#the uruguayan flag is not there for some reason

[screwderia]

checo’s helmet with all the latin american flags ❤️

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was walking in a business district that was bizarrely empty except for a McDonald’s and an Argentine food truck with a line leading to it. I had a bocadillo sandwich and fries from it.

Also, the guy said he was from Argentina but the food truck had the Uruguayan Flag on it for some reason.

[sudaca-swag]

What we learnt this year in this blog:

That Independent colonies gained independence thanks to it's colonizers

How to do reaserch when proving your point 101 by racist&mysogynistic weirdos

There are blancos oscuros, "Dark whites" grey ?) Ppl amongst us

Uruguay has in fact a mascot (a sky blue duck) only it missed the Russia world cup because he threatened a sports commentator so he was imprisoned briefly

South America definitely ended it's friendship with FIFA and eagerly awaits for Copa America

That RAE dictates our lives and is holier than the Santo Grial when deciding how the Spanish Language is written or spoken

Brazil's pizza (and gastronomy in general) is like living in a parallel dimension, like that feeling you get on a cloudy, Sunday evening

Gringos are still gringoing

How annoying despacito managed to get in the hand of the yanquis

Seriously annoying

Tampons vs pads discourse? What even is that tho...

Latine countries Hogwarts house/ MCU characters discourse

A lot of discourse

Brazilians are passionate with their biscoito/bolacha discourse and canarinho

That the world cup ended two weeks earlier

VAR...is bullshit

And so is RAE

Shakira >>>>>>>>>> the Beatles, 100% scientific evidence

Asides from having bland ass food, another dietary requirement of gringos this year included soap and detergent

Almondiga, toballa, furro and vedera are valid but not inclusive language and neutral pronouns

Porn bots

It didn't go home

We had terf gringas and even a Welsh 30 y.o man trying to explain to us, latines, why OUR feminist movement is radfem

This is so sad, alexa plz don't spy on me

Apparently a usamerican that took a 3 months course in Spanish knew more about my culture than myself

Rabies are in now??? And a kink???

Some heathens believe pururú is a valid way of calling popcorn (it's pororó at the most)

Worse even, traitorous uruguayans overseas are calling pop "palomitas" (your uruguayan cards are revoqued by the way)

The yanqui voting system is.....really bad and fucked up....like really, a nightmare

Political systems are burning to the ground in Latin america

And we're definitely all voting left next year least we end up with a Bolsonaro

Apparently the dollar CAN and WILL rise thrice in a week :)))

Only 100 companies in the world are the cause of 80% of the emissions of green house gases

How more enjoyable and extra latine Christmas is in comparison to others

And weddings

And futbol

There were like 2456 royal weddings and pregnancies and still ppl follow and adore those embodiments of imperialism and who are only living by stealing from the common people

Colonialism was "not that bad" and happened "a long time ago"

Latin history for morons.......need I say more? What a mess......

Some ppl like Arjona??

During the world cup this year Germany did wall "jokes" against Mexico, England did cocaine "jokes" at Colombia and they also filled twitter with racism against Colombians

Speaking of colonizers and futbol, copa conquistadores had it's first match ever in Spain yay congrats.......

Female presenting nipples

Porn bots epidemy made apple delete Tumblr from their store so staff finally got it's shit together and cleaned the site.....for a moment all was well.....but then turned into the titty prohibition and dumb shit was being flagged

Like seriously you get flagged and you get flagged EVERYONE GETS FLAGGED EVEN TUMBLR OFFICIAL POSTS AND ADS GET FLAGGED it's equality!!

Copa conquistadores launched amazing merch were they merged both rival teams into a single scarf, dumbest idea after the guy who wrote female presenting nipples

G20 happened and it gave us amazing pictures of the world leaders/destroyers behaving like toddlers

Lots of bad political decisions (seriously bad...)

Once again we don't know what's going on in Paraguay and Ecuador, their silence is deafening.....

Chile suffered more bullying than ever (un minuto de sileeenciooooooo.....)

