Exploring Ibero-American Youth Cultures in The 21st Century: Creativity, Resistance and Transgression in The City 1st Edition Ricardo Campos

Exploring Ibero-American Youth
Cultures in the 21st Century: Creativity,

Resistance and Transgression in the
City 1st Edition Ricardo Campos
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/exploring-ibero-american-youth-cultures-in-the-21st-c
entury-creativity-resistance-and-transgression-in-the-city-1st-edition-ricardo-campos/
Exploring
Ibero-American Youth
Cultures in the 21st
Century
Creativity, Resistance and
Transgression in the City
Edited by
Ricardo Campos · Jordi Nofre
Exploring Ibero-American Youth Cultures
in the 21st Century
Ricardo Campos • Jordi Nofre
Editors
Exploring Ibero-
American Youth
Cultures in the 21st
Century
Creativity, Resistance and Transgression in the City
Editors
Ricardo Campos Jordi Nofre
CICS.NOVA – Interdisciplinary CICS.NOVA – Interdisciplinary
Centre of Social Sciences Centre of Social Sciences
NOVA FCSH, Universidade Nova de NOVA FCSH, Universidade Nova de
Lisboa (NOVA University Lisbon) Lisboa (NOVA University Lisbon)
Lisbon, Portugal Lisbon, Portugal
ISBN 978-3-030-83540-8 ISBN 978-3-030-83541-5 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83541-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by national funds through FCT/MEC (PTDC/

SOC-SOC/28655/2017 and UIDB/04647/2020).
v
Contents
1 Introduction: Ibero-American Youth in the Twenty-First

Century 1
Ricardo Campos and Jordi Nofre
Part I Activism, Resistance, and Citizenship 23
2 Youth Protest Culture in Lima (2011–2016) 25

Patricia Oliart
3 Bandas de Barrio (Neighbourhood Gangs) and

Gentrification: Racialised Youth as an Urban Frontier
Against the Elitisation of Suburban Working-Class
Neighbourhoods in Twenty-First-Century Madrid 49
Begoña Aramayona and Jordi Nofre
4 Urban Experience, Youth, Gender and Sexuality in a

LGBT Family on the Periphery of São Paulo 75
Vi Grunvald
5 The Street as a Youth Recognition Place for

Adult-Centric Expulsion103
Klaudio Duarte Quapper and Sebastián Escobar González
vii
viii Contents
6 Casa Kolacho: Violence, Youth, and Urban Art in the

Peripheries of Medellin123
Natalia Pérez Torres
Part II Creativity and Cultural Production 149
7 Survival Arts: Peripheral Urban Cultures in the City

of Rio de Janeiro151
Adriana Facina, Dennis Novaes, Vinícius Moraes,
Mariana Gomes, and Carlos Palombini
8 The Black Beat of Lisbon: Sociabilities, Music and

Resistances175
Otávio Raposo and Frank Marcon
9 Between the Street and the Gallery: Trajectories of

“Pixadores” and Graffiti Writers in Lisbon and São Paulo199
Ricardo Campos and Gabriela Leal
10 HEM 26: Youth Representations and Cultural

Production Against Stigmatization223
Rodrigo Sánchez Torres
11 ‘Not Just Holidays in the Sun’: Understanding DIY

Cultures in the Global South243
Paula Guerra and Carles Feixa Pàmpols
Part III Leisure, Consumption, and Sociabilities 259
12 When the Zombies Come Marching. Performances in

Public Spaces, Mimetic Pleasures, and Entrepreneurial
Youth in Cordoba (Argentina)261
Gustavo Blázquez and María Cecilia Díaz
Contents ix
13 K-Popping Urban Space in Santiago de Chile. The Use of

Public Spaces as a Mobile Form Placemaking, Exploring
and Subverting the City281
Paola Jirón, Inés Figueroa, and Pablo Mansilla-Quiñones
14 Adolescents in Barcelona: Exploring Places, Exploring

Nightlife307
Margot Mecca
15 Epilogue: Youth Street Cultures as We Knew It: A

Lost World?329
Jose Sánchez-García
Index339
Notes on Contributors
Begoña Aramayona holds a PhD in Social Psychology from Autonomous

University of Madrid. She is currently Junior Postdoctoral Researcher at
CICS.Nova – Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences, Universidade
Nova de Lisboa (NOVA University Lisbon), Portugal, supported by the
Scientific Employment Stimulus Programme of the Portuguese Foundation
for Science and Technology.
Gustavo Blázquez is researcher at the National Scientific and Technical
Research Council (CONICET) and a full professor in the Department of
Anthropology at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. His aca-
demic research focuses on the practices of contemporary youth in the
space of the night and addresses the intersections between performances
and performativity. In 2019 he won the national prize for anthropology,
and is the director of the National Museum, Manzana de las Luces.
Ricardo Campos holds a PhD in anthropology. He is a senior researcher
at CICS.Nova – Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences, Universidade
Nova de Lisboa (NOVA University Lisbon), Portugal. His publications
include Political Graffiti in Critical Times; The Aesthetics of Street Politics
(with A. Pavoni and Y. Zaimakis), Transglobal Sounds. Music, Youth, and
Migration. Music, identity and migrant descendants, (with J. Sardinha);
and Popular & Visual Culture: Design, Circulation and Consumption
(with C. Sarmento).
xi
xii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
María Cecilia Díaz is postdoctoral fellow at the National Scientific and

Technical Research Council (CONICET); assistant professor in the
Department of Anthropology; and researcher at the Faculty of Philosophy
and Humanities Research Center at the National University of Córdoba,
Argentina (CIFFyH, UNC). Her areas of interest include drug policy
activism, cultural consumption, and the creation of attachments, bodies,
and networks through performances.
Adriana Facina received her PhD from the Universidade Federal do Rio
de Janeiro – UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) in 2001 with a
dissertation on Brazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues. Since 2008, she has
devoted herself to the study of funk carioca and other artistic expressions
from the Rio de Janeiro’s urban peripheries. She is Professor of Social
Anthropology at the Nacional Museum/Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro and a fellow of the National Research Council (ref. CNPq
307156/2017-6).
Inés Figueroa has a bachelor’s degree in social anthropology from
Universidad de Chile, with specialisation in ethnography. Her main areas
of interest involve ethnography, ethnographic writing, design, bodies,
clothing and material culture.
Mariana Gomes holds degrees from the Universidade Federal Fluminense
(M.A. in culture and territoriality) and the Pontifícia Universidade Católica
do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) (PhD in social sciences). Her research inter-
ests are gender, sexuality, popular culture and communication studies.
Sebastián Escobar González is B.A. in Education from Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Chile, and has a master’s degree in social science
from Universidad de Chile. Currently, he is lecturer at Universidad Finis
Terrae (Finis Terrae University) and a member of Núcleo de Investigación
y Acción en Juventudes, Universidad de Chile.
Vi Grunvald is an anthropologist and audiovisual director. He is a pro-
fessor at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), where he
coordinates the Visual Anthropology Center (Navisual). He holds a PhD
in anthropology from University of São Paulo (USP), with an emphasis on
visual anthropology, art, performance, gender, sexuality, queer studies and
urban anthropology. He is also coordinator of the Recognition Group in
Artistic/Audiovisual Universes at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and
researcher at the Visual Anthropology Group (GRAVI), Anthropology,
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xiii
Performance and Drama Center (NAPEDRA), Center for Studies on

Social Markers of Difference (NUMAS) and the Research in Musical
Anthropology (PAM), all linked to USP.
Paula Guerra is Professor of Sociology at the University of Porto and a
researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the same university. She is an
adjunct associate professor at the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural
Research. Paula is the founder and coordinator of the KISMIF project, the
co-coordinator of the KISMIF International Conference and founder and
coordinator of the Network All the Arts. She has co-authored the edited
books: DIY Cultures and Underground Music Scenes; The Punk Reader.
Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global; Punk, Fanzines and
DIY Cultures in a Global World. Fast, Furious and Xerox (Palgrave, 2020);
and Trans-Global Punk Scenes. The Punk Reader Volume 2.
Paola Jirón is associate professor in the Faculty of Architecture and
Urbanism (FAU) at the Universidad de Chile, where she is the coordina-
tor of the PhD programme on Territory, Space and Society (D_TES). She
holds a PhD in urban and regional planning London School of Economics
(LSE). Her main areas of research involve urban studies from an everyday
dwelling experience including mobility practices, gender issues and diver-
sity through qualitative research methods. She is currently Director of
Millennium Nucleus Mobilities and Territories (MOVYT), associate
researcher at COES, and member of Contested Territories International
Network.
Gabriela Leal is a junior researcher at CICS.Nova – Interdisciplinary
Centre of Social Sciences, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA University
Lisbon). She is a PhD s tudent in urban studies at Nova University Lisbon
and ISCTE-IUL, University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal.
Pablo Mansilla-Quiñones is adjunct professor at the Institute of
Geography, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. He holds a doc-
torate in human geography from the Fluminense Federal University,
Brazil. His areas of research involve social and cultural geography from
critical, postmodern and decolonial approaches, using ethnographic meth-
ods and participative action research. He is director of “Alternative
Territories” Research Group; adjunct researcher at Millennium Nucleus
Mobilities and Territories (MOVYT); associate researcher at BioGeoArt
(Anillos SOC180040); and main researcher at “Deshabitar los Extremos”
(FONDECYT 11181086).
xiv NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Frank Marcon holds a PhD in anthropology; is an associated professor in

the Department of Social Sciences at the Federal University of
Sergipe, Brazil.
Margot Mecca is a post-doctoral researcher at Universitat Pompeu Fabra
(Pompeu Fabra University), Barcelona, Spain. After a bachelor’s degree in
linguistics and a master’s degree in geography and anthropology from
University of Florence, she obtained a PhD in geography from Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona. Her main research interests are youth, public
space, gender, leisure, adolescence and urban inequalities; her method-
ological approach focuses on qualitative methods, audiovisual techniques
and interactive and participatory online methods. She combines her
research practice with professional activity in the field of documentary cin-
ema, working as a festival programmer and a producer of creative docu-
mentary films.
Vinícius Moraes received his M.A. in culture and territoriality from the
Universidade Federal Fluminense. He is a PhD candidate in social anthro-
pology at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ (Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro) / National Museum. His research focuses on
urban cultures and peripheries.
Jordi Nofre is Associate Research Professor in Urban Geography CICS.
Nova – Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences, Universidade Nova de
Lisboa (NOVA University Lisbon), Portugal, supported by the Scientific
Employment Stimulus Programme of the Portuguese Foundation for
Science and Technology. He is also coordinator of LXNIGHTS—The
International Research Network on the Urban Night.
Dennis Novaes holds degrees from the Universidade Federal do Rio de
Janeiro – UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) / National Museum
(M.A., PhD in social anthropology). He was a visiting scholar at the
Department of Music of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
His research explores connections between music and technology, focus-
ing on music movements in Brazilian favelas and peripheries.
Patricia Oliart is Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies at Newcastle
University in the United Kingdom. As a social researcher she has stud-
ied the circumstances and particular shape that emancipatory ideas take in
the political and intellectual life of individuals in Peru (Marxism among
schoolteachers, feminism among indigenous women, alter- globalism
among rock musicians). Her current project is about youth cultural and
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xv
political collectives and the political subjectivities emerging in post-

conflict Peru.
Carlos Palombini received his PhD from the University of Durham in
1993 with a dissertation on Pierre Schaeffer’s Traité des objets musicaux.
Since 2005, he has devoted himself to the study of funk carioca. He is
Professor of Musicology at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais –
UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais) and a fellow of the National
Research Council (ref. CNPq 312040/2016-4).
Carles Feixa Pàmpols is Full Professor of Social Anthropology at the
Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Pompeu Fabra University) (Barcelona). He is
Professor Honoris Causa from the University of Manizales (Colombia).
He is Visiting Professor in Rome, Mexico City, Paris, Berkeley, Buenos
Aires, Santiago de Chile and Newcastle. He has specialized in the study of
youth cultures, conducting fieldwork research in Catalonia, Mexico and
Colombia. He has been a consultant on youth policies for the United
Nations and VP for Europe of the research committee “Sociology of
Youth” of the International Sociological Association. He is coordinator of
the Youth and Society Research Network, ICREA Academia Awardee and
principal investigator of the European Research Council project
TRANSGANG.
Klaudio Duarte Quapper is a sociologist and a community educator,
and is Lecturer at Universidad de Chile. He holds a M.A. degree in youth
and society from Universidad de Girona (Spain), and a PhD degree in
sociology from Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (Spain). He is
Academic Coordinator in the Faculty of Sociology at the Universidad
de Chile.
Otávio Raposo holds a PhD degree in anthropology; is an integrated
researcher at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-
ISCTE), and an invited professor in the Department of Social Research
Methods at ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon.
Jose Sánchez-García is Senior Researcher in Social Anthropology at
Pompeu Fabra University, and scientific coordinator of TRANSGANG –
ERC Advanced Grant (www.upf.edu/web/transgang), and was ethno-
graphic fieldwork coordinator of FP7-SAHWA (www.sahwa.eu). His
research focuses on the interplay between intersectional youth studies,
social movements and post-colonial approaches, both in North Africa
and Europe.
xvi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Natalia Pérez Torres holds a M.A. degree in urbanism, history and

architecture of the city from the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
(Federal University of Santa Catarina), Florianópolis/SC, Brazil. and is a
PhD student at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Human Sciences
at the same institution. She is member of the Research Group on Visual
Anthropology and Image Studies (NAVI) and the Research Group on
Urban Dynamics and Cultural Heritage (NAUI) both from the
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Federal University of Santa
Catarina), Florianópolis/SC, Brazil.
Rodrigo Sánchez Torres is Chair Professor in the Department of
Political Science and International Relations at Monterrey Institute of
Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), Campus-Puebla, México.
He is lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International
Relations at Institute of Legal Sciences of Puebla, México and is also a
doctoral student of sociology at Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities
“Alfonso Velez Pliego” Autonomus University Of Puebla (BUAP), México.
List of Figures
Fig. 3.1 Betting shops vandalised by anti-gentrification

