for bands to rehearse and
perform.735 Another venue available for private performances by the early 1990s was the
University of Antioquia. Members from the punk community such as “Naranjo” (from
Dexkoncierto), Monica Morena, David Viola, and José Juan from I.R.A., “Archy” (from
Rechazo), and “Comegato” (from El Globo) were just some of the names of punk students
attending the university. Concerts at the school were held in the back part of the university
known as “el Aeropuerto.”736 After the campus officers prevented concerts from taking place,
rockers moved to a bar downtown called Guanábano, where students coming out of la
Universidad Antioquia headed over to rock out.737 For other rockers, utilizing sanctioned school
grounds was a way to continue listening to live performances.
732
733
734
Viola, I.R.A. Punk: La Antileyenda, 26-27.
735
Juan Jose Posada, “Mas alla del No Futuro’,” Jose Juan Posada’s blog, http://josejuanposada.blogspot.com/2010/11/mas-alla-
del-no-futuro.html, accessed 18 May 2012.
736
Viola, I.R.A. Punk: La Antileyenda, 28-29.
737
218
Picture 5-4: Schools, used by fans and musicians, as a means of resistance to the nation’s
violence.738
In Medellín, the Elisa Arango School, for instance, sanctioned in the early 1990s a series
of concerts for youths to listen to live metal music under the banner “Mas Allá de la Piel,” or
“Beyond the Flesh” (see Picture 5-4). According to one of the school teachers, the shows were
important because they “allowed the youth to express themselves and . . . the school provided an
excellent forum for bands from different musical rock tendencies to coexist and share the stage.”
Castilla’s Cultural Center member John Enrique Gonzalez believed that all cultures were
important and that “there were no subcultures, just different cultures.”739 In the first show,
Resurexion, Neurastenia, and Tormento performed, while in the second show Athanator,
738
Screenshot taken from “Mas alla de la piel-Medellín 1992 [1/2],” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKSHj_jtxDQ,
accessed 29 May 2012.
739
John Enrique Gonzalez interviewed in “Mas alla de la piel-Medellín 1992 [1/2] in Youtube accessed 29 May 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKSHj_jtxDQ.
219
Skullcrusher, and Holocausto performed.740 In the third show of this concert series, Rasis,
Agresion Social, and I.R.A. performed as the crowd engaged in pogo dancing. In Bogotá, private
spaces were important for metalheads and punkers to rock out during such time of extreme stress
and anxiety.
Although much of the cartel violence affecting Colombia was concentrated in Medellín,
Bogotá’s drug war violence forced metal and punk bands to be careful as to where they would
perform. They also looked at alternative spaces in which to practice and play live. In Bogotá,
Ciudad Kennedy was still, as mentioned previously, one important sector where private shows
took place in halls usually rented out for first communions, baptisms, and birthday parties. Other
spots, such as downtown’s Teatro Lux, in operation until 2001, and parts of the Universidad
Javeriana and the Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas were spaces in which bands
such as La Pestilencia used for rehearsal and to video tape their performances.741 Other venues
that served as prime spots for performing were the El Campín Coliseum, the Santamaría
Bullfighting Arena, and the El Salitre Coliseum. Furthermore, in contrast to Medellín, bars
served as some of the major venues for punkers and metalheads to gather and perform live or just
listen to music. Bars such as Abbot & Costello, Ironspeed, Lotus Queen, Transylvania, Acme,
TNT, Discovery, La Mansarda, and Acido Bar were important spots for rocker aficionados,
which included metal and punk youths.742 The use of English names for some of the bars spoke
to the cultural influence of North American and European culture. These bars were private
740
Mas alla de la piel-Medellín 1992 [2/2],” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdfp5jxEpxM&feature=relmfu,
accessed 29 May 2012.
741
To see La Pestilencia performing at the Universidad Javeriana see “PESTILENCIA, 1987 U.JAVERIANA 1 PARTE,”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=MgXdHX2_z2Y, accessed 11 June 2011.
741
Reina Rodríguez, Bogotá: Más que Pesado, METAL con HIstoria, 91. Other bar names provided by “Vicente” Personal
Interview 19 March 2009.
742
Carlos Arturo Reina Rodríguez Bogotá: Más que Pesado, METAL con HIstoria (Bogotá: FELCAR: Editores e Impresiones,
Ltda., 2009.), 91. Other bar names provided by “Vicente” Personal Interview 19 March 2009.
220
Picture 5-5: “Forget the Bad Memories—Take Refuge in the Music—Live Rock’s Energy—Fill
your Mind with Positive Ideas”743 (Author’s Picture)
spaces for bands to perform and for people to request music from the establishment’s deejay.
During this time period, such spaces also served as a zone to shield anyone from possible harm
due to the drug wars of the 1980s and early 1990s. For example, in 1988, Bogotá metal bands
Neurosis and Darkness played a show together in Club Discoteca Internacional (see Picture 5-
5).744
Also in 1988, 88.9 FM’s “Metal in Stereo” program promoters put together a show that
brought together some of the best metal from Medellín and Bogotá.745 The bands scheduled to
perform at the Coliseo El Campín were Medellín’s Amen, Feretero, Reencarnación, and
Nemesis; for Bogotá, the bands on the concert bill were Darkness, Apocalipsis, and La
743
Picture of concert flyer taken from Piedad Castro private and personal collection. Piedad Castro Personal Interview 10 June
2009.
744
745
221
Pestilencia.746 According to Reencarnación lead singer Victor Jaramillo, the concert was a
disaster because the band was brought to a low budget hotel filled with “prostitutes,” were then
taken to the show in the back of a truck used to transport circus animals, and were obligated to
perform using a “frightening” sound system that was no better than a “tape player.”747 Although
Jaramillo did not have a good experience during this major concert festival, Reencarnación’s
participation in this metal festival was indicative of the growing communication between bands
coming out of Medellín and Bogotá, despite criticism over Bogotá “not having as strong [rock]
as a scene” as Medellín.748 This did not mean that Bogotá roquer@s were immune to the drug
war violence.
Metalheads and punkers in the nation’s capital living the horror of drug violence, like
their counterparts in Medellín, refused to surrender and succumb to death sentence placed on
anyone challenging the drug barons or paramilitaries of the country. These were rockers that
found other outlets to deal with the stress in possibly not making it to the next day. These were
metalheads and punkers who preferred to keep the heavy rock music scene in a safe place, a zone
where they would not become the next victims of national violence. The majority, as addressed
above, cared less for the money gained from assassinating police officers and focused more on
the next private show to attend or when someone was having another get-together to rock out.
The music was a means of survival and the music production during this time period was
undoubtedly witness to the horrors of a damaged late 20th century Colombia.
Colombian Metal and Punk Productions: Songs of Resistance and Catharsis for the Living
and the Dead
746
Reina Rodríguez, Bogotá: Más que Pesado, METAL con Historia.
747
Victor Jaramillo interviewed in Reina Rodríguez, Bogotá: Más que Pesado, METAL con Historia, 119-120.
748
“Escena-Bogotá,” Nueva Fuerza, August 1990, no. 6, 15.
222
While punk and metal bands in Medellín and Bogotá continued to carry out private
parches and concert performances, the sight of dead bodies in Medellín and Bogotá’s streets
became such a part of Colombia’s daily reality that people heading out to work in the morning
simply walked past the corpses, labeling the dead as muñecos or “dolls.” The violence was the
subject of television’s evening news, the topic of radio programming, and the main headline in
daily newspapers such as El Tiempo, El Espectador, and El Colombiano. The bloodshed paved
way for a more aggressive sound that spoke to the region’s atrocities.
In the mid-1980s, metal bands such as Parabellum and Mierda delivered an extreme form
of heavy rock music that rocked Medellín and other cities in Colombia. Also during that same
time period, punk bands Pestes and Danger set the standard for Colombian punk productions.
By the late 1980s, Colombian metal and punk bands musically evolved by experimenting with
different subgenres. While metal bands looked to subgenres such as Power Metal, Thrash Metal,
and Death Metal to create new music, punk bands employed Hardcore music to deliver new
material. For some of the metal bands in Medellín and Bogotá, Death Metal music was the most
appropriate means to discuss the nation’s violence.
Death Metal music, as sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris’ work explained, was a form of
extreme metal that grew out of the early- to mid-1980s and exploded in the latter part of the
decade, and was influenced by metal bands such as Venom, Slayer, Motörhead, and Exodus.749
Death Metal music was developed and pioneered by bands like Possessed, Death, Morbid Angel,
Obituary, and Deicide, to a name a few.750 One of the main factors distinguishing Death Metal
from heavy metal and other metal subgenres was the extreme vocals employed into its
749
Keith Kahn-Harris, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge (Oxford and New York City: Berg Publishers, 2007).
750
For more information on the rise of death metal music specifically focusing on North America and Europe see Natalie J.
Purcell, Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture (Jefferson: McFarland &Company, Inc., 2003) and
Michelle Phillipov, Death Metal and Music Criticism (London: Lexington Books, 2012).
223
repertoire.751 The vocals, which were typically “growled” and “grunted,” accompanied by lower
tuned guitars often with complex guitar riffs and a drum beat incorporating a double-bass pedal,
contained darker lyrics that spoke, for example, about death, mutilation, religion, the occult, and
politics.752
Another key feature in this music, distinguishing it from other metal subgenres, was the
extreme graphic nature of album covers. Whereas heavy metal music employed album cover art
that drew attention, Death Metal art, as the music itself, incorporated darker pictorial
representations including images of decaying and dismembered corpses and religious figures,
demons, fire pits, and skeletons. In Colombia, there was no metal subgenre more appropriate to
talk about the nation’s bloodshed than Death Metal. Death metal bands surfacing in the late
1980s and early 1990s, in Medellín and Bogotá, found in such music a perfect outlet to discuss
their first-hand experience with rampant death and murder in Colombia. This is not to say that
the production of Death Metal in other parts of the globe, such as the United States or the United
Kingdom, was not authentic or legitimate. However, the Colombian bands embracing this metal
subgenre employed it to discuss the daily local conditions: violence, death, murder, and
massacres. Bands such as Pirokinesis, Athanator, Skullcrusher, Holocausto, Masacre, and
Neurosis, influenced by the historical course of Colombian rock music and international acts,
sought to produce demos and full-length albums to show their frustrations and anxieties with the
nation’s conditions.
For example, in June of 1988, Alex Oquendo, Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya, Juan
Gómez, and Antonio Mosquera put together a musical project known as Masacre that pushed the
751
Purcell, Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture, 9.
752
Purcell, Death Metal Music: The Passion and Politics of a Subculture, 14.
224
envelope of Colombian metal music.753 Although Oquendo confessed in Ecuadorian fanzine
Contaminación that the band’s influence did not stem from anything directly,754 he and his band
mates decided that Masacre was going to be a Death Metal band and a project expressing the
“daily social and political reality in Colombia.”755 In an interview with Rockombia.com, Alex
Oquendo mentioned that
We were in the nucleus of the war where kidnappings, assassinations,

disappearances, the rise of right and left [wing] groups was everyday larger and
their actions more violent. We had a clear musical concept, but we were restless
youths and we wanted to do something innovative. We did not want to talk about
demons. The idea was to underscore real-life occurrences. Unfortunately, we
saw many friends and acquaintances die [during this time period]. 756
Paralleling Oquendo’s comment, Athanator bassist Enrique Ramírez mentioned that Colombia’s
violence was “what they had to go through since Colombia was the culture of bullets and the
culture of no future.”757 According to Oquendo, the band’s name was chosen because it was a
“strong name” and because of the word’s usage in Colombia’s media in describing the day-to-
day bloodshed in late 1980s battered Medellín.758 Oquendo expressed that he believed the word
“massacre” was reserved for “mass killings like the ones [occurring] during the Second World
War.”759
As much as there was pain and anguish located in Masacre’s music, this and other bands were
thrilled to “hold an instrument and have a good time with [their] best friends.” 760 Masacre’s
first demo recording was entitled Colombia-Imperio del Terror. The album cover, designed
753
Masacre Official Site, http://www.truemetal.org/colombianmetal/masacre/espanol/index.html, accessed 1 June 2012.
754
“Masacre,” Contaminacion, no. 1, 1990, 12.
755
Masacre: Más Allá del Dolor. Claudia Arango and Andrés Giraldo. dirs. Post-Producción 390 TV, 2011.
756
“Entrevista a Masacre,” Rockombia.com La República del Rock, http://www.rockombia.com/entrevista/entrevista-a-masacre,
accessed 4 June 2012.
757
“Documental De Athanator Parte 1,” YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLdV6n9rMgU, accessed 20 July 2012.
758
759
760
“[13-07-12] Entrevista: Athanator la histórica agrupación de Thrasn Metal colombiano” in El SALMÓN accessed 27 July
2012 http://elsalmonurbano.blogspot.com/2012/07/13-07-12-entrevista-athanator-la.html.
225
Picture 5-6: Death takes center stage with the metropolitan area of Medellín in the
background.761
by Oquendo himself (see Picture 5-6), incorporated a corpse surrounded by rats and bullet shells,
with the Medellín metropolis in the background. The 1989 demo contained eight tracks:
“Tiempos de Guerra” (“War Times”), “Imperio del Terror” (“Empire of Terror”), “Sepulcros en
Ruinas” (“Graves in Ruins”), “Escoria” (“Scum”), “Los Pecados de Dios” (“The Sins of God”),
and “Sangrienta Muerte” (“Bloody Death”).762 In the song “Escoria,” for example, the
individual’s horror over violence and suffering convinced them that “death” was a form of
“freedom.”763
Escoria!!! Scum!!!
Enfrentando al mundo solo veo sufrimiento Facing the world I only see suffering
La raza que soy está mutilada The race I am from is mutilated
Su veneno corre fuerte, odio se materializa Its poison runs strong, hate materializes
Historia se condena, repetición eterna History condemns itself, eternal repeating

Nacer, condenarse, vivir por un instante To be born, condemn oneself, live for a moment
761
Colombia…Imperio Del Terror cover from Masacre Imperio del Terror/ Cancer de Nuestros Dias Obliteration Records, 2004.
Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
762
Masacre. Colombia...Imperio Del Terror. Demo Self-Released, 1989.
763
“Escoria” in Masacre. Colombia...Imperio Del Terror. Demo Self-Released, 1989. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
226
Vivir eternamente, morir es liberarme Live eternally, death is to free myself
Morbosa convergencia, realidad inerte Morbid convergence, inert reality

Presente decadencia, futuro demente Present decadence, demented future
Era de guerras, hambre, peste Era of wars, hunger, plague
Escoria!!! Scum!!!
Era de guerra Era of war

Hambre, peste, mundo esclavo Hunger, plague, slave world
Subyugo humano Human subjugation
Ciencia y religión, aliadas destrucción Science and religion, destruction allies
Escoria!!! Scum!!!
“Escoria” expressed a very grim world fated to destroy itself, a world that Oquendo and his band
mates believed they had very few means of escaping. Although other songs in Colombia . . .
Imperio del Terror spoke about the dangers of science and nuclear war, death, and destruction,
Masacre’s opening and closing tracks on the demo brought the music production together.
Whereas the Prologue contained sounds of lightning mixed in with a semi-distorted version of
Antoquia’s anthem transitioning into an intense rock jam with deep vocals growling “¡Tiempos
de Guerra!” or “War Times!,” the Epilogue contained a news report recording taken from
Telenoticiero 7 Dias En El Mundo which provided “ a summary of the 1988 massacres.”764
Finally the indiscriminate violence has stopped. The vendettas between emerald
workers led to the formation of armed groups began to eliminate themselves just
as in May when twelve people were killed as they headed to a first communion.
In the Llanos Orientales the massacres disrupted families . . . this time the
vendetta between narcotraficantes in May left six dead due to a machine gun . . .
in Antioquia, several months ago, an anonymous group formed named Muerte a
Revolucionarios del Nordeste, everyone was afraid, but the pathetic reality of
death came on Friday with the most cruelty . . . forty-one people were killed. The
reasons have not been established, but it was not the guerrilla . . . fear is
overpowering the nation.765
The unexplained massacres, captured in Masacre’s demo, was just a glimpse as to what
Colombia’s citizenry saw in the daily paper, heard on the radio, and watched on the evening
764
Colombia…Imperio Del Terror cover from Masacre. Imperio del Terror/ Cancer de Nuestros Dias. Obliteration Records,
2004.
765
Juan Carlos Santacruz recording in Epilogue in Masacre. Colombia...Imperio Del Terror. Demo Self-Released, 1989.
227
Picture 5-7: “The Cancer of Our Days” cover with Medellín in the background. (Author’s
Album)766
news. Although Masacre would not be the only band to incorporate news recordings into their
music productions—as will be shown with punk rock band La Pestilencia—their second demo
included a news segment further discussing the violence in the nation. In their 1990 demo,
Cancer de Nuestros Dias (see Picture 5-7), the second album cover, also designed by Oquendo,
were two robed skeleton priests praying over coffins with rats on the floor and the Medellín
metropolis visible through a window. In this production, Masacre again included a news report
regarding the nation’s massacres.767 The report, from Medellín’s Noticiero Nacional, told about
women’s dead bodies found by the local authorities, massacres taking place in the comunas, and
a car bomb that exploded and killed a woman who was searching for her missing niece as well as
766
Cancer de Nuestros Dias cover from Masacre. Imperio del Terror/ Cancer de Nuestros Dias. Obliteration Records, 2004.
767
Masacre. Cancer de Nuestros Dias. Demo Self-Released, 1990.
228
other people.768 Also included in this second demo were track recordings such as “Justicia
Ramera,” “Brutales Masacres,” “Conflicto de Paz,” “Ritos de Muerte,” and “Ola de Violencia.”
Just as the previous demo, some of the themes included war, death, and violence.
In “Brutales Masacres,” the song described the pain and hardship directly affecting
Colombian society.769
Mortal morbosa Morbid mortal
Violencia, sádicos Violence, sadistic
Temores, dolores Fears, Pains
De una patria sacudida From a shaken homeland
Tus ojos no pueden soportarlo Your eyes cannot stand it

Ante el llanto humano In the face of human suffering
Brutales masacres sacuden, cancer Brutal massacres quiver, cancer
Cáncer de nuestro días Cancer of our days

Ensombrecen la tranquilidad, humaniidad Overshadowed by tranquility, humanity
Cobrando victimas día a día Taking victims day after day
Brutales masacres Brutal massacres

Patética Pathetic
Brutales realidad Brutal reality
Masacres brutales Brutal massacres
Mortal morbosa Violencia Morbid mortal violence

Sádico temor del dolor Sadistic fear of the pain
Tus ojos no pueden soportarlo Your eyes cannot stand it
Ante el llanto humano In the face of human suffering
Brutales masacres sacuden, cancer Brutal massacres quiver, cancer
Brutal massacre cobra al vacío Brutal massacres charges into the empty
Cuando son asesinados seres vivos When human beings are killed
Ahora los campos están solos Now the fields are alone
Y sus bosques ensagrentados And their forests are bloody
Mientras cientos de féretros While hundreds of coffins
Desfilan por Colombia They parade through Colombia
Mientras el miedo se apodera While fear takes control
De la nación colombiana Over the Colombian nation
Ahora todos rezan Now everyone prays
Mientras otros mueren While others die
Brutal masacre Brutal massacre

Brutal masacre Brutal massacre
Masacre Massacre
In this song, the violence in Colombia reached the rural area in which the “forests [were]
bloody,” the “hundreds of coffins” containing victims of the violence were taken through the
768
“Intro/Vida” in Masacre. Cancer de Nuestros Dias. Demo Self-Released, 1990. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
769
“Brutales Masacres” in Masacre. Cancer de Nuestros Dias. Demo Self-Released, 1990. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
229
nation’s streets, creating a rising fear among the populace. Similar to “Brutales Masacres,” “Ola
de Violencia” discussed the killing and displacement of rural folk by “the national government,
the military, the guerrillas, and the paramilitaries.”770 The song mentioned how killing was an
“impressive ritual,” and it placed into question whether an individual witnessing a massacre or
undergoing displacement ought to “be silent” or “speak out.”771 Masacre brought to the
forefront, in this demo and future productions, what was precisely national headline news. The
violence in the nation was such that nation was “humid” and “decayed” with the country’s
“riches” and “environment” all wrapped in blood.772 While Masacre and other Medellín bands
helped push the death metal movement in their city, Bogotá death metal band Neurosis delivered
its own musical concept that looked at war, suicide, and other social issues.
In August 1987, Jorge Mackenzie, Francisco Nieto, Arley Cruz, and John Carlos Ñustes
formed Neurosis.773 The bogotano death and thrash metal band released a demo in 1991 entitled
Más Allá de la Demencia, with an album cover showing a corpse’s skull being destroyed, as
Mackenzie explained, by different influences “tormenting” the human mind: technology
(represented through the “scientist”), religion (represented through “the priest”), and political
corruption (represented through “the politician”) (see Picture 5- 8).774 In contrast to Masacre,
Neurosis’ lyrics in their 1991 demo did not directly mention Colombia; but that did not mean
that the lyrics themselves were not influenced by the tense environment of the time period. Allá
de la Demencia included tracks such as “Guerra Mortal,” “Mundo Falso,” and “El Camino Más
770
“Ola de Violencia” in Masacre. Cancer de Nuestros Dias. Demo Self-Released, 1990.
771
“Ola de Violencia” in Masacre.
772
“Ola de Violencia” in Masacre.
773
“Entrevista Con Neurosis Inc.,” Rockombia.com La República del Rock, http://www.rockombia.com/entrevista/entrevista-con-
neurosis-inc, accessed 10 June 2012. The band changed their name to Neurosis, Inc. because there was already a band named
Neurosis in the United States who had adopted the name Neurosis. The band is known today by either name.
774
Jorge Mackenzie Personal Interview 20 February 2009.
230
Picture 5-8: Clergy (Upper Left), Science (Down Right), and the Politician (Upper Right). The
“Axis of Evil”? (Author’s Copy)
Más Facil.”775 For instance, in “Guerra Mortal,” the effects of war lead to bloodshed,
destruction, and then the end of humanity.776
Ahora ya no hay donde esconderse Now there is nowhere to hide

El fuego rojo lo inunda todo The red fire drowns everything
Las nubes de terror hacen su aparición The clouds of terror make themselves known
Y ahora pagaremos la traición And now we will pay for the betrayal
Corre y busca a los tuyos Run and find your loved ones
Pero ya no los encontrarás But you will not find them
Desaparecidos o muertos que mas da Disappeared or dead so what
Sabes que nunca más los versa You know you will never see them again
Firma tu Muerte-Renuncia a la vida Sign your death-Give up your life

Unete al odio de la guerra mortal Join the hate of mortal war
Siente el poder de la creación humana Feel the power of the human creation
Romper las barreras de la destrucción Break the barriers of destruction
La muerte se abre paso Death opens the way
Atormentando sin compassion Tormenting without compassion
Construyendo un cementerio de Constructing a cemetery of
Lamentación Lamentation
775
Neurosis. Más Allá de la Demencia. Mort-Discos, 1991.
776
“Guerra Mortal” in Neurosis. Más Allá de la Demencia. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
231
Lluvias de balas, rios de sangre Hail of bullets, rivers of blood
Nubes de veneno, todo por un estúpido Skies of poison, all because of one stupid
Orgullo. . . Pride. . .
Un mundo que agoniza su muerte A world that agonizes its death