The Brits stole Mate.....maybe they got confused and thought it was their "mate"? (May-t)???? Anyways just another reason we want them gone from this world lmao

The missile crisis of Hawaii was this year like....how is that possible??

What is this post about Carlisle Cullen conducting an anal test with his cold hands???

How everything is fuckable and there's a kink for everything somewhere in this hellsite

[yesbabyjiminie]

My Wings Tour Experience: Santiago, Saturday 11th

I had the chance to go to both dates. Since I’m from Argentina and I was going to spend all that money on travelling tickets and accommodation, I decided to spend all I could on the concerts as well lol.

I got second floor tickets for Saturday 11th and first floor tickets for Sunday 12th. The date on Sunday was supposed to be the first date of the tour, but the boys sold out the tickets in less than 5 hours and when they needed to add a second date the only choice was Saturday. Hence, the first date became the second. I was so excited both days that I kind of forgot some details, so I’ll try to remember as much as possible.

Something I would like to mention is that even though the show was in Santiago, there were A LOT of fans from different Latinamerican countries. I personally know around 20 other people just from my city (Córdoba) that were in the show, but there were a lot of ARMYs from Buenos Aires and smaller cities in Argentina. I also saw a big group of fans from Bolivia and then there were a lot of fans carrying Uruguayan, Paraguayan, Peruvian flags. The woman that rented the apartment me and my friends stayed in said that she owned 13 apartments and had 8 of them rented to ARMYs from a lot of countries, including Colombia (she was really surprised because she said that it was the first time something like that had happened to her, having so many people renting her apartments for the same date, from so many different places and all for the same reason).

I was also surprised to see that the media in Chile was covering all about it, and everyone I talked to in Chile seemed to know that we were there because of “that Korean band” lol. I even visited a different city in Chile (Valparaiso) after the concert and the Uber driver was like “Oh you are here for BTS right? people hasn’t stopped talking about it”. Bangtan is huge.

Saturday 11th

They started with Not Today. The moment when the music started playing and the curtain fell, the stadium went crazy. The one I remember to most from Not Today is Taehyung, because that bandana increases his looks a 3547%, it’s been proved by scientists, I kid you not.

After Not Today came the intro talk. The guys introduced themselves in English and Spanish. They just said “Hola” in Spanish and everything that followed in English. Yoongi did his classic taking-his-in-ear-off and listening to the cheers, but couldn’t help smiling because the cheers were seriously crazy.

Jimin tried to speak some English during the first talk, but nobody understood a word, his English was too broken. I’m not saying this as a critic, but more as something that happened because later during the show the guys kept laughing at him ‘cause it was clear that nobody could understand what he was trying to say but ARMYs would still cheer for him and the guys laughed harder at that haha. Hobi and Jungkook talked in English a lot. Kookie has improved SO MUCH, our boy has been studying hard, I’m so proud of him. Yoongi thanked us for coming to the show and then screamed “THANK YOU-SO- MUCH-ARMY” and then threw a kiss -Jin Style- and got all shy, it was the cutest thing ever. Hobi kept waving and smiling to the fans next to the stage. I’m proud to say that during the first talk people cheered for all the boys with the same excitement and you could see that they were kind of surprised with the loudness, we were really REALLY loud (if you know a Latino person, then you probably can imagine what an stadium filled with 20 thousand Chilean, Peruvian, Bolivian, Argentinian, Paraguayan, Uruguayan and Colombian fans can sound like).

There was a project to rise a banner and sing Happy birthday to Yoongi after they finished speaking, but everything was so fast that unfortunately we didn’t have the chance :/ as soon as fans were getting ready to start singing, they lowered the lights and moved on with the show.

The guys were perfect and on point on every single song after that. The crowd went crazy with Hobi’s solo during Baepsae. J-Hope was, to my opinion, the star of the night. Latinamerican ARMYs really love Hoseok and we showed it. We cheered really loud for all of them, but Hoseok got the biggest amount of screams. He looked so happy the whole night, it was priceless. I’ve never seen someone with a more beautiful smile in my entire life.