neighbourhood’s movements. (This image used with
permission of the co-author Begoña Aramayona) 68
Fig. 6.1 Location of Antioquia in Colombia. (Note: Adapted from
Wikipedia, 2020 [wikipedia.org]) 128
Fig. 6.2 Political division of Medellin. (Note: Adapted from Mapade,
2020 [mapade.org]) 129
Fig. 6.3 Access to escalators in Commune 13. (This image used with
permission of Natalia Pérez Torres) 135
Fig. 6.4 Members of the Kolacho hip-hop house. (Note: Adapted
from Facebook, 2019 [facebook.com/LaCasaKolacho]) 139
Fig. 6.5 View of the electric stairs and its surroundings in the
neighborhood of Las Independencias I. (This image used
with permission of Natalia Pérez Torres) 140
Fig. 6.6 Urban art in Commune 13. (This image used with permission
of Natalia Pérez Torres) 143
Fig. 7.1 ‘Mural’ composed by several xarpi names. (This image used
with permission of Vinicius Moraes) 165
Fig. 7.2 Firefighters on the following day of the accident with Pira
searching for his body. In the top right-hand corner of the
image, his last graffiti. (This image used with permission of
Vinicius Moraes) 168
Fig. 9.1 Graffiti wall of fame in Lisbon (2008). (This image used
with permission of Ricardo Campos) 207
Fig. 9.2 Pixação in a building located in São Paulo’s central area,
2020. (This image used with permission of Gabriela Leal) 208
xvii
xviii List of Figures
Fig. 9.3 Urban art: works by SAM3 and Ericailcane, project CRONO,
Lisbon. (This image used with permission of Ricardo Campos) 211
Fig. 10.1 Graffiti HEM 26, October 2018. (This image used with
permission of Rodrigo Sánchez Torres) 234
Fig. 10.2 HEM 26 gang, February 2020. (This image used with
permission of César Méndez Lima) 239
Fig. 10.3 Turek HEM in concert, February 2020. (This image used
with permission of César Méndez Lima) 240
Fig. 13.1 Young people dancing in front of the windows of the Mutual
building. (This image used with permission of Inés Figueroa.
2018. FONDECYT Research Project N° 1171554) 289
Fig. 13.2 Get-together in San Borja Park, otherwise known simply as
“Borja.” (Note: This image used with permission of Inés
Figueroa. 2018. FONDECYT Research Project N° 1171554) 291
Fig. 13.3 K-pop cultural collective map 294
Fig. 13.4 Use of speakers at a rehearsal outside the Mutual building.
(Note: This image used with permission of Inés Figueroa.
2018. FONDECYT Research Project N° 1171554) 296
Fig. 13.5 Young people rehearsing outside the Mutual building. (This
image used with permission of Inés Figueroa, 2018.
FONDECYT Research Project N° 1171554) 299
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Ibero-American Youth

in the Twenty-First Century
Ricardo Campos and Jordi Nofre
1.1 Youth in Plural

An important section of the media and public sphere is dominated by
young people, less for what they say than for what is said about them.
Firstly, this is an age and social group that is frequently targeted for scru-
tiny and diagnosis by public authorities. Secondly, it is a hyper-represented
category in media and cultural industries that contributes to the formation
of cultural myths and youth models. These social narratives produce an
idea with two contrasting aspects. While sometimes they record a transient
condition, marked by risk-taking and disruption, some other times they
unveil a romanticised and optimistic vision that sees the youth as the
holder of the most highly praised values in our society. In the fields of poli-
tics, leisure, sexuality, technology, youth are either diagnosed as being in a
state of anomie, on the verge of the precipice, or by contrast seen as highly
R. Campos (*) • J. Nofre

CICS.NOVA – Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences, NOVA FCSH,
Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA University Lisbon), Lisbon, Portugal
e-mail: ricardocampos@fcsh.unl.pt; jnofre@fcsh.unl.pt
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2021
R. Campos, J. Nofre (eds.), Exploring Ibero-American Youth
Cultures in the 21st Century,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83541-5_1
2 R. CAMPOS AND J. NOFRE
creative and dynamic, as engines for social transformation. The political

role of the youth as builders of the future is routinely registered in several
different sectors of society. Several authors have also emphasised youth as
historical actors, as agents of change within a variety of spheres (Gordon,
1998). The conception of ‘youth as an agent of change’ is of special rele-
vance for authors such as the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset
(1923) or the Hungarian sociologist Karl Mannheim (1928).
It is for this reason unsurprisingly that the youth has, for several decades,
come under great scrutiny and been the subject of analysis in the social
sciences. Some of the more striking theoretical trends originate in sociol-
ogy or in closely related fields such as cultural studies. From Mannheim to
Bourdieu, from the Chicago School’s take on youth gang culture, to the
approach of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the
University of Birmingham, centred on resistance youth subcultures in the
second half of the twentieth century (such as Teddy Boys and Skinheads),
which were followed by separate proposals grouped under the category of
post-subcultural studies, several have been the academics who dedicated
their time to a reflection on youth and youth cultures in the contempo-
rary world.
What is seen as incontestable, as the starting point for any sociological
discourse around youth, is that it corresponds to a social and historical
creation (Feixa, 2006; Pais, 1993; Woodman & Bennett, 2015). This
implies that the way in which we understand the contemporary youth is
not only the fruit of particular structural and ideological constructions,
but also the consequence of a historical process. This does not imply the
absence of historical continuities that allow us to think of features that are
common to the individuals placed in this social and age group.
A common feature of several reflections on youth is, then, a tension
between the homogeneity and heterogeneity of this group. Yet, very few
will challenge the need to see the youth as a phase of life marked by a plu-
rality of life experiences and trajectories. There are structural dimensions
that, conclusively, affect the transition into the adult stage, as well as sub-
jective frameworks and social practices. Observing the plurality of youth
conditions in the planet raises crucial questions that are foundational to
the way in which we think and investigate this stage of life. However, this
is not an immutable ontological reality. Facing an increasingly connected
reality, global and rapidly mutating, it is conceivable that the way in which
we consider the condition of youth will become ever more complex and
diffuse. In your society, as shown by several authors, the transition to the
1 INTRODUCTION: IBERO-AMERICAN YOUTH IN THE TWENTY-FIRST… 3
adult stage is ever more diffuse, ambivalent and non-linear (Ferreira,

2020; Woodman & Bennett, 2015). In addition, the so-called youth cul-
tures and subcultures, conceived as they are as peculiar styles and ways of
life, cease to be limited to rigidly defined age groups. They acquire some
autonomy as symbolic references, not only by travelling across the globe,
but equally by being extensible to life stages that go beyond the youth age
group (Feixa & Nilan, 2009; Hodkinson, 2013; Bennett &
Hodkinson, 2012).
It is hard to deny that the youth has imposed itself as a Western socio-
cultural category, politically, economically, mediatic, and academically
fashioned since the middle of the twentieth century.1 As a result, a
symbolic-cultural (promoted by the media and cultural industries), politi-
cal (fomented by national and transnational political institutions), and aca-
demic (disseminated through the leading scientific networks) representation
seems to have been established, which is based on certain conditions and
lifestyles that are specific to a limited geopolitical map. Although always
recognised since the beginning, the heterogeneity and diversity of youth
worlds have been, in reality, heuristically compromised by the inability of
the social sciences of the global north to distance themselves from their
limited empirical horizons. Nothing you do not see in other fields of
knowledge. From this perspective, youth studies are not a separate uni-
verse. The turn of the century seems to have awakened the curiosity about
youth diversity across the planet. This development is probably linked to
the important role assumed by globalisation as a concept and analytical
framework for considering social reality in the final stretch of the twentieth
century. Such interest is, on the one hand, linked to a realisation about
significant changes in the way in which sociocultural and economic phe-
nomena present themselves to the gaze of the social scientist and, on the
other hand, to a range of epistemological problems that the phenomenon
of globalisation poses to the social sciences. The cultural and economic
globalisation and the associated changes, at the level of social organisation,
of the symbolic system and consumption practices, made the youth as a
social category far more conspicuous in the so-called global south, in
cultures where, until recent decades, did not give this age group their own
status, role, and identity.
1
And this is why anthropology dedicated so little attention to this subject, not surprising
considering that the traditional matter of anthropology throughout the twentieth century
was the non-occidental Other.
Cultural globalisation, marked by the circulation of people and sym-

bolic goods, has been especially relevant for reflecting on youth diversity
across the planet. This issue is not pertinent only to the distant world, the
global south, understood as more traditional or less developed, but also to
the heart of the global north. Faced with the realisation that there were
other ways of being young—that these involved more than just mimicking
certain aspects of the hegemonic (Western) mass culture, that they pos-
sessed their own idiosyncrasies—questions emerged regarding the articu-
lations between the global and the local in the way in which youth is
constructed as a social category. Questions related to diasporic identities
or to the cultural hybridisation are particularly fertile when considering
the diversity of the youth condition on a global level (Amit-Talai & Wulff,
1995; Nilan & Feixa, 2006; Sardinha & Campos, 2016).
1.2 Youth Studies: North-South Articulations

We began this introductory chapter by mentioning the importance of the
geopolitics of knowledge as a crucial element for the formation of scien-
tific taxonomies. Such is the case with youth, a frequently scrutinised cat-
egory in the more scientifically robust countries, the wealthier and more
industrialised in the global north. As a result, we saw the imposition of
certain conceptions about youth as universal, but also regarding the most
adequate theoretical-epistemological approaches to interpret them. Not
only does this make other realities invisible, as it forces the less mainstream
academic institutions, competing in the global knowledge market, to
restrict themselves to theoretical and analytical models which have been
validated by the ruling scientific consensus.
There is, however, a growing awareness of the geopolitical role of sci-
ence and knowledge and of how this, ultimately, reproduces historical
inequalities. As Boaventura Sousa Santos (Santos, 2014; Santos &
Meneses, 2009; Santos et al., 2016) highlights, the dominant epistemol-
ogy, created in the West, is based on historical asymmetries marked by
imperialistic, colonial, and capitalist relationships. On the one hand, the
ruling epistemology forges a particular way of looking at the world which
sees itself as central and paradigmatic (universal) before other subaltern
forms of knowledge; and, on the other hand, it tends to reflect on the
global south form its Western-centred matrix. There is, thus, a process of
“epistemic colonization” and of “global North epistemic privilege”
(Meneses, 2008) which must be questioned and deconstructed. Instead of
fomenting less asymmetric global articulations, the internalisation of sci-

ence has contributed to turn English into the scientific lingua franca, with
the global north and the English-speaking countries as patrons of a certain
epistemic hegemony. This process has occurred through the continuous
devaluing of other forms of academic and scientific communication (in
Portuguese, Spanish, French, or other languages), minimising or invari-
ably excluding a large geography of knowledge creation.
It becomes, for this reason, urgent to reconfigure the way in which we
conceive of social sciences and produce knowledge in a way that considers
other empirical horizons and, especially, a different epistemological lati-
tude. If it is currently common to claim that all knowledge is situated, that
it is historically and socially constructed, it is also true that we continue to
pay little attention to this premise. The Western privilege in the cognitive
construction of the world still remains. Authors such as Santos, with the
epistemologies of the South (2014) or Connell with the Southern Theory
(2019), point to new epistemological paradigms, in an attempt to decolo-
nise thinking and pull the global north academic world out of its
navel-gazing.
Academic studies on youth are not immune to these structural issues.
Most of the academic output stemming from the south fails to reach the
mainstream global scientific sphere and is largely ignored. What little gets
through, due to being published in English, is forced into framing (subju-
gating) itself within a theoretical and conceptual horizon forged in the
context of a Euro/Anglo-centric paradigm (Cooper et al., 2019;
MacDonald & King, 2020; Nilan & Feixa, 2006). As Cooper, Swartz, and
Mahali (2019, p. 30) point out, it is remarkable to observe that while
“90% of the world’s youth live in Africa, Latin America or developing
countries in Asia […] the overwhelming majority of research occurs at
institutions in the global North.” Aware of this bias, these authors support
the development of youth studies for the global south. A greater aware-
ness of the realities and ontologies of the south would benefit the develop-
ment of this field of knowledge in both regions. On the one hand, the
north would have a lot to gain from decentring its gaze and intellectual
output; on the other hand, this would validate the importance of the south
developing its own theory, from its own context. There is for this reason a
growing interest in promoting an encounter between approaches from the
north and south to make the youth studies more global and inclusive
(MacDonald & King, 2020).
This book aims at providing a modest contribution to this end. We seek

to meet this necessity to focus on the south and, most of all, on the com-
plex articulations that have been established between the north and south
beyond the Anglosphere, arguing that these imply not only geographical
locations but also cultural and symbolic references on different scales. We
propose to do this on different levels.
Firstly, by making central the idea of youth in the plural, contending
that it is characterised by diversity stemming from the multiple geographi-
cal, cultural, social, and historical contexts. Exposing other empirical con-
texts is a way of revealing and discussing other concepts of youth. By itself,
this method has the virtue of sidestepping an approach too focused on the
youth from the global north. This is not, at this level, a pioneering work
written in English. Other works have sought to do precisely that by high-
lighting the existing plurality of youth experiences in the globe (Amit-
Talai & Wulff, 1995; Feixa & Oliart, 2016; Nilan & Feixa, 2006; Sardinha
& Campos, 2016; Ugor & Mawuko-Yevugah, 2017).
Secondly, this work aims at drawing attention to other research tradi-
tions on youth which have occupied a somewhat marginal place for most
of the English-speaking academic community. By deliberately drawing on
the work of academics exclusively from Latin America and the Iberian
peninsula, we are fostering a dialogue with other conceptual and theoreti-
cal paradigms. Apart from that, we share Cooper, Swartz, and Mahali’s
(2019) conviction of the existence of an underlying cosmovision that ori-
ents the way in which we examine and think about youth that is deter-
mined by our individual experience as researchers:
Living in places with townships or favelas or slums that house large propor-
tions of our populations and being exposed to this rampant inequality on a
daily basis, for example, impacts our ontologies, politics and values as
Southern Youth Studies researchers. (Cooper et al., 2019, p. 30)
Portuguese and Spanish research on youth occupies a unique place. On

the one hand, they are part of the European context and, for that reason,
close to its research programmes, albeit occupying a somewhat marginal
position in a system strongly ruled by the north and central Europe. On
the other hand, they have developed strong links in terms of research with
the geographical areas of their former colonies (Latin America and luso-
phone Africa), being thus inspired by less mainstream theoretical
paradigms.
Especially relevant is the academic work in the field of social sciences

which has been developed in Latin America. The singularity of its histori-
cal, social, political, and economical reality determines the way in which its
social theory is built. This becomes clear at the level of youth studies,
which reflect a reality quite different from the one observed in the global
north. In this respect, they deserve a particular mention in this book.
Patricia Oliart and Carles Feixa (2002) argue that there are essentially
three traditions of youth studies in Latin America. The first began early in
the twentieth century and is linked to social movements and political
change. The second developed against the background of the deep eco-
nomic and social crisis of the 1980s, which still persists. Youth were simul-
taneously seen as the most vulnerable and the most problematic group,
linked to violence and social disruption. Most of the literature produced
in this context considered youth as the target of public policy. A third
tradition also appears in the 1980s–1990s, which instead of seeing youth
as a problem focused on its creative energy and alternative lifestyles and
sought to highlight cultural products and subjectivities.
1.3 Youth(s) in the Ibero-American World