Se acerca a su lamentable final Comes near its unfortunate end
Un funeral en honor a la humanidad A funeral in honor to humanity
Está tan próximo a terminar Is very close to ending
“Guerra Mortal” presented an apocalyptic world that left little hope for humanity because
of the terror and pain produced by warfare and destruction. Although Mackenzie stated that
there was no song written by Neurosis that was intended as a reflection of Colombia’s tragedy,
this did not mean that the music was completely free of influence from the violence sweeping the
country.777 On the one hand, it could be said that the song itself was in reflection of the post-
Cold War era, a moment in which the United States and the Soviet Union battled to have
political, economic, and cultural influence over different parts of the world. However, the song
could also be referring to the fate of Colombia’s “humanity,” especially considering the “hail of
bullets [and the] rivers of blood” very evident in Colombian society at the time. Whereas
“Guerra Mortal” looked at horrors of warfare, “Mundo Falso” looked closely at people who lived
in a “world with their false ideas.”778
Fueron fabricados They were manufactured

Bajo el nombre de la moral Under the name of morality
Pero olvidaron But they forgot
Que habia algo mas alla That there was something beyond
Una sociedad A society
Que asorbe a los debiles That absorbs the weak
Y los convierte And converts them
En sus ciegos servidores Into their blind servants
La apariencia junto a la muerte Appearance next to death

Ya no cuenta No longer matters
Si algo eres lo tendras que demostrar If you are something you will have to show it
Y aunque se apasionan con su mndo de And although they are passionate about their world of
Falsas ideas False ideas
Intentan demostrar algo que en They attempt to demonstrate something that
Realidad no son In reality they are not
Los niños bonitos nunca desperteran de The pretty boys will never awaken from
Su sueño iluso Their fantasy dream
Las niñas plasticas se estremeceran con The little plastic girls will be shaken with
777
Jorge Mackenzie Personal Interview 20 February 2009.
778
“Mundo Falso” in Neurosis Más Allá de la Demencia Mort-Discos, 1991. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
232
La realidad The reality
Pierden la nocion del tiempo They lose sense of time
Durmiendo sobre una bomba Sleeping over a bomb
Que pronto destruira su mundo de That will soon destroy their world of
Falsas ideas False Ideas
Observo y maldigo I observe and curse

A todos aquellos At all those
Que pertenecen a esta farsa Who belong to this farce
Condenada a morir Condemned to die
Ellos mismos They themselves
Determinaran su castigo Will determine their punishment
Y se daran cuenta And they will see
De su gran equivocacion Their great mistake
Algo que sueñas Something you dream
Y que jamas conseguiras That you will never find
Destruira finalmente Will finally be destroyed
Con tu mentalidad de plástico With your plastic mentality
In “False World,” privileged youths needed to steer away from a reality that had made
them “blind servants” to the world around them. Ignorance and apathy were not choices for even
privileged youth in late 20th century Colombia. The car bombs and assassinations reached the
nation’s principal cities and all levels of Colombian society; death did not discriminate by class.
The imaginary and “plastic” world, like it or not, would eventually crumble and force those who
believed they could live such imaginary world to look beyond the “farce.” Apart from Bogotá
and Medellín Death Metal productions, other metal subgenres such as Thrash Metal
demonstrated key Colombian bands that were also invested in denouncing the nation’s violence
through their music.779 One thrash metal band that wrote music against the nation’s violence was
Ekhymosis.
The antioqueño band Ekhymosis, formed in 1988, whose front man (Juan Esteban
Aristizábal) would later become pop-star sensation Juanes, released an EP in 1991 entitled De
779
Thrash metal music, a heavy metal subgenre, was marked by the speed and aggression of the guitars and drums. The musical
origins of thrash metal music include the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, speed metal, punk rock, and hardcore punk. In
contrast to Death Metal, the Thrash Metal vocals were typically not growled and the guitar solos are very quick. Some of the
most well-known North American thrash metal bands, for example, from the 1980s included Anthrax, Megadeth, and Metallica.
For more on the construction of thrash metal music and scene see documentary Heavy Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. Sam
Dunn. dir. Warne Bros., 2006. DVD. and Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal. Rick Ernst. dir. Lightyear Video, 2008.
233
Rodillas. This album included a song called “No Es Justo,” a song denouncing “silence,”
“gunshots,” and “murdering innocent youths.”780
No se por cuanto tiempo se I don’t know for how long it

A convertido en vivir en los pasillos Has changed into living in the hallways
Morir en brazos de cualquier hombre porfavor una señal To die in arms of any man please give me a signal
De un poco mas de respeto hacia mi Give a bit more respect towards me
Se que es facil decirlo ¡no mas! I know it’s difficult to say no more!
Pero es dificil guarder silencio But it’s difficult to stay silent
Dentro de mi ya no puedo Inside me I can’t do it
¡No! No!
Silencio no mas Silence no more
Disparos no mas No more gunshots
Silencio no mas Silence no more
Disparos no mas Gunshots no more
No es justo que seguen las vidas de inocentes jovenes It’s not just that the lives of innocent youths are severed
Porque nos vino sera Because it came

Cuantas familias How many families
Morir en el dolor To die in pain
Cuantas personas muertas hay How many dead people are there
Ya no mas dolor No more pain
Ya no mas tencion No more tension
Ya no mas terror No more terror
The song above questioned “how many families” had to undergo “pain” because of the violence
destroying the lives of the nation’s youths. This was a moment in Colombian history where
silence was no longer an option for youths, especially considering that the youth of Colombia
was falling victims to the growing violence in the region. Another song by Ehkymosis reacting
to the turbulent time period in the nation’s history was in their 1991 full-length album Niño
Gigante known as “Cultura Fuerte” (“Strong Culture”).781
El tiempo pasa no lo puedo evitar Time passes by and I cannot avoid it

Siempre luchando para ser alguien más Always battling to be something more
Siempre buscando que palabras pensar Always finding what words to think about
Para expresarme sin tener que callar To express myself without having to be silent
Es una fuerza queda dentro de mi It’s a force that stays within me

Queda en mis venas hace parte de mí Stays in my veins and is a part of me
Tiempos enteros tratando de crear Whole times trying to create
780
“No es Justo” in Ehkymosis. De Rodillas. Codiscos, 1991. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
781
“Cultura Fuerte” lyrics in Encylopaedia Meatallum, http://www.metal-
archives.com/albums/Ekhymosis/Ni%C3%B1o_Gigante/78099, accessed 18 August 2012. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
234
Una cultura fuerte para poder: A strong culture to be capable:
Quedarme, salvarme de la Depresión To stay, save myself from the Depression

No quiero ver más a los niños llorar I do not want to see children crying
No quiero ver más a las madres llorar I do not want to see more mothers crying
Tiempos enteros tratando de crear Whole times trying to create
Una cultura fuerte para poder: A strong culture to be capable:

In this song, forging a “strong culture” meant surpassing the trials of those who wanted to
express themselves without having to be “quiet” and waiting patiently for the time to be released;
the song also pleaded not to see mothers and children suffering and to save the individual from
“the Depression.” The “Depression” in this case was Colombia’s state of affairs. In an interview
with the band, they mentioned that part of their inspiration was the “lived violence in the streets
of Medellín, Colombia.”782 Ehkymosis, as other bands around during this time as well as those
mentioned above, were not the only rock groups to discuss the pain and horror confronted by
Colombians in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Colombian hardcore punk rock music, just as
metal and its subgenres, also showcased the local violence in their music productions. In
Bogotá, the hardcore punk band La Pestilencia was also at the forefront in denouncing the
nation’s bloodshed and terror.783
In 1986, Dilson Díaz, former bass guitarist from Masacre, and Héctor Buitrago, current
bass player for Los Aterciopelados, put together a hardcore punk band in Bogotá known as La
Pestilencia. Band members, in an interview with fanzine Subterráneo Medellín, mentioned that
their music was a reflection of “national and global social inconformity” and the “state
782
“Ekhymosis Oficial” in whohub http://www.whohub.com/ekhymosis. accessed 18 August 2012
783
Hardcore music, stemming from punk rock music and borrowing from heavy metal, was a much more aggressive form of punk
rock that, unlike early punk rock music, incorporated guitar solos, used heavy guitar riffs, and divorcing itself from traditional
“verse-chorus-verse” rock music patterns and included spoken word poetry into the repertoire. Some of the notable North
American hardcore punk bands during the course of the 1980s include, for instance, the Dead Kennedys, D.O.A., and Black Flag.
For a documentary focusing on the Hardcore movement in the United States see American Hardcore: The History of Punk Rock
1980-1986 Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2007. Also see Steven Blush and George Petros American Hardcore: A Tribal
History (2nd Edition) (Washington: Feral House, 2010.
235
repression” in which they and their compatriots lived.784 Although the band practiced arduously
and performed across Bogotá, it was not until 1989 that the band released La Muerte . . . Un
Compromiso de Todos which contained songs such as “Fango,” Sicarios,” and “Cartoneros.”
“Fango,” for instance, denounced Colombia’s convoluted reality.785
Podredumbre y corrupción Rotting and corruption

Todo es caos en la nacion Everything is chaos in the nation
Burocracia y ambicion Bureaucracy and ambition
Anarquia es la solucion Anarchy is the solution
Fango, fango fango, fango Degradation, degradation, degradation, degradation
Trece millones extraviados Thirteen million lost

Un ministro asesinado A congressman assassinated
Otros mascarados Others slaughtered
Barco ha naufragado Barco has sunk
Fango, fango fango, fango Degradation, degradation, degradation, degradation
This song not only expressed that the nation was in peril, but it also made reference to then-
President Virgílio Barco and his futile efforts to stop the “assassinations,” “slaughters,” and the
“chaos” occurring in the nation. In an interview front man Dilson Diaz said that the band’s
music focused on denouncing injustice and the corruption located in Colombian society.786
Another topic serving as an influence for a song in La Pestilencia’s music repertoire was
“Sicarios.”787
Sicarios, commando de asesinos Hired assassins, organized group of assassins

Inmediatos Immediate
Prestos a matar Ready to kill
Por bajos honorarios For low fees
En cualquier lugar In any place
Y sin tener horarios And without any schedule
Torturando, secuestrando Torturing, kidnapping

Asesinando Killing
Segovia la major esquina Segovia is the best corner
784
“La Pestilencia Subterraneo Medellin” in Subterráneo Medellín no.3, pg. 8.
785
“Fango” in La Pestilencia La Muerte . . . Un Compromiso de Todos Mort Discos, 1989. The word “fango” also means “bad
reputation,” or “to be discredited,” or “dishonor” as well as also “degradation” I chose to translate “fango” as “degradation.”
Translation by Giovanni Hortua.
786
“Entrevista con La Pestilencia en Días de Radio-septiembre 3 2009” in Youtube accessed 18 August 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ3WNRH7Om4&feature=related.
787
“Sicarios” in La Pestilencia. La Muerte . . . Un Compromiso de Todos. Mort-Discos, 1988. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
236
Víctimas de la guerra sucia Victims of the dirty war
Éxodo en los campos Exodus in the outskirts
Miseria en la ciudad Misery in the city
La muerte tiene precio Death has a price
Y ellos pagaran And they will pay
As mentioned in Chapter 4, it was not uncommon for drug lords to employ youths as
hired assassins to carry out a drug baron’s hit list. In Medellín, sicarios made headline news on
television and in periodicals such as El Tiempo, El Espectador, and El Colombiano. One former
sicario mentioned that he “did it for the money” and “better than doing nothing.”788 In
Colombia, the rising number of assassinations committed against politicians, police officers, and
others deemed as “threatening” to the drug cartel power were done by such youths. According to
reporter Jorge Giraldo Ramírez, Colombia in 1992 was considered one of the most violent
nations in the world, with Medellín “as the urban zone with the largest number of homicides in
the world.”789 In that year, “28,237 murders were registered, of which 102 incidents were
recorded as massacres in which four or more people died.”790 Poverty, another form of violence
affecting Colombian society during this time, was also addressed through the song
“Cartoneros.”791
La basura es su sustento The trash is their sustenance

Recorriendo todo el dia Walking around all day
Las calles por el carton The streets through cardboard
Viviendo de la basura Living off the trash
Viviendo en los desperdicios Living in the waste
Que los ricos desecharon What the rich threw away
Cartoneros todo el dia Scavengers all day

Escarbais para darle Digging to give
De comer a vuestros hijos Food to your kids
Cartonero la pobreza Scavenger poverty

Te acomapaña hasta el final Accompanies you until the end
La esperanza se ha perdido Hope has been lost
788
“Sicario punk” Personal Interview 16 Junio 2009.
789
Jorge Giraldo Ramírez “La experiencia de la muerte violenta” in El Colombiano 11 July 2011 accessed 18 August 2012
http://www.elcolombiano.com/BancoConocimiento/L/la_experiencia_de_la_muerte_violenta/la_experiencia_de_la_muerte_viole
nta.asp.
790
“Colombia: Political violence in Colombia: myth and reality” in Refworld accessed 20 August 2012
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/3ae6a9e60.pdf.
791
“Cartoneros” in La Pestilencia La Muerte . . . Un Compromiso de Todos Mort Discos, 1989. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
237
El sistema te aniquila The system annihilates you
Ya no puedes hacer nada You can do nothing now
In the early 1990s, the homeless in Colombia did not only suffer from poverty and
malnourishment, but also persecution, as mentioned previously, by social cleansing projects,
such as “The A-Team” or “Amor Por Medellín,” who sought to rid the city of its
“undesirables.”792 According to the Catholic Church’s Intercongregational Commission for
Justice and Peace, this agency “documented over 1,900 social cleansing deaths between 1988
and 1992, 500 of them in 1992.”793 Another band that was also critical of the period’s violence
was I.R.A.
In 1985, hardcore punk band I.R.A. (whose band name was S.I.D.A.) was formed by José
R, José Juan, Yoryi, and Viola. Monica Moreno, co-responsible for the growth and development
of the band from its initial beginnings, eventually joined David Viola on vocals and subsequently
became the band’s drummer after various band members left the band. In 1989, the band
published its first EP entitled Barkizidio, or “Barco-cide,” a reference to Colombian president
Virgílio Barco’s futile attempt at reducing the violence in Colombia in the late 1980s and early
1990s. One of the most striking features about the album, apart from the music, was the album
cover itself. According to Viola, the band members collected clippings of random newspaper
headlines and created a collage with a punk version of “The Thinker” (see Picture 5-9). The
album cover summarized the extent of bloodshed in the daily paper. Like Colombian death
metal music album covers, the first EP covers by I.R.A. made a lot of noise in different circles.
What made the album cover very controversial was not the creativity of the hardcore punk
792
“Colombia: Political violence in Colombia: myth and reality” Al Index: 23 January 1994 accessed 20 August 2012
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/3ae6a9e60.pdf.
793
“Colombia: Political violence in Colombia: myth and reality,” Al Index:, January 23, 1994,
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/pdfid/3ae6a9e60.pdf, accessed 20 August 2012.
238
Picture 5-9: A part of the album cover that fell in the hands of Colombia’s most notorious drug
baron. (Author’s Copy)
band music; rather, what made the cover problematic was that it caught someone’s attention in
particular. Viola mentioned that when Barkizidio was distributed, he and his friends were visited
by strange armed men who inquired which of the following individuals were responsible for the
album cover.794 The armed men asked who placed the headline covering an assassination of a
priest on the album cover. When Viola heard this he grew nervous, but he explained to the
unwelcome party that the clippings were chosen at random and that they had no idea that the
headline about the murdered priest was even on the cover or that it would have bothered anyone.
When Viola asked who had sent them and was offended by such news clipping, the men told the
794
“I.R.A.-Fanny-Pogoton-Pirry-Primea Parte-01” in Youtube accessed 20 July 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t66YQx8f_4I.
239
Picture 5-10: Colombia’s late 1980s and early 1990s reality on a hardcore punk rock album.
(Author’s Copy)
young punkers that it was “el Patrón,” Pablo Escobar, who was concerned about the album
cover. Fortunately for I.R.A., Escobar did not ask his henchmen to eliminate the hardcore punk
band. The next I.R.A. album cover was also a reflection of the era’s violence.
I.R.A.’s 1991 release of Atentado Terrorista, though not drawing the same attention that
Barkizidio drew, included an album cover (see Picture 5-10) of a “photocopy of a bomb was
explosion that was published in a local newspaper.”795 According to David Viola, the album
recorded during a time in which “many bombs exploded in Medellín.”796 Consequently, the
album was named Atentado Terrorista because on one occasion
A bomb was directed towards some people that lived in front of Viola’s house in
the barrio Boston (downtown), which destroyed their home, left them in ruins and
795
David Viola, I.R.A. punk: La Antileyenda, 25.
796
Viola, I.R.A. punk: La Antileyenda.
240
not even the state or anyone would take responsibility for what had happened. . .
so all the victims of terrorism had to start from scratch and be thankful that there
were no casualties.797
The album contained songs such as “Atentado Terrorista,” “Burguesia Porkeria,” “Odio la Casa
Blanca,” “Mente Política,” and “Inflación.” In “Mente Política,” politicians were nothing but
bad news for the nation and anyone following politics was contributing to the overall chaos
already existing in Colombia.798
Ensucias mi mente fanático porqueria You dirty my mind you filthy fanatic
Política es desgracia y antipacifica Politics is a disgrace and anti-peace
Estamos en un estado de necios y explotados We are in a State of stubborn and exploited
Esta va hacia la demencia This goes towards dementia
Esta va hacia la violencia This goes towards violence
Mente política - ¡mierda! Political mind-shit!

Mente política - ¡sistema! Political mind-system!
Político lagarto tu craneo ya esta loco Political lizard your skull is already crazy
La gente en donde estudia ustedes son muy tercos The place where you do your schooling are stubborn
Dejen en paz este pais enfermo Leave in peace this ill nation
No política,no doctrina,no ordenes,libre anarquia! No politics, no doctrine, no orders, free anarchy!
Somos anti politicos y anti-oligarquia We are anti-politicians and anti-oligarchy
Politico mentiroso politico buena vida Lying politician, Living the good life politician
Esta va hacia la demencia This goes towards dementia
Esta va hacia la violencia This goes towards violence
Mente politica - ¡mierda! Political mind-shit!

Mente politica - ¡sistema! Political mind-system!
Was President Barco Colombia’s savior following the assassination of Liberal party candidate
Luis Carlos Galán? As implied by I.R.A.’s song, politicians were only instruments to further
increase the death toll in Colombian society. For every attack against the Medellín or Cali cartel,
the drug lords furiously fought back by bombing government offices and killing off anyone
deemed an ally of extradition or an enemy of the drug trade. In late 1980s, another band that
made their mark in Colombia’s punk rock history was Dexkoncierto.
In 1987, Mauricio and Esteban formed the hardcore punk band Dexkoncierto and wrote
the track “Futuro Es Muerte” and recorded the song along with NO’s vocalist Sergio and Los
797
Viola, I.R.A. punk: La Antileyenda.
798
“Mente Política” in I.R.A. Atentado Terrorista. Medellín, 1990. “Mente Política” lyrics in musica.com,
http://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=1259039, accessed 23 August 2013. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
241
Podridox bassman Volketo for Victor Gaviria’s Rodrigo D soundtrack.799 Eventually, the band
incorporated Naranjo on bass, and Esteban remained on percussion while Mauricio served as
vocalist. The band was formed because it was a way to be free from “boredom and let go of all
our frustrations and say something real.”800 In an interview with Subterráneo Medellín, the band
admitted that it was impossible to have outdoor shows because of the violence and that their
songs spoke about “Third World issues in the last decade.”801 Although the band did not enjoy
the same access in recording their material as quickly as I.R.A., the band managed to disseminate
a series of tape recordings of their material that gave them, in the words of David Viola, a “street
credit that needed no formal recording.”802 Among the early recordings from Dexkoncierto
included the songs “Tu Futuro Is Muerte,” “Dexkoncierto,” and “Paz y Democracia.” “Tu
Futuro es Muerte”803 expressed the hypocrisy when politicians make numerous promises but
never follow through with them.
Y se les llena la boca And their mouths are filled

Hablando de un futuro Speaking of a future
Futuro mundo perdido Lost future world
Futuro mundo vencido Future world defeated
Tu futuro es muerte Your future is death

Futuro para los niños Future for kids

Seguro para los ancianos Security for the elderly
Empleo para los jovenes Employment for the youth
Que sigan predicando Let them continue preaching
799
“Dexkoncierto,” MySpace, http://www.myspace.com/dexkoncierto, accessed 22 September 2012.
800
“Dexkoncierto,” Subterráneo Medellín, no.2, 5.
801
“Dexkoncierto,” Subterráneo.
802
803
“Tu Futuro Es Muerte” in Dexkoncierto. “Tu Futuro es Muerte” lyrics in musica.com accessed 25 September 2012
http://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=1832879. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
242
The impoverished antioqueño community members who lived in a landfill in Moravia, a sector
in Antioquia located in the 4th comuna, would have been embraced by this song.804 From 1977
to 1984, Moravia was used by the city of Medellín as a landfill deposit; the local government
was supposedly unaware that there were families living in the garbage. Such tragedy caught the
attention of a wealthy individual who would see to it that those families had place to call home.
In 1984, Pablo Escobar constructed a series of dwellings for the impoverished families
living in Medellin’s refuse and named the new barrio Sin Tugurios. The new housing
settlement, which eventually came to be known as barrio Pablo Escobar after the mafioso’s
death, was a blessing for residents such as Rosalba de Jesús Varela who recalled her experience
in Moravia as previously “having lived in misery.”805 Unlike the local or national government,
Escobar was there to step in, giving the drug baron the necessary credibility to eventually run for
congress in the 1980s. Dexkoncierto was not an advocate of Escobar’s “Robin Hood” means of
alleviating Medellín’s social ills, but the band’s members—as many people—believed that the
actions of El Patrón were remarkable. The band, however, was not focused on Escobar; rather,
they heavily criticized the shortcomings of the national government. Whereas “Tu Futuro es
Muerte” addressed the political hypocrisy, “Paz y Democracia” spoke to the control of First
World powers over the Third World.806
No hay ninguna paz There is no peace