During his part on the bridge in Dope, Jimin didn’t sing. He just opened his arms really wide and did a few spins like he was Heidi on the hills, holding his microphone up high and listening to the fans singing. He smiled like he was having the time of his life; Park Jimin is so adorable I can barely contain myself and my love for this little cutie. He also made a heart with his arms when the song finished (damn camera man didn’t capture it alright xD)

They played a VCR and then Jungkook sang Begin, the first solo of the night. How this kid can sing and dance like that without missing a note is still a mistery to me.

Lie received a crazy reaction. The public sang along the whole song, and Jimin’s voice was amazing. The choreography is so good, the whole stage is so breath taking… as a Jimin biased, I was a little bit disappointed that I couldn’t see it as close as I would’ve liked, since the first day I was really far from the main stage and the second day I could only see chunks of it (I’m so short TT.TT people kept covering my line of vision, fuck my life honestly). I still could rely on the screens, but I didn’t want to look at the screens, I see BTS on a screen every day of my life. I wanted to see them with my own eyes even if it meant seeing them the size of an ant. You can watch my video here if you like. (I know the quality is shit, but if you listen with earphones you can listen clearly how loud ARMYs were singing).

First Love. Min Yoongi. The piano. The passion this guy has for music gives you chills. As part of the project for his birthday, fans were given other banners that we were supposed to raise during First Love. The silver one that says Agust D is my favorite, it’s really shiny and pretty. I hope Yoongi saw them.

During Lost, a group of fans held a huge sign that said “ARMY says SORRY” for the invasion of privacy the guys suffered when they went out to eat and during his stay at the hotel. Taehyung, Jungkook and Jin saw the sign (I’m not sure, but I think Jimin did too). I felt really sad for that. It’s really unfair that because of a group of disrespectful and inconsiderate people, Chilean ARMYs ended up looking so bad they needed to apologize to the boys during the concert. I think is a good thing that fans recognize when they do something wrong and try to fix it, but being honest, I’m sure that the people holding the sign weren’t the ones that did it. Chilean ARMY worked really hard organizing projects and even prepared a flyer with a “Manual to be a good ARMY” that specifically asked for people to have good manners and respect the boys. They even did a campaign about it like a month before the show. Unfortunately, there’s always selfish people that don’t think about the boys or the way they end up making their country look just for a picture.

Save me was flawless. I couldn’t take my eyes off Yoongi. No matter how much the boys like to drag his dancing skills, I’m no fool. Min Yoongi can dance.

During I Need U I felt like an earthquake was happening or something because ARMYs were singing so loud I swear everything was moving. Another prove I have of that is the short video I could record that was ruined because the sound was so damn loud that my stupid camera saturated the sound and all you can hear is the bass. But you can still notice how during the last part, the boys barely sang and let ARMY do all the singing. Jeon Jungkook jumped so high I was impressed. It was a very emotional song, but it was as if all of us felt energized and happy to see them perform this song that’s so important for all of us.

Reflection’s stage was so pretty!!! It was all full of stars, beautiful colors and feelings. Namjoon’s voice is so clear and beautiful and he didn’t need to do much more that stand there and hold his mic to own that stage. Kim Namjoon is so damn talented that I swear if yall don’t start appreciating him now, you’ll regret it when he’s even more succesfull and amazing than he is today.

Stigma was amazing as well. Taehyung reached his high notes like a goddamn pro and everyone went wild. My videos don’t make him justice at all, so I really hope one of the fansites got to film it. Tae really killed his solo stage.