This work covers a variety of geographical territories and a cultural area
which includes the Ibero-American world. By opting for this demarcation
we have assumed it to be a context whose particularities justify a detailed
examination, in particular regarding the condition of youth. Such is the
case. We believe that this is a very little explored context from an academic
perspective, especially when it comes to international research (that is,
written in English). This is not, however, a pioneering undertaking, since
a number of reference works already exist that give visibility to youth stud-
ies in this corner of the globe and should be highlighted (Alvarado &
Vommaro, 2010; Feixa & Oliart, 2016). In this context it makes perfect
sense to mention the work that has been developed by the Concelhjo
Latino Americano de Ciências Sociais (CLACSO) [Latin America Council
of Social Sciences] and also by Red of the Revistas Científicas de América
Latina, el Caribe, España y Portugal [Latin America, Caribbean, Spain and
Portugal Scientific Journals]. Nonetheless, it should be noted that, from
an international perspective that goes beyond the Ibero-America horizon,
youth studies stemming from this region have had little visibility in the
academic community.
This is a region and a transnational community with significant interna-

tional clout in terms of its history, culture, and economics. In aggregate,
these countries represent a population of about 650 million people with
Spanish and Portuguese as the fourth and ninth most spoken languages in
the world, respectively. If combined together, both languages would
occupy an honourable third place. This is a region still marked by strong
cultural bonds based on deep historical links and shared languages. The
movement of people, goods, and ideas across these regions strengthens
this conception of a transatlantic community. However, this should not
make us forget that this is a history with bloody origins reflecting clear
asymmetries of power that remain a reality. The colonial legacy persists,
not only in the relationship between America and Europe, but also within
Latin American societies.
Hence the need to emphasise the existing diversity in this vast territory.
To begin with, it involves two continents and regions that, from a politi-
cal, economic, and demographic perspective are widely disparate. Despite
being positioned on the edge of Europe, Portugal and Spain are part of a
community of wealthy and industrialised countries from the global north.
Starting from the idea that the youth must be considered in its natural
environment and in strict relation with it, it becomes important to high-
light the singularity of the Latin American reality. But we are aware that
this is a region comprising a vast landmass, made up of countries with
distinct features. Yet, from a historical and social perspective, there are a
number of factors that allow us to speak of a region with common fea-
tures. From a demographic perspective, Latin America has a significantly
higher percentage of young people than Europe, which is an ageing con-
tinent. Right from the start, this is something that should be noted, since
intergenerational relationships are also affected by these (a)symmetries.
There are also shared historical links that ought to be mentioned. As
Anna-Britt Coe and Darcie Vandergrift (2015, p. 133) mention: “the par-
ticularities of the Latin American experience—rapid urbanization; the
coexistence of premodern, modern, and postmodern social organization;
the legacies of conquest and imperialism; the historical role of university
students in social change; the newness of democratic institutions; and the
persistence of high levels of inequality—inform how young people
endeavor to reimagine the social order.”
The literature reveals some crucial questions to a reflection on the con-
dition of youth in these countries. The first is, without doubt, the issue of
social inequality. Latin America is the region with the most social
inequality in the world, a reality that decisively affects the way in which we
understand social structures and the way in which they are reproduced.
Such inequalities tend to be reproduced, as different social classes and
ethnic groups enjoy disparate access to capitals and opportunities (Canclini,
2008; Hopenhayn, 2008). Hopenhayn (2008) notes the intergenerational
disparities, as the younger generation benefits from less opportunities (of
access to the labour market, to employment stability, and to public funds);
but he also notes the intragenerational ones, making the case that youth
from social elites have substantially more capacity to access resources, thus
protecting their social status, while the poorest are deprived of these same
opportunities. Another recurrent issue described as characteristic of this
region is labour precariousness and the significance of the informal mar-
ket. This issue seems to have grown worse during the previous
decades (Canclini, 2008; Hopenhayn, 2008; Reguillo, 2008), similarly to
what can be witnessed in the global north. These conditions were exacer-
bated or triggered by the development of neoliberal policies in the 1990s,
which have made even worse the conditions of the most vulnerable while
they normalised precarity. Hence the lack of hope experienced by young
people who, as put by Canclini (2008), exist in a kind of “presentism,” a
daily life in which it becomes difficult to project for the future. To this it
is added a measure of disillusion about political institutions and their tra-
ditional actors (Vandegrift, 2015; Coe & Vandegrift, 2015; Wolseth &
Babb, 2008), a situation which is by no means exclusive to the youth in
these countries.
Another recurrent issue in these societies is the endemic reality of vio-
lence. Violence is frequently described as something structural to Latin
America, affecting mainly the most vulnerable groups (the poor, women,
ethnic and sexual minorities) (Coe & Vandegrift, 2015; Reguillo, 2008).
When it comes to young people, a frequent and somewhat stereotyped
image points to the existence of pandillas (gangs) as a kind of youth col-
lective typical of these countries and generally linked to poverty, territorial
ghettoisation, and criminality (Núñez, 2010; Rodgers & Baird, 2016).
Favelados, maras, charros, pibes, sicários have been analysed as youth col-
lectives marked by specific forms of group solidarity and belonging.
However, if it is true that this is a salient issue in the context of youth
studies, it is important to cast a wider glance on the question of violence
in Latin America. There are structural dimensions of violence that should
be noted. They directly involve the state and its agents. Following this
logic, several studies point to the youth not as perpetrators but rather as
victims of violence. Violence is a common resource, employed by the state

to deal with certain problems which are complex and broader than mere
public order and security (Coe & Vandegrift, 2015). On the one hand, the
absence of authority or the weak presence of the state in some social and
territorial contexts could facilitate the eruption of uncontrollable violent
events. On the other hand, and in contrast to such absence, there is an
authoritarian response, punitive and violent, which is used to dissuade
ideological and political dissidence, to repress minorities, or contain para-
legal and criminal activities. This results not only in high rates of incarcera-
tion, but also in that which several authors have classified as youthcide
(Arce, 2015, p. 12):
The youthcide begins with the deterioration of the life of the youth, the
amplification of their social and economic vulnerability, the increase in their
powerlessness, and the reduction of available options to develop viable life
projects. Motivated by the need to build a reflexive platform that meets the
rightful indignation recurring in several Latin American backgrounds, char-
acterised by the calculating murder of people who hold discredited identi-
ties, making them vulnerable before the power of the State and paramilitary
groups or the so-called organised crime.
Violence becomes, then, a state strategy to deal with specific communi-

ties and certain social problems (for instance, children and street youth).
As Anna-Britt Coe and Darcie Vandergrift (2015, p. 136) point out:
“Dominant public discourses viewing youth as a ‘social problem’ typically
lead to state repression whereby social inequality is reproduced and market
interests protected.” The issue of street violence, in its multiple dimen-
sions, affects particularly the working class and, within this, ethnic minori-
ties and racialised groups. Blacks and indigenous populations in particular
are victims of processes of invisibilisation, stigmatisation, or repression.
In turn, the context of the Iberian peninsula presents a reality with
particular features. Portugal and Spain are two countries with a recent his-
tory of dictatorial and authoritarian regimes, geographically peripheral,
and with somewhat weak economies when compared with those of the
centre and north of Europe. They are countries traditionally marked by
emigration which, in recent decades, also became the recipients of immi-
grants, in particular from their ex-colonies. This last point has become
especially relevant when thinking about youth in these two countries, as
there is a research tradition which has become stronger during recent
decades focussing on youth of immigrant stock (Aderaldo & Raposo,

2016; Campos, 2018; Campos & Simões, 2014; Garrido Castellano &
Raposo, 2020; Gavazzo et al., 2016; Feixa et al., 2006; Portes et al.,
2018). From these studies we see emerging questions around the precari-
ousness, social stigma, and racism which affects these communities in par-
ticular. These are, then, countries inserted in a transcontinental platform
that allows the free movement of people, physical and symbolic goods,
encompassing Europe, Latin America, and lusophone Africa. This singular
space represents, from the perspective of youth studies, a crucial labora-
tory to explore not only social asymmetries in postcolonial societies, but
also expressions of creativity and cultural hybridity. So, a very important
set of research has been taking account of this reality, using culturalist
approaches which look at the emergency of black and creole rap (Campos
and Simões, 2014; Raposo, 2010), kuduro (Marcon, 2012), Latin trap
and Reggaeton (Hernandez, 2020; Waugh, 2020; Araüna et al., 2020).
1.4 Volume Organisation

What we propose to achieve as editors of this book is ambitious.
Considering the dimension of the territory and the range of disparate real-
ities, it would clearly be difficult to reach a comprehensive portrayal of the
countries involved. This is necessarily a partial survey, as several social and
cultural horizons have been left out. Still, we managed to assemble a col-
lection of researchers from several countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Spain, Mexico, and Portugal), mixing together internationally
renowned academics and young researchers beginning their academic
careers in the contexts of urban and youth studies.
This anthology is divided into three main thematic parts. The first part
is titled Activism, Resistance, and Citizenship. In this section we seek to
approach a question which we consider central to thinking about the con-
temporary youth. Youth citizenship and political engagement has been a
recurrent theme in several analysis and debates, with two main trends
manifested in the literature. One of them, perhaps with the highest impact
on public opinion and public authorities, reveals a youth which shows lit-
tle interest in political processes, somewhat apathetic and uninterested.
Young people are, for this reason, frequently linked to the crisis in democ-
racy which has only been growing worse. In contrast to these analyses,
some authors show that young people do indeed participate and are inter-
ested in political questions, albeit being increasingly detached from
mainstream politics and its protagonists (Campos & Sarrouy, 2020; Feixa
& Nofre, 2013; Pitti, 2018; Sánchez et al., 2018). So, the youth seem to
be more involved in what might be described non-conventional or non-
electoral politics. In other words, according to this perspective, it is neces-
sary to understand politics more broadly and diffusely, in a way that spans
different spheres of the daily life of the youth. The spheres of leisure,
consumption, cultural and artistic production, are relevant arenas where
the youth express themselves ideologically, where causes are supported,
and political initiatives pursued. In this section we aim to look into these
issues, based on research from five different countries.
In Chap. 2, Patricia Oliart looks at the protest culture that took to the
streets of Lima (Perú) between 2011 and 2016. She begins with an over-
view of the political and cultural context that facilitated its growth and
consolidation, ensuring grassroots participation and renewed understand-
ings of democracy. Oliart argues that the Peruvian youth collectives
involved in political and cultural activism aptly used social media to deter-
mine forms of collective action thus being able to swiftly organise demon-
strations and large assemblies. For the author, Peruvian youth embodied
an understanding of Lima as one large territory, redrawing the cartogra-
phy of protest through several actions that debunked long-held percep-
tions of a city with rigid inner borders and the city centre as the main
scenario for demonstrations. Oliart also observes how youth collectives
stated the plural nature of their protest culture, its dissident stance, their
generational and urban cultural identities, and their rejection of instituted
features of society and politics, while enunciating and embodying the aspi-
ration for institutive values and political practices.
The first transoceanic leap in this anthology takes us to Madrid (Spain),
where Begoña Aramayona and Jordi Nofre explore how the so-called ban-
das (i.e. gangs) in the suburbs of Spain’s capital city have been the object
of media, police, and institutional violence, and the target of the processes
of moral cleansing from the public space in the lower-class suburban
neighbourhood of San Diego. Based on field work and a critical analysis of
discourses performed by different neighbours, local public institutions,
and media around the ‘youth gangs’ between 2015 and 2019, Aramayona
and Nofre analyse the role of (often racialised) “youth gangs” in the pro-
cesses of urban (re-)configuration of the neighbourhood. Also, the authors
examine the role of these young bandas in becoming an urban frontier for
the gentrification of the area. In this sense, Aramayona and Nofre take
note of how the term bandas needs to be seen as an argumentative
repertoire of the media-neighbourhood apparatus to further stigmatise

