Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Haters

“Things are bad enough with the cops and the drug gangs,” a Tijuana emo fan says while drinking beers with friends at the Nelson Hotel bar on the corner of Primera and Revolución. They are all dressed in jeans and T-shirts and wear no makeup. “I can’t be me; I can’t dress the way I always do.”

“None of us can,” his female companion says. “We’ll get our heads smashed in.”

Emo fans have experienced violence throughout Mexico in March and April, and the threat of continued violence remains.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Shaggy-haired emo teenagers were harassed…by punks and rockabillys,” reports Wired. “A Mexican newspaper reported that metal heads and gangsters have warned Tijuana’s emo kids to stay away from the town’s fair.”

On March 7, in the city of Querétaro, a mob of nearly 800 teenagers converged into the Plaza de Armas, seeking emo youths to beat up. As the area is a known emo hangout, there were plenty of victims to find.

MTV.com reports that in Tijuana and Juárez, “members of other social cliques (primarily punkeros, cholos, and darketos, or goths)” got into deadly public brawls with the emos. “Emo kids responded by staging silent marches for peace and tolerance in each of the cities, but those demonstrations quickly turned violent as well, and police were forced to step in to keep the peace.”

Anti-emo message boards and groups have popped up on the Internet, threatening further violence in Mexico. Videos documenting the violence are on YouTube and MySpace; they dub themselves the “Movimiento Anti-Emosexual.”

Victor Mendoza, a youth worker in Mexico City, tells Time magazine, “This is not a battle between music styles at all. It is the conservative side of Mexican society fighting against something different.”

Themonitor.com also suggests this is a class struggle: “Most Mexican Emo fans are young, upper-middle-class teens; whereas fans of hard core or punk often come from lower classes.”

Some blame celebrity VJ Kristof, a host on the popular Mexico City TV channel Telehit, who denounced emo fans on air, calling them “prepubescent 15-year-old girls” and labeling their lifestyle and musical choices as “stupid and idiotic.” After the wave of attacks, Kristof claimed his monologue was meant to be a joke, not a call to action, and suggested if people wanted to fight, to go after the reggaetoneros.

— Michael Hemmingson

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Bringing Order to the Christmas Chaos

There is a sense of grandeur in Messiah that period performance mavens miss.
Next Article

Aaron Stewart trades Christmas wonders for his first new music in 15 years

“Just because the job part was done, didn’t mean the passion had to die”

“Things are bad enough with the cops and the drug gangs,” a Tijuana emo fan says while drinking beers with friends at the Nelson Hotel bar on the corner of Primera and Revolución. They are all dressed in jeans and T-shirts and wear no makeup. “I can’t be me; I can’t dress the way I always do.”

“None of us can,” his female companion says. “We’ll get our heads smashed in.”

Emo fans have experienced violence throughout Mexico in March and April, and the threat of continued violence remains.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“Shaggy-haired emo teenagers were harassed…by punks and rockabillys,” reports Wired. “A Mexican newspaper reported that metal heads and gangsters have warned Tijuana’s emo kids to stay away from the town’s fair.”

On March 7, in the city of Querétaro, a mob of nearly 800 teenagers converged into the Plaza de Armas, seeking emo youths to beat up. As the area is a known emo hangout, there were plenty of victims to find.

MTV.com reports that in Tijuana and Juárez, “members of other social cliques (primarily punkeros, cholos, and darketos, or goths)” got into deadly public brawls with the emos. “Emo kids responded by staging silent marches for peace and tolerance in each of the cities, but those demonstrations quickly turned violent as well, and police were forced to step in to keep the peace.”

Anti-emo message boards and groups have popped up on the Internet, threatening further violence in Mexico. Videos documenting the violence are on YouTube and MySpace; they dub themselves the “Movimiento Anti-Emosexual.”

Victor Mendoza, a youth worker in Mexico City, tells Time magazine, “This is not a battle between music styles at all. It is the conservative side of Mexican society fighting against something different.”

Themonitor.com also suggests this is a class struggle: “Most Mexican Emo fans are young, upper-middle-class teens; whereas fans of hard core or punk often come from lower classes.”

Some blame celebrity VJ Kristof, a host on the popular Mexico City TV channel Telehit, who denounced emo fans on air, calling them “prepubescent 15-year-old girls” and labeling their lifestyle and musical choices as “stupid and idiotic.” After the wave of attacks, Kristof claimed his monologue was meant to be a joke, not a call to action, and suggested if people wanted to fight, to go after the reggaetoneros.

— Michael Hemmingson

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego beaches not that nice to dogs

Bacteria and seawater itself not that great
Next Article

Aaron Stewart trades Christmas wonders for his first new music in 15 years

“Just because the job part was done, didn’t mean the passion had to die”
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader