Eric Zolov. Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1999. vii + 349 pp. $55.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-520-20866-7.

Reviewed by Kristina A. Boylan

Published on H-Mexico (August, 1999)

During a year of feld research, a colleague into question with the rest of the building, if not and I rented a congenial apartment in a pleasant, the entire neighborhood. However, we achieved a lower-middle-class neighborhood in central Mexi‐ certain detente the evening we attended the festa co City; the only proverbial fies in the ointment commemorating the renovations they had carried there were our next-door neighbors. We had been out in the apartment. My German roommate kept warned by the previous tenant (also a young, for‐ a straight face as the father asked her if she didn't eign, female student) that the family next door think the kitchen looked "European." My turn to tended to pry, but she neglected to mention that practice diplomacy came as he pointedly ex‐ they also enjoyed hosting festas, playing music-- plained to me, the American, that not only was loudly--until all hours. Concerned about rising the inventor of color television a Mexican whose early to get to the archives on time, we investigat‐ ideas had been stolen by the gringos, but so was ed and found that the culprits were not the two Elvis Presley, who had had to hide his Latino iden‐ children of the family, twenty-somethings closer tity to achieve success in the USA. The parents to our age, but were their ffty-something parents. then demonstrated that they danced the jive far Several times, the father of the family answered better than I ever could. In the interests of keep‐ our protests by shouting "TENGO FIESTA!", as if ing the peace, I did not dare disagree, but for long that were an adequate justifcation for our win‐ afterwards wondered just what they had been on dows vibrating to their music. After a particularly about. nasty altercation, the parents exacted their re‐ Eric Zolov's Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mex‐ venge by calling our landlords to report: "There's ican Counterculture provides a rich explanation, a strange man staying in the apartment with not only about the late 1950s-early 1960s genera‐ those girls." Despite all attempts at explaining that tion to which my neighbors belonged, but about my brother had come for a conference and a brief the place that rock music and youth culture have visit, we were roundly scolded by the landlords had in Mexico for the past forty years in discours‐ AND the parents for putting our moral standing H-Net Reviews es of nationality, modernity, class, social customs, canrol may have seemed at times escapist, but it gender and family. Initially, rock-and-roll music was neither a tool of the ruling regime nor of for‐ was seen as a harbinger of modern culture, one eign agents. Mexico's own countercultural her‐ that Mexico ought to have alongside other indus‐ itage, including 1950s rebeldismo, an 'Avandaro trialized nations in Europe and the Americas. generation' contemporary to that of Woodstock, Zolov convincingly demonstrates that rocanrol and student movements paralleling those in threateningly violated the codes of the patriar‐ Czechoslovakia, France, the United States and oth‐ chal, authoritarian 'Mexican family,' on the micro er countries, has been silenced in ofcial attempts level, as young men and especially young women to present the 'Mexican family' as seamlessly uni‐ dispensed with traditions to try new lifestyles, fed, at least until the economic crises and politi‐ and on the macro level, as alternative models of cal upheavals of the 1980s and1990s rent it. what it meant to be 'Mexican,' divergent from that Though erased not only from textbooks but also ofered by the institutionalized Revolution, from many annals of Mexican culture, Zolov has emerged and were expressed in music, literature reassembled evidence from myriad, scattered and other media. Post-1950 youth culture thus sources to recount the history of the Mexican triggered authoritarian responses from patriar‐ counterculture from its inception to its current chally-organized institutions such as Mexico's rul‐ forms. ing party, the Catholic Church and traditional Refried Elvis opens with a detailed account of families. Through meticulous research in a wide 1950s Mexico, when conservative forces in Mexi‐ variety of archives, periodicals, business reports, co, terrifed of the detrimental efect that rock flms, recordings, and personal interviews, Zolov music might have on the proper order of political, shows that time and time again the vehement cen‐ social and familial life, sought to contain rock- sure of rocanrol and its accompanying youth cul‐ and-roll's rebellious side (chapters 1 and 2). ture was consistently couched in familial and gen‐ Whether by elevating the cost of imported records dered terms. Whether questioning the masculini‐ and flms, censoring Spanish translations of for‐ ty of Elvis Presley or the Beatles, whether decry‐ eign hits (or not translating them at all), or, even‐ ing rising rates of divorce and women 'forced' to tually, sanitizing home-grown products, it was in‐ work outside the home or rising hemlines, the sisted that in Mexico there would be no rebeldis‐ stern and ever-watchful state, like its parallels in mo sin causa (p. 37). Although at times lyrics in the clergy and the 'fathers of the family,' acted to English slipped by the censors (covers of popular clip the wings of countercultural youth. Although foreign songs in English or Spanish were called Mexican rocanrol was not always overtly politi‐ 'refritos' (p. 72), hence Zolov's title), the only ac‐ cal, Zolov disputes the view that it was apolitical, ceptable outlet, it seemed, was for youngsters to instead documenting its continual controversiali‐ play their music loudly when they attended par‐ ty. Contrary to the impression that Western com‐ ties held at middle- and upper-class homes (pp. mercial and consumer culture (mostly imported 84-85). They at least had their noise, or as my from the United States) had displaced Mexican neighbor most likely said back then, "TENGO FI‐ Revolutionary culture and depoliticized the popu‐ ESTA." lace, Zolov argues that the "emergence [of the Mexican counterculture did not remain in Mexican counterculture] also marked the begin‐ this restricted state. As Zolov demonstrates in ning of a new ideological questioning of authori‐ chapter 3, both rhetoric of international exchange tarian practices, not its death knell" (p. 9). Repres‐ amongst 'modern' nations and individual interest sive tactics often made outright political and so‐ kept a chink open for rock-and-roll infuences cial challenge difcult, if not dangerous; thus ro‐