the area as something undesired for the Spanish, white, and civilised mid-
dle-class residents.
Chapter 4 brings us back to South America, where Vi Grunvald exam-
ines the implication of some of the recent street protests at São Paulo’s
(Brazil) outskirts to how we think about how everyday politics is done.
His analysis focuses on the Stronger Family, a LGBTQIA+ collective from
the periphery of this Brazilian megalopolis. Grunvald argues that LGBT
families, of which Stronger is an example, are a phenomenon characteristic
of the city of São Paulo, although several parallels can be established with
other collectives that also use the idiom of the family as a way to forging
social ties. Therefore, Grunvald explores how this language of kinship and
family is effective in building broader political ties that, by definition,
would not be family ties. Grunvald’s chapter, thus, reflects on how the
political participation of Stronger Family in particular is built on the face
of the street mobilisations and protests against the rise of neoconservative
forces in Brazil.
Chapter 5 moves over to the Pacific coast of South America. Klaudio
Duarte and Sebastián Escobar analyse the experience of recognition car-
ried out by male and female youngsters from impoverished sectors in
Chile, beginning with the processes of removal from adult-centric institu-
tions such as school and family that they faced. Their reading focused on
forms of youth resistances involving setting up their own groups, produc-
ing new cultural expressions, and using public spaces, particularly the
streets. According to the authors, male and female youngsters from
impoverished areas of Chile build transgressive and creative experiences
through performative actions, the creation of new types of groups and
forms of organisation, different ways of space occupation, and the practice
of critical, anti-patriarchal gender relations.
In Chap. 6, Natalia Torres examines the influence of young people in
Bogotá’s (Colombia) urban art through community processes that, based
on creativity and forms of resistance, respond to segregation and violence
in the framework of the Colombian conflict. The case of the Casa Kolacho
collective is at the heart of Torres’ analysis as a symbol of these social and
artistic processes from which new perspectives on life, youth, and future
are managed, whilst, at the same time, reflecting on the role of young
people in the construction of new representations in the peripheries
of cities.
The second part of the anthology focuses on youth creativity and cul-
tural production. This is a particularly fertile research area in the context
of youth studies. Partly, because the development of youth as a category
in the West was strongly linked to cultural consumption, which was piv-
oted on the cultural and media industries which expanded during the
twentieth century. For this reason, it is not surprising that since youth
studies began this is a theme that has become central to the construction
of the concept of youth, giving rise to the prominent culturalist trend
(Woodman and Bennett, 2015). But more than consumption stands out
in this context, there is also the creativity linked to the symbolic and cul-
tural production of youth articulated in music, body expression, personal
style, the use of technologies, and so on. Different readings of the youth
modes of existence around subcultures, neo-tribalism, scenes, or youth
cultures, are in large measure assessments centred on the cultural dimen-
sion. What seems clear is that symbolic and cultural dimensions are crucial
to the construction of the individual and collective identities of young
people, serving to define borders among the variety of youth worlds. In
this section we will discuss these questions, with special emphasis on the
creative agency of young people. Two topics deserve to be highlighted in
this section. On the one hand, the question of hybridism and cultural
fusion is especially visible in some of the geographical contexts analysed,
which witness the movement of people and cultural goods across three
continents (Africa, America, and Europe). On the other hand, the wealth
and singularity of the cultural products stemming from the urban periph-
eries which, altough stigmatised by public authorities and mainstream
media, are also frequently targets of co-optation and commodification.
This part begins with Chap. 7 by Adriana Facina, Dennis Novaes,
Vinícius Moraes, Mariana Gomes, and Carlos Palombini. In their contri-
bution the authors introduce the concept of survival arts to describe the
intense creative energy of the Brazilian youth living in the peripheries and
favelas of Brazil. In a setting defined by poverty, stigma, and violence,
survival arts function as a form of collective escape and also as a way of
constructing collective identities and solidarity bonds. The authors exam-
ine in greater detail two youth expressions of particular relevance in Rio de
Janeiro: the Xarpi and the Funk Carioca. The first consists of an illegal
practice of inscription of marks in the city, similar to what has become
globally known as illegal graffiti. The latter is a musical expression birthed
in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro which has acquired a popularity that reaches
way beyond the territory of this city.
Chapter 8 offers us another transoceanic leap, taking us to the racialised

suburbs of Lisbon (Portugal). In this chapter, Otávio Raposo and Frank
Marcon offer some reflections on the role of music in the construction of
alternative forms of socialisation and political agency among the black
youth of Quinta do Mocho. Their observations are drawn from the expe-
rience of three artistic collectives with rap, kuduro, and beat rhythms
shaped by the development of music digitisation and by collaborative net-
work processes. Raposo and Marcon state that, through street sociabilities
and expressions of creativity in music production, the young people from
Quinta do Mocho embody innovative lifestyles, creating practices of resis-
tance, playfulness, and identifications that help them to question the status
of subalternity in which they are immersed due to being poor, black, and
residents of an infamous neighbourhood. For the authors this “black
beat” becomes a powerful means for these young people to obtain visibil-
ity and imbue their young lives with significance.
Chapter 9 looks at two cities that have been described as important
references in the Ibero-American world when it comes to informal visual
street expressions: Lisbon and São Paulo (Brazil). With quite distinct his-
torical and cultural influences, both cities have helped define how graffiti,
pixação, and urban art are socially represented in the Ibero-American con-
text. The analysis presented in this chapter is the result of several projects
developed by the authors during the previous decade based on a qualita-
tive and ethnographic research.
Chapter 10 takes us to Puebla, México, where Rodrigo Torres explores
the creative processes of the HEM 26 gang members and their relation-
ship with the multiple territories where their actions are located, as well as
with the processes of appropriation they have developed. Torres argues
that the dynamics of gangs concerning urban processes are marked by dif-
ferent, well-differentiated phases. The author also exposes some of the
cultural productions of Puebla’s HEM 26 gang presented in his chapter,
with the aim of making visible some of their cultural actions as well as their
associated meanings—both symbolic and physical.
This section ends in Chap. 11 with a contribution by P. Guerra and
C. Feixa where they examine the concept of DIY cultures in the context of
the Iberian peninsula and Latin America. Challenging the anglophone
perspective predicated in the empirical contexts of the global north, the
authors reflect on how this concept adjusts itself to different historical
circumstances as well as cultural and geographical borders.
We end this anthology with a part titled Leisure, Consumption, and

Sociabilities. This third section is in a dialogue with the second part, as
both touch on very closely related issues. Here we have sought to discuss
the crucial role of the city as a space of leisure and sociability. For this rea-
son, special emphasis is placed on the territory of the city as a stage for the
development of a range of cultural practices as well as for the consumption
and leisure of young people. The city territory boasts of a range of
resources for consumption (cafés, bars, cinemas, etc.), but it can also be
used in a highly creative way, giving rise to peculiar cultural practices, such
as some of the ones here described. In the research developed by the con-
tributors to this section we look at how sociabilities are developed around
territorialised routes and events strongly linked to the space.
In Chap. 12, Gustavo Blázquez and María Cecilia Díaz analyse the
“zombie march,” which is held annually in the city of Córdoba (Argentina).
While this march emerges as a specific performance of street occupation by
adolescents and young people, the authors suggest that this action may be
seen as part of a globalised trend that emerged in the twenty-first century,
nourished by images displayed in literature, cinematography, and video
games. Blázquez and Díaz argue that, at the local level, the march is part
of a broader process, that is to say, the emergence of communities of
enthusiasts built around the consumption of comics, manga, and Japanese
animation. For the authors, these networks are associated with the devel-
opment of commercial projects and events that bring together people with
common interests and passions. In this sense, Blázquez and Díaz argue
that “zombie marches” are the outcome of a coordination between
municipal state agents and young people who organise the event. In thus
arguing, the authors also note that the staging of the walk involves the
setting of agreements and patterns of conduct that attempt to regulate the
path of the participants who join the proposal.
In Chap. 13, Paola Jirón, Inés Figueroa, and Pablo Mansilla-Quiñones
point out that overcoming adult-centric ways of designing and producing
public spaces is a major challenge in urban planning today. Through eth-
nographic work addressing mobile uses of public space by young people in
Santiago de Chile, their chapter explores ways in which young K-Poppers
appropriate space on the move while at the same time seeking places of
interaction, movement, freedom, contention, and protection. The authors
state that it could constitute a significant place-making process for young
people in which mobility plays a fundamental role, such that it becomes
“mobile place-making”, a notion that brings together physical space,
technologies, embodiment, and affective practices. In this sense, the

authors argue that K-Pop appears to enable young dancers to appropriate
and signify urban space in mobile and affective ways through embodied
spatial practices that contest and dispute representations of the city differ-
ently from other forms of urban manifestation. They hope thus to shed
some light in ways in which public spaces could be planned and inter-
vened today.
Finally, Chap. 14 is dedicated to the first nightlife practices of adoles-
cents in Barcelona (Spain) by focusing on three main socio-spatial dimen-
sions: the neighbourhood, legitimate places of leisure, and the ephemeral
spaces of local festivals. In this chapter, Margot Mecca presents the results
of a doctoral thesis research project carried out between 2014 and 2016
on the initial nightlife practices of adolescents in the city of Barcelona.
Mecca’s study is framed in the field of youth geographies and also draws
on studies of gender geographies. Her research revolves around three
main elements: adolescence, urban space, and nightlife. For the author,
the interest in researching adolescents’ discovery of urban nightlife is
based on the hypothesis that these practices can reveal significant aspects
of young people’s relationship with public space in their transition to
adulthood. In this sense, Mecca is interested in carrying out an in-depth
analysis of the adolescents’ appropriation of urban public space during
night hours as part of the passage towards adulthood and the process of
moving away from their families.
The book closes with an epilogue by José Sánchez García, where the
author reflects on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth cul-
tures. According to Sánchez Garcia you might be witnessing a rapid dis-
solution of the world of youth cultures as we knew it as a result of drastic
measures of public space control and surveillance. The street as a sanitised
and controlled space as well as the authoritarian regulation of the young
bodies in the public space represent a severe conditioning to the use of the
street by young people.
A special thanks is due to all the contributors of this book. A large part
of the process of redaction, discussion, revision, and publishing this work
took place during 2020, an especially difficult year on many levels. The
pandemic that has plagued us all, experienced differently in different
countries, has placed us individually and collectively before a reality that
neither of us had ever experienced before. It has affected our personal and
professional lives, and we all had to adapt to new work environments.
Because of this, it has not been easy to manage professional and academic
efforts during this difficult period. It is for this reason that we are extremely
grateful for the professionalism and motivation demonstrated by all those
involved. Without their dedication it would have been difficult to achieve
this effort. We would also like to express our gratitude for the support
received from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(PTDC/SOC-SOC/28655/2017 & CEECIND/01171/2017), and
Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences – CICS.NOVA,
Nova University Lisbon.
Welcome to Exploring Ibero-American Youth Cultures in the Twenty-
First Century: Creativity, Resistance and Transgression in the City. We
hope you will enjoy this anthology with the same enthusiasm that we had
while editing it.
Bibliography
Aderaldo, G., & Raposo, O. (2016). Deslocando fronteiras: notas sobre interven-
ções estéticas, economia cultural e mobilidade juvenil em áreas periféricas de
São Paulo e Lisboa. Horizontes Antropológicos, 22(45), 279–305.
Alvarado, S. V., & Vommaro, P. A. (Eds.). (2010). Jóvenes, cultura y política en
América Latina: algunos trayectos de sus relaciones, experiencias y lecturas
1960–2000. Homo Sapiens Ediciones.
Amit-Talai, V., & Wulff, H. (1995). Youth cultures – A cross cultural perspective.
Routledge.
Araüna, N., Tortajada, I., & Figueras-Mas, M. (2020). Feminist Reggaeton in
Spain: Young women subverting machismo through ‘Perreo’. Young,
28(1), 32–49.
Arce, J. M. V. (2015). Prólogo: aunque nos sangre el corazón. In J. M. V. Arce
(Ed.), Juvenicidio: Ayotzinapa y las vidas precarias en América Latina y España.
NED Ediciones.
Bennett, A., & Hodkinson, P. (Eds.). (2012). Ageing and youth cultures music,
style and identity. Routledge.
Campos, R. (2018). Graffiti, visual culture and ethnicity: The black neighbour-
hood of Kova da Moura. In R. Martins & M. Canevacci (Eds.), Lusophone hip-
hop. Who we are and where we are: Identities, urban culture and belonging
(pp. 41–60). Sean Kingston Publishing.
Campos, R., & Sarrouy, A. (2020). Juventude, criatividade e agência política.
Revista TOMO, 37, 17–46.
Campos, R., & Simões, J. (2014). Digital participation at the margins: Online
circuits of rap music by Portuguese afro-descendant youth. Young: Nordic
Journal of Youth Research, 22(1), 87–106.
Canclini, N. G. (2008). Los jóvenes no se ven como el futuro ¿serán el presente?

Pensamiento Iberoamericano, 3, 3–16.
Coe, A.-B., & Vandegrift, D. (2015). Youth politics and culture in contemporary
Latin America: A review. Latin American Politics and Society, 57(2), 132–153.
Connell, R. (2019). Canons and colonies: The global trajectory of sociology.
Estudos Históricos (Rio de Janeiro), 32(67), 349–367.
Cooper, A., Swartz, S., & Mahali, A. (2019). Disentangled, decentred and democ-
ratised: Youth studies for the global south. Journal of Youth Studies,
22(1), 29–45.
Feixa, C. (2006). De jóvenes, bandas y tribus. Ariel.
Feixa, C., & Nilan, P. (2009). Uma juventude global? Identidades híbridas, mun-
dos plurais. Política & Trabalho. Revista de Ciências sociais, 31, 13–28.
Feixa, C., & Nofre, J. (Eds.). (2013). #Generación Indignada: Topías y utopias del
15M. Editorial Milenio.
Feixa, C., & Oliart, P. (Eds.). (2016). Juvenopedia. Mapeo de las juventudes
iberoamericanas. NED Ediciones.
Feixa, C., Porzio, L., & Recio, C. (Eds.). (2006). Jóvenes ‘latinos’en Barcelona:
espacio público y cultura urbana. Anthropos.
Ferreira, V. S. (Ed.). (2020). Youth studies and generations. Values, practices and
discourses on generations. MDPI.
Garrido Castellano, C., & Raposo, O. (2020). Bottom-up creativity and insurgent
citizenship in “Afro Lisboa”: Racial difference and cultural commodification in
Portugal. Cultural Dynamics, 32(4), 328–351.
Gavazzo, N., Pereira, S., & Estevens, A. (2016). Music: A tool for socio-political
participation among descendants of immigrants in Buenos Aires and Bilbao? In
J. Sardinha & R. Campos (Eds.), Transglobal sounds. Music, indentity and
migrant descendants (pp. 133–153). Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.
Gordon, L. (1998). Heroes of their own lives: The politics and history of family vio-
lence--Boston, 1880–1960. University of Illinois Press.
Hernandez, L. (2020). Me miran raro. In M. C. Hopson & M. Petin (Eds.),
Reimagining black masculinities: Race, gender, and public space (pp. 157–162).
Lexington Books.
Hodkinson, P. (2013). Spectacular youth cultures and ageing: Beyond refusing to
grow up. Sociology Compass, 7(1), 13–22.
Hopenhayn, M. (2008). Inclusión y exclusión social en la juventud latino-
americana. Pensamiento Iberoamericano, 3, 49–71.
MacDonald, R., & King, H. (2020). Looking south: What can youth studies in
the global north learn from research on youth and policy in the Middle East
and north African countries? Mediterranean Politics. Epub ahead of print.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2020.1749815.
Mannheim, K. (1928). Das Problem der Generationen. Kölner Vierteljahrshefte
für Soziologie, 7 (2), 157–185; 3, 309–330.
Marcon, F. (2012). Identidade e Estilo em Lisboa: Kuduro, juventude e imigração