Ok, now MAMA. I already said that Hobi was the star of the night, and I need to say it again. Jung Hoseok received so much love that after the concert finished, it was all me and my friends could talk about. Hobi shined so bright one of my friends even switched biases. She said “I always liked Hobi, but after seeing him with my own eyes he just escalated so high into my heart and there’s no way he’s leaving”. MAMA is a song that is so full of love and significance, but still has that cheerful thing that is so Hoseok that you can’t help feeling happy when you listen to it. Everybody was singing along, and when the lights went down during the bridge, everybody started chanting “J-HOPE! J-HOPE! J-HOPE!”. He does his rap acapella, the lights go up again and everybody was singing the Chorus like it was on Spanish. Hobi was definitely surprised. His smile was so SO big, you know that thankful and full of happiness smile Hoseok does? That was what was decorating his face at that moment. Then he started harmonizing while ARMYs kept singing “Hey MAMA, ijen naege gidaedo dwae eonjena yeope, hey mama…” and it was slkdfjskldf it was one of those moments that you need to live and share to know what I’m talking about.

Again, I hope one of the fansites got a recording of that moment because my video is not enough for my soul. You can watch it here. I know the quality is not the best, but the sound is not bad and you can clearly hear how great Hoseok voice was, how loud ARMYs were cheering and singing, how happy everybody was watching the sun shining on stage. To me, it was the highlight of the night.

After MAMA, and as if we hadn’t had enough quality performances that night, came AWAKE. Now, after how hyped and amazing Hoseok stage was I think it would have been hard for any other performance to follow it. Nevertheless, Seokjin owned it. Next time Bighit pulls any of the shit they do with Jin (like what happened with Not Today) I’m going to shove a copy of Awake up their asses because KIM SEOKJIN CAN FUCKING SING. When AWAKE started, everyone was singing along. Jin’s voice was so clear, stable and beautiful I felt like it was some sort of luxury to be able to hear it with my own ears. The whole stadium sang the song with Seokjin and by the second verse, Jin started tearing up. Yeap, our boy was crying. I always thought that it was a little impossible for international fans to make them cry (I guess I have an inferiority complex when compared with K-Armys), but I’m guessing Jin was moved by the fact that people was singing along with him and screaming his name with so much passion. Still, his voice didn’t crack for one second and he composed himself real quick. He reached his high notes like it was nothing and pretty much became the king of ballads, thank you very much.

Jin deserves so much more than we give him, I hope one day he can have his justice. I can’t wait to hear more of his songs. 

Cypher was the moment my soul was cleansed, I gained like 20 years of life after that performance. Namjoon was totally excited, Hoseok looked like some sort of sexy gangster and I’m telling you, listening Min Yoongi rap “Fuck you and you” is a once in a lifetime experience, 100% recomended.

All the songs that came after that are kind of like a blur to me, I can’t remember much. I was so into the concert, singing so hard that at one point I remember that I felt my chest aching lol

I remember that fans tried singing Happy Birthday to Yoongi many times during the talks but for different reasons we couldn’t and everyone was so frustrated lol Who would’ve thought that it was going to be so hard? haha. I also remember that the guys did a talk in Spanish and we could barely hear them ‘cause fans wouldn’t shut up -.- Jimin was struggling so much, I couldn’t understand much of what he was trying to say, but I in a moment he did say one sentence really clearly and fans cheered extra loud for him and he said “HA!” on the mic, like he was super proud of himself and I died. Park Jimin is so cute, I kid you not, he’s smol, adorable and an angel. He really is an angel.

Hobi danced Boy Meets Evil and once again fans cheered his name so loudly, it gave me chills. Also, seeing him dance that choreo was extreme. He’s so good. I wish I could’ve paid more attention to B,S&T but I was partying so hard...

Then 2!3! happened. The stadium looked so pretty filled with all the banners. There was also a strong campaign encouraging fans to learn the lyrics to 2!3! and the lyrics of the chrous were printed on the back of the sign, but honestly, fans knew the lyrics <3

As later we found out, the sign had a typo lol but thankfully it wasn’t somehting that changed the meaning or anything, and the guys found it cute, so I think it was a success.

The sang Wings, played around and then finished with Spring Day. The choreo is beautiful.

The guys were extremely sweet. Also, I happened to see the whole thing about the giant ARMY Bomb haha. Yoongi saw it first. He started motioning to Hoseok and laughing like crazy and then the fans gave them the ARMY Bomb. Hoseok grabbed it and started ruuning around with the thing and Yoongi was running after him haha. It was super cute.