2 H-Net Reviews from outside Mexico. Meanwhile, Mexico's work‐ idols and social protest, they occupied the univer‐ ing classes, not cowed by scoldings against im‐ sity and sacrosanct public spaces such as the An‐ morality, kept playing their own music and sup‐ gel of Independence and the Zocalo together (pp. porting their own bands, despite arbitrary busts 120-128). of dance halls and basement clubs. Hints of '60s The backlash against La Onda and related pop and psychadelia began to creep into the Mexi‐ youth movements was ferce. One of the repercus‐ can music scene, whether from imported Rolling sions of Tlatelolco in Mexican popular culture was Stones albums bought dearly or from reports that, although a small segment of the student from Huautla de Juárez, Oaxaca, where foreign movement became more radicalized, many pro‐ hippies came in droves to try hallucinogenic testers became convinced that the oppressive po‐ mushrooms used in Mazatec religious culture litical system, and the familial structure that par‐ (Elvis may not have been Mexican, but psilocybin, alleled it, were too powerful to be confronted. the organic model for LSD, was! p. 107). By 1967, They opted to 'tune in, turn on and drop out,' call‐ 'La Onda' was a widespread, identifable trend; ing themselves jipis (or further Mexicanizing the many young Mexicans sought to change their moniker to xipitecas), and joined foreign trav‐ hairstyle, their clothes (their 'ethnic' garb, notably, ellers on journeys to rediscover their own coun‐ did not come from India, but were the huaraches, tryside. This move was widely criticized, both by yaxqui necklaces and embroidered shirts repopu‐ conservatives ("Mexico needs men, not hippies," larized by countercultural tourists and then re- read one editorial) and by the Mexican left, which embraced by Mexicans), their reading material, condemned the trend as escapist and a 'cheap imi‐ and their attitudes towards social mores, notably tation' of the Western countercultural ideal it oth‐ in matters of authority and obedience (p. 113). erwise admired (pp. 132-134). Chapters Three and Four examine the Mexi‐ Despite the backlash, a new musical genre can music scene during and in the wake of the emerged, called "La Onda Chicana," in which na‐ 1968 student protests which were ended by the tive bands fused Mexican and Latin American ele‐ Tlatelolco massacre of 2 October 1968. Despite the ments with foreign counterculture. Groups such fact that student demands did not fundamentally as La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata, División del challenge the Mexican constitution or the upper Norte, and Reforma Agraria appropriated and echelons of social structure, from the outset, vir‐ subverted the state's iconic fgures; they recorded tually every student protester was labelled a original compositions as well as covers, achieving 'hardliner.' Women's participation in the protests several international hits (pp. 169-171). National was especially suspect; despite messages from and transnational recording companies tentative‐ music, literature and radical politics about their ly lent support, and new radio stations and a mu‐ liberation, all-too-traditional assumptions about sic magazine, Piedra Rodante (closely modelled their activities in mixed, unsupervised company on Rolling Stone) followed the scene. The success and their contravening parental, university and of La Onda Chicana was short-lived, plummeting government authority brought especial condem‐ precipitously after a mass concert held in Septem‐ nation upon them, from within and outside the ber 1971 alongside a car race in Avandaro, Valle student movement (one public employee com‐ de Bravo, Mexico State. Zolov painstakingly com‐ mented on the whole afair, "Its the miniskirt bined periodical surveys, oral history, and detec‐ that's to blame." p. 131). Also threatening to patri‐ tive work in private collections to reconstruct this archal authorities were the links which developed event in Chapter Six, as it has been all but erased among upper, middle and working class students from popular memory. Avandaro bore strong sim‐ and activists; fnding common ground in cultural