africana. Cadernos de Estudos Africanos, 24, 95–116.
Meneses, M. P. (2008). Epistemologias do Sul. Revista Crítica de Ciências
Sociais, 80, 5–10.
Nilan, P., & Feixa, C. (Eds.). (2006). Global youth? Hybrid identities, plural worlds.
Routledge.
Núñez, M. (2010). La emergencia reciente de estúdios sobre pandillas en América
Latina. In jS. Alvarado & P. Vomaro (Eds), Jóvenes, cultura y política en América
Latina: Algunos trayectos de sus relaciones, experiencias y lecturas 1960–2000
(pp. 205–230). Homo Sapiens Ediciones.
Oliart, P., & Feixa, C. (2002). Youth studies in Latin America: On social actors,
public policies and new citizenship. Young: Nordic Journal of Youth Research,
20(4), 329–344.
Ortega y Gasset, J. (1955[1923]). El tema de nuestro tiempo. Espasa-Calpe.
Pais, J. M. (1993). Culturas juvenis. Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda.
Pitti, I. (2018). Youth and unconventional political engagement. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Portes, A., Aparicio, R., & Haller, W. (2018). Hacerse adulto en España: La inte-
gración de los hijos de inmigrantes. In C. I. D. O. B. de la Anuario (Ed.),
Inmigración (pp. 148–181). CIDOB.
Raposo, O. (2010). ‘Tu És Rapper, Representa Arrentela, És Red Eyes Gang’.
Sociabilidades e estilos de vida de jovens do subúrbio de Lisboa. Sociologia,
Problemas e Práticas., 64, 127–147.
Reguillo, R. (2008). Las múltiples fronteras de la violência jóvenes latinoamerica-
nos entre la precarización y el desencanto. Pensamiento Iberoamericano,
3, 205–225.
Rodgers, D. D., & Baird, A. (2016). Entender a las pandillas de América Latina:
una revisión de la literatura. Estudios Socio-Jurídicos, 18(1), 13–53.
Sánchez, J., Ballesté, E., & Feixa, C. (Eds.). (2018). Política, movimientos sociales
y juventud después de la primavera indignada. Editorial Milenio.
Santos, B. de S, Araújo, S., & Baumgarten, M. (2016). As epistemologias do Sul
num mundo fora do mapa. Sociologias, 18(43), 14–23.
Santos, B. de S. (2014). Epistemologies of the south. Justice against epistemicide.
Paradigm Publishers.
Santos, B. de S., & Meneses, M. P. (Ed.). (2009). Epistemologias do sul. Almedina.
Sardinha, J., & Campos, R. (Eds.). (2016). Transglobal sounds. Music, identity and
migrant descendants. Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.
Ugor, P., & Mawuko-Yevugah, L. (2017). African youth cultures in a globalized
world. In Challenges, agency and resistance. Routledge.
Vandegrift, D. (2015). Youth political subjectivity in the global south: Crossing
conceptual boundaries in less examined contexts. In D. Woodman & A. Bennett
(Eds.), Youth cultures, transitions, and generations. Bridging the gap in youth
research (pp. 142–156). Palgrave Macmillan.
Waugh, M. (2020). ‘Every time I dress myself, it go motherfuckin’ viral’: Post-
verbal flows and memetic hype in young Thug’s mumble rap. Popular Music,
39(2). https://doi.org/10.1017/S026114302000015X
Wolseth, J., & Babb, F. E. (2008). Youth and cultural politics in Latin America.
Latin American Perspectives, 35(161), 3–14.
Woodman, D., & Bennett, A. (2015). Cultures, transitions, and generations: The
case for a new youth studies. In D. Woodman & A. Bennett (Eds.), Youth cul-
tures, transitions, and generations. Bridging the gap in youth research (pp. 1–15).
Palgrave Macmillan.
PART I
Activism, Resistance, and Citizenship

CHAPTER 2
Youth Protest Culture in Lima (2011–2016)
Patricia Oliart
2.1 Introduction
This chapter studies the protest culture that took the streets of Lima
between 2011 and 2016. It presents the political and cultural context that
allowed for its growth and strength to guarantee important grassroots
participation and renewed understandings of democracy. Similar to the
youth protest culture that developed globally in this century, Peruvian
youth collectives involved in political and cultural activism aptly used
social media for the rapid organisation of demonstrations and large pre-
sential assemblies, to determine forms of collective action. They embodied
an understanding of Lima as one large territory, redrawing the cartogra-
phy of protest through several actions that debunked long-held percep-
tions of a city with rigid inner borders and the city centre as the main
scenario for demonstrations. By using their understanding of Lima as one
large territory, youth collectives stated the plural nature of their protest
culture, its dissident stance, their generational and urban cultural identi-
ties, and their rejection of instituted features of society and politics, while
P. Oliart (*)
Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
e-mail: patricia.oliart@ncl.ac.uk
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 25

Switzerland AG 2021
R. Campos, J. Nofre (eds.), Exploring Ibero-American Youth
Cultures in the 21st Century,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83541-5_2
26 P. OLIART
enunciating and embodying the aspiration for institutive values and politi-
cal practices.
As my main sources, I use interviews conducted between 2012 and
2017,1 and online archives on social media platforms. Another source is
the documentary Procesos, Protestas, Propuestas: Solidaridad y Resistencia
Contracultural (Malek, 2017)—from now on PPP—where French visual
culture researcher and rapper, Pablo Malek, presents his conversations
with about 30 collectives of the almost 200 that he could identify in Lima
alone. About 50% of the contents of the documentary, greatly edited by
Malek, comes from material facilitated by the collectives, covering over
15 years of activism.
Many of my interviewees belong to educated segments of the working
classes, marked by modest income and precarious employment, and frus-
trated expectations for social mobility despite their attained education.
They are children or grandchildren of immigrants from provincial Peru to
Lima, in some cases with rural or indigenous backgrounds. They were
born and raised in a few of the 14 districts on the outskirts of the old city
centre and the 12 wealthier districts of what is known as ‘Modern Lima’
(Lima Moderna) (IPSOS, 2018). More than six million people live in
those districts in the periphery, each with its own dynamics and unplanned
growth, responding to internal migration (Metzger et al., 2014). The
people I interviewed accessed state-funded secondary schools and many of
them attained some form of higher education, with limited and uncertain
prospects for social mobility. Thomas Piketty (2017) states that deeper
inequalities are harder to eradicate in societies where there is a past of
racial oppression and that in those cases access to education helps in over-
coming inequality. However, the expansion of the education system in
Peru has failed this generation. Exponential growth in formal education
for social and economic advancement came up against racial and caste-
type structures that have frustrated the efforts of the emerging social
group that pushed for social transformation in the country in the twenti-
eth century (Matos Mar, 1986).
Other interviewees come from families more established in the lower-
income middle classes from old central Lima. They were all born in Lima,
and their parents may have attended higher education institutions.
Weighting on both groups is the fact that their social and cultural
1
I am grateful to Elena Mejia Julca who facilitated contact with several of my interviewees
in 2017.
2 YOUTH PROTEST CULTURE IN LIMA (2011–2016) 27
background has yet to find recognition in mainstream society and among

the middle and high-income middle classes of the ‘Modern Lima’. This
feeling of having to fight exclusion and stagnation linked to their social
origin and racialised cultural heritages strongly influences the emotions
and logic behind the aesthetic and political meanings of the social and
cultural critique that the collectives display in the streets of Lima.
Recent studies about global social movements in the twenty-first cen-
tury notice the significant youth participation in them, and how global
discourses and political practices combine with local concerns (Wolseth &
Babb, 2008; Pleyers, 2010). As crucial as it is to observe the global nature
of the innovative notions of politics these movements represent and how
similar they are to each other in its visuality and values, it is also crucial to
understand the historical processes, political events, cultural practices, and
generational experiences behind each of them (Goldstone & McAdam,
2001). Boa Ventura de Souza Santos (Santos, 2002) emphasises the need
to pay attention to the practices and forms of sociability in emerging
movements, understanding each one in its complexity and particularity in
order to make them intelligible to each other as part of a common quest.
Santos warns against the sociology of waste, the kind of analyses of social
manifestations that, following certain models, judge events according to
an externally attributed intentionality. For him and others, the diversity of
social movements and initiatives represent a wealth of experiences that
need to be made visible in their own terms.
The transformation of political subjectivities observed in the world, and
particularly in Latin America, since the last decades of the past century to
this day (Laclau and Mouffe, 1987; Castells, 2012; Pleyers, 2019) requires
an inquisitive approach. The political practices of recent youth political
movements have been vulnerable to criticism or the passage of time
(Berardi, 2003; Dinerstein, 2015). Yet, as Ana Cecilia Dinerstein (2016)
explains, it is important to examine them to record, understand, translate
and interpret practices that are located in the cracks of the political realm,
crafting independent statements and positions, beyond any other certainty
but the need to act against aggravating power arrangements.
I am taking ‘assemblage thinking’ as a suitable methodological approach
because it invites to understand how new communities are created through
their interactions. By focusing on the intermingling of heterogeneous
agencies, the notion of assemblages allows for the study of the variety of
forms of action these forces are capable of generating, focusing on the
potency shaped by their interactions in a particular set of circumstances, in
28 P. OLIART
which places, events, objects and technology play a part (Farias, 2011;
McFarlane, 2011).
2.2 Changing the Protest Repertoire

The first scene of PPP shows rapper and educador popular (popular educa-
tor) Fakir, reciting the recent history of Peru. His detailed account begins
with his portrayal of President Fujimori’s first regime (1990–1995) as a
betrayal to the popular vote. Alberto Fujimori was a newcomer in politics
whose electoral campaign in 1990 gained support based on the promise
that he would not implement the neoliberal shock programme proposed
by his opponent, writer Mario Vargas Llosa. For the right-wing coalition
behind Vargas Llosa’s candidacy, a neoliberal programme was the only way
out of the deep economic crisis the country was in after the first regime of
President Alan Garcia (1985–1990). Since 1990 in Peru, voting for who-
ever managed to better articulate a critical view of ‘the model’ in electoral
campaigns, has gained 40% or more of the votes. But once in office,
Fujimori implemented a shock programme (nicknamed Fujishock), along
with the suspension of individual rights and the use of dirty war methods
to confront not only the Shining Path guerrilla,2 but any other form of
opposition or autonomous grassroots organisations. Fujimori later closed
Congress and then passed a new constitution in 1993, implementing the
needed state reforms for the reign of the free market economy.
Fujishock to make it clear

that you are a slave
of this modern state
supporting the market economy.
Nothing to thank ‘Fujimorism’ for.
They did not save the economy,
they did not end terrorism.
They created the Colina squad
Secret murders,
dirty war, low-intensity war,
state terrorism.
2
In 1980 a Maoist-inspired guerrilla group declared war on the Peruvian State, starting an
armed conflict that lasted 12 years and left around 70,000 fatal victims, mostly in indigenous
rural areas. Shining Path is the nickname of the group, drawn from the name of the newspa-
per they used to publish.
Thanks to the constitution of 1993,

regardless of who governs
The state is Fujimorista and neoliberal3
Thus, the Peruvian version of resistance to neoliberalism took the shape

of the opposition to the two regimes of Alberto Fujimori (1991–1995,
1995–2000), and their complex legacy. It includes the return of Peru to
the international financial system, the stabilisation of the economy, and
the beginning of a long cycle of economic growth, but also, the legacy
includes the effects of the ‘capture of the state’ by a group of unscrupulous
entrepreneurs (Durand 2012b), who used the 1993 constitution to rule
unprecedented privileges for foreign investors and land concessions,
favoured rampant corruption, covered for human rights abuses during the
armed conflict, and controlled the media through scandalous bribes.4
That decade evokes memories of the societal suppression of the political
realm, where the size and incumbency of the state diminished, while its
repressive apparatuses and the power of corruption grew stronger
(Degregori, 2001). The accumulation of grievances produced a political
event, ‘a mutation of subjectivity [showing] what makes an era intolerable’
(Lazzarato, 2006). From 1997 a wide assemblage brought together peo-
ple from all social classes, and the forms of enunciation and embodiment
of oppositional politics changed radically. With weak political parties and
social organisations, the participation of cultural and political youth col-
lectives shaped the protest culture of those years, in tune with what was
happening in other parts of the world in content and form, although
clearly defined by dramatic local circumstances. In content, the struggle
against the Fujimori regime included the defence of democracy, dignity
and social justice that Marlies and Pleyers (2013) attribute to global youth
political movements. In form, the youth collectives’ political activity
included novel communication strategies, such as recycling pop-art
graphic styles for political propaganda or denunciation, incorporating
3
Translations of lyrics and segments from PPP come from the subtitles in English for the
film produced by students of Spanish in the Newcastle University Real Translation Project
of 2018.
4
Useful references about the period are Conaghan, C. (2005). Fujimori’s Peru. Deception
in the Public Sphere. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press; Crabtree, J. (1998).
Fujimori’s Peru: The Political Economy. London: Institute of Latin American Studies; Stern,
S. (1998). Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980–1995. Durham: Duke
University Press.
30 P. OLIART
participatory street performances in protest marches, together with wear-