I don’t know if I’m biased or what, but I feel that the ones that enjoyed the show the most were Hoseok, Yoongi and Jungkook. RM and Jimin are a lot more composed, but super sweet anyways. Their voices sound so good live, like I died a hundred times listening to Namjoon’s English. Jin is a tease!!! He kept coming next to the borders of the stage and throwing kisses and winking and smiling and saghjsjhfd he’s so handsome. Personally, I felt like V was a little bit absent? my friend, a V biased said that it’s not that he was serious, but he was acting coy. I don’t know. I don’t remember much about him more than his amazing voice during Stigma, his killer looks with the bandana and that at one point he was dancing for some fans and I nearly died lol.

It was an amazing concert experience. I was bursting with happiness. I didn’t feel like I was watching a show from celebrities tho. It felt like I was watching my friends being awesome on stage, like they were this people i hadn’t seen in a really long time (even tho it was my first time seeing them ever) and after they left I didn’t feel so bad ‘cause I still had the show next day.

I will write an entry about the show on the 12th as soon as possible. That experience was a 100% different from the one on Saturday because I saw them up close. They are so gorgeous.

[returfingthepyramid-blog]

Won’t Someone Think Of The Kids?

I watched a Twitter argument unfold earlier today. I don’t know either of the parties involved, so I have omitted user names. There was much to it, but the part that got me wanting to write was this:

I think there is a lot here. It is important to recognise that the person who wrote this tweet claimed an understanding of football, and of European soccer culture. They weren’t being pixieish or trolling. They were voicing what for them is and was a genuine concern about how American soccer fandom appears to be in thrall to a perception of the fan as “ultra”

What, sadly, must be pointed out first is that there ARE American fans for whom Green Street is a documentary. Just as there are English fans and Italian fans and Uruguayan fans and Australian fans. But there are also many fans in all those countries who are capable of decrying that movie for being the laughable dross it clearly is. 

The need to be seen as authentic is one that blights passionate sports fans the world over. To many, authenticity comes in the form of tactical knowledge. To others, historical reverence is key. And with any niche pursuit, there are some for whom only purity is enough. As soccer seeks to further embed itself in the national psyche, the divide between “Euro-snobs”, MLS “fan boys”, Pro/Rel fundamentalists, and whatever the rest of us can be termed is only getting wider.

America is used to leading the world. It’s what a Super Power does. And America excels. Where She lets herself down is learning from everyone else.What She sees as assimilation and improvement, others see as appropriation and dilution. Which, circuitously, brings us to what it means to be an “ultra”

The history of the Ultra movement is hard to pin down. Clubs have always had passionate fans, that’s for sure. But defining what exactly makes an individual, or a group “ultra”, that’s more complicated.And I think this is where our Tweeter is beginning to lose themselves. Ultras are definitely fanatical. But is that enough? Some ultra groups are aligned along political affiliations. Others go further and seek to influence the running of the club (is that “further” from political affiliation? Possibly not) And others use the cover of club support to enable them to indulge in mindless violence. Just as being a “fan” is not enough to describe the myriad ways we follow out club, is the term “ultra” nuanced or wide-reaching enough? I would argue not.

So when American fans user the moniker “ultra”, which happens with alarming regularity, what are they trying to tell us? Are they content with enhancing the match day atmosphere with chants and smoke and flags? Do they wish to move the club in a particular direction, as we see in Detroit. Or do they see themselves as enforcers, protecting the name and pride of their club and city on the streets they walk? Environments which certainly CAN be found in some clubs in Europe and South America, but which are equally certainly NOT the norm.

Ultras can be a huge force for good. As a fan, it is easy to feel powerless. The club you love, that invest time and money in, is all too often at the whim of a businessman or collective who don’t share your views. Leyton Orient fans, Atlanta Silverbacks fans,  Boca Raton magicJack fans (seriously, Google this one, it’s a mindfuck), feel free to take up your story here. So giving yourselves a voice is all-too-often a priceless necessity.

