Emos under attack in Mexico - rumours of cruxifiction

Sounds like there are some serious problems in Mexico:

Emos under attack
Austin American-Statesman, TX 20 Mar 2008

In the last couple of weeks, a particular subculture of Mexican youths, who dub themselves “emos,” have come under violent attack throughout the country. Two weeks ago in the otherwise quiet colonial capital of Queretaro, mobs of kids attacked the emos in an attempt to force them out of the city’s main plaza. A week later, the violence arrived in Mexico City, when emos who hang out at the Insurgentes Metro stop were attacked by gangs of punks and soccer fans. Rumors of more attacks in Mexico City and the northern state of Durango are floating around the Internet.

So who are these emos, and why so much hate? Emos here in Mexico are bound by a specific fashion style (black clothes, tight jeans, huge bangs, black eye makeup) and ideology: according to several Internet sources, a strong chord of sadness, depression and sense of being misunderstood by the larger society runs through emo thought. Bands like Good Charlotte are emo favorites. And self mutilation is apparently common among kids heavily into the emo scene.

Anger against the emos has come from many quarters: punks and goths who think emos are ripping off their culture, homophobes who don’t find emos masculine enough, and those who simply seem threatened by a group that is so different than the mainstream.

In Mexico, attacks on ‘emo’ teens raise tolerance concerns
Sierra Vista Herald, AZ March 23rd

Published on Sunday, March 23, 2008

MEXICO CITY — Ever since he first discovered “emo” music five years ago, 17-year-old Emmanuel Huerta has been making regular two-hour trips from his home in the sprawling suburbs outside Mexico City to the capital’s Glorieta Insurgentes, a concrete plaza and transportation hub on the southern fringe of the free-thinking Zona Rosa neighborhood.

There, he hangs out with other teens who dress in black, peg their jeans tightly to their legs, comb their bangs down over their eyes and listen to emo-core, an offshoot of punk rock that emphasizes powerful emotions like love, rejection and depression rather than punk’s traditional expressions of political and social discontent.

Emmanuel Huerta, right, stands with his friends Antonio Garcia, center, and Oscar Medina at the Glorieta Insurgentes, a popular meeting place for “emo” teens, on Friday. (Jonathan Clark-Special to the Herald/Review)

“We share our feelings, talk about bands we like, and just hang out together and have fun, like any other kids,” Huerta said of his days at the plaza.

But lately, life at Glorieta Insurgentes hasn’t been so much fun for the “emos,” as Huerta and his friends are called. Other teens have been posting messages to Internet blogs that ridicule the emos for their sentimentality, many accusing them of being gay. Videos filled with homophobic language and violent imagery have popped up on YouTube with Spanish titles that translate as “How to kill an emo” and “We declare war on you, emos.”

Then, on March 8, in an apparent response to a call to arms circulated on the Internet, an estimated 200 teens descended on a square in the central city of Querétaro and pummeled a group of emos with pipes and sticks....

On Wednesday, acting under orders from Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City Police Chief Joel Ortega announced he was instructing his officers to be more sensitive to the emos, and he called on the city’s punks and Goths to be more accepting as well.

“We are making a call for tolerance with this group of emos, even if they are a minority, because there are other kids who, because of their ideals, are also in the process of forming splinter groups,” he told reporters.


The day after Ortega’s announcement, rumors began to circulate of an attack on the emos planned for Good Friday at the Glorieta Insurgentes.

According to media reports, someone had been posting solicitations to come “crucify” the emos that day at 3 p.m., the same time that Jesus died on the cross at Calvary.

Ortega responded by dispatching hundreds of police to the plaza to stand guard over the few dozen kids, including Emmanuel Huerta, who decided to brave the threat.

Mexican news report This is one of many videos on the subject on you tube:

Kill All Emos?
antiMUSIC.com, CA - 13 Mar 2008



It is sad to think these attacks span out of the sort of stupid anti emo prejudice found online a problem pointed out here a while ago.

Thread here at Bizarre...