Ninguna Democracia No Democracy
Solo tu sistema Only Your System
El cual apeast a muerte That which smells like death
Controlas a el Salvador You control El Salvador
Controlas a Nicaragua You control Nicaragua
Impones fronteras You impose borders
Controlas nuestra patria You control our nation
Ya empezó tu control Your control has begun
804
Natalia Quiceno Toro, Jacobo Cardona Echeverri, and German Montoya Gil, Moravia Una Historia de Resistencia (Medellin:
Alcaldía de Medellín, 2006), 2.
805
Yeison Gualdrón, “Legalizan viviendas que construyó Pablo Escobar en Medellín,” ElTiempo.Com, August 15, 2012,
http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/medellin/ARTICULO-WEB-NEW_NOTA_INTERIOR-12131722.html, accessed 26
September 2012.
806
“Paz y Democracia” lyrics in “Dexkoncierto,” Subterraneo Medellin no.2, 5.
243
Con paz y democracia With peace and democracy
Mientras planean la guerra While you plan war
Y nos tratan como las ratas and you treat us like rats
The song “Peace and Democracy” pointed to the influence and power of the United States in
Central America and other parts of Latin America, in which historian Greg Grandin described
Latin American democracy in the 1980s as having “to do with the destruction of mass
movements as it did with the rise of new financial elites invested in global markets.”807
Dexkoncierto and other metal and punk bands of the era, in Colombia and other parts of the
world, would have agreed that the late 20th century was a crucial moment in Latin America,
because the U.S. government, in the name of “democracy,” implemented special intelligence and
counterrevolutionary tactics to preserve the U.S. policy of containment. North American policies
in Colombia during the late 1980s and early 1990s were the seeds planted influencing larger
economic ventures and state stabilization strategies (e.g., pre- and Plan Colombia), especially
considering that “cocaine mafias . . . brought the national government to its knees.”808 As a
demonstration of solidarity in the punk scene of Medellín, the bands put together a special music
project voicing their opposition to the injustice, corruption, and violence in society.
Apart from Dexkoncierto, and other hardcore punk bands (and metal bands) that pushed
to create new music in this time of chaos, perhaps no Thrash or Death Metal album spoke more
directly to the detriment of Medellín—or the nation at large—than the hardcore punk
compilation entitled La Ciudad Podrida Vol. I (The Rotten City Vol. I). In 1990, La Ciudad
Podrida, Volume I was released and contained a series of bands that believed a compilation of
this magnitude during a time of national crisis was more than appropriate and necessary (see
Picture 5-11). The album cover itself, much like I.R.A.’s Barkizidio, contained headline news
807
Greg Grandin, The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
2004), 14.
808
Forrest Hylton Evil Hour in Colombia, 78.
244
Picture 5-11: Punk compilation compiling the emotional distress, anxiety, and angst of the era.809
clippings from the nation’s periodicals placed in front of a picture of Medellín’s comunas and
with silhouettes of punk rockers dancing in front of the headlines. The bands participating in this
compilation were Bastardos Sin Nombre, Hijueputa Hardcore, Crimen Impune, Diskorida,
Ataque de Sonido, Dexkoncierto, and Restos de Tragedia. The album included songs suchas
“Aniquilado,” “Corruptores,” “Sociedad/Suciedad,” “Sistema Intoxicado,” “No Quiero Ser un
Soldado,” “Violencia y Muerte,” “Estomagos Vacios,” and other tracks. The album came with a
message detailing the creation of the compilation translated from Spanish to English.
WELCOME TO THE ROTTEN CITY.
CHEERS TO ALL THE DENSE PUNK/HARDCORE/THRASH OF THE WORLD. THAT’S THE FIRST
MEDALLO COMPILATION PRODUCED BY THE SAME MEDELLÍN SCENE. THIS FIRST WORK IS
A PROFIT FOR THE SURVIVAL OF AN UNDERGROUND SCENE, WHICH FIGHTS TO GET MORE
SENSE IN THEIR IDEAS. THEIR OWN LIFE. WE KNOW THIS IS NOT AN OPTIMAL RECORDING.
809
Author’s picture of Gonzalo’s Valencia’s copy of La Ciudad Podrida. Gonzalo Valencia Personal Interview 20 March 2009.
245
BUT IT HAS THE HARDCORE ENERGY TO THE OWN STYLE OF EACH BAND. THERE ARE
SEVEN BANDS FROM A SCENE FIGHTING FOR IS OWN SURVIVAL, EXPRESSING THEIR
REJECTING (VERY JUSTIFIED INDEED!) TO THE MORE VIOLENT SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT, IN
WHICH THEY LIVE. WHEN EVERYONE WHO HAS AN OWN SENSE OF THE REALITY LOOKS
LIKE A FOE WHICH MUST BE DESTROYED. IN OUR CITY THE FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL IS NOT A
CONSTANT ONE; INSTEAD IT MUST BE DEVELOPED EVERY DAY. MEDELLÍN IS PART AND
CENTRAL MOTOR OF A COUNTRY OF THE MISCALLED THIRD WORLD OVER WHELMED BY A
CONSTANT SOCIAL FIST, UNDER THE DESIRES OF THE MISCALLED “LORDS OF THE WORLD”
WHICH TRY TO GET WITH FIRE AND BLOOD, WITH FALSE FREEDOMS AND DRUG HANDLING
A PEOPLE DYING FROM STUPIDITY, TRADITIONALISM AND IDEALISM.
TO OUR SCENE THE PUTTING FORWARD OF A WAY OF LIFE AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT,
OF TOTAL NEW REALITY WITH ORGINAL WAYS TO EXPRESS THEIR IDEAS, EVOLUTIONING,
WITH NO INFLUENCES FROM FOREIGN PLACES OR COMMERCIAL HANDLING OF ANY KIND,
OUR SCENE WHICH IS PART OF SOMETHING CALLED SOCIETY, IS A VIOLENT FIGHT
AGAINST ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH WE LIVE, IT KEEPS ON THE IDEALST CHARGE, THE
EVOLUTION OF THEIR INHABITANTS, THE CULTURAL ILLITERATE AND THE FEAR FOR
TRUTH.
BUT OUR SCENE EXISTS AND THIS COMPILATION IS A SAMPLE OF THIS REALITY. ONE OF
THE IDEAS WITH THIS WORK IS TRYING TO GET MORE DEVELOPMENT, CONTINUITY AND
ADVANCE, WITH A SELF SUFFICIENT OF MUSICAL PRODUCTIONS OF ALL THE BANDS
WHICH WORK WITH AN OWN CRITERION INTO THE HARDCORE THRASH PUNK.
MEDELLÍN, A ROTTEN CITY, A PLACE IN WHICH EVERY STEP IS LIKE A DESPATH AND
EVERY BREATH A SUFFOCATION, BUT THERE ARE BANDS, PEOPLE WITH OWN IDEAS,
CONSTANT WORK, EVOLUTION, AUTONOMY AND CONTRACULTURA IN THE MUSICAL
FIELD, AND IDEOLOGICAL ASPECTS. HARDCORE, THRASH, PUNK ARE SCENE IN THE WORLD
SURVIVING AGAINST ALL THE ODDS.
THIS L.P. IS A REALITY, IS AN ANSWER AND WE WAIT FOR SOME WORKS WITH BEST
TECHNIC AND SOUND.
THAT’S THE ROTTEN CITY VOL. I. (sic)810
The publication of this message, and the fact that it was translated from Spanish into English,
was a product of the album producers’ decision to reach out to a broader audience than just
Spanish speakers. Although the majority of hardcore bands in Medellín (and Colombia)
composed their lyrics in Spanish, translating this message meant that the album itself was being
transported to spaces where English was also the key language of communication between
rockers worldwide.
It was not uncommon for many bands, both in the punk and heavy metal scenes across
the globe, to attempt tapping into the U.S. music market by recording their music in English and
exporting material to the U.S. This phenomenon was common among heavy metal bands across
810
“Images for Various-La Ciudad Podrida Vol. I,” Discogs http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=2409049, accessed 25
August 2012.
246
the globe. The Brazilian thrash metal band Sepultura, for example, wrote lyrics in English as
well as their native language of Brazilian Portuguese and was able to cross over into the U.S.
market after signing with Roadrunner Records.811 Other bands of the 1980s and early 1990s,
such as Germany’s Kreator and Norway’s Burzum, also wrote lyrics in English. Conversely,
punk rock music outside the U.S. and the U.K. was not as interested in breaking through to the
English-speaking music market as did their metal counterparts. The punk rock created in spaces
such as Germany, France, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, and other parts of the non-English speaking
world, typically refrained from using English as the language for composing lyrics. Punk in
Colombia was no exception. In Colombia, for both punk bands and a majority of the metal
bands, the employment of the English language was rare, practically non-existent. The message
written in English in La Ciudad Podrida was clearly intended to reach audiences outside
Spanish-speaking spaces. Was the message in La Ciudad Podrida Vol. I meant for audiences in
the United States and other English speaking communities to comprehend the plight of late 20th
century Colombia?
The message underscored not only the hard work of the bands in the compilation, but also
the lived reality in Colombia. Perhaps the message was not just a plea for folks to understand
what was going on in the nation but also to recognize the challenges in keeping a heavy rock
scene alive. In Subterráneo Medellín, the fanzine published a promotional picture of La Ciudad
Podrida (see Picture 5-11) which showed an indigent individual defecating under the railways of
Medellín’s new metro system. In the promotional picture, a piece of the poster stating “We Built
the Metro with You: Love Medellín” was torn off by a destitute male who presumably was going
to use the piece of paper to wipe himself. The ad itself was a critique of the growing technology
811
André Barcinski and Silvio Gomes, Sepultura: Toda a História (São Paulo: Editora 34, 1999).
247
Picture 5-11: The extent of poverty as Medellín demonstrates its progress with the metro rail. 812
in transportation in the city all the while poverty remained and was rampant in Medellín society.
Although there was a “reduction in the share of the population living in absolute poverty from
1978 to 1995”813 in the nation, Medellín’s poverty—let alone homicide—rate was far from
disappearing. The ad directly criticized Medellín’s focus on the construction of the metro rail, a
project that according to El Tiempo encountered a series of major financial strains that placed the
transportation system in jeopardy.814 La Ciudad Podrida was not going to allow modernity to
mask “Mierdallo” or “Shit-ellin” and the injustice plaguing the city. The hardcore punk
compilation was not only evident in Colombia’s fanzines, but it also made its way across waters.
812
“La Ciudad Podrida” Promotion in Subterráneo Medellín, no. 5 1990, 10.
813
Diego F. Angel-Urdinola and Quentin Wood, “The Gender Wage Gap and Poverty in Colombia,” Labour, December 2009,
Vol. (20), no.4, 721-739.
814
Abdon Espinosa Valderrama, “Turbia Historia Del Metro De Medellin,” Otros, El Tiempo May 10, 1994,
http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-123557, accessed 20 September 2012.
248
Picture 5-12: North American fanzine report on “Columbia” and the heavy rock scene.815
As a result, La Ciudad Podrida, Vol. I arrived in the United States into the hands of
heavy rock music fanatics interested in productions across the globe. The North American
fanzine Maximum Rock and Roll published a special message from Medellín’s rock music
community that promoted La Ciudad Podrida. The article admitted that musically speaking the
album “has a regular sound, but the music (itself) is great.”816 According to the publication,
Colombia’s future seemed dim, considering that Colombia’s president and government were also
guilty of perpetuating violence in the nation, and it argued that “the unemployment rate has
diminished [and] the public force has been duplicated.”817 Furthermore, the article stated:
[Colombia is L]iving a state of brutal violence. The mafias are the main source
of urban violence. The youth is very stupid. There are gun men from all ages,
815
“Scene Reports: Columbia,” Maximum Rock and Roll, no. 88, October, 1990.
816
“Scene Reports: Columbia,” Maximum Rock and Roll.
817
“Scene Reports: Columbia,” Maximum Rock and Roll.
249
even boys. In addition are the paramilitars (sic), guerrillas, death squads—a huge
corruption. 818
Aside from the violence in the nation, the columnist referred to the nation as one filled with
“inhuman humans”; and that though the punk scene was small, it survived despite “the ego,
envy, insincerity, [and] stupidity [prevalent]” in the scene itself.819 The compilation was also
important because it brought together the angst and sentiment found in the different bands (and
supporters) that saw their city crumble to corruption, assassinations, and a growing gap between
the rich and the impoverished. Metalheads or punkers were not the only individuals who spoke
to the ills of Medellín and Colombian society. There were bands and singers from other genres
equally concerned with the nation’s bloodshed.820 As dangerous and as challenging the power of
the cartel seemed, the roquer@s understood that inaction was not the most adequate means of
catharsis. They understood the American mantra: “United we stand, divided we fall.” The
performers and supporters of the punk and heavy metal scene were brave enough to stare straight
into the eyes of tyranny and destruction lyrically, vocally, musically, and physically, all as a
means of survival through one of the most tumultuous time periods in Colombian history.
Conclusion
By the end of the 1980s, Colombian underground heavy rock music looked at different
music forms to discuss what was “sung” all over the daily newspapers and in the nation’s
television news reports. Colombian bands such as Masacre and Neurosis adopted Death Metal
as the most appropriate means to discuss the violence and bloodshed in the nation. Similarly,
bands such as I.R.A., La Pestilencia, and Dexkoncierto adopted hardcore punk music, musically
818
“Scene Reports: Columbia” Maximum Rock and Roll no. 88 October 1990.
819
“Scene Reports: Columbia” Maximum Rock and Roll no. 88 October 1990.
820
For example, Colombian folk-style songs “Hay Que Sacar al Diablo” and “Hermano Guerrillero” were inspired by the growing
violence in the nation.
250
pushing its intensity and also expressing angst against a violent society and a youth that could
expect a non-existent future. These and other bands wrote and—if possible—recorded their
apathy, sympathy, sadness, angst, happiness, disgust, and everything that they were denied: an
opportunity to live a healthy lifestyle in a healthy environment that expressed an ounce of
concern for their well-being and their future. As a result, one of the most important productions
of the era was the compilation entitled La Ciudad Podrida, Vol. 1. The compilation, a product of
a host of bands participating to create a testimony regarding Colombia’s turbulent times, made
its way to places outside Colombia’s borders. Such production was not happenstance. It was a
product of metalheads and punkers creating their own safety zones to escape becoming the next
victims of the drug war.
Although not all punkers and metalheads survived the onslaught of death and bloodshed
of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the members from both scenes created spaces that helped
fortify their music identity and a safety net for fans and musicians to escape becoming victims to
the nation’s violence. This was a space for members to forget about the trials and tribulations of
walking through streets threatened by car bombs and sicarios searching for their next victims.
Unfortunately, some of the community’s heavy rockers that served the Medellín cartel as
assassins did not survive the era of Pablo Escobar and the war between the Colombian national
government and the drug traffickers of the country. For those who did survive, their reasons for
partaking in the illicit business superseded any code of ethics. By the early 1990s, Colombia’s
metal music scene paved the way for an even more aggressive form of heavy metal—a type of
metal sweeping parts of Europe, rooted in the early 1980s in Colombia, and striking at the
institution most influential in Latin American society: the Catholic Church.
251
CHAPTER 6 6 6
South American “Sympathy for the Devil?” The Rise of Colombian Black Metal
“When I met Parabellum, I was scared . . . I was a little shit [back] then and
during those times they were scary.”
—Nosferatu, devoted black metalhead from Medellín821
“We had a war (against) Christianity….If we are [still] playing… it’s for a
reason.”
—Dominus from Colombian black metal band Nebiros822
“My Lord, in your hands I commend to thee this day that has passed, and the
night that comes.”
—Father Rafael García Herreros, founder of the Minuto de Dios organization823
“Ave Lucifer/True Father/Powerful emperor of darkness/Who is faithful to you

you don’t forget/But who is fake you punish/The sacrifice you always accept/But
betrayal you never forget”
—“Ave Lucifer” from Colombian Black Metal band Nebiros824
By the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, the intense warfare between the drug cartels and
the national government in Colombia reached new heights with Bogotá and Medellín citizens
falling victims to car bombs that leveled office buildings.825 For many of Colombia’s citizenry,
going out into the city’s streets was not a wise option considering safety could not be guaranteed
by any armed official. Former police general Oscar Naranjo stated that people were so fed up
with all the violence that they wanted the State to do whatever it was necessary to stop the
bloodshed, especially considering “there were two or three car bombs in Bogotá [or] in
Medellín” and “each week there were 120 people dead.”826 The metal and punk bands that
reflected on the nation’s atrocities, as described in the previous chapter, voiced their angst and
821
“Luz Oscura” Personal Interview 20 March 2009.
822
“Dominus" Personal Interview 25 March 2009.
823
Marisol Ortega Guerrero, “El Ultimo Minuto de García Herreros,” El Tiempo, November 25, 1992.
824
“Ave Lucifer” lyrics in Letras.terra.com, http://letras.terra.com/nebiroscol/1373278/. accessed 31 October 2012.
825
According to the magazine Semana, 5,000 deaths could be attributed to Pablo Escobar. See “Las otras víctimas de Pablo
Escobar: los heroes olvidados,” Semana.com, accessed http://www.semana.com/gente/otras-victimas-pablo-escobar-heroes-
olvidados/181078-3.aspx, 31 October 2012.
826
“Jefe policial que destruyó el narco colombiano va a México” in Terra.com.ar accessed 31 October 2012
http://noticias.terra.com.ar/internacionales/jefe-policial-que-destruyo-el-narco-colombiano-va-a-
mexico,0f18b3beb00f7310VgnVCM3000009acceb0aRCRD.html.
252
anxieties through the music produced and the concerts organized. Music production and live
performances during this tumultuous time served as forms of resistance to the nation’s
bloodshed. Colombian metal music however would see the growth of a new musical “beast,” a
darker metal subgenre that was just as brutal as the Death Metal and Hardcore Punk productions.
This metal subgenre was known as Black Metal.
This chapter looks at the rise, evolution, and development of Black Metal music in
Colombia from 1984 to 1995. The Black Metal music scenes in Colombia and Norway, as in
other parts of the world, opposed the influence and dominance of Christianity. Colombian Black
Metal was a product of the evolution of metal music during the 1980s. Also, as the local Death
Metal and Hardcore punk, the music was a product of the tensions taking place in the nation’s
major cities. For the bands surviving this violent period, Colombia was hell. The chapter
showcases a sample of some of the major Colombian Black Metal artists which included
Parabellum, Blasfemia, Nekromantie, Reencarnación, Inquisition, Nebiros, and Typhon. These
were bands that also rejected national politics and abhorred Catholic dogma in the country. Did
this mean that all the mentioned bands were Satanic? This chapter argues that performing Black
Metal music did not necessarily mean the performers were Satanic. Rather, Black Metal music
served as the most appropriate and offensive musical style against a pro-Christian society.
Colombian Black Metal, as in other parts of the globe, contained lyrics and images that appeared
to praise Satanism and reject the Christian faith. How did clerics and parishioners respond to the
music?
For the Catholic Church, the Devil was not encrypted in heavy rock music. There were
albums, pictures, and songs that may have raised questions as to the influence of the Dark Prince,
but Satan was not located in any jukebox. The Church believed that the real Devil was the
253
bombs and assassinations blowing away politicians, civilians, and anyone who was caught in the
crossfire in the nation’s drug war. If the church was not worried about metal music, then where
were the concerns coming from?
The labeling of metal musicians and scene members as “satanic” was not so much a
product of the Catholic Church, as a concern by parents who felt the Devil lurked in any form of
rock music, its listeners, and musicians. It would be too simplistic to say that Colombian metal
(and punk) artists were just a bunch of Satanists proclaiming their hatred for Christianity and
worshipping the Devil. The narratives of concerned parents raised parallels that were echoed on
periodical publications such as El Colombiano and El Tiempo: the youth needed to be protected
from Satan’s music and any diabolical influence that led them astray from being good upright
citizens. Ironically, the same newspapers that praised international rock (i.e. hard rock, heavy
metal, etc.) music acts for coming to perform in Colombia, such as Quiet Riot in 1989, were a bit
more wary when those performing were homegrown. Ultimately, metal—and punk—scene
members were considered “foreign” and branded as diabólico—a stereotype used as a way to
explain the “unknown” and “unfamiliar” in Colombian society.
Diabolus in Musica827? The Roots and Development of Black Metal in Colombia
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, while Colombian heavy rock music witnessed the rise
of bands such as Carbure and Fenix, European metal’s “first wave” of Black Metal bands
included groups such as Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer, and Celtic Frost.828 The 1982 album of
827
“Diabolus in Musica” was used as part of the title referencing the band Slayer’s seventh album. Slayer. Diabolus in Musica.
American, 1998.
828
For more on the social history of Black Metal music see Heavy Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. Sam Dunn. dir. Warner
Home Video, 2006. DVD. Also, see Black Metal: The Music of Satan. Bill Zebub. dir. Grimoire Studio, 2011, Black Metal: A
Documentary. Bill Zebub. dir. Zebub Studio, 1997, and Until the Light Takes Us. Audrey Ewell. dir. Factory 25, 2010. For
scholarly works on black metal history see Johan Kugelberg, True Norwegian Black Metal (New York City: VICE BOOKS,
2008), Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground (Los
254
the English band Venom, entitled “Black Metal,” was credited with coining the subgenre’s name.
Black metal music incorporated heavy guitar riffs and quick double-bass drum beats similar to
Death Metal. However, unlike Death Metal and other metal subgenres, Black Metal used high-
pitched vocals, shrieks, and screams—as oppose to grunts and groans and growls—to
accompany the music. Another major characteristic of Black Metal music was that the lyrics
were specifically anti-Christian and pro-Satan. In Europe, many of the Black Metal artists
opposed Christianity, writing lyrics and posting images on album covers that harked back to
Scandinavian deities and other symbols. 829 The first wave of European Black Metal proved
extremely influential to bands in Colombia—as well as in other Latin American countries during
the 1980s.
Music by bands such as Bathory and Hellhammer made its way to Colombia and other
parts of Latin America. Six years before the “second wave” of Black Metal music began in 1990
in Europe , Colombian bands, such as Parabellum, developed a unique sound that was labeled as
Ultra Metal—a sound used to describe Parabellum and extreme metal music in Colombia .
Parabellum’s members, as mentioned previously, were from Medellín’s comunas and included
Ramón Reinaldo Restrepo on vocals, John Jairo Martinez on rhythm guitar, “La Bruja” Carlos
Mario Pérez on lead guitar, and “Cipri” Tomas Cipriano Alvarez on drums. When the band was
formed in 1984, its music hit the underground metal scene in Medellín with a sound that
incorporated many of the characteristics denoting Black Metal music: screeching vocals, fast and
heavy music, and quick percussion. In an interview with Visión Rockera, band members
Angeles: Feral House, 2003), and Louis Pattison, Nick Richardson, Brandon Stosuy, et al., Black Metal: Beyond the Darkness
(London: Black Dog Publishing, 2012).
829
For scholarly works on the Christianity’s conquest of Scandinavia see Nora Berend, Christianization and the Rise of Christian
Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus’ c 900-1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), Anders Winroth,
The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2012).
255
commented that “they were part of a youth rebelling against death” and that their repertoire
included “10 long songs, instrumental/mystics and violent, sacrileges and vulgarities.”830 The
band’s performers mentioned, in the same interview, that they did not ascribe to any specific
rock genre such as “Speed, Thrash, Heavy nor anything of that style [because they] only play
Metal.”831 For their time, Parabellum was considered by aficionados as the Ultra Metal band.
Parabellum was still musically ahead of its time, though the band rejected of any sort of
label on its music. Nonetheless, the band was a forerunner in global Black Metal music. Many
of Parabellum’s lyrics and imagery incorporated anti-Christian overtones, a music style
quintessential to Black Metal music production. Parabellum’s discography included two works
released during the late 1980s.832 Their first Extended Play (EP) record was not released until
1987 despite the band having demo tapes since 1984, because no record companies would
support them. As mentioned previously, record companies did not take Parabellum into
consideration; Parabellum’s contemporaries Kraken was more appealing because its music was
considered commercially profitable. Ultimately, the music and album’s cover art finalized for
the 1987 Sacrilegio record was Parabellum’s response to the power and influence of Catholic
morale on Colombian society (See Picture 6-1).
The album cover art on Sacrilegio, drawn by band drummer Cipriano, invoked a strong
anti-Catholic image. The EP cover art (top Picture 6-1) was a darker version of the “Virgen del
830
“Parabellum,” Visión Rockera, July 1987, no. 6, 6.
831
“Parabellum,” Visión Rockera..
832
Emilio Cuesta Personal Interview 15 March 2009. A special compilation of Parabellum’s music was made once again
available thanks to the efforts of metal archivists and promoters like Emilio Cuesta and Blasfemia Records who released a special
commemorative collection of Parabellum’s music in 2005.
256
Picture 6-1: Challenging Colombian Accepted Norms? (Author’s picture above)833
833
The top picture of Parabellum’s album is the author’s picture. The bottom picture of the “Virgen del Carmen” from
“Celebración Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen,” Briceño, http://briceno-antioquia.gov.co/sitio.shtml?apc=Cvxx-1-&x=2168446,
accessed 31 October 2012.
257
Carmen” picture (bottom Picture 6-1), which showed the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus
holding scapulars; Sacrilegio’s left and right of the center figures were demons holding people
who were weeping or desperately praying, as well as one individual was depicted flagellating
himself. This image contrasted the original picture in which the “Virgen del Carmen” and Child
Jesus were saving people from the fires of hell. The EP contained two tracks entitled
“Engendro666” and “Madre Muerte,” whose lyrical content identified directly with the black
metal tradition.834 “Engendro 666” foretold the imminent arrival of the Apocalypse with Satan
and “Mother Death” leading the way towards damnation.835
Satán y madre muerte juntos se aparecen Satan and mother death appear together
Sobre el altar de una iglesia Over a church altar
Madre Muerte clava agujas en su vientre Mother Death places needles in her womb
Satán escupe pus de su pene Satan spits pus from his penis
El firmamento engrisece, la tierra se agita The sky grays, the earth shakes
Apocalipsis se acerca The Apocalypse is near
Aguardando en su vientre miles de siglos Holding in her womb thousands of centuries
Oh! Redentor maldito Oh! Damned Redeemer
Salvación eterno, guerreros de metal Eternal salvation, metal warriors
Hechiceros del mal Evil witchcraft
Condenación eternal Eternal Condemnation
La bestia destruirá toda la humanidad The beast will destroy all of humanity
Lamentos en el viento Regrets in the wind
Ángeles del averno se masturban en el cielo Angels from the underworld masturbate in the sky
Tiene lengua de serpiente, tiene cuernos de cabro He has a serpent’s tounge, he has goat’s horns
Enano con cara de anciano Midget with the face of an old man
Y el sublime poeta dedico sus versos al sol And the sublime poet dedicated his verses to the sun
Y este con sus rayos de fuego lo quemo who with its rays of fire burned him
Y la luna con sus frías caricias sano sus heridas And the moon with its cold caresses healed his wounds
Y al marica poeta le cortaron su cabeza And the fagot poet they cut off his head
Y quemaron su cuerpo en la hoguera. And they burned his body on a stake.
666 engendro! 666 engendro! 666 engendro! 666 engender! 666 engender! 666 engender!
Bestias entre las bestias tu reino será eterno, Beasts among beasts your kingdom will be eternal,
Enviado del infierno Sent from hell
Plagas malignas invaden la tierra oh! Rata muerta Deadly plagues invade the planet oh! Dead rat
Tiene lengua de serpiente, tiene cuernos de cabro, He has a serpent’s tongue, he has goat’s horns,
Enano con cara de anciano Midget with the face of an old man
El cuento maldito será destruido The damned story will be destroyed
Y sus sagradas mentiras serán escupidas. And his sacred lies will be spat.
Aguardando en su vientre miles de siglos Keeping in in his womb thousands of centuries

oh! Redentor maldito oh! Damned redeemer
Lamentos en el viento, Laments in the wind
834
“Engendro 666” from Parabellum. Tempus Mortis. Blasfemia Records, 2006.
835
“Engendro 666” lyrics in Album Canción y Letra, http://www.albumcancionyletra.com/engendro-
666_de_parabellum___246630.aspx, accessed 24 August 2013. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
258
Ángeles del averno se masturban en el cielo Angels from the underworld masturbate in the sky
Salvación eterna, guerreros de metal, Eternal salvation, metal warriors
Hechiceros del mal. Evil witchcraft
Satán ríe en el infierno Satan laughs in hell
Madre muerte cabalga sobre su cuerpo. Mother death rides horseback over his body.
The first stanza above declares that the underworld would destroy “all humanity” just before the
arrival of the Apocalypse. The song also references the destruction of the world with Satan
laughing in hell. The triumph of Satan over humanity and the entire world in the song above
paralleled the second—and final—song comprising the EP. In “Madre Muerte,” Mother Death
was described as a “God damned witch,” a “starving rat,” a “medieval prostitute,” and Satan’s
bitch.” According to the song, Mother Death was Satan’s messenger sent to earth.836
Se masturba y se orina She masturbates and she urinates