ing masks and costumes, at the sound of collective festive rhythms (Vich,
2004; Vásquez, 2010; Buntix, 2012).
Legal left-wing organisations had been seriously affected by the internal
war (1980–2000). On one hand, they lost important grassroots leaders
who were threatened or killed by Shining Path militants. On the other
hand, they endured media and official campaigns identifying well-known
leaders and organisations with terrorist organisations. Some of them were
wrongly charged and imprisoned, and a few were even killed by the armed
squad created during the first Fujimori regime (i.e. the Grupo Colina,
mentioned in Fakir’s rap). Overall, the left-wing style of politics and the
topics that were relevant to their organisations had lost prestige and cred-
ibility due to the association with terrorism and the trauma of the internal
conflict (Burt, 2006) The major workers’ unions, peasant federations, and
other grassroots organisations were equally affected by this scenario, but
they were also badly impacted by the layoffs resulting from the neoliberal
labour reforms (Pajuelo, 2016). These circumstances, and the inability of
left-wing parties and unions to overcome such conditions, isolated them,
made them irrelevant and their protest methods became frightening and
obsolete (Vich, 2004).
However, these facts did not eliminate resistance to the regime. From
1997 unconnected local movements were protesting labour flexibilisation
and the concession of agricultural areas to mining companies. By the year
2000 the middle classes also started to react. The military intervention of
universities, the brazen attempts of the regime to co-opt the judiciary, and
mounting evidence of corruption in the mass media, generated a sense of
widespread discontentment. It was then that the combined actions of stu-
dents’ and artists’ collectives brought new forms of political action and
participation, appealing to wider segments of the public and renewing the
repertoires and protest culture for the years to come.5 The campaign
against corruption and to defend the independence of the judiciary
changed the visuality and performative style of protest. At first left-wing
organisations and unions resisted the participatory and ludic aspects of the
5
Material for this section draws from interviews conducted between 2013 and 2017 with
Pablo Sandoval, Anahi Durand, Carmen Ilizarbe, Álvaro Campana, Jorge Millones and
Ramón Pajuelo about the student movement; and with Claudia Coca, Herbert Rodriguez,
Rafo Ráez and Natalia Iguñiz about the artists’ participation in the anti-Fujimori protests
before 2000. I use this material extensively elsewhere.
performances and festive style of protest, but they later embraced them
because the new style of protest attracted people who otherwise would
have never participated in any sort of protest. The media covered these
campaigns against the regime, particularly once students from private uni-
versities and middle-class artists joined them. Once the regime started
losing support from some media owners, resistance to the authoritarian
and corrupt regime began to be described as a struggle to defend democ-
racy and the integrity of the state apparatus against corruption, and the
word ‘collectives’ to name the protesters became well accepted.6
This major achievement in terms of the narrative used to represent
opposition has remained in time. The renewed urban protest repertoire,
with its performative events and festive marches, offered spaces for friendly
interactions among participants, and became opportunities for question-
ing, sharing information, and reflection on the critical political moment.7
The new repertoire nurtured a shared imaginary where opposing the
Fujimori regime and its legacy was equated with saving the integrity of
democracy and the nation from authoritarianism and corruption. In the
years after 2000, this imaginary has sustained electoral campaigns against
Alberto Fujimori’s daughter Keiko, leader of the political organisation
called Popular Force (Fuerza Popular).
Peru does not have a strong political parties’ system. Three out of the
six recent presidents were newcomers without a long-lived political party
behind them. In the electoral processes of 2006, 2011 and 2016 the vic-
torious candidates won because they were the most plausible alternative to
Keiko Fujimori, and the common element of their campaigns against her
was the memory of corruption during her father’s presidency.
Ollanta Humala Tasso came second against Alan Garcia in the electoral
campaign of 2006, with 47% of the votes, and then won the 2011 elec-
tions with support from left-wing organisations and youth collectives. At
a time when other post-neoliberal regimes were taking place in the region,
Humala claimed his programme had found inspiration in Brazil’s President
Ignacio Lula Da Silva. Thousands of young activists in the country cam-
paigned for his anti-neoliberal programme, and when he passed to the
6
This change may have occurred because the media could not avoid the importance of the
protests and the presence of white middle-class students in the marches made them news-
worthy, although, in practice, most of the people in the anti-regime marches were from the
working classes and urban poor.
7
Ann Kaneko’s film Against the Grain (2008) documents several of these resistance
performances.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
everywhere of the blessed white horse upon the purple ground, an
ensign given to Dido by the ancient and immortal gods, should
remind each and every one of his duty.
Thus, with the standards gaily fluttering in the breeze from every
eminence, and festoons of flags across the streets, the fair city of
New Carthage looked more like a city celebrating some joyous
festival than a town about to be plunged into all the horrors of a most
bloody combat.
The trained veterans at her disposal did not much exceed some
two thousand men. Fifteen hundred of these Elissa placed under the
orders of a chief named Mago, with instructions to post the greater
number along the walls, both on the land side and the sea side, upon
the battlements of which, at every point, were heaped-up piles of
darts, huge stones, and masses of lead. Moreover, cross-bows,
called scorpions, on account of the sting they discharged in the
shape of a small but deadly missile, were ranged round the walls at
short intervals, with their ammunition placed ready beside them.
The remainder of Mago’s men were stationed either upon the
commanding eastern hill that jutted out into the sea, upon which
stood the temple of Æsculapius, or in the citadel.
Another superior officer whom she had under her orders was
named Armes. Him she posted, with two thousand men of those
whom she had trained from the townspeople, at the gate leading to
the isthmus.
A body of one hundred men of the veterans she reserved to
herself as a personal guard, to accompany her whither she would
throughout the expected siege, and another hundred under old
Captain Gisco she left in charge of the palace and the women
therein. The palace was so situated that it was only immediately in
danger from the sea side on the south-east, where the walls of the
garden formed a part of the actual walls of the city. Upon the other
three sides the high and battlemented walls of the garden were so
placed that, while they overlooked the town, they were quite
separate from its outward defences, and the only entrance upon that
side was a gateway, so defended by a drawbridge over a deep fosse
that a few men could defend it against thousands. The small postern
door on the south-east side, leading to the harbour, Elissa caused to
be barricaded with stones, while the marble steps leading down to
the sea she had partially destroyed and partially blocked up with
strongly tethered masses of the prickly pear cactus which grew so
freely on the cliffs, and which were calculated to form a terrible
obstacle to any escalading foe.
In conclusion Elissa gave instructions for bands of the armed
inhabitants of the town to be placed on the walls at intervals along
the whole of the sea front, which was menaced by the powerful fleet
of Lælius, and upon the land front facing the isthmus, as either of
these parts could, although the walls were very high, be assailed
with scaling ladders. She had thus made the very best disposition of
the small force at her command. One place, however, she failed to
garrison in strength, partly from want of men and partly on account of
its natural strength, and this was where, on the north side of the
isthmus, the lagoon washed the walls of the city. And now, having
done all in her power for the defence, she returned to her palace,
and assembled all the frightened women therein to the morning
repast.
Elissa herself was clad in her war gear, and merely removed her
golden helmet, and cast her beautiful shield, inlaid with its golden
horse, upon one side ere she sank upon one of the silk-cushioned
divans around the board whereon was spread the meal. The eye of
the young maiden was bright, her look determined, and her cheek
flushed with a noble courage. Although still only in her twenty-first
year, she had all the ability and experience of an old commander;
and, noting her confident appearance, her youth was quite forgotten
by the other women present, who looked to her for protection.
One of them was a most lovely maiden named Idalia, a girl of
seventeen summers, with large, dreamy eyes like those of a fawn.
Her beauty was so great, her face such a pure oval and so gentle,
her willowy form so bewitchingly enticing and rounded, that she was
quite the equal in beauty of Elissa herself, although in an entirely
different style. She was, by nature, timorous even as the fawn whom
her eyes resembled.
Rising from her seat, Idalia approached Elissa, whose glorious
masses of dark, ruddy hair, having broken loose from their
restraining fillet, were streaming over the light steel cuirass inlaid
with gold which covered her. The sunlight, breaking in from an open
window behind, shone through the almost black tresses, distinctly
showing up the ruddy lights beneath. Without a word Idalia, whose
eyes were filled with tears, caressingly laid an arm round Elissa’s
neck and kissed her gently, almost reverently. Then, lifting up the
flowing locks, she pressed them also to her lips, then quietly
readjusted them below the silver fillet which had previously
restrained them.
“Wherefore dost thou weep?” exclaimed Elissa kindly, patting the
pale cheek so near her own. “Fear not, we shall beat off the
Romans, and thou shalt come to no harm. So banish these tears; I
will protect thee, pretty one. Come, be reassured by me; do I look
fearful of the result? That thy life shall be safe I warrant thee, for
whoever else may fall, the great goddess Tanais, whose votary thou
art, will surely protect such a beauteous young maid as thou.”
“Oh, Elissa, dear Elissa!” replied the fair maid, in sad but musical
tones, “believe me that I trust in thee and in the goddess Tanais also;
but ’tis not for myself I weep. ’Tis with fear for my beloved Allucius.
Canst thou or the goddess Tanais protect him? Alas! I fear ’tis not in
thy power, and I weep lest he may fall.”
“Allucius, Prince of the Celtiberians, must do his duty with the rest
of us,” rejoined Elissa straightforwardly but not unkindly; “and he
hath a post of honour, since I have placed him as second in
command to Armes at the city gate. But should he fall, he will die a
most honourable death, and one that will be worthy of thee.
Therefore, sweet one, put a more cheerful face upon the matter, I
pray thee, for thou wouldst not have him act the poltroon, and shield
himself behind thy chiton, wouldst thou? But thou canst pray to the
gods for him.”
“Nay, nay,” cried the girl proudly, drawing herself up and dashing
away her tears, “I would not have him other than a noble soldier. I
thank thee for teaching me my duty, Elissa, and I will be brave.”
“I think thou art making a most unnecessary fuss, Idalia,” here
interrupted the Princess Cœcilia spitefully. “What folly thou dost talk
about this Allucius. Why trouble about him at all when thou knowest
that, with thy youth and thy beauty, thou are safe thyself? For the
worst that can happen to thee is that thou mayst fall perchance to
the lot of some Roman noble. Who knows but Scipio might take a
fancy to thee himself. Thou hast already met him, since thou wast
with Elissa at the Court of Syphax.”
“Princess Cœcilia!” exclaimed Idalia.
But Cœcilia continued peevishly in a torrent of words: “Nay,
interrupt me not; I know what thou wouldst say, that ’tis merely for
Elissa he hath come here, and that ’tis on account of her late foolish
coquettings with him in Numidia that all these miseries are come
upon us. For what other reason, save to make her his, hath he come
here to attack us women instead of going to fight Hasdrubal or Mago
as, had he been worth calling a man, he would have done? But fear
not thou, Idalia, those Romans are not particular as to whether they
have one girl or twenty; and since Elissa hath brought him here, and
thou art moreover a worshipper of Tanais, thou wilt doubtless be but
too pleased to save thyself at the expense of thine honour.”
“Princess Cœcilia!” exclaimed Elissa, whose eyes were flaming
with fury as she rose to her feet, “begone! retire to thine apartment,
and see thou stir not thence without mine orders. For despite thy
calumnies, I do much misdoubt me but ’tis thine own traitorous
conduct that hath brought the Romans upon us. Should it prove so,
beware! Cleandra, I beg thee accompany the princess to her
apartment, and give instructions to the palace guard that mine aunt
is to be considered a prisoner.”
“Oh! in sooth, Elissa!” exclaimed the now utterly cowed little
princess, turning pale, “in good sooth, Elissa, thou hast altogether
misunderstood me. I did but speak in jest. Indeed, I did not mean a
word.”
“Begone!” replied Elissa, “I will not hear thee more,” and she
waved her hand to Cleandra to lead her off.
This Cleandra did with some difficulty, for the little woman’s whole
body was now convulsed with sobs, and her knees trembled and
shook so together that she could scarcely stand. It was almost
impossible not to feel pity for her as the huge tears washed the paint
from her now considerably damaged complexion. But Cleandra
obeyed her orders, and then rejoined her mistress and friend, to
whose home in Spain she had voluntarily returned from Carthage
upon her husband’s recent death in a drunken brawl. This she had
done, even although by doing so she was exposing herself to a
renewal of the state of slavery in which she had been before her
departure. But the ties of mutual gratitude that united Elissa and
Cleandra were so great that there could scarcely now be considered
to exist ought save friendship between them.
After this incident the repast proceeded in peace. It was scarcely
concluded when two messengers rushed in, one crying out that the
Romans on the land side were advancing across the isthmus and
threatening the gate, the other that the Roman fleet was also
advancing and the sailors attempting to warp their ships to the base
of the cliff on the seaward side of the city so as to land the marines.
Elissa speedily arose, seized her shield and a sheaf of darts, and
repaired first to the battlements on the seaward side of the palace.
There she saw that the enemy were in the greatest confusion. The
ships were so numerous that they were getting in each other’s way.
There was a great deal of clamour, but owing to the vigorous
defence that was being made, Lælius was not likely for some time to
come to be able to land his men in any numbers upon the sloping
rocks. For the missiles being hurled upon the assailants from the
walls, falling upon the confused ships and boats, were causing the
greatest disorder. Some Carthaginian ships, moreover, which were
lying under the shelter of the walls, were advancing gallantly to a
counter attack, and although their numbers were few, they being only
eighteen, they were able to create an excellent diversion.
Accompanied by her body-guard, the young Regent next hurried
down to the battlements near the main gate of the city. Thence she
beheld the splendid and awe-inspiring sight of the whole of the
Roman army with ensigns flying and eagles displayed, drawn up in
line at some distance behind the bridge which crossed the waters of
the lagoon where it flowed out into the gulf.
The men of this noble army, whose arms and polished shields
were glittering with dazzling brilliancy in the sun, were standing
motionless.
Far in advance of the main body, however, a considerable
detached column of heavy-armed troops, consisting of Hastati,
Principes, and Triarii, in their three lines, were crossing the bridge,
maniple by maniple, and deploying the maniples into line, alternately
to the right and left in succession, as they arrived upon the city side
of the bridge over the narrow channel that traversed the isthmus.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Elissa gave the order from the top of
the ramparts where she was standing to Armes, the tribune
commanding the force of two thousand citizens within the gates, to
engage this attacking column of Romans. With promptitude this
order was obeyed; and sallying forth with gallantry, the troops under
Armes rushed upon the foe. Those who had crossed the bridge
were, with much slaughter, driven backwards, and thrust, either into
the lagoon to the one side, or into the inrunning waters of the gulf on
the other, while the centre of the Romans, falling back upon those
who were still crossing the bridge in rear, created considerable
confusion, and thus the centre also suffered much loss. The whole
body of Romans then fell back gradually towards their own main
body, the Carthaginians crossing the bridge, deploying in turn into
line, and pursuing them.
From her vantage point upon the battlements over the gateway,
Elissa could plainly see the error into which Armes was falling, for
she perceived that the Romans were gradually pushing up more and
more supports from their main body. She therefore sent instant
instructions to Armes to fall back again to the city gates. But her
messenger arrived too late, for before he had reached the
contending forces the largely reinforced Romans were advancing
once more, and, after a terrible hand-to-hand conflict, driving the
Carthaginians back again over the bridge. Armes was now slain; and
although Allucius, the lover of Idalia, made most heroic efforts to rally
the citizens, they were at length driven back headlong up to and
through the city gates, Allucius himself being sorely wounded. The
Romans would have entered the gates with the fugitives, but those
upon the wall commenced casting down a rain of missiles upon
them, causing much loss. Scipio, moreover, who was watching the
contest from a hill called the Hill of Mercury, caused the trumpets to
sound the retreat, for the number of men engaged was far too few,
and had they got through the gate they would have been eaten up
inside.
So the Romans fell back leisurely after a terrible carnage.
While the remnants of the Carthaginians were rallying within the
walls, Scipio, without giving them time for rest, instantly despatched
a large number of men with scaling ladders to assault that part of the
walls which was situated near the principal gate. He himself followed
to superintend. Racing across the open, carrying the long ladders,
the Romans speedily reared them in a hundred places at once. But
the ladders were scarcely long enough to reach the top; moreover,
Elissa was ever present in person to animate and encourage the
defenders. In many cases the ladders broke with the weight of the
many armed men upon them, who were thus cast headlong; in other
cases, the men at the top became giddy, and fell off, carrying others
with them, while those who actually reached the top of the
battlements were hurled backwards upon their comrades.
Scipio himself, covered by three men armed with linked oblong
shields, to protect him from the vast number of missiles being hurled,
visited every part of the line in turn to encourage his followers; but it
was, he saw, of no use. Elissa, from the top of the ramparts, for her
part soon recognised him. Standing exposed upon the wall, she
cried out to him scornfully by name, saying that she, although only a
woman, had but one shield to his three, and that, nevertheless, she
defied him to single combat. And then she cast several javelines,
accompanying each dart with bitter and mocking remarks; but they
were all warded off by the shields of his three protectors. A second
time was Scipio now compelled to sound a retreat, and this time his
men fell back in confusion. Scipio, however, noticed that now the
time had come for the ebb of the tide from the lagoon, and further,
that a strong north wind was causing the waters to run out very
swiftly.
Therefore, to engage the attention of the triumphant
Carthaginians, he now sent a fresh body of a thousand troops, with
more scaling ladders, to the assault at the same place as before,
while he himself with another large body of men, after a lateral
movement to his left, plunged into the lagoon, crying out to his troops
that Neptune was, as he had foretold, coming to his assistance by
draining off its waters.
The water was not at first more than waist deep, and soon only
knee deep. Therefore, quite unobserved by the combatants near the
gate, he contrived to cross in safety and to mount the walls
unopposed. Then, rushing along the walls with one party, he soon
drove most of the defenders off the ramparts. Another party he sent
to attack the defenders of the gate from the inside. At the same time,
the Romans on the outside, hacking away at the gate with axes, cut
it through, and thus was it captured from within and without at once.
In the meantime, the Romans with the scaling ladders, who had
attacked from the dry land, also got over the walls as the defenders
fell back before Scipio’s party.
The loss on the Carthaginian side was now terrible, as the
Romans, forcing their way into the town by the gate and ramparts
alike, advanced, killing every living creature they met, whether man,
woman, child, or even domestic animals. This was done to strike
terror into the heart of the people, and was an old Roman custom
upon such occasions. Scipio, meanwhile, with a band of warriors
continued to advance along the ramparts, and soon met in hand-to-
hand combat Elissa with her guard. He cried to her to yield, but her
only reply was a dart, which transfixed his shield, for he had now but
one. The terrible hand-to-hand struggle continued on the walls, the
assailants and defenders alike seizing each other by the waist and
casting each other over.
At length, just as Scipio thought he was about to capture Elissa
and her few remaining followers, she gave an order to her men, who,
all turning swiftly, ran until they reached the gate in the wall of the
palace, which they entered, the gate being closed and the
drawbridge raised in the face of the victorious Scipio, who was thus
baulked, for the moment at all events, of his prey. It would, indeed,
have been a triumph for Elissa could she have but continued the
struggle until nightfall. For then she and those with her might have
escaped by a secret path they knew of down the rocks. But it was
not to be! Scarcely had she gained the shelter of the garden when a
storming party of truculent seamen, headed by Caius Lælius himself,
with whom was also Marcus Primus, burst over the walls on the
seaward side. And now another terrible struggle took place—this
time in the garden—the flowers being all trampled down, and the
garden walks and statues being soon covered with blood.
At length, old Gisco and nearly all her guard being killed, Elissa
herself now quite exhausted, with a javeline transfixed in her
shoulder, resolved to die, sword in hand. She rushed upon Caius
Lælius, calling upon him loudly by name to slay her and so save her
from dishonour. But, her foot slipping in a pool of blood upon some
marble slabs near the fountain, she fell. Caius Lælius himself seized
her, and easily disarming her, made her his prisoner, thus protecting
her from further injury. And then Caius took the palace and all within
it without more bloodshed. For none but women were left alive
inside.
In the meanwhile, Mago and all his remaining men in the citadel
and upon the hill of Æsculapius had surrendered, and after this the
order was given to plunder the town.
Thus did the city of New Carthage fall into the hands of the
Romans under Scipio. He, the gates of the garden being thrown
open to him from within, arrived upon the scene before Elissa had
been removed within the palace walls, and terrible, indeed, was the
scene of carnage that met his view in the once peaceful garden. For,
animated by Elissa’s personal presence, the palace guard and
Elissa’s own body-guard had fought around her with the heroism of
despair. Thus, there were quite as many corpses or wounded men of
the Romans as of the Carthaginians lying about in all directions.
Some even were lying dead or dying, half in and half out of the fish-
pond, the waters of which were crimson with blood, while the gold-
fish, sickened by the gore, were swimming round and round in little
circles, belly uppermost.
In other places the bodies of dead men, some of whom yet
grasped each other by the throat, were half-buried in masses of
geranium or carnation plants, the crimson of whose petals formed
but a variety of colour with the crimson and purple hues of the still
warm life-blood with which the green leaves were all drenched and
befouled. Others, again, in falling, had clasped a standard rose-
bush, and, pulling it down with them, now lay with their pale faces
turned skywards, buried in a mass of sweet-scented roses pressing
against their ghastly cheeks.
Although her left shoulder was pierced and mangled, Elissa’s
wound was not apparently very dangerous. She had retained perfect
consciousness while Caius Lælius extracted the weapon, which he
did by cutting off the haft and drawing the head through; but from the
agony caused by this operation she had swooned and fallen back
insensible only a moment before Scipio arrived upon the scene of
the bloody conflict; and she was now lying as one dead.
CHAPTER VI.
CŒCILIA’S DEGRADATION.
Scipio burst into the palace garden flushed with the joy of victory,
but when he saw his beloved Elissa lying at his feet, he forgot
everything, save that there lay, apparently lifeless, the body of the
woman whom he loved. He stood for a moment gazing, then angrily
turned upon Lælius.
“What is this, Caius? Hast thou slain her? Thou hast surely not
dared to slay Elissa? But nay, my friend,” he continued, his anger
quickly turning to grief, “I know that thou didst love her even as I did.
Forgive me for thus wronging thee. Give me thy hand, my comrade.”
Then throwing himself upon the ground by her side, Scipio cried:
“Oh, Elissa, my beloved Elissa, art thou dead? for if thou art, then
will I not survive thee! Gone is the glory of my victory! thrice
accursed be the hand that hath struck thee down!”
Gently he raised her in his arms, and, aided by Caius Lælius,
reverently they removed her golden helmet and the corselet of steel
inlaid with gold, beneath which she was clad in but a silken vest of
Tyrian purple, which, being all drenched with blood, they were forced
partly to remove in order to staunch the still flowing gore.
Commanding his followers to fall back to a distance, Scipio
remained upon his knees supporting her, with her beautiful face lying
upon his shoulder; while Caius Lælius brought some water in his
helmet from the waters of the upspringing fountain, which were
fresh, and unstained with blood.
While she was being supported thus, and the two men were
ministering to her, bathing her face and binding up her wound, Elissa
recovered her senses with a sigh.
For a few seconds she did not realise the situation, and remained
motionless, and then the whole sad truth burst upon her. With a bitter
smile she spoke.
“And so it hath then come to pass, oh, Scipio! and thou hast
conquered me and killed my faithful troops, and I am now thy slave. I
have not forgotten! I was but now, even as thou art thyself, a warrior,
then why hast thou removed my harness and exposed my person to
the crowd, and why dost thou embrace me thus, even on the
battlefield itself? Surely ’tis unmanly of thee. Oh, I do hate thee,
Scipio! Release me, I beg of thee, and insult me not in public.”
With a look of repulsion on her beautiful pale face, she turned from
him, and would have withdrawn herself from his embrace, but was
too weak.
“Nay, nay, dear Elissa, mistrust me not,” rejoined Scipio, with the
air not of a conqueror, but of a very suppliant. “Thou dost wrong me.
’Twas but to save thy life that Caius and I alone, both thy friends,
have thus removed thine armour; and even now the joy of seeing
thee living far outweighs the grief caused by the bitterness of thy
words.”
“And so ye are my friends, are ye? Pretty friends, in sooth, to war
upon a woman and murder all my people!” answered Elissa, arguing,
like a woman, unreasonably, and forgetting that all the bloodshed
could have been spared and no lives lost had she but accepted the
offered terms of amnesty.
“Is that, too, a friend?” she asked, pointing with her unwounded
arm to a Roman warrior who, sorely smitten, was lying near, in whom
she recognised Marcus Primus. “Art thou my friend, oh Marcus?
Thou who hast eaten the bread of our hospitality here, but who as a
return did by treachery escape, and lead back an army to slay those
who succoured thee when thou wast wounded and in distress. And
is thy paramour, the Princess Cœcilia, likewise my friend? Oh! I see
it all now, thy pretended suicide arranged with her, and that ’twas she
who taught thee the secret of the lowering of the waters of the
lagoon. If this be friendship, a curse I say upon all such friends! and
may the dreadful and undying curse of all the almighty gods fall upon
both thee and thine accomplice.”
“Nay, curse me not, and I so near death, Elissa,” the young man
replied feebly; and the tears came to his eyes, partly from pain at
witnessing the bitter distress of this noble young woman, partly from
excessive weakness. “I do most deeply grieve for thy sorrow, believe
me, and I have but fought for my country as thou hast so nobly done
for thine. I pray thee, then, remove thine awful curse from the head
of a dying man, or I may not die in peace. Remove that curse, I pray
thee once more, then may we meet as brethren in a country where is
no war, when it shall be thine own time to cross the Styx.”
“I pray the great god Melcareth that that time be now near at hand,
oh, Marcus. In sooth, I feel anew so weak that we may perhaps
cross the Styx together; and since ’twould be strange and sad to
commence a new existence together as enemies, I will even revoke
my curse upon thee, yet not my curse from the head of Cœcilia.”
“Who hath never done thee any wrong, and is most loyal,” replied
the dying Marcus Primus. “I thank thee much, Elissa,” he added, with
a gasp. And then, with this noble lie upon his lips, uttered merely to
save the woman who had loved and befriended him, he gave a long,
sad sigh, and fell back dead.
“Scipio,” quoth Elissa, now very faintly, for she had lost much
blood, “I think I likewise am dying, and ’tis not meet that I should die
thus in the arms of an enemy of my country; therefore, if thou hast
any nobility of soul, thou wilt release me and send for Cleandra, one
of my women. Know this, I do not, nay, I cannot hate thee as I ought.
I might even have loved thee had things been otherwise, for thou art
most wondrous kind; but if thou dost love me, then let me not, for my
country’s sake, for my lover Maharbal’s sake, for mine own honour’s
sake, die thus in thine arms; but yet I thank thee and Lælius
likewise.”
Her last words were scarcely audible.
Scipio, himself nearly as pale as Elissa, pressed one reverent kiss
upon her lips, and murmured:
“I obey thy behest, Elissa.” Then he laid her gently down, and,
leaving Lælius with her, dashed within the palace for the first time,
wandering vaguely about, and calling for the woman named
Cleandra, who was soon brought out to him from among the
captives.
Leading her to Elissa, he gave his fair foe into Cleandra’s charge.
Elissa, now speechless with pain and weakness, yet still sensible,
gave him one look of gratitude, and then closed her eyes. And thus,
with instructions that she should be borne gently into her own
apartments, Scipio left her to see to his troops and to the thousands
of prisoners. The whole scene had not taken more than some ten
minutes.
There was plenty for Scipio to do, for now were all his generals
and captains attending upon him from all parts of the town to ask for
instructions on every subject. Among other points to be decided two
men were brought before him, each a claimant for the mural crown in
gold, promised to the first man who had escaladed the wall.
One of them was Quintus Trebellius, a centurion of the fourth
legion; the other was Sextus Digitius, a seaman; and a hot contest
was on foot between the soldiers of the land forces, and the seamen
and marines of the fleet, who espoused their rival claims with great
warmth.
Although Scipio appointed three commissioners to decide the
case, the contest between the soldiers and the sailors became so
hot that Caius Lælius soon pointed out to his friend and leader that
unless the matter were decided so as to please both parties, a
conflict would probably break out.
Thereupon Scipio showed his tact. Calling both Trebellius and
Digitius before him, he complimented each of them warmly, said he
was convinced that they had both mounted the wall at the same
time, and granted them both mural crowns for valour. To his friend
Lælius he also awarded a mural crown, and gave him besides thirty
head of oxen. Many other rewards he gave to those who had
distinguished themselves. In this way he preserved peace in his
camp, and all were satisfied and pleased with their general.
There was another incident which occurred on the following day,
which did much to enhance young Scipio’s reputation with his troops,
and his popularity with the Iberians, hitherto the allies of Carthage.
From the period when, after the morning repast, Elissa had sallied
forth to repel the stormers, the lovely young girl Idalia had been
missing from the palace. In the confusion of the assault and
subsequent events, none of the frightened women in the palace had
observed her absence, but, once the storm completed and the
Romans masters of the place, the women, who were now prisoners,
noticed that she was no longer among their number.
When on the following morning Scipio was superintending the
division of the enormous plunder among the legions, a small knot of
soldiers were seen approaching him, leading a young girl, who was
thickly veiled from head to foot. Their leader, coming forward to
Scipio, addressed him as follows:
“Oh, Scipio, well is it known throughout the army that thou dost
give great rewards and mete out justice to others, and yet, save the
reward of honour, nought hast thou retained for thine own self. Now
we, some of thy followers, seeing that thou art a young man, and
known from thy youth to love the fair, have discovered a gift which
we would offer unto thee in the shape of a young virgin, who is fit for
a king. For we have thought that such a gift would be acceptable
unto thee. We took the girl yesterday, and she hath been religiously
respected and carefully veiled, lest any of the tribunes or prefects,
seeing her, should have become enamoured of her beauty and taken
her away from us, who would save her for thee.”
The young general’s curiosity was at once excited. Smiling, he
said:
“I thank ye, my men, for your kind thought of your general; but
come, let us see this paragon of beauty. Unveil her.”
When the thick covering which alone concealed the face and form
of the maiden was removed, Scipio and all the officers near him
were simply astounded at the excessive loveliness of the charming
Idalia, who, her eyes suffused with tears and her face and bosom
with burning blushes, stood revealed, trembling before him.
Scipio was moved to pity for her wretched condition.
“By Hymen and Venus! thou hast spoken the truth, my men, and I
do greatly thank ye for this beautiful present. For never save in one
woman alone,”—he was thinking of Elissa—“have I seen aught so
lovely in the human form. My men, since ye have made me the gift, I
shall retain it to do as I choose with, and ye shall be all suitably
rewarded. And were I other than the general commanding the forces,
there is no present which could have been so acceptable. But seeing
that I am the general, it becomes me to use a little self-denial in this
matter. Therefore, lest from gazing too long upon such charms I
should begin to think that I am but a private person who can do as
he chooseth in such a matter, give me that veil.”
Taking the heavy veil he went up to the trembling girl, and
reassuring her kindly, covered her shoulders and limbs with it. At the
same time he gave her a fraternal kiss on the cheek, bidding her not
to fear, for he would be as a brother to her. But Idalia, broken down
with all the suffering and shame that she had undergone, and moved
by Scipio’s unexpected kindness, threw herself down and, clasping
his knees, would have kissed his feet. This he would by no means
allow, but raising her gently, inquired into her condition and the
circumstances attending her capture.
Then the soldiers told him that on the previous day, when the
order had been given for a space to slay every living thing that they
met, but not to begin to plunder until further orders, they had pursued
some fugitives into the porch of a doorway and killed them. Glancing
within a room beyond, they had seen a wounded Iberian chieftain,
and were about to kill him also, but that this maiden had flung her
body full length upon the Iberian, and clung to him so tightly that they
had been unable to slay him without wounding or perhaps slaying
her also. Then had their leader, the same who now had addressed
Scipio, reminded the men that the order was to kill all whom they
should meet in the streets, but that there was no order to slay those
in the houses, and as the young man himself also offered, in the
Latin tongue, a large ransom for his life, they had spared them both.
“In that ye have done well,” said Scipio; “and thy reward shall be
the greater,” continued he to the leader, “for that thou didst exactly
obey and follow out mine orders to the letter. For mine order was
indeed but to slay all living things ye met in the street; there was no
order to slay those in the houses. Now tell the Quæstors, whose duty
it is to take the money for such as are ransomed, where this young
man lies, and when they have rewarded you as I shall direct, ye can
depart, leaving the maiden here.”
So the soldiers all received large sums of money, and their leader
in addition had a magnificent golden ring presented to him, and they
departed rejoicing.
Scipio took Idalia with him to the palace, where Elissa was
delighted to see her once more. Scipio, then sending for Allucius,
prince of the Celtiberians, whose life had been twice saved by his
beautiful lover, first by dragging him when wounded into a house,
and then by covering his body with her own, caused him to be
brought before him in a litter. The ransom for his life was paid by the
father and mother of the maiden, the former being an Iberian noble
and the latter a Carthaginian lady.
When they were all assembled together before him, Scipio handed
over the ransom that had been paid for his life to Allucius as a
wedding portion, and ordered the father and mother to have the
wedding celebrated at once between him and the lovely Idalia,
without even waiting for his recovery from his wound.
The fame of this action soon spread throughout all Spain and
inclined the Iberians greatly to Scipio; but whether he would have
acted thus had it not been for his own great love for Elissa, no man
can tell.
The next few days were passed by the young Roman general in
making arrangements about his prisoners, of whom he disposed in
various ways, generally acting with great leniency to the Iberians,
and pressing all the surviving soldiers of other nationalities into his
own navy, thus largely augmenting his fleet. Of such men and
women as were made slaves he made a suitable disposition,
rewarding his generals and tribunes with the best of each. And thus
Cleandra was presented to Caius Lælius and the other women in the
palace were disposed of according to rank and beauty to the higher
nobles in the army. Of Elissa there was no word said, but it was
understood as a matter of course that she belonged to Scipio
himself. Yet was she treated with all honour. As Lælius remained in
the palace with Scipio, she still had her friend Cleandra to minister to
her; and Scipio himself, much as he longed to see her face again,
refrained entirely from intruding upon her privacy.
One woman there was however in the palace for whom neither the
general nor the admiral felt any goodwill, and this was the Princess
Cœcilia. Young Marcus Primus being dead, there was now none to
speak for her, and both Scipio and Lælius resented the knowledge of
the fact that never could the battlements have been so easily
surmounted or the city captured by the passing of the lagoon had it
not been for the treachery of that woman towards her niece Elissa.
Therefore, at the instance of Lælius, his original proposition, made
in jest at the camp of Tarraco, was carried out. It was resolved that
she should be married to the chief boatswain of the flag-ship. This
man’s name was Valerius, and he was a most truculent-looking
ruffian, of great size. He was much renowned for his bloodthirstiness
in action, but was a good sailor, and extremely feared by all in
authority under him.
To him then was the Princess Cœcilia offered as his wife by his
chief, Caius Lælius. He was given to understand that a lady of such
high rank was offered to him as a reward for his bravery in the
storming of the town. When, moreover, he was promised a
considerable dowry of her own money, as well as her person, he was
both flattered and delighted. He could not speak any language save
Latin, and of that tongue his intended bride did not understand a
word. For the diversion of the nobles in the palace, the marriage
was, despite the pitiable lamentations of the unwilling bride,
celebrated one day with much festivity and license, for much wine
was purposely given to the seamen at the feast that the traitress
might be made to feel her punishment the more. And when night fell
the now drunken boatswain carried off his bride, who had been
forced to attire herself with great splendour, from the palace, where
she had lived for so many years, to a mean fisherman’s cottage by
the port. She had been given to Valerius for the purpose
intentionally, that she might be able to reflect therein at leisure upon
the vicissitudes of life, of which her treachery to her niece had been
the direct cause, and of her own repeated acts of folly that had led to
the treachery. Elissa, who was aware of what was about to take
place, had, although the princess had begged her in their sole
interview to intercede on her behalf, refused absolutely, with the
utmost scorn and loathing to do so. She had, moreover, reproached
her bitterly with being the cause of all the bloodshed and of the loss
of the town and of the enslavement of them all. In conclusion, she
informed Cœcilia that, should she open her lips to mention her name
to Scipio, it would not be to ask for a reconsideration of the matter of
her marriage, but only to beg that he would inflict some far more
terrible punishment.
This was the last time that Elissa and Cœcilia ever met, and from
this time forth the princess disappears entirely from this history, for
her subsequent fate is unknown. One thing only is certain, that when
Caius Lælius sometime later sailed for Italy, the boatswain did not
take his wife with him. So it is probable that he had either drowned
her in the gulf, wrung her neck, or sold her into slavery.
CHAPTER VII.
A RENUNCIATION.
A few days after the marriage of the boatswain to the unworthy