3 H-Net Reviews ilarities to the USA's Woodstock in that several Before concluding his study on Mexican pop hundred thousand people in miserable, rainy culture, Zolov brings in what at frst seems to be weather attended it. Avandaro also provoked an an unrelated topic, the work of the United States extraordinary backlash from government ofcials Information Agency over the time period covered and social conservatives against drug use, bad by Refried Elvis. Yet Chapter Seven is enormously language, sexual licentiousness (though the great useful in that it demonstrates that the USIA did majority of those in attendance were male), occa‐ not have a clue about what was going on in Mexi‐ sional mild political statements and other symbol‐ can youth culture; nor was it ready or able to ic misdemeanours (such as waving tricolor fags launch any imperialist plots via a cultural idiom with a peace sign replacing the eagle and nopal). such as rock-and-roll. The USIA dedicated sub‐ Unlike Woodstock, the recording industry did not stantial time and energy to composing Protestas y capitalize on the event, but again censored itself, estilos ,a Spanish-language pamphlet describing bowing to state pressure to cease publication of the protests and social movements of the 1960s in any material from Avandaro, and to cut of the very sanitized terms. Never intended for wide dis‐ production, distribution and consumption of Mex‐ tribution, its aim was to "explain America" to the ican rocanrol in the interests of social stability Latin American elite youth who would grow up to (pp. 217-224). be their country's cultural intermediaries. Zolov Neither national nor transnational companies contends that Protestas y estilos validated La sufered much from this policy, as the proportion Onda in that, even in its careful terms, it present‐ of their assets invested in La Onda Chicana was ed trends in music and student activism that had small. Instead, they promoted 'nueva cancion', identifable counterparts in Mexico. It also under‐ Latin American folk music. Although also imbued scored the USIA's failure to recognize the transfor‐ with statements of protest, this music was deemed mation of Mexican youth culture that had already lo nuestro and more acceptable by the Mexican taken place in its own cultural idiom (p. 245). authorities, who again sponsored folk music festi‐ There was no need for the USIA to 'inform' nor to vals, as they had in the 1950s to counteract the in‐ 'convert' Mexican (and other Latin American) fuence of Elvis Presley and his ilk (pp. 53-54). One youth about dissent, "healthy" or otherwise (p. of the main propellants of the new musical trend, 240). In light of the USIA's naive information cam‐ ironically, was Americans Simon and Garfunkel's paign, the assertions made by the Mexican left 1970 recording of the Peruvian "El Condor Pasa"; and right that the USA was actively scheming to nevertheless many Mexican elites, students and undermine Latin American or Mexican culture intellectuals as well embraced nueva cancion and via rock music seem at best shrill. rejected rock-and-roll as "imperialist" (p. 226). Ro‐ In the Conclusions, Zolov adds a detailed post‐ canrol was driven back into the barrios and the script about the survival of rocanrol in Mexico, hoyos fonquis, not able to compete in the main‐ mostly due to the continued support of the urban stream with nueva cancion or with foreign pop lower classes, whose numbers swelled as Mexico's bands (which benefted from the restrictions on economic miracle went bust in the early 1980s. In rock's development in Mexico), until the the face of economic crisis, catastrophes such as mid-1980s. Once again, a wedge had been driven the 1985 earthquake, and the delegitimizing of between the youth of diferent classes, musical Mexico's political elite, rock music served a trends dividing the fresas and the burguesia from cathartic function. As Alejandro Lora (of Three the nacos. Souls In My Mind and later the TRI) points out, while not 'conscienticizing' the people per se, lis‐ tening to rock has been a way of confronting soci‐