Grita y vomita Screams and Vomits
Llora y Defeca Cries and Defecates
Rie y es Mueca Laughs and is Grinning
Muerta! Dead!
In this song, Satan sent “Mother Death” to punish the world by death, causing “destruction and
chaos, pestilence and holocaust.”837 The lyrics also make reference to the “Hail Mary” prayer:
“Blessed is the fruit of thy womb . . . Damned is the fruit of thy womb” as well as “Damned is
the fruit of thy womb engender of death.”838 In the EP recording both songs mixed shrieks and
screams, blaring distorted guitars, fast drumbeats, with several verses that sounded very similar
to an evil and twisted version of a church choir. Was Parabellum writing music in support of
and devotion to Satan?
On the one hand, it appeared that Parabellum was “injecting venom” into their listeners
by positing anti-Christian discourse. Parabellum’s music went beyond praising the Dark Prince.
836
“Madre Muerte” in Parabellum. Tempus Mortis. Blasfemia Records, 2006. “Madre Muerte” lyrics in “Encyclopaedia
Metallum-Parabellum (Col)-Tempus Mortis,” Encylopaedia Metallum, http://metal-archives.com/release.php?id=93592, accessed
9 June 2010. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
837
“Madre Muerte” lyrics in “Encyclopedia Metallum-Parabellum (Col)-Tempus Mortis,” Encylopaedia Metallum.
838
“Madre Muerte” lyrics in “Encyclopedia Metallum-Parabellum (Col)-Tempus Mortis,” Encylopaedia Metallum.
259
According to lead singer Ramón Reinaldo Restrepo, the band’s music was driven by Colombia’s
sociohistorical process of the era, a moment in which Colombia experienced “extreme social
decomposition or general chaos” which gave rise to “diverse artistic manifestations including
musical [ones] that served to compensate for the intensity [of the time].”839 Apart from the death
and destruction plaguing Medellín and other cities at this time, Restrepo also mentioned that he
believed many of the bands from his generation were filled with more hate and angst than those
that preceded Parabellum. He stated that during the 1980s, there was an atmosphere of
“resistance to the music market, mediocrity, and the impotence and abuse of the State, and the
superficial lifestyles [found in youths of the time].”840 There was a rejection by the band
members of trends and fashion and a great disdain for commercializing music because Restrepo
felt that doing so would risk losing his band’s “ideological and philosophical ideals” causing a
“loss of essence.” 841 The band’s members were not concerned with becoming the next smash
hit in Colombian society; they stated theywould only “release limited editions to avoid the
Goddamn Commercialism!”842 The band was not seeking material wealth and no record
company would offer to record any of their material until the late 1980s. Whether or not
Parabellum were writing about the Devil, there were members within the metal scene who
believed that writing songs incorporating Satan was actually doing the scene a disservice.
In Visión Rockera, a column entitled “Nuestra Realidad” (“Our Reality”) published an
article questioning the production of heavy metal music that incorporated Satanic lyrics.843
If in reality we think that talking about satán, burning flames, indestructible

superior forces, engenderers, fascisms, domination and others [like subjects]
839
“Entrevista a Ramon Restrepo: ‘Nustra musica es resureccion’,” Hordas del Caos,
http://14brujas.blogspot.com/2010/05/entrevista-ramon-restrepo-nuestra.html, accessed 1 December 2012.
840
“Entrevista a Ramon Restrepo: ‘Nustra musica es resureccion’,” Hordas del Caos.
841
“Entrevista a Ramon Restrepo: ‘Nustra musica es resureccion’,” Hordas del Caos.
842
“Parabellum” in Visión Rockera July 1987 no. 6, 6.
843
“Nuestra Realidad” Visión Rockera January 1987, no. 4, 3.
260
contribute to the awareness of the rocker [community, it is not true]. [On] the
contrary, [we don’t move the scene forward, because] such topics are out of our
reality.
Why is that we speak of satán since this is how we contribute to influencing
minds with false ideas about [other] mediocre religions? It is also worth noting
that this is for bands that are not aware of our current reality.
We should not forget that rock [exists] due to the discontent that lies in our youths
unto a society that agonizes in death, whose institutions (government, order,
banks, etc.) do not have anything to offer except their imperial and repressive
order, depriving us of free expression in our music in [an environment] scarce in
what we need to subsist (work, food, education, etc.).
We should take into account the people in which we are directing our música
messages so that we could posit a more critical message in music and the medium
used to disseminate it.
Was incorporating the Devil into metal music seriously out of touch with reality? The answer
was no. As mentioned, Colombia faced its day-to-day hell on the streets, in stadiums, in
government buildings, at funerals, in cemeteries. Colombia’s “demons” ravaged the streets of
Bogotá and Medellín. Although the article called for music that focused on the nation’s “current
realities,” moving away from incorporating “satanic” lyrics was not veering away from any
social criticisms.
Ironically, Visión Rockera published a provocative picture showing Satan embraced by a
punker and a female metalhead standing on a platform over a “dead’ monsignor Trujillo, a
politician, and police officer (See Picture 6-2). The representations on the image highlight the
three sources of oppression in Colombian society talked about by many of the artists mentioned
in this work. Although the “politician” and the “police officer” were not tagged with any
specific name, the bishop tied to the post represented then-Archbishop of Medellin Alfonso
López Trujillo. Trujillo was not only an advocate in boycotting family planning, but
261
Picture 6-2: The triumph of Satan, metal, and punk over Colombia’s corrupt machine? (Author’s
copy)
262
also opposed homosexuality and fought arduously against liberation theology.844 Furthermore,
Satan’s gender was also established in this drawing, giving the Dark Prince an essence of power
as demonstrated by his stance and erect penis. Another band in Medellin considered forerunners
of the nation’s Black Metal groups Parabellum was Restrepo’ second musical project called
Blasfemia.
In 1986, Blasfemia was the post-Parabellum project put together by John Jairo Martinez
and Velilla.845 After Velilla stepped out of the band, Blasfemia eventually included Ramón
Reinaldo Restrepo on vocals and bass guitar, Luis Fernando Cano on drums, and Jhon Jairo
Martinez on guitar. 846 According to Tempus Mortis, the band stated that an individual who
blasphemed was not necessarily denying the existence of God, but rather rejecting everything
that “alienates and extirpates the conscience; [the real] blasphemy of blasphemies was the false
religion that preaches submission.”847 In short, Blasfemia was speaking against the power of
organized religion and the Catholic Church, a church that held much power and political
influence in major industrial centers such as Antioquia. Did this mean the band was Satanic? In
an interview with Visión Rockera the band underscored that they “were not Satanists” and that
their “music spoke about realities rather than fantasies.”848 The band’s repertoire was not limited
to critiquing religion, but also included topics such as warfare and political corruption and other
issues that influenced the course of Colombia’s late 20th century history. The band mentioned in
an interview that their ideology was “real existentialism, where [they] try to show our people that
844
Some of the works by the former archbishop and cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo testifying to his commitment to his belief
system during the 1970s and 1990s and mid-1990s included La liberación y el Compromiso del Cristiano ante la política
(Medellín: Ediciones Mensajero, 1973), Liberación marxista y liberación cristiana (Medellín: Bibilioteca de Autores Cristianos,
1974), De Medellín a Pubela (Medellín: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1980), Caminos de Evangelización (Medellín:
Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1985), No matarás a mi me lo hiciste. Comentarios y texto de la encíclica Evangelium vitae de
Juan Pablo II (Madrid: Edicep, 1995).
845
“Blasfemia,” Tempus Mortis, November 1988, no. 1, 2.
846
“Blasfemia,” Encylopaedia Metallum, www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=21652,accessed 8 July 2010.
847
“Blasfemia,” Tempus Mortis.
848
“Blasfemia,” in Visión Rockera July 1988, no.8 , 7.
263
Every Day The System Subjugates Us More.”849 Also, the band’s lyrics were not only directed
towards organized religion but also more broadly “based on the near future, where mankind
should be aware that it is he who will be his own destroyer.”850 Some of the band’s song titles
included “Presagio,” “Guerra Total,” “Mas Allá de la Ignorancia,” “Postmortem,” “Inmundicia,”
“Blasfemia,” and “Política de Asalto.” The song “Blasfemia,” for example, unveiled how
“blasphemy” provides a gateway to understanding the truth and to choosing one’s own path.851
Blasfemia predica el real sentido de la existencia Blasphemy preaches the real sense of existence
Con sonido y letras que emergen de la With sound and words that emerge out of the
Sombria nube humana Dark human cloud
Con la unión de los contrarios extinguida en la memoria With the unity of the opponents extinguished in the
Violenta al orgullo y humilla a la soberbia. Violent memory of the pride and humiliates the dark
Destroza el absurdo que engaña con caricias, Destroyed the absurdity that fools with caresses
Los dolorosos desaciertos que a la humanidad esclaviza, The painful mistakes that enslaves humanity,
A voz de truenos y a ritmo de tormentas. With thunderous voice and at rhythm of storms.
Blasfemia de las blasfemias, Blasphemes of blasphemes,
De la falsa religión que predica alineación, From the false religion that preaches alienation,
Sin perseguir anticristos, Without following antichrists,
Muestra caminos para que elijas el tuyo. Shows paths so that you can choose your own.
Lenguas aridenties derraman por cielo y tierra su furia, Burning tongues spill its fury over heavy and earth
Rinden, mortifican, acusan, Yields, mortifies, accuses,
Palabras castigadas, castradas por diestra chastising words, castrated by the right hand
y siniestra derraman and the sinister spills
escupen cuerpos consagrados spits up consecrated bodies.
The song, as the Tempus Mortis interview suggested, was a critique of organized religions’
power that prevented people from choosing their own path. Blasfemia stated that “their music
would like to create consciousness regarding our rotten society where we are controlled like
marionettes due to so much repression.”852 The band’s logo, which was displayed during their
performances, was a demonic-harlequin tied to a stake in flames. The harlequin, a mischievous
849
“Blasfemia,” in Visión Rockera.
850
“Blasfemia,” in Visión Rockera.
851
“Blasfemia” from Blasfemia.Guerra Total. Madman Productions, 1988.
852
“Blasfemia,” Visión Rockera July 1988, no.8, 7.
264
Picture 6-3: The diabolical harlequin incorporated into Blasfemia’s repertoire (Author’s pictures)
265
and “trickster” character found in French, African, and Italian folklore,853 was on the one hand a
character employed in theater as a form of entertainment; in certain cultures the harlequin was
connected to the devil or acts connected to worshipping the devil. Blasfemia incorporated an evil
and distorted version of the harlequin by tying this character on a burning stake and placing the
entire scene on a Colombian flag during live performances (See Picture 6-2). The burning of the
demonic harlequin represented the end of trickery and fooling and with the image placed in the
center of the Colombian flag the diabolical harlequin represented the end of misguiding and
fooling the populace. Colombia could no longer be fooled because corruption, lies, deceit were
sentenced to death. As mentioned above, Blasfemia’s repertoire was not only comprised of
lyrics discussing the underworld, but also songs denouncing the evil in society and the role that
the “metal warriors” played in destroying the ignorant and those “fooled” and “possessed.”854
Rindiendo a la humanidad Giving into humanity,

Aparacen los guerreros del metal, The metal warriors appear,
Herederos de la predicción, Heirs to the prediction
Reencarnados sin maldición, Reincarnated without evil,
Engendrados no creados por el hombre, Engendered not created by man,
Maestros, sabios, letrados, Teachers, wise, lawyers,
A los tercos con violencia obligaron, The stubborn they obligated,
De la existencia ellos hablaron, Of existence they spoke of,
De las mentiras reirán, Of lies they will laugh,
A los falsos descubrirán, The false they will discover,
Condenado al tiempo, Condemned in time,
Reclamando la verdad. Reclaiming the truth,
Ensontanados, lavando cerebros, Soutane wearers brainwashing,
Con palabras de castidad, With words of chastity,
Bufones insultantes de la realidad, Insulting jesters of reality,
Su mentira no sera eternidad, Their lies will not be eternal,
El hombre algún dia comprenderá Mankind will someday comprehend,
Que la única verdad es su voluntad. Their only through will be their will.
Multitud ignorante nacerá, The multitude born in ignorance,

Resignados, conformados morirán, Resigned, conformed they will die,
Más allá de la ignorancia esta la verdad, Far beyond ignorance is the truth,
Más allá de la demencia su inmortalidad. Far beyond dementia is immortality.
853
“Blasfemia,” Visión Rockera.
854
“Más Allá de la Ignorancia” in Blasfemia. Guerra Total. Madman Productions, 1988. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
266
Picture 6-3 Nekromantie posing with their metal music influences.855
(See Picture 6-3).856
The harlequin in this song referred to those in Colombian society that sought to create a
population of brainwashed citizens. Blasfemia’s imagery and anti-Christian messages were also
parallel to another band that posited a critique of Colombian society couched in references to the
Underworld.
In 1986, Nekromantie was formed and included with Tavo on vocals, Sergio on rhythm
guitars, Jorge on lead guitars, Norman on bass guitar, and Carlos “Vikingo” on drums
855
Picture of Nerkomantie found in Prontuariomedellin, http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CG1b5mDHB5Q/UGoH584-
INI/AAAAAAAAAls/OShv7e5eGhs/s1600/nekromantie.jpg., accessed 24 December 2012.
856
“Nekromantie,” Encylopaedia Metallum, http://www.metalarchives.com/bands/Nekromantie/46650, accessed 8 July 2010.
267
One of the key elements in Black Metal music, as in other subgenres of metal music, was
the incorporation of black clothing accompanied by “corpse” paint.857 In an interview
with the band, Nekromantie was asked if they wore “costumes” when they performed.
The commented that they were not wearing costumes because people “in the streets knew
who [they were].”858 What they felt they were doing during performances was “adapting
[themselves] to the stage . . . . . to transmit more energy.”859 The band “transformed”
itself into Nekromantie when performing on stage. Performances by black metal artists
were rituals. Followers—and not simply fans—attended ceremonies and veered away
from overexposing the scene. The band ultimately released two demos, one in 1987 and
the second in 1988, with original recordings as well a cover of Hellhammer’s song
entitled “Massacra.”860 In an interview in Visión Rockera the band mentioned that their
name was chosen because in German the word “nekromantie” meant “black magic.”861
The band also explained that satanic lyrics expressed Colombia’s lived reality and that
Nekromantie’s songs also incorporated the nation’s problems into their music.
[Satanic lyrics expressed our lived reality] because it was against the Catholic
religion which [was] the largest monopoly of society and numbing of minds. But
we don’t’ just write satanic lyrics, we also take on topics such as the Nuclear
Holocaust, Police Repression, Unbridled Insanity, the Bourgeoisie, etc.862
Although Nekromantie’s music and imagery incorporated many anti-Christian elements, song
titles such as “Ezquizofrenia,” “Hombres Falsos,” and “Holocausto de Guerra” touched on topics
that were not solely focused on simply criticizing the power of the Church in the nation.
857
Corpse paint used in Black Metal was visible during the second wave of Black Metal music in Europe. The paint, similar to
mime make-up, was placed over the entire face (and in some cases the neck as well) of the performer, showing that the artist was
“dead” on stage.
858
“Nekromantie,” Visión Rockera, November 1986, no. 3, 3.
859
“Nekromantie,” Visión Rockera, November 1986, no. 3, 3.
860
Nekromantie. Nekromantie Demo. Medellín, 1987; Nekromantie. Rehearsal Demo. Medellín, 1988.
861
“Nekromantie,” Visión Rockera.
862
“Nekromantie,” Visión Rockera.
268
“Holocausto de Guerra” described the horrors of a total war leaving nothing but death and
destruction.863
Paz armada, Guerra Santa Armed peace, Holy War

Justificacion de oppression y muerte Justification for oppression and death
Potentes armas dominadas por dementes Powerful weapons dominated by the demented
Sus armas de poder no los detiene Their powerful weapons don’t hold them back
Despilfarro de dinero aumentando la miseria Waste of money increasing misery
Rostros demacrados reflejando la muerte Emaciated faces reflecting death
Habitando en claacas and slums Inhabiting in cloaacas and slums
Condenados a su maldito future Condemned to their damned future
Viendo sus sueños desvanecer. Watching their dreams disappear.
Holocausto de Guerra Holocaust War

Quimica Mortal Mortal Chemical
Guerra Nuclear Nuclear War
Holocausto de Guerra Holocaust War
Destruccion y muerte en la tierra Destruction and death on Earth.
In the sample of “Holocaust War” presented above, a response to the Cold War of the era, the
Earth was at the mercy of powerful and “demented” individuals who destroyed it with nuclear
weapons causing death and destruction for impoverished peoples across the globe. Another
contemporary of Nekromantie and Blasfemia to make their mark on the evolution of Black Metal
music in Colombia was Reencarnación.
Also in 1986, Reencarnación put forth its own project incorporating lyrics and imagery
that alluded to the Underworld as well as songs that denounced politics and social conformity.
The first band members included vocalist and guitarist Piolín and Federico “Habichuela” López
also on guitar.864 The band acquired the talent of “Petete” on guitars, “El Sorpre” on bass, and
eventually Germán “El Gato” Villa on drums865 and influenced by groups such as “Rush, Uriah
863
Holocausto de Guerra,” Visión Rockera, November 1986, no. 3, 4. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
864
Other members of the band having influence on the course of Reencarnación included Mauricio Valencia, César Díez, Jairo
Restrepo, Jhon Jairo Usme, “Comegato,” Alejandro Gutiérrez, Carlos Andrés Cañas, Marcelo Arroyave, Ricardo Amaya, David
Rivera. Currently, the lineup includes Laura Corrales on bass guitar, Juan Diego Vélez on guitar, Martín David Naranjo on
drums, and Piolín on vocals and rhythm guitar. “REENCARNACION,” Encylopaedia Metallum, http://www.metal-
archives.com/bands/Reencarnaci%C3%B3n/17907, accessed 8 July 2010.
865
Reencarnación: 888 Metal. Román González, dir. Amordemente, 2006.
269
Picture 6-4: Reencarnación productions incorporating upside-down crosses and a darker
representation of death itself. (Author’s Pictures)
270
Heep, Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Voivod, Slayer, Parabellum, Ratos de Porao, Rövsvett,
Permanent Damage, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, G.B.H., Bach and Stravinski.”866
Reencarnación’s music repertoire included albums such as a demo released in 1987 called
Dioses Muertos, a self-titled full-length album in 1988 (see top of Picture 6-4), Acompáñame a
La Tumba in 1988 (see bottom of Picture 6-4), as well as Alucinogeno (Hallucinogen) in 1989
and as other productions in the 1990s attesting to musical evolution of the band.867
In Reencarnación’s Dioses Muertos as well as their self-titled album included recordings
and re-recordings such as “El Canto de Los Sepulcros,” “Puta Religión,” “Funeral del Norte,” “A
la Diestra del Mesias,” and “Reencarnación (888 Metal).”868 In “El Canto de Los Sepulcros”
heavy metal will destroy those who contributed to “hate,” “crime,” and “oppression.”869
¡Religión y política para la puta de la mierda! Religion and politics to fucking hell!
Al mundo del odio del crimen y de la opresión To the world of hate, crime, and oppression
A ese destino que el ignorante hombre fundo To the destiny that ignorant mankind founded
Las siete trompetas vomitadas resistirán The seven vomited trumpets will resist
Dejándoles un brillo de eternal mediocridad Leaving them a shining eternal mediocrity
A ese sistema maldito y atroz That damned and atrocious system
Al infinito monopolio de la suciedad The infinite monopoly of this dirty society
A esos maricas que se dicen “hermanos” To those faggots who call themselves “brothers”
La fuerza del Metal los derrotará The power of Metal will defeat them
¡Reencarnación! Reincarnation!
In this stanza, the metalheads served as a reincarnation of a new breed of individuals who would
do away with “those idiots” who believed themselves part of a fraternity entitled to rule the
866
Reencarnación: 888 Metal.
867
By the mid-1990s, Reencarnación’s music changed to a blend of different rock rhythms, effects, and styles leading to the
production of the demo entitled Planeta Azul in 1994 and Egipto in 1996. “REENCARNACION,” Encylopaedia Metallum,
http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Reencarnaci%C3%B3n/179078, accessed July 2010. Also, according to former band
mate Mauricio Valencia, Reencarnación was the first Black Metal band to have edited their self-titled LP in the nation and their
first production was actually produced by Raymond Records, a studio completely unfamiliar with recording heavy rock music.
Reencarnación: 888 Metal. Román González.dir. Amordemente, 2006.
868
Reencarnación. Dioses Muertos Demo. Medellín, 1987 and Reencarnación. Reencarnación. Medellín, 1988.
869
“El Canto de los Sepulcros” lyrics in Reencarnación. Dioses Muertos and Reencarnación. Reencarnación. Translated by
Giovanni Hortua.
271
globe.870 The “seven trumpets” of the Apocalypse would fight supporters of the corrupted
system. Along with “El Canto de Los Sepulcros,” the song “Puta Religión” provided listeners
with an eerie sounding organ and other effects such as drums, shrieks, and church bells with only
the words puta religión enunciated four times.871 Furthermore, in “A la Diestra del Mesias,”
Reencarnación addressed the falsehoods located in religion.
La religión maldita castró la inteligencia Damned religión castrated inteligence

Desde la edad antigua hasta la edad media From ancient times until the middle ages
Sirviéndoles de escudo a los esclavizadores Serving as a shield symbol to the enslavers
Siniestros atarbanes que le invetaron dioses Stupid sinister people invented gods
Al ignorante pueblo que se dejo engañar The ignorant people who let themselves be fooled
A todos los aliados de la farsa divina All those allied with the farce of the divine
Les tocaron millones de oro y almas vivas They received millions in gold and live souls
De los bebedores del orgasmo del mesias From the drinkers of the messiah’s orgasm
Que suplican por la diestra de sus fantasias That plead for the right hand of their fantasies
Con poemas y sermons salidos del altar With poems and sermons off from the altar
In this stanza, religion was the destruction of human intelligence since “ancient times.” It was
people’s fault for allowing themselves to be tricked by Gods that do not exist. For
Reencarnación the only good religion was no religion. This point was reemphasized in
“Reencarnación (888 Metal),” where in one stanza mentioned that “God did not exist” and
“Satan died” and that people needed to “find their own light” rather than depending on deities
that were not “real.”872 The song expressed three major elements imperative in the
“reincarnation” of mankind:
Sabiduría Wisdom
Evolución Evolution
Convivencia Coexistence
888! Metal! Reencarnación ¡888! ¡Metal ¡Reencarnación!
870
El Canto de los Sepulcros” in Reencarnación. Dioses Muertos Demo. and Reencarnación Reencarnación. The usage of the
word “faggot,” albeit discriminatory, in this context translates to ‘idiots” or “morons.”
871
“Puta Religión” in Reencarnación. Dioses Muertos Demo. Medellín, 1987 and Reencarnación Reencarnación Medellín, 1988.
Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
872
“Reencarnación (888 Metal)” in Reencarnación Dioses Muertos Demo. Medellín, 1987 and Reencarnación. Reencarnación.
Medellín, 1988.
272
The band chose to employ the number “888” as part of the song, as opposed to 666, because
Jaramillo felt that “the number 6 was a symbol of indecision, while the number 8 represented an
evolution.”873 Apart from songs rejecting religion, songs such as “Funeral del Norte” were sharp
and morbid criticisms of United States culture. The U.S. was a “demon” that Colombia—and the
rest of the globe—had to reckon with because of their “dirty and despicable dollars.”874
Traíción Betrayal
Traición Betrayal
Aniquilación Annihilation
Dólar sucio y despreciable Dirty and despicable dollars

Comercio y caspas detestables Business and detestable losers
Sometimiento y manos extranguladoras Submission and strangulating hands
Grilletes danzantes contratos oscuros Dancing fetters dark dealings
Azotes al latino guerras y deudas Lashing towards Latin Americans war and debts
Sistema imperialista gobierno de mierda Imperialist system shit government

U.S.A. cirujanos del dólar U.S.A. money doctors
Gobierno podrido perdido Escondido en el dólar Rotten and lost government hidden behind the dollar
Matar a la U.S.A. Kill the U.S.A.
Reencarnción’s take on U.S. imperialism was reflected throughout the rest of the song where it
mentioned how the U.S. was a “cold guillotine” and described the North American nation as
having “asphyxiating tentacles” spread throughout the world, most notably in Latin America.
The demon that Jaramillo and the rest of the band were denouncing was the so-called spreading
of “democracy” during the onset of the Cold War in the Western Hemisphere.875
Reencarnación’s music reached European shores. Finish black metal band Impaled Nazarine
mentioned in SEVEN fanzine that the “the guys from Reencarnanción sent [them] an EP [during
the 1980s] and that [his band] loves the South American scene because they play with feeling,
they are more serious, they are 666 times better than European bands .”876 Aside from
873
Reencarnación 888 Metal directed by Román González, Medellin, 2006.
874
“Funeral del Norte” in Reencarnación Dioses Muertos Demo. Medellín, 1987 and Reencarnación. Reencarnación. Medellín,
1988. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
875
“Funeral del Norte” in Reencarnación Dioses Muertos Demo. Medellín, 1987 and Reencarnación. Reencarnación. Medellín,
1988. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
876
“Impaled Nazarine: Una Nueva Cruzada Al Ataque,” SEVEN, no.15, 1999.
273
Reencarnación, another band to surface and contribute to the course of Black Metal music was
from the city of Cali.
In 1988, the city of Cali witnessed the formation of Inquisition.877 The band was founded
by bassist Cesar Santa, drummer John Santa, and vocalist and lead guitarist Jason “Dagon”
Wilson, who was born in the United States and was taken in 1983 by his mother at the age of
eleven to live in Colombia.878 In an interview with Hell’zine, Dagon mentioned that he wanted a
name that “had a lot of history and at the same time for it to [be] medieval and mystical.”879
Although the band was from neither focus city for this work, Cali was not absent from the pain
Bogotá and Medellín experienced. A good portion of the drug war taking place during the
course of the 1980s and 1990s was attributed to the battles waged between the Medellín and the
Cali cartel. Furthermore, what makes Inquisition equally important to other bands mentioned in
this chapter, and the rest of the work, was their development and transnational contribution to the
Black Metal music in the nation. The band composed their music in English, something that
Inquisition felt was not going to be well received when touring cities like Medellin because the
bands in Medellín—as in Bogotá—wrote songs in Spanish.880 Dagon mentioned in Hell’zine
that he preferred to write in English because Inquisition was “looking for worldwide market
[and] English [was his] language.”881 Inquisition started out as a Thrash Metal band as
demonstrated by their first two productions: Anxious Death (1990, See Picture 6-5 Top) and
877
According to the album insert, the band was originally named Guillotine though they had to change their name because there
were “other foreign bands with the same name.” Inquisition. Anxious Death/ Forever Under. Nuclear War Now! Productions,
2006.
878
Inquisition. Anxious Death/ Forever Under. Nuclear War Now! Productions, 2006. Also, “Entrevista con Dagon de
Inquisition,” Rockombia.com, http://www.rockombia.com/entrevista/entrevista-con-dagon-de-inquisition, accessed 31 October
2012. “Entrevista con Dagon de Inquisition,” Autopista Rock, http://autopistarock.com/tv/tv-listado/249-entrevista-con-dagon-de-
inquisition, accessed 2 November 2012.
879
Hell’zine no.3 1990 Inquisition interview printed in Inquisition. Anxious Death/ Forever Under. Nuclear War Now!
Productions, 2006.
880
Hell’zine no.3 1990.
881
Hell’zine no.3 1990.
274
Picture 6-5: Inquisition cover albums Anxious Death (top) and Forever Under (bottom).
275
Forever Under (1993, See Picture 6-5 Bottom).882 By 1994, the band began playing black metal
music, eventually releasing Incense of Rest (1996) with songs such as “Visions of the Pagan
Lord,” “Meditation Before the Kill,” and “Encounter in the Deep Shadows.”883 The band felt
that part of its lyrical inspiration came from “human beings who [were] rotten inside.”884 In
another interview Dagon discussed why Black Metal and Death Metal music spoke to the local
conditions of Colombians and Latin Americans.885
[In Colombia as well as other parts of Latin America] metal was more than just a
musical form of thought and lifestyle, it [was] literally an obsession.
Many second and third world countries have an environment in them that suits
Black Metal and Death Metal perfectly. Heavy Catholic activity, civil wars,
Mafia activity, etc. . . . .these countries offer excellent things that [the United
States] does not but also life in some of them mean nothing. The high social
tension and rebellion in those areas of the world only intensify this music and
make ‘evil’ much more of a reality when you see ‘evil’ with your own eyes. I can
speak for myself, in the 80’s seeing people get shot and stabbed because the Cali
and Medellín cartels were at their peak was very common, and still is. In the
Metal scene this happened a lot, in the early Norwegian scene all the shit that was
going on was already going on in Colombia 6 or 7 years before that Norwegian
hype got so overblown into the media.
This is why there were bands like Parabellum, Masacre, Blasfemia, Inquistion,
Reencarnación, Astaroth and countless others in such early days. It was because
what surrounded us was true darkness in flesh and blood.
Dagon commented that life did not mean much to some of the youth in Latin America though
engaging heavy rock music provided a new environment and forum for such youngsters to
divorce themselves from, in the case of Colombia, violence, unemployment, poverty, and the
death surrounding the nation’s major cities. When Dagon referenced the uniqueness of
Colombia and the South American scene, he mentioned that
882
Inquistion. Anxious Death. Paranova Studios. 1990 and Inquisition. Forever Under Demo. 1993.
883
Inquisition. Incense of Rest. Defiled Records, 1996.
884
Inquisition. Anxious Death. Paranova Studios, 1990.
885
“Inquisition,” Metalreviews.com, June 12, 2005, http://www.metalreviews.com/interviews/interviews.php?id=67, accessed 31
October 2012.
276
Picture 6-6: The image of Baphomet used by Inquistion. Is this Satan or the balance of mankind?
(Author’s album collection)
The rawness of the South American scene is real, they are not trying to sound raw
like some European bands, there is really no choice for many of them who cannot
afford good equipment and their brutal and raw songs are inspired by what
surrounds them and not only what is in them. Again I must say, the sheer rawness
and attitude of the South American scene is not formulated, it is real.886
Dagon here addressed the authenticity of the music produced. The influence of the Catholic
Church was also responsible for the growing metal (and punk) scene in the region. The
compilation album Anxious Death/ Forever Under incorporated the picture of Baphomet on the
886
“Inquisition,” Metalreviews.com, June 12, 2005, http://www.metalreviews.com/interviews/interviews.php?id=67, accessed 31
October 2012.
277
back of the album (See Picture 6-6). The picture was something employed by many Black Metal
artists around the globe. This meant that bands, such as Inquisition, were Satanists? What did
Satanism mean for Inquisition?
According to Dagon, Satanism was “a great thing for somebody who wants to keep
things dark, root for the bad guy in essence.”887 Furthermore,
[w]e know all what the Devil’s all about. But to add a serious approach to it, you
have to add somewhat of a mystical, occultist-like feel meaning not really taking
anything from a particular culture or philosophy. Keep things poetic. I write my
lyrics around nature, and really throw Satanism over it, as controversial as that
may sound to some people thinking ‘What does that mean?’. . . . It’s a great topic
for Black Metal. 888
For Dagon, good musical production was blending Satan and Satanism with other topics. In
another interview, however, Dagon mentioned that “Black Metal [was] very satanic. It’s
individualism, elitism, rebellion against unnecessary control, a pride with a cause.”889 Satanism
for Dago was a form of rebellion against Christian dogma. Like Inquisition, another band
surfacing and contributing to Colombian Black Metal music was Nebiros.
In 1990, Medellín’s Black Metal music witnessed the rise of Nebiros, a band named after
an “infernal soldier and [in]habitant of the Creation world,” or Earth.890 The group was
originally comprised of Sacrilegus on vocals, Feretrum on guitar and bass, and Black Satan on
drums.891 Some of the band’s first members included Carlos on drums, Mantus on guitar, and
887
“Inquisition (Dagon) Interview,” Metal Blast, http://www.metalblast.net/2012/05/inquisition-dagon-interview/, accessed 31
October 2012.
888
“Inquisition (Dagon) Interview,” Metal Blast.
889
“Interview: Inquistion,” that’s how kids die, http://thatshowkidsdie.com/2011/02/13/interview-inquisition/, accessed 31
October 2012.
890
“Organización de los Demonios,” La Luz de Naberius BXXI, http://www.aglaya.es/demonios.html, accessed 31 October 2012.
891
Nebiros Demo Reh../91-Live/92. Dark Desires Productions, 2006. The current members of Nebiros include “Bael” on vocals
and guitars, “Maleficiere Te Deum” on bass, and “Dominus Saevitum” on drums.
278
Picture 6-8: Nebiros’ trajectory and the band’s diabolical representation (center drawing) used
for their 1991 demo (Author’s copy).
279
Dominus Infernus on bass. The usage of artistic names or pseudonyms in black metal music was
not new. English band Venom’s vocalist and bassist was not known by his name Conrad Lant
but rather “Cronos.” As mentioned, Inquisition’s guitarist and vocalist Jason Wilson adopted the
name “Dagon,” an ancient evil deity who was the judge of the dead in Assyrian poetry, as well as
other members of the global Black Metal community. The adoption of a pseudonym, apart from
stage performance, allowed the artist to take on a different spiritual identity. In this case, the
spiritual identity was allied with the occult. For other artists, such as in the Norwegian Black
Metal band Mayhem, the usage of pseudonyms was done because “other countries could not
pronounce [their] names.”892 The pseudonym, along with corpse paint, provided an identity that
created the perfect combination for a black metal show.
In 1991, Nebiros released its Rehersal Demo (See Picture 6-7), a demo that was
“dedicated to our father (Lucifer) for being our spiritual guide and teacher”893 with songs such
as “Misa Negra,” “Pudricion,” “Nebiros,” “Realidad Oculta,” as well as a cover of Mayhem’s
“Deathcrush” and Samael’s “Into the Pentagrama.”894 “Misa Negra” provides listeners with a
reenactment of a satanic ritual.895
La misa negra empieza The black mass begins

El mago negro rie The black magician laughs
El cáliz espera The chalice awaits
A estar consagrado To be consecrated
Quien va obtener vida eternal Who will obtain eternal life
Excitado espera. Excited awaiting
El cuchillo es levantado The knife is lifted
La falsedad brotara The falsehood will sprout
Misa negra, misa negra, misa negra Black mass, black mass, black mass
Entregan todo lo suyo They give everything they have

A nuestro amo y señor To our master and our lord
Quien nos da la vida eternal Who gives us eternal life
892
“Mayhem,” Subterraneo Medellin 1988.
893
Nebiros. Demo Reh./91-Live/92. Dark Desires Productions, 2006. The original insert of the demo was included in the 2006
compilation.
894
Nebiros. Rehearsal Demo. Medellín, 1991.
895
“Misa Negra” in Nebiros. Rehearsal Demo. Medellín, 1991. “Misa Negra” lyrics in Encylopaedia Metallum http://www.metal-
archives.com/albums/Nebiros/Rehearsal_Demo/188967, accessed 8 July 2010. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
280
Por toda la eternidad For all of eternity
La sangre regada The blood spilled
Sobre las piedras Over the rocks
Es ofrecida a nuestro glorioso amo Is offered to our glorious owner
Por toda la libertad For all liberty
El reinará en este mundo He will reign in this world
Misa negra, misa negra, misa negra Black mass, black mass, black mass
Nebiros described the process of black mass as an act that would provide “eternal life,” a ritual
devoted to Satan in his quest to rule over the world. Along with “Misa Negra,” the song
“Nebiros” recounted the story of the demon solider doing everything in his power to see to it that
humans do not “fall into the hands of Christ.”896
Gran angel rebelde que nos librará Great rebel angel that will free us
De caer en manos de Cristo From falling into the hands of Christ
Es la llama eterna que castigará It is the eternal flames that will punish us
La basura humana por su opresión The human trash because of their oppression
El gran mariscal The grand marshall
Te guiará hacia el triunfo Will guide you towards triumph
Legiones del padre SATAN Legions of father SATAN
El tiene poder de vengar a quién He has power and will avenge anyone who
Oprimido fue por adorarte Was oppressed for worshipping you
Reclama el reino del padre Reclaim the kingdom of the father
Para crear libertad y grandeza To create freedom and greatness
Nebiros mariscal de los infiernos Nebiros, marshall from hell

Con tu gran legión vas a engrandecer With your great legion you will grow
El reino real del maestro y padre The real kingdom of the teacher and father
Tú aras lloras al cerdo Cristiano You forsake tears to the Christian pig
Lagrimas de sangre Tears of blood
El llevará siempre la palabra del He will always have the word of

Padre para que el cordero pague The father so that the lamb pay
Con su sangre With its blood
Reclama el reino del padre Reclaim the kingdom of the father
Para crear libertad y grandeza To create freedom and greatness
The gates of hell according to “Nebiros” would be championed by Satan’s soldier so that
eventually the Christian “lambs” would be destroyed. In 1994, the album Sacrilegus contained
two songs entitled “Introducción-La Sangre del Traidor” and “Sacrilegus” (Sacrilegious”) that
896
“Nebiros” in Nebiros. Rehearsal Demo. Medellín, 1991. “Nebiros” lyrics in Encylopaedia Metallum http://www.metal-
archives.com/albums/Nebiros/Rehearsal_Demo/188967, accessed 8 July 2010. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
281
were specifically dedicated to band member “Sacrilegus,” who in 1992 became another victim of
Medellín’s violence.897
Amo de profanes Owner of profane

Maestros de blasfemos Teachers of blasphemies
Rey del sacrilegio “Sacrilegüs” King of sacrilege “Sacrilegüs”
Su vida ofrendada a nuestro amo His life offered to our owner
Todos sus dias uno a uno All of his days one by one
A él dedicó To him he dedicated
No ha partido en vano He has not left in vain
Por nuestro emperador fue llamado By our emperor he was called
Llamdo a formar parte Called to form part
De sus legions Of his legions
Las milicias imperiales The imperial militias
De nuestro rey Of our king
Jamás sus blasfemias Never his blasphemies

Dejarán de escucharse Will cease from being heard
Pues siempre habrá quien las repita There will someone to repeat them
Una a una One by one
Haciendo la voluntad del verdadero Doing the good work of the true
Amo y señor Master and lord
Adorar nuestro padre fue su mayor obsesión Adoring our father was his greatest obsession
“hermanos pertenecemos por siempre unidos “brothers we belong together united

Hasta que nos econtremos en el H.P. infierno” until we see each other again in Fucking Hell”
¿Se han acabado las profaciones? Have the profane been finished?
¿No queda ya quien profane? There is no one who will profane?
¿No se han acabado los sacrilegios? The sacrileges have not finished?
¿No queda ya quien los cometa? There is no one left to commit them?
¿Se dejaron de oír las blasphemias? The blasphemies are no longer heard?
Nada de esto acabará This will never end

Por lo más profane At most profane
Que así sera So let shall be
According to Nebiros, former band vocalist Sacrilegus devoted his life to serving Satan and
could only be honored appropriately with a song explaining how Satan “called to form part of his
legions.”898 For current drummer “Dominus Saevitum,” who came from a traditional Catholic
home, stated that his folks were not too fond of his rock music taste, expressed his devotion to
Black Metal music and Satanism and his respects for Sacrilegus’ contributions to the band.899
897
Nebiros. Sacrilegus. Medellín, 1994. “Sacrilegus,” Encylopaedia Metallum http://www.metal-
archives.com/albums/Nebiros/Sacrilegus/52297, accessed 31 October 2012. Translated by Giovanni Hortua. In this website,
Sacrilegus was reported to have died in 1992, though other band sites reported the death of Sacrilegus in 1993.
898
Nebiros. “Sacrilegus.” Medellín, 1994.
899
“Dominus Saevitum” Personal Interview 12 June 2009.
282
Dominus recalled a particular experience he had when he and his friend decided to go to a
Catholic church one evening in 1992.900
I remember that one evening I went into a largely attended church sometime in
1992 at the La Milagrosa church. . . I remember I was really high and I was with
another friend and people instead of defending their territory had their mouths
wide open . . . I took the microphone off the so-called priest and recited some
words in Latin for about fifteen minutes . . . I felt I was giving mass . . . we were
dressed like metalheads . . . I remember we went in with a huge boom-box with
Samael’s “Worship Him” playing loudly.
According to Dominus, the next day after giving his “metal sermon,” he had to leave his home
barrio for about two years because there were groups from barrio Manrique and Buenos Aires
looking to lynch him for having created such spectacle in church. Dominus stated that those
looking for him were Christians on motorcycles looking to pay him back for his “sins.”
Although those were not the only acts of blasphemy that Dominus and his friends admitted, he
confessed that such acts gave more power to the Christian community.901 Was he a devil
worshipper who simply abhorred Christianity? Apart from criticizing the Catholic Church,
Dominus felt that there was indeed a war between Christians and Satanists which would never
end. “Giving mass” was an act, especially in Medellín, which challenged the power of the
Church, disrupting—albeit briefly—the core values established in regions such as Antioquia.
Bands such as Nebiros were not the only ones to critique Christianity and religion more
generally. Fanzine Nueva Fuerza published a large section dissecting how religion was “another
great empire . . . . which has the capacity to strongly influence the political and social life of
nations.”902
900
“Dominus Saevitum”.
901
“Dominus Saevitum”.
902
“Introducción,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza, October 1992, no. 10, 2.
283
Picture 6-9: 20the century Church intolerance documented in Nueva Fuerza.903
903
“La Religion,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza, October 1992, no. 10, 1.
284
For Nueva Fuerza, religion was an “industry, a great business with locales that create
different products . . . with the purpose of establishing the ‘true’ religion.”904 With respect to the
Catholic Church and Islamic faith, the fanzine mentioned that “neither the Bible nor the Quran
represent the authentic desires of freedom of the oppressed.”905 “True freedom” could not be
found in either text because both texts espoused a subservient populace, full obedience,
anddenigrated women.906
In fact, the same texts adored and followed by the faithful, DEFEND THE
OPPRESSION AND THE OBENDIENCE, DENIGRATE WOMEN, AND
MAKE A CALL TO RESIGNATION AND PATIENCE. The Bible, in the old
and new testament, establishes positions that keep the poor in their place, and
expresses its high dosage of machismo. First, the great patriarchs of the Judeo-
Christian tradition, including Abraham, Isaiah, Jacob, as Moses and the great
kings, David and Solomon, were slave owners and patriarchal authorities that
dominated their wives and their concubines. The scriptures . . . enshrines female
possession as man’s PROPERTY, slavery, the conquest and pillage of rival towns
(this is very evident in the first five books of the bible, just as it is in the rest of
the Old Testament).
THE BIBLE: OPPRESSION AND

RESIGNATION!907
Furthermore, the Quran did not prove to be a better alternative to the Bible. The special section
in Nueva Fuerza argued that the Quran also placed women in an inferior position because “God
has favored men over women.”908 Along with placing into question religious texts, Nueva
Fuerza also critiqued the Vatican since it was no more than a “transnational business
organization” that only claimed “to save lives” and “make promises” of any proportions
including “living eternal life in any solar system.”909 The Vatican and the Catholic Church
904
“Introducción,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza.
905
“3. La Religion: Opresion, Liberacion???,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza, October 1992, no. 10, 7.
906
“3. La Religion: Opresion, Liberacion???,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza, October 1992, no. 10, 5.
907
“3. La Religion: Opresion, Liberacion???,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza.
908
“3. La Religion: Opresion, Liberacion???,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza..
909
“Que Es El Vaticano?,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza, October 1992, no. 10, 9-10.
285
Picture 6-10: Colombian Black Metal Music led by Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya (Author’s picture)
expressed ideals of tolerance yet rejected homosexuals, divorce, abortion rights, the use of
contraception, and priest marriages (See Picture 6-9). Ultimately, the Vatican sought to
underscore three virtues that would keep the chains of oppression secure on their followers: faith,
hope, and charity.910 Much of the research done to create this special section in Nueva Fuerza
was put together employing different works that included Bob Avakian and David Yallop and
contributors from parts of Latin America, including Mexico.911 The work done to put this
section together was not a rant by contributors but an organized and well-argued publication
910
“Que es el Vaticano?,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza, October 1992, no. 10, 11.
911
“Que es el Vaticano?,” Suplemento, Nueva Fuerza, October 1992, no. 10, 12.
286
looking at the hypocrisy located in religion. Many of the topics raised by the fanzine were
echoed by bands mentioned above. Another band that contributed to the growth of black metal
music and abhorrence towards Christianity and religion was Typhon.
In 1993, the Black Metal band Typhon (See Picture 6-10), was founded by Federico Del Valle on
bass, Alexander Arroyave on vocals, “Starkey” on guitars, and Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya on drums.
In their 1993 demo, Typhon recorded three songs in English entitled “The Magnificent Ritual Killer,”
“The Roman God,” and “The Age,” in which each song is a track dedicated to Satan and his conquering
of the world through his power over God, “the father of lies.”912 These songs were also part of their 1994
demo rehearsal release which included other tracks such as “Fuckin’ Jesus,” “Worshipper of
Darkness,” and “Satanic Warfare.”913 In “Fuckin’ Jesus,” Typhon described the dismembering
and destruction of Jesus Christ’s body as well as his symbolism for the Christian faith.914
A rotten corpse
Stand alone
As the stupid sign
Of the Christendom
Still our world