Princess Cœcilia, Elissa was able to rise from her couch and attire
herself with Cleandra’s aid. Very miserable and down-hearted was
she when, looking forth from that same window whence some years
before she had seen the fleet of the treacherous Carthaginian
Adherbal, she could now see nought but warships flying the Roman
standard. Looking towards the battlements, she saw now, instead of
Carthaginians, only Roman soldiers pacing up and down in their
coats of mail, or resting upon their long pikes and looking out over
the walls. Upon gazing from another window first towards the citadel
and then to the hill of Æsculapius, she saw flying from both, instead
of the white horse on the purple ground, the Roman eagle proudly
displayed.
She groaned aloud and beat her breast, then covering her eyes,
burst into a flood of weeping.
“Oh, Cleandra!” she cried, “it is then indeed a reality, a sad reality!
During my great sickness I have thought almost that ’twas but a bad
dream. But those Roman ensigns, those Roman soldiers
everywhere, are, alas! too convincing. Oh, why are the gods so
cruel? Why was I ever born to experience such bitter and great
humiliation? Oh, hast thou no poison concealed with which I may
end my miserable existence forthwith, rather than live another day to
witness my country’s shame and endure mine own dishonour? Give
me but a dagger or a sword that I may slay myself, for live I cannot! I
long for instant death.”
“Nonsense, dear Elissa,” said Cleandra. “To talk of death at thine
age is but folly. Thou must live, if only in the hopes that the day may
come when thou shalt see fortune’s wheel spin back the other way
again. Thou must live if only for the sake of thy country, to whom
thou mayst bring some succour living, but to whom thou wilt be
assuredly most useless dead. Besides, I have no poison to give