4 H-Net Reviews ety and its ruling institutions. Punk rock did quite southwestern USA before reemerging on the Latin well in the barrios, as did local chavos banda. In American scene) where relevant (Ch.3). Zolov's the wake of economic and political crisis, the de la call for further research to be carried out on Mex‐ Madrid and Salinas de Gortari administrations ican rock music and counterculture might prove sought the support of youth and were prepared to difcult, as Refried Elvis leaves the reader with allow for a controlled form of youth culture, few questions about the material it covers. It through sponsorship of recorded music and con‐ should inspire regional investigations, in-depth certs by its Consejo Nacional de Recursos para la examinations of diferent contributors, and a clos‐ Atencion de la Juventud (CREA) and campaign er look at rocanrol and alternative cultural ex‐ promises to lift bureaucratic constraints on the pression during the 1980s and 1990s in historical holding of 'cultural events.' However, the govern‐ perspective. As Refried Elvis only covers up to the ment's eforts to incorporate rock, which for the 1970s in great detail, I wondered how the recent most part it had vehemently excised over the past craze in musica ranchera would ft into Zolov's three decades, into its version of national culture, paradigm. Possibly akin to the infltration of coun‐ failed, as it could not compete with the autono‐ try music in American yuppies' CD collections, mous Consejo Popular Juvenil and other indepen‐ with exhortations that it represents 'the real dent groups and followings. America,' musica ranchera being played at uni‐ The lifting of bans on mass concerts and in‐ versities and extolled as 'muy mexicana' might be creased radio play benefted both native and for‐ an attempt to absorb rural, working-class and mi‐ eign musicians, but several nongovernmental fac‐ grant culture into the Mexican mainstream, to in‐ tors have contributed to the recently increased corporate it into a 1990s vision of what it means success of rocanrol. Youth and student culture to be 'Mexican,' as part of the continuing search now embrace a fusion of traditional corridos, nue‐ for the 'real' Mexico. For this and for many other va cancion and foreign and national rock along research topics, Refried Elvis will surely serve as a with other genres. Rock music's appropriation of frm basis upon which to base further explo‐ national events and symbols and its identifcation rations. with protest movements such as the Zapatistas in Copyright (c) 1999 by H-Net, all rights re‐ Chiapas go almost unquestioned. Finally, rocanrol served. This work may be copied for non-proft no longer has to face onslaughts from the Mexi‐ educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ can left; its cultural critics have accepted the thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ 'onda' as part of Mexico's 'cultura' or 'musica pop‐ tact [email protected]. ular'. Zolov's study is well-written and informative; sources ranging as widely as from RCA and DIM‐ SA reports to interviews with ex-jipis are integrat‐ ed into a highly credible, readable text. Like many historical works on Mexico, Refried Elvis mainly looks at that country's counterculture from Mexi‐ co City outwards, although Zolov admirably in‐ cludes regional infuences (for example, the infu‐ ence of the Mazatec culture in Huautla, or the im‐ pact of rocanrol bands like Los Dug Dugs and San‐ tana that honed their skills in Tijuana and the

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Citation: Kristina A. Boylan. Review of Zolov, Eric. Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture. H-Mexico, H-Net Reviews. August, 1999.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3361

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