Perhaps this is best illustrated by the role Ultras groups played in the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt. Others have written far more knowledgeably about such things. And that they have should illustrate that simply dismissing a large group of football fans as “thugs” and “ne’erdowells” 

But, yes, Ultras can be a hugely violent and thuggish part of supporter culture. It would be naive to suggest otherwise, when stories such as this and articles like this are all to easy to find online.

Is this second styling really what American fans are after? Watching this you might think they are. 

I don’t get want to get embroiled in the whole “well they are not REAL fans” argument. It is simplistic and all too often wrong. They are. That they chose to support a club in a way that most of us find abhorrent is a problem. However, the significance of this clash being between individuals associated with two New York teams should not be overlooked. Not that this is New York problem, but rather that local derbies bring with them a different atmosphere. And in that regard, the American Ultra is a little stymied. Outside of New York, and soon LA, these sorts of match-ups just do not happen. 

And then people write articles like this. Articles which pander to all the human fears that have seen such seismic shifts in our society over the last couple of years. The fear of the outsider, the unknown, the uninhibited, the ... different.

Perhaps it isn’t surprising that people who love the game from afar are worried about events they see over there, coming over here. Football is just one part of a larger global homogenization after all.

Those who seek to imitate or recreate the scenes highlighted above do so for the self-same reasons that our Tweeter fears them doing so. American soccer is bland. It started as a corporate venture, and its survival is driven by corporations. Middle-aged white men in suits. Money. 

This is why Detroit FC exist. This is why Bearfight FC exist. This is why people across the country are turning away from MLS and seeking something else. 

Our Tweeter wants the passion of the game he loves, but sees it threatened by the threats he sees and hears about. He wants a safe environment for him and his family. He wants all the drama of a Kardashian Pepsi ad. The Ultras want the passion of the game they love, but see it being sucked out by TV rights and advertising dollars. Why else would the Red Loons of Minnesota (who are not, as far as I am aware, in any way violent in their support) see their banners banned from home games?

Those who seek to bring the scenes of 80s Europe to the streets of Kansas City and Chicago will have a tough job. There are a myriad reasons why hooliganism sprung up when it did, where it did. And America is not in that time or place today. Where hooliganism remains a problem, there are circumstances which, whilst not excusing such actions, certainly go some way to understanding them. Meanwhile in New York, they are fighting outside a gastropub.

[jonboudposts]

80 Years Not Counted: Part 2

Saturday 11 February: Apparently there is a valley in Spain called Jarama and we were on one of three buses heading out there on a cold, damp Saturday in February.  It is less than an hour outside of Madrid; a place of plush growth and greenery. Upon arriving we had a small police escort.  They took us around for much of the day, directing traffic and checking the roads – but were we really under threat from a modern-day fascist squad? Or were they making sure we behaved ourselves?  I never did find out.

The 12th of February is the day of the anniversary itself. It had brightened up by the time we arrived, walking through olive groves to get to where the Battle of Jarama was fought by 600 International Brigade members, of whom 375 were dead by the end of the first day.  

The mayor of nearby Morata de Tajuna joined us.  He is very active in keeping the memory of the International Brigades and the Spanish Republicanism alive in his part of the country.  We are taken through some of the manoeuvres of the day; the advance of the fascists, the holding out of the International Brigades, the bungles of having the wrong ammo for the machine gun.  We are told where the Farm Cookhouse was, the place where the wounded were carried back to.  We are told about the three hills – the Knoll, the Conical Hill and White House (Suicide) Hill.  We are told about how the battalions divided, the British on the left of the Republican Line, the Franco-Belge somewhere on the right.  There was hand-to-hand combat with the fascists.  There were an obscene number of casualties.

The next day everything had changed when despite still being outgunned, with apparently the inspiration of Irish volunteers Frank Ryan and George Nathan ringing in their ears, the remaining International Brigades rose again and fought with ferocity, winning the day.  

When you stand on this hill, the beauty of the landscape surrounds you; but the imagining of intense fear too.  How genuinely petrifying it must have been to be here 80 years ago; under fire from three sides.  The noise and smell must have been overwhelming and the very notion of survival was perhaps not even a consideration.

For the International Brigades, it must have been horrendous to realise the governments of your own country would never support what you were doing, then ask (or demand) in three years’ time that you now fight the same enemy in their name. For King and country but never for your comrades.

We are often asked to believe that those who fought in World War 2 went in with some idea of the future; doing this for the generations yet to come and we are now required to pay their actions and sacrifice lip and lapel service for a couple of weeks a year.  I wonder if the men and women in Spain fighting against fascism ever imagined they would be forgotten by the mainstream.  Who could have thought there would still be those arguing in favour of the fascist side?

Our group stood on this hillside by the Kit Conway memorial, as the names of the British dead were read out, along with the part of the country they came from.  Someone in the crowd demands we remove our hats, perhaps something that is of little discomfort to those with plenty of hair but I am bloody freezing.  This kind of sentimental crap really annoys me (along with being told what to do).  What difference does it make to the dead if I have a woolly hat on?  It was still a special moment though, to stand where the horror had occurred and remember those actively forgotten in Britain.  More Republican flowers are laid and we move on.

The Monument to the International Brigades is better known to some as The Fist Memorial, an apt description of a large, red metallic structure – to be very accurate, it looks like one hand in another forming a sort-of double fist.  It is a good place, on top of a hill, to gather, pay respects and sing – which is what the group did.  The memorial has been re-built, as the original white marble one was destroyed when fired upon.  It stands atop a hill and looks out over the fields and the highway; a rather impressive, simple sight.  On the side of the memorial is a large but unreadable plaque with a faded Uruguayan flag just about visible.  We were later told this was because Uruguay had donated to re-build the fist, in memory of their countrymen who had travelled to fight for democracy in Spain.

We are reminded of the many and varied men and women who came to fight alongside their Spanish comrades; one person notes the importance of remembering the Germans who came to fight against the fascists; that not all that country’s population went along with the rise of Nazism.

Next to the memorial are the trenches.  The mayor has ordered their excavation, for the purpose of being re-opened and hopefully visited by those wanting to know more for the future, not loitering in the past.  There are also plans for a museum on the site.  

Many of the people here like myself have an interest in the history. Many however are here because this war is something that defined them, perhaps before they were even born. Children who were born in the UK, by parents who were refugees from Franco’s regime; this runs through the blood and how they are perceived as people in some ways.  Parents and grandparents fought here; relatives fought and nursed the wounded. When their children needed refuge, they were taken in by countries whose governments did nothing to support the democracy of Spain.  Today, Madrid welcomes the refugees.

While atop this great hill, we receive a message from Jeremy Corbyn back in London.  He sends solidarity to our trip. We then hear about some of those who served here; Clem Beckett (a man I now yearn to know more about), plus Colin Smith (ASLEF) read Frank Ryan’s account of the IB’s great rally on this hill. There then begins a round of The Internationale. I never have been much of a singer so I sit that bit out.

On the way to our meal at El Cid, we turn around a small roundabout in the little town.  On our left, we are informed, is a plaque to the Falangists who had an outpost here, where fascist forces were organised.  We give it the traditional boo as the couch passes, wishing I could give it more but we are asked on more than one occasion to behave ourselves while here with the IBMT, so I guess it will have to wait.

We arrived at the restaurant and headed for the museum at the back. What appears to be a one-man show, although sadly I never got his name. He has put this together since childhood, when he would pick up discarded shells and helmets on the abandoned battlefields. It is quite some collection; included is an approximately six-foot tall statue of a man made from scrap metal discarded during the conflict.

We are then treated to a meal in the main restaurant (including my first Paella) and later some songs such as The Internationale again, Viva La Quinta Brigada and Joe Hill, along with poems and other readings.  The handful of locals having lunch seemed to have little idea what we were up to but the management seemed cool with our presence – they are getting paid so why not?