Exploring Ibero-American Youth Cultures in The 21st Century: Creativity, Resistance and Transgression in The City 1st Edition Ricardo Campos

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Exploring Ibero-American Youth Cultures in The 21st Century: Creativity, Resistance and Transgression in The City 1st Edition Ricardo Campos

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Exploring Ibero-American Youth

Cultures in the 21st Century: Creativity,

ISBN 978-3-030-83540-8 ISBN 978-3-030-83541-5 (eBook)

This work is supported by national funds through FCT/MEC (PTDC/

1 Introduction: Ibero-American Youth in the Twenty-First

Part I Activism, Resistance, and Citizenship 23

2 Youth Protest Culture in Lima (2011–2016) 25

3 Bandas de Barrio (Neighbourhood Gangs) and

4 Urban Experience, Youth, Gender and Sexuality in a

5 The Street as a Youth Recognition Place for

6 Casa Kolacho: Violence, Youth, and Urban Art in the

Part II Creativity and Cultural Production 149

7 Survival Arts: Peripheral Urban Cultures in the City

8 The Black Beat of Lisbon: Sociabilities, Music and

9 Between the Street and the Gallery: Trajectories of

10 HEM 26: Youth Representations and Cultural

11 ‘Not Just Holidays in the Sun’: Understanding DIY

Part III Leisure, Consumption, and Sociabilities 259

12 When the Zombies Come Marching. Performances in

13 K-Popping Urban Space in Santiago de Chile. The Use of

14 Adolescents in Barcelona: Exploring Places, Exploring

15 Epilogue: Youth Street Cultures as We Knew It: A

Begoña Aramayona holds a PhD in Social Psychology from Autonomous

María Cecilia Díaz is postdoctoral fellow at the National Scientific and

Performance and Drama Center (NAPEDRA), Center for Studies on

Frank Marcon holds a PhD in anthropology; is an associated professor in

political collectives and the political subjectivities emerging in post-­

Natalia Pérez Torres holds a M.A. degree in urbanism, history and

Fig. 3.1 Betting shops vandalised by anti-gentrification

Introduction: Ibero-American Youth

Ricardo Campos and Jordi Nofre

1.1 Youth in Plural

R. Campos (*) • J. Nofre

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

creative and dynamic, as engines for social transformation. The political

adult stage is ever more diffuse, ambivalent and non-linear (Ferreira,

Cultural globalisation, marked by the circulation of people and sym-

1.2 Youth Studies: North-South Articulations

fomenting less asymmetric global articulations, the internalisation of sci-

This book aims at providing a modest contribution to this end. We seek

Portuguese and Spanish research on youth occupies a unique place. On

Especially relevant is the academic work in the field of social sciences

1.3 Youth(s) in the Ibero-American World

This is a region and a transnational community with significant interna-

victims of violence. Violence is a common resource, employed by the state

Violence becomes, then, a state strategy to deal with specific communi-

decades focussing on youth of immigrant stock (Aderaldo & Raposo,

1.4 Volume Organisation

repertoire of the media-neighbourhood apparatus to further stigmatise

Chapter 8 offers us another transoceanic leap, taking us to the racialised

We end this anthology with a part titled Leisure, Consumption, and

technologies, embodiment, and affective practices. In this sense, the

Canclini, N. G. (2008). Los jóvenes no se ven como el futuro ¿serán el presente?

Marcon, F. (2012). Identidade e Estilo em Lisboa: Kuduro, juventude e imigração

Activism, Resistance, and Citizenship

Youth Protest Culture in Lima (2011–2016)

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 25

background has yet to find recognition in mainstream society and among

2.2 Changing the Protest Repertoire

Fujishock to make it clear

Thanks to the constitution of 1993,

Thus, the Peruvian version of resistance to neoliberalism took the shape

participatory street performances in protest marches, together with wear-

1 Introduction: Ibero-American Youth in the Twenty-First

Part I Activism, Resistance, and Citizenship 23

2 Youth Protest Culture in Lima (2011–2016) 25

3 Bandas de Barrio (Neighbourhood Gangs) and

4 Urban Experience, Youth, Gender and Sexuality in a

5 The Street as a Youth Recognition Place for

6 Casa Kolacho: Violence, Youth, and Urban Art in the

Part II Creativity and Cultural Production 149

7 Survival Arts: Peripheral Urban Cultures in the City

8 The Black Beat of Lisbon: Sociabilities, Music and

9 Between the Street and the Gallery: Trajectories of

10 HEM 26: Youth Representations and Cultural

11 ‘Not Just Holidays in the Sun’: Understanding DIY

Part III Leisure, Consumption, and Sociabilities 259

12 When the Zombies Come Marching. Performances in

13 K-Popping Urban Space in Santiago de Chile. The Use of

14 Adolescents in Barcelona: Exploring Places, Exploring

15 Epilogue: Youth Street Cultures as We Knew It: A

political collectives and the political subjectivities emerging in post-