Follow the lies
Of this maniac
Spreading his faith

To the ones with no pride
Ruled by the book
Fuckin’ Jesus
Fuckin’ Jesus
I’ll fuck your guts

With a burning sword
I’ll rip your flesh
With my very hand
I’ll cut your head
To fulfill my pride
912
“Grabación de Ensayo 93,” Encylopaedia Metallum, http://www.metal-
archives.com/albums/Typhon/Grabaci%C3%B3n_de_Ensayo_93/355484#, accessed 31 October 2012.
913
“Demo Rehearsal,” Encylopaedia Metallum, http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Typhon/Demo_rehearsal/171411,
914
“Fuckin’ Jesus,” Encylopaedia Metallum, http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Typhon/Demo_rehearsal/171411, accessed
31 October 2012.
287
The lyric above shows not only a denial of Jesus, but also serves as an insult to Christians.
Typhon declared war on Christinaity and the abhorrence for Jesus, his corpse, and followers was
accompanied by other songs such as “Worshipper of Darkness;” “Worshiper of Darkness” talks
about an individual invoking the “dark powers” and “black candles” to become a “worshipper of
darkness.”915 The legacy of Typhon was not limited to the productions of the band itself. In fact,
Typhon’s recording, as well as other local and international acts, was under Bull Metal’s music
label Warmaster Records.916 For Montoya, his inspiration for creating Warmaster Records was
due to the lack of support by Colombian record companies for up and coming bands from music
genres that were not welcome.
Warmaster [was] born for various reasons . . . first of all because in Colombia
there isn’t any label which supports [the] Underground especially Latin American
underground; so we have a list of Colombian and Chilean bands that are going to
release their works with us.
Also, I think that the fact that we have a Colombian label [that] gives us more
posibilities of growing together. I should note also that Warmaster will be editing
only 600 copies of each release, with the purpose of keeping the underground
essence of the label and not falling into massive commercialization.917
Bull Metal also mentioned that the label’s function was to “release LPs and mainly split LPs,”
which meant many bands were going to record their music alongside other bands.918 Along with
creating and producing music, what made Typhon imperative in Colombian society was
Montoya’s important contributions to the diffusion of Black and other forms of heavy Metal in
the nation.
915
“Worshipper of Darkness,” Encylopaedia Metallum, http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Typhon/Demo_rehearsal/171411,
916
Bands that were signed on by Warmaster Records were from Chile, Japan, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, and
Switzerland. “Warmaster Records,” Encyclopaedia Metallum, http://www.metal-
archives.com/labels/Warmaster_Records/1242#label_tabs_albums, accessed 31 October 2012.
917
“Warmaster Records,” Psicoterror Zine, no. 2, 1993, PSICOTERROR, http://www.dark-hidden.com.ar/psicoterror/iv-
warmaster.htm, accessed 24 December 2012.
918
“Warmaster Records,” Psicoterror Zine, no. 2, 1993, PSICOTERROR.
288
Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya: A Heavy/Black Metal Colombian Warrior and Legend
Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya, born in Medellín in 1975, worked hard as other
vanguard artists and fanatics during the 1980s and 1990s to disseminate heavy rock music in
Colombia. The difference between Montoya and other metal pioneers was that he was
instrumental in spreading different types of metal music in and out of Colombia. Montoya’s
passion for bands such as KISS inspired him to explore different rock genres and eventually form
his own band and become an international music collector and trader.919 Bull Metal played
drums in Agressor, Masacre, as well as Amen—one of various bands featured in the Rodrigo D
soundtrack. People who remember Bull Metal described him as a “very friendly guy who had a
strong passion for music and because the man grew up in an economically better off household
he was able to achieve an extensive collection of vinyl [records].”920 For other people, such as
Román González, Montoya was someone who had a very extensive collection of LPs with whom
one could “exchange music.”921 Still for other people, Montoya had a bigger role. His English
language fluency helped solidify friendships with metalheads from North America as well as
parts of Europe and the former Soviet bloc. He was devoted to spreading heavy metal music in
Colombia, taking a stand against battles between supporters of different rock genres, and
someone who was concerned about constructing bridges of communication with folks outside
Colombia’s borders who were also metal aficionados.922
Bull Metal, while drumming for Masacre, mentioned that there were different countries
that knew about his band because he was writing letters abroad about Colombian bands’ music to
919
Gonzalo Valencia Personal Interview 20 March 2009.
920
“Mauricio Montoya (Bull Metal)-La Cortina De Hierro: Blog MySpace LA CORTINA DE HIEERO de la Cortina de hierro”
Ideas Minimas, http://ideasminimasjujuy.blogspot.com/2010/10/mauricio-montoya-bull-metal-la-cortina.html, accessed 31
October 2012.
921
“El Toro de Metal,” BACANIKA.COM.CO, http://www.bacanika.com.co/index.php/secciones/demente-abierta/item/1411-el-
toro-de-metal/1411-el-toro-de-metal?limitstart=0, accessed 24 December 2012.
922
289
fanzines across the globe. One means of spreading word about local and international acts was
through Montoya’s editing of Necrometal fanzine. Another means of transmitting Colombian
and international talent was through Bull Metal’s radio program: “La Cortina de Hierro” (“The
Iron Curtain”). Montoya’s program title, “The Iron Curtain,” referenced Winston Churchill’s
term for Communist countries in Eastern Europe where there was allegedly no frredom and no
capitalism. Montoya’s choice in program title expressed the paradox in Colombian society: a
capitalist and free society that left little room for political opposition and an intolerant society
that punished uniqueness and difference. Perhaps Montoya’s usage of “The Iron Curtian” as the
program’s title also reffered to the barrier placed against a metal music in Colombia. The radio
show was Bul Metal’s way to express his own freedom and interjet a music that challenged what
was popular in Colombian society
In the late 1980s, radio station Radio Activa 102.9 FM created a series of programs
including “Cristales de Sonido”, a program on New Wave music, “Maquina Veloz,” which
focused on rock in Spanish, a program on “Top-40,” as well as a special segment devoted to
heavy metal music entitled “La Cortina de Hierro” featuring Montoya as the deejay for the
program.923 Montoya’s program featured bands from across the world as well as local acts and
included on his program information on band member changes, new album releases, and
upcoming shows. For example, he would inform his listeners:
[Now] let’s continue with the information. . . . in one concert there will be a band
playing by the name Ehkymosis which recently edited a single. . . . the band has
been working for a long time and fortunately I’ve had a chance to see the progress
of this antioqueño band. The band has edited various works including a demo
entitled Nunca Nada Más and an unlabeled single on a 45 vinyl. 924
923
Hector Arboleda, “Historia De Radio Acktiva,” http://www.playdx.com/html/radioactiva/radioaktiva.htm, accessed 23
December 2012.
924
“la cortina de hierro marzo 1992 parte 2.mov,” Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awOGth2ZdTo, accessed 30
November 2012.
290
His program was heard by members and non-members of the heavy rock community, airing at
first one hour late at night and then for two hours.925 Montoya mentioned in his 1991 interview
with Colombia’s version of MTV’s “Headbanger’s Ball,” on the regional channel Teleantioquia,
that the radio show was the only show to actually showcase the underground scene of
Colombia.926 In Psicoterror Zine, Bull Metal provided his views on the importance of the radio
program.
This show is transmitted through the most important radio station from Colombia
and it reaches the whole country. I do have a one hour show every Sundays at 10
o’clock (night).
The show has filled all my expectations and we have managed to promote the
work of all national bands. We have the support from all metalheads. Besides,
we don’t have any kind of censorship here!!! Each and every band is free to
express openly their ideology without restrictions!927
Montoya mentioned that the show enjoyed a lack of censorship. Although he played music from
different parts of the world, Bull Metal made sure to feature local talent on his program. Perhaps
one reason why the show was uncensored was because it was on late at night. Though the show
was not censored, changes in the radio station’s program resulted in the end for Montoya’s “La
Cortina de Hierro.” Despite having to step down from his deejay booth, his international music
connections would eventually lead to a controversial distribution of a bootleg album.
In 1991, an interview with Masacre through Teleantioquia mentioned that vocalist Alex
Oquendo was in charge of connecting with and writing to different bands and individuals from
Latin America’s metal scenes. While Oquendo wrote to metalheads in Peru and Chile, for
925
Ideas Minimas.
926
“masacre en headbangers ball3,” Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn5chzdxmnM, accessed 31 October 2012.
927
“Warmaster Records,” Psicoterror Zine, no. 2, 1993, PSICOTERROR, http://www.dark-hidden.com.ar/psicoterror/iv-
warmaster.htm, accessed 24 December 2012.
291
instance, Bull Metal was in charge of communicating with the European scene.928 Montoya
mentioned that there were fanzines that wrote about Masacre and Colombian bands in Germany,
Spain, Finland, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Greece, Japan, and Belgium.929 Montoya also
mentioned that Masacre’s connections abroad served the band well because France’s
independent record label Osmose Productions sponsored a few of their works, such as the 1991
production entitled Requiem. Along with Osmose Productions, and other international fanzines,
Bull Metal’s international communications put him in connection with Norwegian black
metalhead musician Øystein Aarseth, better known by the Black Metal community as
“Euronymous.”930
While Montoya’s relationship with Masacre dwindled, Bull Metal kept in contact with
Mayhem’s Euronymous.
[Montoya] became friends with bands, [Mayhem] fans of Masacre. He had

personal mail with Euronymous which influenced a change that Bull would have
towards black metal and his life philosophy. Euronymous believed that
Masacre’s lyrics were more like a hardcore band than a death metal [band.
Euronymous] had a different vision which influenced Bull and that’s when the
problems started with the rest of the band members from Masacre.931
Bull Metal’s music direction was shifting and becoming darker in lyrical and musical content,
which served as one reason for Montoya’s exit from Masacre. The connection between
Euronymous and Montoya helped increase the exchange of music between the regions. In Oslo,
Colombian metal fell into the hands of Euronymous and was featured in his famous store named
“Helvete” or “Hell” that specialized in underground metal. According to Blasfemia Records’
928
“masacre en headbangers ball1,” Youtube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F04w_cvg8hc, accessed 31 October 2012.
929
“masacre en headbangers ball1,” Youtube.
930
According to Greek Mythology, “Euronymous” or “Eurynomos” was one of the demons from Hades. For more on demons see
Miriam Van Scott, The Encylopedia of Hell (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998).
931
Ideas Minimas.
292
Emilio Cuesta, the relationship between Euronymous and Bull Metal grew stronger with more
musical exchanges.
Bull metal and Euronymous were in contact with letters and they traded stuff . . .
The Norwegians [got] to know about Reencarnación. . . they [got] to know about
Parabellum . . . [Masacre] was featured in big advertisements in European
fanzines . . . this [was] possible because of [their] connection. Mayhem was
[heavily] influenced by Parabellum and Reencarnación. [In fact,] there’s a video
where [lead singer] Dead carved Reencarnación [on a wall] with a knife. 932
For Cuesta, finding Colombian metal music in Sweden was “as easy as finding pop music in
Walmart.”933 The friendship between Masacre and Mayhem was reflected in the Ola de
Violencia album in which the band thanked Euronymous and Mayhem for their support of
Colombia’s metal scene (See Picture 6-11). Cuesta added that Sweden, Norway, and other parts
of Europe held Parabellum and other Colombian bands as raw and excellent music.934 The letters
and music samples exchanged helped spread word about what was going on in different parts of
the world. Along with Euronymous, Bull Metal was also friends with Mayhem’s lead singer at
that time Per Ohlin, otherwise known as “Dead.” The friendship between both metal
ambassadors was such that Dead eventually wrote and dedicated the song “Life Eternal” to Bull
Metal.935
A dream of another existence

You wish to die
A dream of another world
You pray for death to release the soul
One must die to find peace inside
You must get eternal
932
Emilio Cuesta Personal Interview 15 March 2009.
933
Emilio Cuesta.
934
Emilio Cuesta.
935
“Life Eternal” in Mayhem. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Deathlike Silence, 1994. In honor of Dead, Typhon covered the song
and eventually recorded it in Tyhpon. Unholy Trilogy. Warmaster Records, 1996.
293
Picture 6-11: Masacre’s thanking Mayhem and Euronymous (Author’s Picture)
I am mortal, but am I human?

How beautiful life is now when my time has come
A human destiny, but nothing human inside
What will be left of me when I’m dead?
There was nothing when I lived
What you found was eternal death
No one will ever miss you
This song was eventually incorporated into Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album,
though Dead’s death immortalized Mayhem.
In 1991, in an area in Norway’s Akershus county forest located South of Oslo,
Euronymous and Dead lived together in a cabin which was also used as a space for band
rehearsals. On April 8, 1991, while Euronymous was out of town, Per Ohlin slit his wrists and
294
Picture 6-12: Bull Metal’s bootleg production of Mayhem’s material with Dead’s suicide on
cover. (Author’s Picture)936
shot himself with a shotgun.937 When Euronymous arrived to the scene, his first instinct was not
to report the incident to the police. Euronymous decided to take a picture of Dead’s corpse. In
an interview with Mayhem band member Jan Axel “Hellhammer” Blomberg, he stated that
Euronymous told him that Dead had “gone home” and that Euronymous went out to the nearest
store to buy a camera to take some pictures of Dead with his “brains blown out.”938 The picture
was eventually sent by Euronymous to Bull Metal with a letter explaining the tragedy and that
936
Author’s photograph of Gonzalo Valencia’s copy of Dawn of the Black Hearts. Gonzalo Valencia Personal Interview 20
March 2009.
937
Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground (Los Angeles:
Feral House, 2003).
938
Jan Axel “Hellhammer” Blomberg interviewed in Until the Light Takes Us. Audrey Ewell. dir. Factory 25, 2010.
Unfortunately, in 1993 Euronymous was murdered by Varg Vikernes, a former musical companion and friend of Euronymous
and Mayhem. Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground,
116-128.
295
seeing Dead’s brains on the floor was an excellent opportunity to “examine a human brain in
rigor mortis.”939 Kjetil Manheim, former member from Mayhem, objected that the picture
Euronymous took of Dead’s body was a horrendous act.940 After receiving the letter and picture,
Montoya decided to take advantage of the picture and produced a bootleg album with the picture
serving as its cover (See Picture 6-12). Bull Metal released the album Dawn of the Black Hearts
through his record label—an act that caused a rift and tension between the Colombian and
Norwegian Black Metal members. Though there have been different versions of the Mayhem
bootleg in subsequent years, the original was created in Medellín. Along with producing a
controversial bootleg, Bull Metal’s views on religion paved way for the creation of his own
Satanic cult.
In Peruvian Deaththrasher Magazine, Montoya mentioned, with respect to religion in
Colombia, that he “was not a believer” and that “the priests were subjects interested in making
money hiding behind religious beliefs and abusing the good faith of the people.”941 When asked
about his thoughts on “Satanism, Black Magic and Occultism,” he mentioned that “Satanism was
just as alienating and utilitarian as the Catholic religion.”942 His conversations with Euronymous
and the Norwegian and Swedish black metal scenes influenced him to rethink his views on
religion. Montoya’s exit from Masacre, according to front man Alex Oquendo, was due to
reasons that also included acting strangely and “not showing up to rehearsal.”943 Though Bull
Metal stated that the band was nowhere as devoted as he was and that members like Oquendo
939
Euronymous’ letter to Bull Metal was printed on the back cover of the album. Mayhem. Dawn of the Black Hearts. Warmaster
Records, 1995.
940
Kjetil Manheim interviewed in Once Upon a Time in Norway. Pål Aasdal and Martin Ledang Grenzeløs, dir. Productions,
2007.
941
“Masacre,” Deaththrasher, http://www.deaththrasher.com/dtinterviews/masacre1.htm, accessed 20 December 2012.
942
“Masacre” Deaththrasher.
943
296
were losing their way and searching for “rock star status.”944 Bull Metal’s Warmaster Records
allowed for him to create and manage the Black Metal scene in Colombia, assist international
bands with recording material, and launch his next musical project known as Typhon.
Mauricio Montoya’s interest in the occult began when he became a member of Anton
Lavey’s Church of Satan and when he put together Typhon.945 In an interview with Typhon, the
band mentioned that the name of the band itself was the “personification of Satan in Greek
culture.”946 When asked about their views on Satanism, they mentioned not only that they were
Satanists, but also that Satanism was “related to total physical and spiritual freedom. Satanism
means being separated from the chains of slavery.”947 Although in the same interview the band
mentioned that they could not disclose any details as to how they practiced Satanism, another
interview with Bull Metal unveiled that “Satan signified [his] own life [and he would not know]
what he would be doing now [without Satanism]! [It was for him] Total Liberation!”948
Interviewer: What do you think of those who claim to be Satanists and use
makeup but have no idea what it’s like to be a real Satanist?
Bull Metal: The Satanist has nothing to do with makeup…The makeup is used by
black metal bands as a form of artistic and visual expression, but to be Satanist is
something very different…to be Satanist is something very difficult, one should
learn that you should leave all the shit that you have learned and learn that
everything in this world is up for grabs…total freedom of the body and soul!
Interviewer: Do you agree with sacrifices in rituals or black masses?
944
“Warmaster Records,” Psicoterror Zine, no. 2, 1993, PSICOTERROR.
945
“MAURICIO MONTOYA (BULL METAL)-LA CORTINA DE HIERRO: Blog MySpace LA CORTINA DE HIEERO de la
Cortina de hierro” Ideas Minimas. The reflections on Montoya’s life regarding his connection to Satanism were provided by a
former acquaintance of Bull Metal.
946
“Entrevista a TYHPON,” Sangre De Metal http://sangrademetal.blogspot.com/p/entrevista-typhon.html, accessed 24
December 2012. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
947
“Entrevista a TYHPON” Sangre De Metal.
948
“Entrevista a BULL M.” in Sangre De Metal http://sangrademetal.blogspot.com/p/entrevista-bull-m.html, accessed 24
December 2012. Translated by Giovanni Hortua.
297
Bull Metal: Yes! But practiced seriously, not in the way many dumb people do it,
they should not be playing with forces that they do not know about and do not
know how to manage and control.
Interviewer: Do you have a message for the Christians?
Bull Metal: Only that I am at war with them, Christianity should fall and I will do
everything I can to fight against the plague known as Christ. Stop being slaves!
The moment has come.
Interviewer: Do you have a message to the real Black Metalheads?
Bull Metal: Salutations and I only hope that. . .the flames of Satan be with them
to help destroy Christianity! Christ has declared war against us 2000 years ago,
now it’s time to attack him!
Interview: Anything else to add?
Bull Metal: I only want to add that Typhon, my band, will be totally dedicated to
attacking cristo and extending Satanist philosophy in Colombia! If you would like
more information write to me.949
Along with his views on Satanism, Bull Metal was not just a practicing Satanist but he
also spearheaded a satanic cult in Colombia known as Los Lobos en Contra de Cristo or Wolves
Against Christ. The Lobos were not the only cult in the region because there was also a group
called Las Cabras (The Goats). Nebiros’ Dominus Saevitum, not realizing there were cults
operating in Colombia, said people started calling him and his friends Las Cabras because of
their supposed satanic tendencies.950 Los Lobos, especially because of Montoya’s involvement,
was monitored by the nation’s police force constantly because there were Catholic priests in
Medellín who were targeted by people attempting to poison the priests with tainted wine.951
Whereas the Black Metal bands mentioned above employed satanic lyrics and imagery, bands
such as Typhon, Nebiros, and Inquisition believed that their work was not just making this type
of music. Their music and concert performances (or live sermons) were an important fight
949
“Entrevista a BULL M.,” Sangre De Metal.
950
“Dominus Saevitum” Personal Interview 12 June 2009.
951
298
against Christianity and any supporter of the Christian faith. Was this so widespread and gaining
incredible momentum in Colombia that the Church needed to worry? Was the Black Metal
movement taking momentum such that priests and parishes needed to take precaution with the
future of Colombia? Panic and fear over Satanism taking over Colombia and its youth was
something produced by the nation’s media and concerned parents.
Diabolus in Musica? The Devil and the Family Unit in Colombia
Colombia’s relationship with Satan is evident in academic works, public celebrations,
historical texts, folklore, literature, sports, and music. According to Colombian sociologist
Edgar Rey Sining, the Latin American celebration of Corpus Christi, celebrated during the 19th
century, incorporated key characters such as the Devil into the procession.952 Satan’s presence
also played—and continues to play—a key role in the annual Barranquilla carnival celebration
with the famous “Harlequin Devils” figures incorporated, an element harking back to the era of
Spanish colonization and utilized by colonizers to subjugate the indigenous population.953
Furthermore, the Carnaval de Riosucio, also known as the “Carnaval del Diablo” adopted an
official effigy of the Devil in 1915 in commemoration of the event.954 The Devil also served as
central figure in Simón Bolivar’s final moments in a letter he wrote to General Santander in 1823
stating that the Devil himself controlled the “business of [his] life.”955 In Colombian folklore,
the character of “El Coco,” a mischievous and malicious character with European roots, was
allegedly the Devil disguised as a mysterious evil entity that haunted children if they disobeyed
952
Edgar Rey Sinning, “El Diablo y Las Cucambas en la Costa Caribe Colombiana,” Edgar Rey Sinning
http://www.edgarreysinning.com/ensayos.html, accessed 31 October 2012.
953
“Harlequin Devils,” Diablos de las Americas,
http://www.diablosfestivos.org/diablos/index.php/es/diablosprofiles/sabanalarga-harlequins/, accessed 31 October 2012.
954
Corporación Carnaval de Riosucio, http://www.carnavalriosucio.org/website/, accessed 24 December 2012.
955
Simón Bolivar and Francisco de Paula Santander, Cartas de Santander-Bolívar: 1823-1825 (Bogotá: Fundación para la
Conmemoración del Bicentenario del Natalicio y el Sesquicentenario de la Muerte del General Francisco de Paula, 1988).
299
their parents and refused to go to sleep.956 In Cartagena, the church of Santo Domingo
constructed in 1539 was, according to local lore, haunted by the Devil who was dissatisfied with
the building of this temple. In an attempt to destroy the church, Satan jumped on top of the
tower to destroy it only to fail and fall head-first down the well and produce a sulfur smell that to
this day emanates from the waters. Aside from folklore, Satan could also be found in Colombian
literature.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ Of Love and Other Demons was just one of many of his works
that employed the witchcraft, Satan, and his critique of the Catholic Church. In this work,
Marquez unveiled a priest who attempted to exorcise the demons from a young woman who
contracted rabies after being bitten by a dog.
If anyone is possessed by all the demons, it is Josefa Miranda,” he said. “demons

