I know a lot of people complain about how hard it is to be different, or emo, or whatever you want to call it, where they live. But nothing compares to what is going on in Mexico, where actual mobs of people gather to try and beat the living hell out of the emo kids down there. I canonly make out a few words of this YouTube video [if anyone speaks fluent Spanish, can you translate?] but you get the feeling that things are bad down there:
Seriously -- there are hundreds of people just going insane on each other. For what? It doesn't make sense.
Reportedly, this all began earlier this month when eight hundred people went around the Centro Historico in Queretaro looking for "emos" to beat up. How eight hundred people could be that angry about a music and fashion scene is well beyond anything my brain can comprehend, but apparently, it happened. The mob found and attacked people. From what I can gather from this article, it's actually punks, skaters, metalheads, and even people who listen to pop music, who are largely responsible for this. Amazing. The violence has spread to other cities, as well, over the past month.
Reportedly, a lot of this was started by a television host named Kristoff who has major issues with emo. Again, translation would be helpful, but what I grasp from it is he has no problems with other scenes, but emo is "fucking bullshit." In various reports, Mexican emo kids have pointed to this specific rant as the main spark in the emo attacks:
As insane as all of this is, the emo kids are fighting back. They've marched in Guadalajara as well as Mexico City, as well as spoken out against the general intolerance that people have to deal with.
You can look at the "very pleasant to be around, I'm sure" Last.FM page of the "Emo Death Squad" for some more insight into what is going on down in Mexico. I'm amazed that people can take this so seriously, more than anything. Of course, their lack of understanding of emo [unless emo is something wildly different in Mexico than it is everywhere else] is surely a contributing factor:
The answer is simple, emo attitude here in Mexico is anti-youngster: they do not drink, they do not have sex, they do not have fun, they go to concerts just to cry, they go to parties just to sit in a corner and cry, and they feel victims of everything, it is really, a very stupid behavior. That’s why everybody hates them besides the music situation (stupid mix of goth and punk and other genres)
Really? They do not have fun and go and cry constantly? I find this hard to believe, especially since the people in the first video up top don't look like they're crying and look rather capable of having fun if they are so inclined.
The hatred on this page is astounding, and includes this gem:
After the emo attacks, the media gave all their support to emos, and now emos are the good ones, and the rest are the bad ones.
Here's a newsflash -- usually when a mob forms to attack innocent people for no real reason, they turn out to be "the bad ones." I can see how someone might think differently... no wait, I can't. These people are completely insane.
Reportedly Kristoff has since come out and defended the "emos," and denounced the attackers, as well. I'm sure this makes him a traitor in the eyes of the lunatics running through the streets just looking for kids to beat up because they don't like their music, fashion, or hair.
I'm both amazed and sickened. There are actually a lot of stories about this floating around, though they're mostly Spanish-language. It's also being covered in L.A. Weekly as well as a blog by writer Daniel Hernandez.
I'm hoping all of our Mexican readers are doing okay -- any of you care to share some information on what's going on? I also hope that nobody else is dealing with things like this because it's really depressing to think that anyone would have to go through life worrying about being attacked because they're emo, of all things.
Be safe, guys.
Thanks to FERLVC666 for bringing all of this to my attention.
