The Discursive Power of Rock en español and the Desire for Democracy

Barrios del México de Afuera ¡Ya llegó su pachucote! A few months ago, I had the true honor and pleasure to talk de conversar con Roco Pachukote, co-founder of Maldita Vecindad about his very first encounters with Chicano culture growing up in Mexico City. Roco talked about the perennial and continuous relation, exchange, and even complicities between @malditavecindad , chicanismo, Chicano artists...

This episode features a very special and timely conversation with Los Abandoned who are back for a one-off reunion this Fall 2023! Los Abandoned were the buque de insignia, the flag-bearer band that encompassed not just rock Angelino, but the multi-ethnic Los Ángeles of the first decade of the 21st century. So we had to get Lady P. Don Verder, and Vira Lata "on the studio" to record this especial...

What are the evolving meanings of Rock en Español anthems? In this episode, incoming UC Santa Barbara Ph. D. student Gabriela Lúa joins us to discuss her own coming of age with Rock en Español albums. Gabriela —who’s 22 years young! — shares how the songs by Café Tacvba and Los Prisioneros have influenced the formation of her Chicane identity, while teaching her about Latin American history. Also,...

So, what are the legacies of Rock en Español in Southern California? In this episode, we are joined by Vivian Vega, a recent UCR graduate to discuss how “Rock en Español” has long been a part of her life during different eras. Vivian tells us how her tías taught her los pasos prohibidos , or rather las canciones prohibidas de Molotov . Plus, Vivian —who is in her 20s— shares with us how she finds...

In this episode, Professor Leal and Professor Citlali Sosa-Riddell discuss the historical themes examined in the first five episodes. Plus, they answer listeners' questions! Dr. Sosa-Riddell (CSU San Marcos), who did the Latin American history episodes and is the series's co-creator, discusses her first encounters with Rock en Español as a third-generation Mexican American and how nostalgia can be...

In this episode,we are again joined by Prof. Citlali Sosa-Riddell (Cal State University, San Marcos) She will be examining essential Rock Nacional (Argentino) songs to consider how "el rock nacional" became a space to confront the painful memories of the military dictatorship even before the dictatorship collapsed. The songs became important discursive spaces across Latin America because it was a...

In this episode, la profe Sosa-Riddell interviews Emilia Parodi, a recent Argentinian immigrant to the United States and current Pierce College student. They discuss how the experiences of Emilia growing up with the songs and the history of “el rock nacional” (argentino). While Emilia was born 15 years after the end of the dictatorship in Argentina, she is still impacted and inspired by the power...

This episode is hosted by Dr. Citlali Sosa-Riddell (Cal State University, San Marcos) and looks at music as a form of dissent in Latin America. Music in the form of nueva canción, canto nuevo and rock and roll became a creative space for dissent with young people frustrated with the anti-democratic societies they lived in and challenging it through their participation in musical culture. Así que t...

In this episode, we will discuss the arrival of Rock en Español to Los Ángeles. How the genre encouraged Latin American immigrants and U.S. Latinas/os to hang out with each other and create a vibrant Rock Angelino scene to claim themselves as part of Southern California at an tense moment of demographic change, economic restructuring, racial tensions and anti-immigrant politics...which was the 199...

Episode One Sypnosis: As a music genre, Latin American rock and roll had long been associated as part of the so-called counterculture and oppositional politics in different Latin American countries. So, let’s start at the beginning…well there are many beginnings. Así que, in this first episode we go over some key info on the history of Latin America in the 1980s, particularly, Argentina, Chile, an...

In this podcast series we will discuss a bit, no ok a lot of the history of Latin America and Los Angeles and how rock en español plays a big part in this history. At times the lyrics are the recording of this history and other times, the lyrics and the bands become part of some of the big social movements in places like Chile, Argentina, Mexico and by the 1990s Los Angeles too. In exploring these...