of rancor intolerance, imbecility. She is detestable!”
The Bishop was surprised by his vehemence. Delaura observed this and tried to
speak in a calmer tone.
“What I mean,” he said, “is that she attributes so much power to the forces of evil
that she seems like a worshipper of the demon.” 957
Along with Marquez’ writings, Colombian writer and philosopher Fernando González wrote in
Santander the construction of the Devil and nationalism in that “we know the birth of the Devil
and nationalism . . . the Devil was [created because he was] the neighbor’s God, and [imaginary]
borders gave birth to differences and hatred [located in nationalisms].”958 Colombian poet and
Satanist Héctor Escobar Gutiérrez, known locally as “Papa Negro” (“Black Pope”) and the
author of Testimonios Malditos and other writings, confronted resistance by bogotano clergy in
956
“El Coco” and other boogeymen are found in children’s stories and academic studies on folklore. For more on “El Coco” see
Fernando Ortiz, “El cocorícamo y otros teoplásmicos del folklore afrocubano” Archivos del Folklore Cubano IV, 4, 298-312.
957
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Of Love and Other Demons (New York: Random House, Inc., 1995), 94.
958
Fernando González, Santander (Bogotá: Editorial ABC, 1940).
300
1975 who knew about Escobar’s invitation by the First Global Conference on Witchcraft to
preside over a black mass in Colombia.959 Literature, however, was not the only means in which
the Devil appeared in Colombian society.
Satan’s presence was also made known in sports. The Colombian soccer club team
América de Cali, nicknamed “Los Diablos Rojos” or “The Red Devils,” sported a devil on their
logo in 1940 because the team apparently “played like devils,” though the devil insignia was
removed in 1992 for superstitious reasons.960 In Colombian cinema, the 1983 film Pura Sangre
had one scene in which police, hunting for the child murderer, mentioned that the individual
must have been have been possessed by the Devil during his assaults.961 In Colombian theaters
throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, demons in horror films from the United States made their
way to Colombian shores. Films such as Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street,
Hellraiser,962 and other American horror films, as well as Mexican films such as Cementerio Del
Terror and Los Enviados del Infierno963 also created a film culture showcasing Satan and his
minions.964 In theater, Stravinski’s The Soldier’s Tale, a story about a soldier who exchanged his
fiddle for a “magical book” from the Devil premiered in Medellín in the late 1980s.965 In music,
Eugenio Arellano Becerra’s “Hay Que Sacar Al Diablo” recognized the need for peace in
Colombia by driving out “The Devil” or the “evil” producing national violence out of the
country. In the 1960s, the duo Cano and Mejía known as Los Diablos famous hit “El Diablo”
was a song about the Devil leaving the gates of hell and roaming the world grabbing “bad” and
959
Juan Miguel Alvarez, “El esqueleto del diablo,” elmalpensante.com,
http://www.elmalpensante.com/index.php?doc=display_contenido&id=1561&pag=3&size=n, accessed 31 October 2012.
960
“América SA,” America, http://www.america.com.co/publicaciones.php?id=38870, accessed 24 December 2012.
961
Pura Sangre. Luis Ospina. dir. Focine, 1982.
962
“Espectaculos,” El Colombiano, March 21, 1988, 7b.
963
“Espectaculos,” El Colombiano November 13, 1988, 7d.
964
During the 1980s and 1990s, both El Tiempo and El Colombiano advertised U.S. films that also included other genres such as
drama, action, and comedy.
965
Beatriz Gómez G., “La Historia del Soldado: La peor diablura es vender el alma,” El Colombiano, June 6, 1987, 4b.
301
“talkative” women and taking them back to hell.966 In the 1971 song “El Diablo y la Martina,”
Satan fell in love with the recently-deceased heartthrob Martina who cheated on the Devil with
other inhabitants in hell.967 Also, Octavio Mesa sang about his battle with the Devil in “La Pelea
con el Diablo”;968 in vallenato folklore, accordion legend Francisco “el Hombre” Moscote
allegedly battled Satan in an accordion face-off in which Moscote was victorious, earning him
the title of “greatest accordionist.”969 Colombia’s relationship with Satan, for the most part,
seemed acceptable. Whether in cultural practices or literature, Colombians were not concerned
about disbanding the Dark Prince because Satan was packaged in a way that was ultimately
comical and non-threatening. If Colombian society was already exposed to the Devil in different
formats, was the Catholic Church threatened by “Satanic”Black Metal music productions in
Colombia?
Challenges to the Catholic Church in Colombia—and other parts of Latin America—
predated the global heavy rock music movement. As mentioned in Chapter 1, the Church in
Medellín was adamant about intervening and blocking permission for rockers to put on the 1971
Ancón concert festival. As a result, many of the concert participants were ousted from the city
under a legal code that permitted officers to eliminate them from the area. Also, the 1975
controversy over Satanist Héctor Escobar Gutiérrez’ participation in the First International
Congress on Witchcraft was met with a direct challenge by priest Simón González who stated
that the Church would immediately oppose his participation in the event if González should
966
Gilberto Cano and Hernando Mejía, “El Diablo” single. Ondina Fonográfica, 1960.
967
Gidardo Montoya, “El Diablo y la Martina,” in Las Chivas del Siglo. Americana de Discos. 1999.
968
“Octavio Mesa. “La Pelea Con el Diablo,”1975. For the music video, see “LA PELEA CON EL DIABLO-OCTAVIO
MEZA,” Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma78M6f7UHY, accessed 25 August 2013.
969
“Mitos y leyendas,” Festival Vallenato,
http://www.festivalvallenato.com/html/el_folclor/el_folclor_vallenato_mitos_y_leyendas_la_leyenda_de_francisco_el_hombre.ht
m, accessed 24 December 2012.
302
proceeded with the ceremony.970 By the 1980s and early 1990s, the Church was more concerned
about the growing violence in the nation, as well as Pope John Paul II’s visit to Colombia, than
whether or not there were Satanists roaming in the nation.971 Other concerns were published, for
instance, in an article in El Colombiano calling for the need to increase police monitoring of the
La Veracruz church because there were criminals, prostitutes, and homosexuals who roamed
around La Iglesia Veracruz and “robbed people or stabbed each other” while mass took place.972
According to the author, the church was plagued with “prostitutes who fought in the streets” and
thieves who kept an eye out for well-to-do churchgoers—something needed to happen protect
the sanctity of the church’s grounds.973 Monitoring “demons” roaming the church grounds was
one thing, but the Church was not preoccupied with censoring music.
According to Father William Alberto Gil Londoño, by the 1980s the church never made a
statement claiming what type of music people needed to listen to or that Satanism was found in a
type of music.974 In fact, the Church was not concerned at all with the music the youth were
listening to. The Devil, according to the Church, was the violence in society (See Picture 6-13);
the Church’s role was to shelter people from all the violence terrorizing the nation.975 The fear in
society was such that nobody wanted to “give their opinion, say anything because their head
might be taken off.”976
One way in which the Church stepped in to alleviate people’s anxiety from the violence
was by sponsoring youth events. For example, in 1987, the Archdiocese of Medellín sponsored
970
“Cara a Cara Con El Diablo,” noticiasLiterarias.com,
http://www.noticiasliterarias.com/articulos_literarios/articulos%20literarios%2020.htm, accessed 24 December 2012.
971
Gloria Monack, “Bienvenido Juan Pablo II,” El Tiempo, July 1, 1986, 1. The Catholic Herald also reported the Pope’s
journey to Colombia, see “‘Tighten security’ call as Pope packs for Colombia,” Catholic Herald, June 27, 1986.
972
“La Veracruz necesita vigilancia,” Seguridad, El Colombiano, March 10, 1989, 16c.
973
“La Veracruz necesita vigilancia,” Seguridad, El Colombiano.
974
Father William Alberto Gil Londoño Personal Interview 9 September 2009.
975
Father William Alberto Gil Londoño.
976
“Si no hay denuncias, no podemos proteger a los amenazados,” El Colombiano, August 31, 1988, 2a.
303
Picture 6-13: Colombia Will Resurrect!” after being nailed on the cross by “Hate,” “Violence,”
and “Injustice.”977
events during “Semana de la Juventud,” where the city’s youth conducted a pilgrimage to the
Maria Auxiliadora church and were welcomed by Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo.978 When
asked about why artists such as Parabellum and Typhon would write against the Church, Father
Gil Londoño felt that
Perhaps these artists were writing against the Catholic Church because it was a
type of authority. . . . This I believe was rebellion against authority because they
believed that the Church and other forms of authority tried to castrate their
creativity.979
977
“¡Resucitará!,” El Colombiano, March 23, 1989, 5A.
978
“Semana de la Juventud,” El Espectador, September 4, 1987, 7c.
979
304
For Londoño, the Church’s influence and authority in the nation was one reason that such music
would have been produced. According to the priest, during the 1970s and 1980s, Catholic values
and ideals were implemented into public education until the passing of the 1991 Constitution.
The 1991 Colombian Constitution defined the nation not only as a pluralist and secular state, but
it also guaranteed that no Colombian citizen would be extradited to the United States—an act
that drug traffickers like Pablo Escobar would declare as a victory over the Colombian
government and the United States.980 Regardless of social changes taking place in the early
1990s, that did not mean that all families agreed with what schools did not have to teach: school
children were (and are) still asked to memorize and recite the national anthem, lyrics that made
references to Christinaity. That also did not mean that Catholicism all of a sudden disappeared
from the political arena. Despite Liberals spearheading such reforms, Colombian society
remained conservative behind closed doors and in the streets. For Londoño, religion helped him
and his family members “hold on to certain values” that he believed were important for a family
to function adequately.981 Were these the same values that bands such as Nebiros, Tyhpon,
Blasfemia, and others, despised? Were those Christian values considered hypocritical? The
bands were responding to Colombia’s sociohistorical process and the influence of different
power structures ruling the nation: the Church, corrupt politicians, and the local authority (See
Picture 6-2). Where was the concern over the youth and music culture coming from?
One major source of concern stemmed directly from family members who believed that
their children were being lost to perdition. For instance, by the mid-1980s, parents and
lawmakers in the U.S. who felt certain forms of music (including heavy metal and other rock
subgenres) were poisoning the youth formed the Parental Music Resource Center (PMRC). The
980
“Constitucion Politica De Colombia 1991,” BANREP.GOV.CO, http://www.banrep.gov.co/regimen/resoluciones/cp91.pdf,
accessed 24 December 2012.
981
305
PMRC set out to ensure parents were made aware of music with suspect album cover and lyrical
content.982 In Colombia, much like in the United States and other parts of the world, the battle
against Satan’s influence in the household was easily taken care of by stepping in and monitoring
children’s music tastes directly. Although nothing to the extent of the PMRC, parents in
Colombia were involved in their children’s lives so as to ensure their safety and purity. Were all
parents convinced that their children were led astray by Satan?
Father Londoño’s parents told him that he was not permitted to listen to rock music
because it was diabolical, immediately arousing suspicion and curiosity for him over what was
so horrible about the music in the first place.983 The idea that heavy rock music listeners were
connected to the occult was echoed by bogotano Liberal party canvasser and community activist
Enrique Criollo who stated that “that anyone listening to that music must be a devil
worshipper.”984 Medellín veterinarian student Wilson Echeverri mentioned that “there had to be
something evil about that music because there was not enough holy water in the nation to purify
any concert spaces [occupied] by those people.”985 Alex Oquendo and the Castro sisters, as
explained in Chapter 2, experienced concern from family members who thought listening to
metal (or punk) music was something that would wither away after adolescence.986 Furthermore,
as mentioned in the same chapter, the Castro sisters experienced a first-hand “exorcism” from a
local priest who was called by the female rockers’ parents to make sure that the Devil was not
982
For more on the PMRC and the battle towards censoring music see Denna Weinstein, Heavy Metal: The Music and Its Culture.
983
Father William Alberto Gil Londoño Personal Interview 9 September 2009.
984
Enrique Criollo Personal Interview 10 March 2009.
985
Wilson Echeverri Personal Interview 1 June 2009.
986
Alex Oquendo Personal Interview 7 June 2009. Vicky and Piedad Castro Personal Interview 20 June 2009.
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taking over their daughters.987 For Father Londoño, his parents “started to Satanize rock music [,
he believed,] mostly out of fear.”988
Londoño believed his parents related rock music to Satanism because they were
unfamiliar with it and what was unfamiliar and not understood was mischaracterized as
“diabolical.” In the words of bogotano metal guitarist Mario Lozano: lo que la gente no
entiende, lo compone (what people don’t understand, they make up).989 Luz Marina Hortua
mentioned that rock music “used to be nice,” reflecting on the early Beatles’ music, and “[with
time] it was just a bunch of Devil worshipper drug addicts” performing.990 Although Hortua’s
older brother was an avid rock music listener, something she said he must have picked up in high
school, she explained that the music was unfortunately “too strange” for her to enjoy.991
Londoño also mentioned that it was not uncommon for him and his friends to hear complaints
from neighbors who were fed up with the “Satanists practicing their music” next door.992
Whether out of fear or ignorance, the distrust in heavy rock music was, for some, founded in the
apparent unintelligible nature of the music. Again, what was wrong with the music was that,
according to Hortua, “it sounded strange” and “was in a foreign language” and she did not like it
because she simply “didn’t understand a thing.”993 Since its arrival to Colombian shores, metal
and punk music was received ambivalently, much like other local music forms that were
987
Vicky and Piedad Castro.
988
989
990
Luz Marina Hortua Personal Interview 20 March 2009.
991
Luz Marina Hortua.
992
993
Luz Marina Hortua.
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regionally discriminated against in the country.994 Not all parents however were adamantly
against metal or punk music.
For Gonzalo Valencia’s parents, rock was not the preferred type of music though they did
not see anything wrong with their son listening to Pink Floyd or Metallica.995 Bogotano record
collector and salesman Vicente was not as lucky as Gonzalo Valencia because he had to hide his
early music collection because his parents or they would “give him grief.”996 There was a
concern with the unknown and unfamiliar by traditional parents who were afraid of anything
foreign challenging the established norms in Colombian society. Though some parents were not
thrilled to discover that some of the delinquents hired to carry out murders were avid listeners of
metal or punk music, parents were not the only ones concerned about the youth listening to these
subgenres in Colombia.
Diabolus in Musica?: The Media’s Depicitons of Colombian Metal and Punk
In the pages of El Tiempo, El Espectador, and El Colombiano, record promoters and
companies placed numerous ads announcing and praising the arrival of foreign bands performing
in Colombia as well as local band performances. For instance, there were ads that announced the
arrival of Argentina’s Soda Stereo, Spanish band Los Toreros Muertos, North American heavy
metal band Quiet Riot, as well as ads promoting performances by Kraken, Compañia Ilimitada,
Pasaporte, and Codigo.997 Furthermore, by the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, the El
Colombiano periodical dedicated space to discussing the latest productions of pop/rock music.
For example, the section entitled “Que nota Cultural” looked at local and international
994
For more information on the influence of music forms on Colombian society see Peter Wade Music, Race, and Nation: Música
Tropical in Colombia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).
995
996
997
Many of the rock concert ads were published in the pages of the “Espectaculos” section in El Colombiano as well El Tiempo
and El Espectador.
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productions and the Top-10 hits from Billboard, BBC, and Veracruz Estéreo.998 In a special
report on rock en español, El Colombianito published a series of articles on the pop-rock bands
in and out of Colombia, including Pasaporte, Los Toreros Muertos, Aló Aló, La Unión, as well
other bands who sang exclusively in Spanish. Apart from providing specific band information,
the article printed, to gain approval from readers questioning rock music, a quote from teenage
pop-group Timbiriche stating that “[they] want to show the youth that it’s possible to make rock
music without using drugs” and the fact that Pasaporte’s lead singer’s inspiration was Jesus
Christ.999 While publications praised rock music that was apparently palatable, in Spanish, and
“good,” there were articles and editorials critiquing metal and punk music’s influence on
Colombia’s youth
For example, in El Colombiano, columnist José Alvear Sanín wrote that “[metal or punk]
music was not artistic” because these music forms “abandoned everything that ha[d] to do with
harmony, rhythm, cadence, tonality. . . . That scary noise was accompanied by out of tune and
uttered [songs] and was [the singers were] more depraved in their personal conduct. . . .The
message of those songs [was] destructive and the themes [included] contempt for the Divine, the
nation, and the family.”1000 For Sanín, the decay of the youth was grounded in the music.
Noise, green wigs, grotesque makeup, pungent smell, marijuana and crack, ragged
clothing, dirty leather and everything that one could imagine constitutes the
paraphernalia that accompanies the horrendous spectacle, which in comparison to
the African tribal dances and Haitian voodoo are far from boring to
anthropologists.1001
998
“Que Nota Cultural,” El Colombiano, February 3, 1989, 3b.
999
“Rock en Español,” El Colombianito, November 9, 1988, 2-3.
1000
José Alvear Sanín, “Tema Libre: La música y la formación de ideas,” El Colombiano, August 1, 1988, 4A.
1001
José Alvear Sanín “Tema Libre: La música y la formación de ideas,” El Colombiano.
309
Along with calling metal and punk rock music primitive, the columnist mentioned that one only
had to look at “music of the past” to truly understand the decadence located in what the youth
were absorbing during this time. In a special report entitled “Youth gangs violence, and so
what?,” the author called for an end to youth violence by encouraging them to promote love
instead of hatred and acts that were “aggressive [and] destructive.”1002 The article was correct in
suggesting that youth violence was rampant in the city of Medellín, though the violence
perpetrated was not only done by metal or punk parches. The periodical’s caption however did
not leave room for any other interpretation since it only included two punk rockers with
mohawks and leather jackets suggesting that the “problem youths” were punkers.1003 In another
article entitled “Adolescence and drug addiction,” the author provided clues for parents to spot
junkies in their household. 1004 Although the article provided parents with hints as to identifying
a loved one who was under the influence of a drug, it also employed captions that gave a face to
youths in “danger.” Whereas one picture showed four male youths hanging out in the streets,
dressed in jeans and tennis shoes, the other picture showed a female punk rocker dressed in a
leather jacket, gloves, and collar with spikes, an upside down crucifix, and choppy hair.1005 In
other words, the article associated drugs and drug addiction with underground cultures and any
“modifications in their attitudes that make the person seem ‘strange’” and “neglect in physical
appearance and clothing,” such as wearing leather or changing hair color, were suspect of drug
addiction.1006 Critiques against metal and punk rock music continued in the nation’s newspapers.
In other articles, the role of Satan played a central role to the production of the music. In
El Colombiano’s section entitled “EN FAMILIA,” rock music had elements that “cause[d]
1002
“Youth gang violence,” El Colombianito, El Colombiano, February 17, 1988, 12.
1003
“Youth gang violence,” El Colombianito, El Colombiano.
1004
Maria Victoria Téllez, “Adolescencia y drogadicción,” Nueva, El Espectador, May 12, 1990, 6-7.
1005
Maria Victoria Téllez, “Adolescencia y drogadicción,” Nueva, El Espectador.
1006
Maria Victoria Téllez, “Adolescencia y drogadicción,” Nueva, El Espectador.
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uncontrollable and extreme things to those who participate in it.”1007 In an argument reminiscent
of the body losing control to Beatlemania or Elvis Presley’s hip movements, the article
mentioned that “an individual lost his natural defense mechanisms and became susceptible to
messages that arrived directly subliminally.”1008 According to Father Regimbal, there were
messages in rock music that drove people to suicide, to killing, to collective violence, or against
religious beliefs.1009 Still, in the article “¿El ROCK induce a la adoración de satanás?,” Ketty
Cuello de Lizarazo warned as to the need for people to really understand the ill-effects of rock
music in society.1010 One of the ways to understand the “evil” was by analyzing the subliminal
messages by playing music, such as Led Zeppelin and the Eagles, backwards. Along with
playing rock music, the author also cited music acts such as vallenato group Binomio de Oro and
singer Camilo Sexto as also having diabolical subliminal messages in their songs, complicating
whether or not satanic messages were only transmitted in rock music and whether such messages
were exclusive to the rock genre.1011 Deejay and business administration student Camilo
Bedoya, serving as one of the lead music experts interviewed for the article, explained that
The malignant and satanic messages are not just appearing backwards, but also
directly and they are not only transmitted in lyrics, but also in album covers, in
the names chosen by groups, in the symbols and gestures utilized, they do not
only insist on worshipping Satan, but also [supporting] homosexuality, suicide,
rebelling, and drugs.1012
Bedoya believed that following in the footsteps of the United States in allowing this type of
music to continue in society would destroy Colombian society. In a letter to Bogotá mayor
Andrés Pastrana, Bedoya warned the mayor about the evils of such music and tried to convince
1007
Martha Lucía Gómez de Arango, “Algo más que música,” EN FAMILIA El Colombiano, September 14, 1988, B.
1008
Martha Lucía Gómez de Arango, “Algo más que música,” EN FAMILIA El Colombiano.
1009
Martha Lucía Gómez de Arango, “Algo más que música,” EN FAMILIA, El Colombiano.
1010
Ketty Cuello de Lizarazo, “¿El Rock induce a la adoración de satanás?,” El Colombianito, El Colombiano, February 11, 1989,
8.
1011
Ketty Cuello de Lizarazo, “¿El Rock induce a la adoración de satanás?,” El Colombianito, El Colombiano.
1012
Ketty Cuello de Lizarazo, “¿El Rock induce a la adoración de satanás?,” El Colombianito, El Colombiano.
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Pastrana about to ban rock shows in the city. This was not going to happen considering that
Pastrana was instrumental in helping to organize the “Concierto de Conciertos” event in 1988
where local and international acts performed at Bogotá’s El Campín soccer stadium.1013 In
response to whether or not Colombian rock bands in Spanish were falling into the same category
as those in the United States, Bedoya responded that “[bands in Colombia] were soft [rock
bands] with good messages.”1014 Bedoya was not completely wrong.
Although Black Metal, as well as other metal and rock subgenres, contained intense
image representations and strong lyrics, this did not mean that it was bad for listeners. Column
contributor Jorge Artel stated that if the music incorporated Satanism then the “youth could go
ahead and join the Devil and his flames in hell and leave [their] marvelous world alone.”1015 The
incorporation of the Devil into musical discourse was for some of the bands mentioned above a
way to worship and embrace the antithesis of what was socially acceptable in Colombian society.
Members of some of the bands discussed in this chapter were indeed Satan worshippers and
battling against Christianity and its allies. However, those that were not Devil worshippers
incorporated their blasphemous lyrics and images to battling Colombia’s status quo—a world
that these youths rejected and opted for one in which they were true to who themselves.
Conclusion
From the early 1980s and into the 1990s, Colombian metalheads embraced a metal
subgenre that was darker, spoke against the Catholic Church, and also criticized Colombia’s
political machine. Black Metal music artists such as Parabellum, Reencarnación, Nekromantie,
1013
“Homenaje a los 20 años del Concierto de Conciertos (II): El concierto y su legado,” El Tiempo.com, September 16, 2008,
http://www.eltiempo.com/blogs/popcultura/2008/09/Homenaje-a-los-20-aos-del-Conc.php, accessed 31 January 2012.
1014
Ketty Cuello de Lizarazo, “¿El Rock induce a la adoración de satanás?,” El Colombianito, El Colombiano, February 11, 1989,
10.
1015
Jorge Artel, “La música satánica,” El Colombiano, 8 August 1989, 4A.
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Inquisition, Nebiros, and Typhon unveiled a music and imagery that brought into question the
role of the Church in the nation and the hypocrisy of national and global politics. The usage of
symbols, such as the pentagram, the upside down crucifix, and “dead” makeup, imperative to the
global Black Metal movement, told a different story about what constituted Black Metal in the
South American nation. The evolution of Colombian Black Metal was wrought forth by the
music produced in the nation as well as the communication established between artists in
Colombia and those in different parts of the world. Bands during the 1980s and early 1990s put
together a very dark and anti-Christian and anti-religious music project that contested the
influence of the Church on the citizenry. Although some of the band members were Satanic,
others used Satanic imagery to talk about political hypocrisy and critique religious
indoctrination. One of the members of the Black Metal community helping build a
transcontinental bridge of communication was Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya.
Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya, as well as other rockers, understood that creating a
bridge across waters was an excellent way to disseminate local productions taking place in
Colombia. One of the crucial connections made was with Mayhem’s guitarist and important
contributor to the Norwegian Black Metal scene: Euronymous. The exchanges between both
Montoya and Euronymous led to praises given between both regions. Moreover, the encounter
between parties unveiled an important contribution to the history of Black Metal: Colombia’s
Parabellum was part of the “first wave” of Black Metal history. In other words, Parbellum’s
music was a key influence for the “second wave” of Black Metal music. Mayhem, important
forerunners in the Second Wave of Black Metal, recognized Parabellum as a major influence in
their music style. Along with connecting with Mayhem, Montoya’s success led him to establish
his own record label entitled Warmaster Records. Although a member of the satanic cult by the
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name of Lobos En Contra Cristo, his commitment to the Black Metal and the metal scene in the
country was crucial to music’s development. Was the Catholic Church in Colombia threatened
at any point by the rise of Black Metal music or any other form critiquing the Church?
The Church was more preoccupied with the nation’s rise in violence than the
blasphemous artists who critiqued Christianity and the dominating role of the Church in
Colombian lives. The sources of concern with the nation’s youth listening to “the Devil’s
music” came from parents as well as pages in the nation’s periodicals that believed there was
something inherently “evil” about rock music. Whereas parents attempted to preserve their
children’s “purity” by veering them away from listening to heavy rock music, articles and
commentaries in El Tiempo, El Colombiano, and El Espectador unveiled an ambiguous
relationship with rock music. On the one hand, the newspapers promoted foreign and local pop
and rock acts, underscoring special reports on rock music and productions by local and foreign
bands. On the other hand, reports on different forms of rock music in Colombian papers spoke
to its alleged connection to Satanism and the occult, creating a fear around a music genre, and its
subgenres, which was for the most part based on a limited understanding of the scene and the
production process. Satanism, Christianity, death, and violence were not only topics by the
Black Metal artists mentioned in this chapter. Such topics were lived experiences by band and
scene members who saw the Devil, in the form of warfare, roaming around and ripping apart
their country.
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CONCLUSION
Bullets, Drugs, and Rock and Roll has explored the history of Bogotá’s and Medellín’s
heavy metal and punk rock music, their scenes, and reactions to a turbulent period in the late 20th
century. Colombian heavy metal and punk rock surfaced during a time in the nation’s history in
which hopeful youths, new to the city, faced limited opportunities including not being able to
access an adequate education, a decent job, or anything that would entail a possible bright future.
Also influencing the rise of the metal and punk scenes in Colombia was the political and
economic contest between the United States and the Soviet Union. Better known as the Cold
War, this period sparked the formation of guerrilla movements in Colombia that saw in other
parts of Latin America a new direction for the history of the South American nation. Countering
Colombia’s Left organizations were paramilitaries that assassinated major left wing political
party candidates and displaced rural folks who were allegedly collaborating with the guerrillas.
Furthermore, the 1980s and 1990s paved the way for the rise of the drug trade industry. The
national government not only had a war to fight with the guerrillas, but now they had to battle
drug cartels that sought power: political influence and credibility with the local population. It is
this specific environment in both Bogotá and Medellín that paved the way for the absorption,
construction, and appropriation of heavy metal and punk rock music.
This dissertation argued that both rock subgenres gave youths who embraced such music
a different outlet responding to political corruption, police brutality, social and family
conservatism, the rampant drug cartel violence, and the influence of the Church. Studying the
origins of heavy metal and punk rock in Colombia served as a window into one facet of the
nation’s youth culture; this facet of youth culture borrowed from abroad but reflected on the
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serious problems of Colombia in the violent decades of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. The bands
coming out of this era preferred to use music as a tool to addressing the country’s poverty,
warfare, drug cartel violence, and other social justice issues. The music produced was also
important because its intensity inspired aficionados to scream, jump in the pogo, or headbang in
parches while listening to their favorite track or in support of a song performed live. Also,
looking at the Colombian metal and punk rock scenes served as a window into understanding
one facet of urban youth expressions that were vehemently opposed to the status quo. Looking
at the Colombian heavy metal and punk rock scenes closely was also important because these
groups gave youths who embraced the music an opportunity to build an identity that challenged
their society’s sense of appropriateness and established norms. This work also argued that rock
music cover bands of the 1960s, also known as refritos in Mexico’s context, evolved into a
homegrown progressive rock movement during the 1970s.
By the 1970s, rock music in Colombia ceased to be a photocopy of North American and
British music acts; this was a decade in Colombian rock music history of musical appropriation.
The Colombian rock music of the 1970s, parallel in other parts of Latin America, saw bands like
Génesis appropriating local instrumentation and blending it with rock music rhythms and
incorporating Spanish lyrics. By the late 1970s, Colombian rock music also witnessed the rise of
heavy metal and punk rock acts. As with early bands of rock and roll, early metal and punk
bands played music from their favorite (typically) English language artists including: Black
Sabbath, Judas Priest, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and The Ramones. Bands such as Carbure
and Complot were Colombian metal and punk bands, respectively, that honored their
international favorite artists by recording cover songs and playing them on national television.
Carbure and Complot, more than anything, were bands that pushed for the evolution of rock
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music in the nation. Colombians playing music by well-known North American and British
metal and punk bands did not mean that this was a case of cultural imperialism.
To refer to the entry of metal and punk rock music in Colombia as cultural imperialism
did not fit, in this case, because heavy metal and punk rock were music forms that were
appropriated by bogotanos and antioqueños. Furthermore, heavy metal and punk rock music in
Colombia competed against salsa, cumbia, vallenato, and also pop music. Although album sales
were not of concern for the pioneering metal and punk bands, the diffusion of other music styles
was supported by record companies such as Discos Fuentes. Heavy metal and punk rock music,
as explained in Chapter 1, arrived in the country by curious music aficionados traveling abroad
and made its way to Bogotá and Medellín’s street kiosks and private homes. While musicians in
the United Kingdom and the United States developed and imported a sound reaching different
parts of the world, Colombian roquer@s absorbed these First World recordings and by the mid-
1980s worked arduously to put together demo recordings to distribute. The DIY (Do-it-Yourself)
method proved to be the most important tool for Colombian—and other Third World—
metalheads and punkers. By the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, the Colombian
metal and punk movement was more aggressive in lyrical content and directed commentary at
the most powerful institutions of Colombian society: the Government, the Church, and the armed
forces.
The scene members’ first-hand experiences provided us with one facet of Colombian
youth culture in the 1980s and early 1990s that centered on music styles and lifestyles that were
not part of the mainstream music culture. The roquer@s growing up during this period, did not
express interest in joining a religious youth group or canvassing for the next Liberal or
Conservative party candidate. These youths, like other teens in both cities and other parts of the
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nation, were interested, at least initially, in social changes. They were looking for changes in the
political arena, changes in the maldistribution of wealth, and changes that give youngsters a
chance to dream about social mobility. Many scene members expressed that changes in
Colombia were possible and that the whole nation kept their eyes and ears open to see what
would happen. Such reforms however did not occur. In order to address Colombian youth
culture it was important to consider geography and spatial interactions.
The epicenters of focus for this study were two of Colombia’s most politically and
economically important cities: Bogotá and Medellín. These were cities that, as mentioned in
Chapter 1, witnessed a sizable growth in population and the construction of illegal dwellings to
house the new migrants following displacement during the La Violencia (1948-1958) period.
Following the 1960s, the youths growing up in Bogotá’s and Medellín’s lowest income sectors,
which were the same areas demonstrating settlement during and following La Violencia,
observed and experienced first-hand the growing inequalities and persisting violence taking
place in the nation. The youngsters living in Bogotá’s and Medellín’s marginalized
neighborhoods were regarded by the elite as politically unimportant and stigmatized as being
part of the nation’s problems. The same could be said of adolescents in other Colombian cities,
such as Cali: another region which experienced a similar culture, movements, and events.
Whether in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, or any other major city in the nation, the youths engaging the
heavy metal or punk rock music scenes were teenagers.
The youths finding the rock music subgenres appealing during the 1980s and early 1990s
were mostly teenage boys between the ages of 14 and 18 years old. It was difficult to state
exactly how many of these teenagers became members of either music scene during the period
under study, especially considering that metalheads and punks mentioned that women’s
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presence, in its early days, was rare. This did not mean that other youths in Colombia during the
1980s and 1990s were disgusted and disturbed by the heavy metal and punk rock scenes. What
this did mean that other youngsters in the region were finding different forms of catharsis to deal
with the same sociopolitical and economic anxieties as the metaler@s and punker@s. Some of
Colombia’s teens in the 1980s and 1990s also enjoyed participating in soccer, salsa dancing,
street art, and other activities that keep them, as the metalheads and punkers, believing, for
instance, that their quality of life will improve. For other teens, participating in different
activities is also a way to reject political hegemony, violence, and poverty. The difference,
however, is that metal and punk music and culture, in Colombian society and other parts of the
world, go against the grain of accepted norms in ways that conventional popular music, soccer,
and street art did not. Nonetheless, though not every youth is drawn to metal or punk, teens who
embrace either of these two rock subgenres use heavy metal and punk rock music to help them
redefine their relationship to the city: changes taking place due to modernity, social and family
expectations and conservatism, and defining one’s identity. The experience of Colombian
youths during this time distinguishes itself from the experience of other teens in Latin America.
Colombian youths in the mid- to late 1980s and early 1990s, as youths in other parts of
Latin America, saw no institutional changes taking place; the dominance of the political parties
of the region was actually strengthened. Like other parts of Latin America, youths in Colombia
recognized the role that the Catholic Church played in the lives of the country’s citizenry.
Unlike in certain parts of Latin America, Colombian youths, as well as the rest of the nation,
witnessed a series of political assassinations against third party candidates, the rise of the drug
cartels and its influence in politics and society, and the violence due to the cartels. Furthermore,
the Cold War also played a role in the construction of both rock subgenres’ scenes in the nation.
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The struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union to preserve economic and
military allies during the Cold War (1945-1989) was partially responsible for influencing the rise
of heavy metal and punk rock music around the globe. In Colombia, the Cold War manifested
itself with the rise of different left wing guerrillas during the 1960s and 1970s (e.g., FARC, EPL,
ELN, M-19) battling the national government for control of the country. Marxism, Maoism,
Leninism, Che Guevera’s Guerrilla Warfare, were ideals influencing guerrilla movements
unwelcome by Liberals and Conservatives who garnered the support of the United States
government. By the 1980s, the Cold War in Colombia was responsible for the annihilation of
former guerrillas participating in left wing parties, namely the Unión Patriotica (Patriotic
Union) and the Alianza Democrática M-19 (Democratic Alliance M-19). For the Colombian
metal and punk movements, there was no question that the Cold War influenced some of the
lyrics and music productions that not only rejected the imperialism of the United States and the
Soviet Union, but also the violence prevalent in 1980s and early 1990s Colombian society.
The objective of this dissertation has been to shed light on Colombia’s heavy metal and
punk rock scenes: its culture, performance, and musical creations. Both the metal and punk
scenes were, as mentioned, a product of the nation’s growing inequalities, political corruption,
the influence of the Church, the lack of opportunities for the nation’s youth, and the drug cartel
violence. The metaler@s and punquer@s of Bogotá and Medellín during the 1980s and early
1990s could not escape any of these facets, making the construction of the music groups, the
spaces to congregate to hangout and/or perform, and the dissemination of the bands’ music
uniquely Colombian. As mentioned in Chapter 5, playing in public, at the height of cartel
violence, was very dangerous. Some metalheads and punkers, as well as other citizens, did not
survive this era. Those that did survive expressed very cautiously how this moment provoked
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fear throughout the nation, which caused many youngsters to retreat to just wanting to share
music and hoping to be alive to see the next day. Unlike other parts of Latin America,
Colombia’s metalheads and punkers, understood that the best move for them was to forge efforts
and create spaces to, if for just a moment, look after themselves and do what they could so that
they did not fall victims to conformity, further harassment, and violence in Colombian society.
Such occurrences not only made Colombian youth’s experiences unique, but they also made the
content of the heavy metal and punk rock music productions exclusively Colombian.
Nevertheless, there were some parallels between the metal and punk rock productions in
Colombia and other parts of Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.
Some of the themes prevalent in metal and punk music recordings throughout Latin
America, and other parts of the world, during the 1980s and early 1990s underscored repression,
injustice, poverty and political corruption. For example, in Peru, 1980s heavy metal bands such
as Almas Inmortales and Angelus discussed corruption and inequality in society.1016 Following
the contributions of the 1960s pioneering punk band Los Saicos,1017 major 1980s punk bands
such as Narcosis wrote songs such as “Represión” and “Sucio Policia,”1018 while punk and rock
fusion band Las Mojarras recorded in 1994 “Triciclo Peru,” a song criticizing how the wealthy
stifled the country’s technological and social progress.1019 In Argentina, following its
dictatorship (1976-1983), metal bands such as Nepal and A.N.I.M.A.L. (Harassed, Our
Indigenous Died While Fighting) discussed social injustice as well as indigenous struggle and
identity, respectively.1020 Although there were punk artists that came after the dictatorship, some
1016
Almas Inmortales. Demo 1986. Lima, 1986 and Angelus. Demo 1989. Lima, 1989.
1017
Peru’s Los Saicos are considered to be the very first punk rock band in the world. The topics and music style by Los Saicos
(e.g. social angst, fights, hatred, death) mark the band as being ahead of their time. For more on Los Saicos see Los Saicos.
Mariano Carranza, dir. NOISEY, 2013.
1018
“Represion” and “Policia Sucia” in Narcosis. Primera Dosis. Lima, 1985.
1019
“Tricíclo Perú” in Las Mojarras. Ruidos En La Ciudad. Discos Hispanos, 1994.
1020
A.N.I.M.A.L. A.N.I.M.A.L. WEA International, 1993. Nepal. Raza de Traidores. Nems, 1993.
321
of the Argentine punk artists who surfaced immediately during the dictatorship included Los
Testículos, Los Violadores, Los Laxantes, and Sumo. Los Violadores lead singer “Pil”
commented that his band was put together at a time when the accepted “national [pop] rock
music was boring” and when “the nation was going through a repression of individual
freedoms.”1021 In Mexico, metal and punk music productions also showcased the country’s
repression, inequalities, and corruption in society.
Mexican heavy metal and punk rock music during the 1980s and early 1990s also posited
inconformity with the status quo that was comparable to the Colombian metaler@ and
punquer@’s experience. Mexico’s rock and roll movement of the late 1950s and 1960s paved
the way for hard rock artists such as Alex Lora’s El Tri as well as Alejandra Guzmán. The
Mexican metal music during the course of the 1980s witnessed bands such as Transmetal,
Luzbel, Megatón, and Six Beer writing music about death, violence, modernity, and religion.
Also, Mexican punk of the same period saw musical productions by Herejía, Masacre 68, a
reference to the sanctioned armed forces’ assassination of Mexico’s university students in 1968,
Espicemen, and other bands that expressed discontent over the dominance of the PRI
(Institutional Revolutionary Party) in Mexican politics as well as the growing inequalities in the
nation. In a similar vein, in Brazil, during and following the dictatorship’s rule (1964-1985), the
nation’s heavy metal scene saw the rise of Dorsal Atlântica, Metalmorphose, Sarcófago,
Sepultura, Vulcano and other bands that primarily surfaced in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and
Belo Horizonte. Bands such as Sarcófago,1022 as Colombia’s Parabellum, Masacre, Typhon, and
others, pictorially, lyrically, and musically challenged the role of organized religion in people’s
lives. Meanwhile, Brazilian punk rockers Ratos de Porrão, Cólera, Lobotomia, and other
1021
“Pil” interviewed in Ellos Son Los Violadores. Juan Riggirozzi, dir. 2009.
1022
Sarcófago. INRI. Cogumelo, 1987.
322
Brazilian punk bands of the 1980s and early 1990s, produced a raw sound to denounce injustice
and corruption. For instance, Ratos de Porrão’s first album, Crucificados Pelo Sistema
(Crucified By the System), contained songs such as “Pobreza,” “Que Vergonha,” and
“Corrupção.”1023 The different musical projects taking place in parts of Latin America led to
transnational connections by the region’s scene members.
The international ties that Colombia’s metal and punk rock scene members construct
allowed for the musical dissemination and exchange between countries like Peru, Ecuador,
Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of Latin America. Outside the Western Hemisphere, Colombian
heavy metal and punk rock scene members, as mentioned in Chapter 6 in the discussion on
Mauricio “Bull Metal” Montoya, kept close contact with metalheads and punkers in Germany,
Greece, Spain, Sweden, Norway, and other nations. The fanzine served as the most appropriate
medium to feature interviews and music projects by local talents and international band
productions. In the pages of Nueva Fuerza, Subterráneo Medellín, Visión Rockera, Tempus
Mortis, and other underground fanzines of the era, bands from Colombia and abroad provided
contact information so that fans or anyone curious about a band had the opportunity to
communicate using the postal service. For example, in Nueva Fuerza, in an interview with the
Panamanian band Caras de Hambre, one of the band members explained that they were selling
the band’s demo tapes and band’s t-shirts, but were glad to exchange a “demo tape for another
demo or a t-shirt for another t-shirt.”1024 In order for Caras de Hambre to communicate with
interested folks, Nueva Fuerza printed their information below the band’s picture.1025 In
Subterráneo Medellín, North American band Exit 13’s information was printed to help promote
1023
Ratos de Porrão. Crucificados Pelo Sistema. Peculio Discos, 1984.
1024
“Caras de Hambre” Nueva Fuerza, no.6, August 1990, 8.
1025
“Exit 13,” Subterráneo Medellín, no. 5, 1990, 9.
323
their music and merchandise.1026 Printing band information in rock fanzines, even with the rise
of the internet, has not disappeared. More recently, in Kerria Punk Zine, bands and fanzines
from Brazil, Japan, Germany, Ecuador, and different parts of Colombia posted their address and
other contact information.1027 Along with looking at how bands from different parts of the world
forged ties with each other, another topic this dissertation raises was how to qualify the role of
Colombia’s government institutions.
The relationship between Colombia’s metalheads and punkers and the government’s
institutions was—and continues to be—ambivalent. On the one hand, Bogotá and Medellín’s
local governments sanctioned throughout the 1980s and early 1990s concerts giving metalheads
and punkers an opportunity to gain exposure and showcase their talent. The local government
support of shows was important, playing an influential role in the trajectory of the nation’s heavy
metal and punk scenes. On the other hand, the local police forces, one facet of the government’s
institutions, discriminated and had contempt for metalheads and punkers who, as discussed in
Chapter 2 and 3, went against social norms in Colombia. Both heavy metal and punk rock lyrics,
in Colombia’s context, were rebellious and contested authority. Like the artists of Nueva
Canción and canción protesta of the 1960s and 1970s, Colombian metal and punk made a
statement regarding injustice, corruption, violence, and police brutality. Musically, unlike artists
like Mercedes Sosa and Victor Jara, metal and punk was loud and delivered aggressively; in the
case of punk rock music, the music was much more raw, demonstrating limited edits, and not
necessarily melodic. Also, the Colombian metalheads and punkers, unlike Nueva Canción or
canción protesta artists, claimed to be apolitical: they wanted nothing to do with politics or
revolutionaries. Policemen seeking to control a “disorderly” metal or punk crowd confronted
1026
“Exit 13,” Subterráneo Medellín.
1027
“Correo Actual,” Kierra Punk Zine, Vol.1, 1998, 15-16.
324
music scenes that vocalized how cops were the major foes of metalheads and punkers. Those
officers engaging in abusing roquer@s, and other inconformes (non-conformists) did so knowing
that repercussions for police brutality were non-existent in Colombia.1028
Finally, this dissertation has attempted to build on conversation regarding the
international heavy metal and punk rock movements. The information presented above shed
light on one nation’s subcultural movements during a time of intense distress and peril. Bringing
together in conversation the international metal and punk rock movements was an important task
scholars have taken up with much more seriousness. For more than a decade, scholars from
different fields have taken the task to discuss the construction of metal and punk scenes in First
World nations. During the last decade, academics have played close attention to how Third
World nations received heavy metal and punk rock music. Scholars have looked at the
construction of youth groups from different corners of the world, though by no means did this
imply a decline in political and economic scholarship. However, the host of books, articles,
lectures, and conferences on heavy metal and punk rock music scenes across the planet has
served as testimony to the growing importance of these subcultures and other subcultures
influencing the course of rock music and its subgenres. After all, Colombia’s continuing warfare
and its sociopolitical and economic disparities by the late 1990s and at the turn of the millennium
paved the way for another generation of Colombian youths embracing heavy metal and punk
rock. For this new generation of metalheads and punkers, Colombian citizenry was still more
worried about appearances and looking good unto the world rather than addressing and resolving
issues plaguing the nation.
1028
Colombia’s police brutality is not limited to roquer@s but is also extended to protesting university students and other “non-
conformists” that challenge State power.
325
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,

submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements

FOR MY PARENTS AND FOR MY HOMELAND

IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY GUARDIAN ANGELS ABUELO GONZALO, ABUELO

CURRICULUM VITAE vii

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION xiii

CHAPTER 1: Creating Colombia’s “Children of the Grave” 21

CHAPTER 2: “Roquerostein”: The Construction of the Colombian Roquer@ 56

CHAPTER 3: Negotiating Spaces—Rocking out in a “Time of Cholera” 103

CHAPTER 5: El País Podrido-The Rotten Nation 215

University of California, Irvine, CA

University of California, Irvine, CA

California State University, Long Beach, CA

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University of California, Irvine, Humanities Center (2007)

Giovanni Hortua (Research Assistant/Collaborator) Strum, Philippa Mendez V. Westminster:

“Formation of Latino Identity via Soccer in Los Angeles, 1970s-1980s.”

“Colombian Guerrilla Movements and their Impact on the Political Arenas.”

Colombia March-June 2009 and May-June 2010

United States February-March 2003

United States History –Lower Division

General Studies Education, Academy of Couture Art, Beverly Hills, CA

World History –Lower Division

Department of History, California State University, Long Beach, CA

Latin American History –Upper Division

United States History –Lower Division

Department of History, Santa Monica City College, Santa Monica, CA

Latin American History –Upper Division

Department of History, University of California, Irvine, CA

United States History –Upper Division

African American Psychology –Lower Division

World History-Lower Division

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10th Grade World History, Lathrop Middle School, Santa Ana, CA

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Program Tutor and Curriculum Developer, Long Beach, CA 2013

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Qualified Spanish Interpreter, Los Angeles, CA 2012-2013

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Associated Graduate Students, University of California, Irvine 2006-2007

History Graduate Students Association, University of California, Irvine 2004-2006

Outstanding Graduate Leader Award, Humanities Out There, University of

American Historical Association (AHA)

Doctor of Philosophy in History

University of California, Irvine, 2013

Professor Steven C. Topik, Chair

drug related aggression.

[Rock] is the bambuco of the sardinos [or kids] nowadays

metal and punk rock in Colombia?

extremely impoverished, insecure, and dangerous sociocultural environment. These conditions

improve by the late 1980s.

different disciplines: studies on rock music in Latin America, scholarship specifically on

memory and violence.

development of the heavy metal and punk rock scenes.

containing “unfair” social commentary.16 In Rockin’ Las Américas, contributors to the

analysis on the influence of rock music in the country.

colonization, and (3) assimilation and legitimization.21 In contrast to Reina Rodríguez’s

continues to be thought of in Colombian society as something foreign, or non-Colombian. Other

confront and contextualize their day-to-day experiences.