Among other things we hear from Megan Dobney from South East TUC on the campaign to get a statue put up on London’s history-soaked Clerkenwell Green, dedicated to Sylvia Pankhurst.  We still rock the international connections even far from home; the working class is an international class movement, no more so than in resistance to fascism.

In the following days we see a few more symbols of the unsettled war. Walking around Madrid (and it is a wonderful city to walk around), you see the occasional Republican flag hanging from a balcony; sometimes looking like it has been on display some time.  One book shop we visited sells a mocked-up football shirt for a Spanish national team in republican colours.  No doubt some corner of social media has many right wing toss bags (I try to avoid the buzz-term Alt Right) winding up ‘leftists’ (libtards) on the subject of Spain.

Memory is political. It is demanded of the British people (I cannot speak for other countries where the International Brigades came from) that we remember the war dead and survivors of two world wars and all the unnecessary smaller ones since; but are actively taught to overlook those who went to Spain.  On the rare occasions questions are brought up about this, these men and women are usually dismissed as ‘communists who were fighting for Stalin’; they are now alien and ‘other’ to their own country.  

While many were indeed communists (and so what?), this simplification is an insult at best to people who were able to see the oncoming storm and resourceful enough to put themselves on the frontline in the most defining war of the 20th Century in the western world.  The fight against fascism is still relevant today and the same forces still attempt to prevent and do-down those who fight it. Being an anti-fascist is a necessity for many of us, but a strangely lonely activity sometimes.  Many people give you their verbal admiration but never their company.

A sad truth is that in many countries like ours, for a good portion if not the majority, fascism would not be so bad.  It would not affect them.  Being white, hetero and good at doing what they’re told while complaining only under their breath, governance by an extreme organisation or government that removes democracy, violates the rights of ethnic and sexual minorities and is willing to use violence to keep order would probably not bother them too much. The trains would probably be more efficient.  Brits seem to like doing what they are told by those richer and more powerful than them – so long as they come from Britain of course.

This is the main reason the fight against the far right must be unrelenting.  Normal rules do not apply.  They must have no platform, be given no place to express themselves without strong and determined opposition from those who oppose their toxic and worthless ideals, along with the factual inaccuracy and outright lies that go along with such beliefs. Equally we must be careful how to mistreat our own history when re-activating it in the minds of the masses.  We must make sure the story of The Battle of Jarama - winning against the odds - does not become a left-wing 300, a story whose committal to film (rather than the historical event) is worshipped by certain right wing factions for the holding out against ‘invaders’ by lots of incredibly buff men being warriors and all that (why are the right so often homophobic?). There is plenty to celebrate in the actions of those opposing fascism and answering the international call 80 years ago; but there is nothing to celebrate about war.

I am glad I put aside my reservations about travelling to Madrid for this event. I have a little in common with my fellow travellers but what really unites us is the feeling that these events and their players deserve not to be forgotten about as history is pulled around by those with an agenda to serve and a knighthood in the post.  By attending, learning and spreading the word we have no doubt added to the continuing need to fight the evils of fascism and far right ideology, always lurking in the darkness and never fully confined to the oblivion they deserve.  We are reminded that supporters of these views, so often in the higher economic and social brackets of society, are still present, pulling the strings of the pitifully educated lower ranks who so often refuse to even bother trying to know their own history.

History is only good for one thing practically – learning from mistakes. These should not be repeated moving forward to a better, more just world for all.  Eighty years after the battle of Jarama, we are in a sorry state on this one. Europe is seeing a rise in far right political parties, the rhetoric of blaming migrants and Muslims for everything is worse than ever and too many people, taking their lead from Britain’s poisonous media, go along with this without question.  The horrors of fascism must never be forgotten and it is the responsibility of everyone, whether you like it or not, to do their part and stand up against it.

No Pasarán indeed.

Peace and Love Madrid.

Additional

There is an anti-fascism event in Hamburg between 19-21 May 2017.  For more details, email: brigadistras@gmx.de

With thanks to the IBMT, our comrades in Spain and all who made this event possible.

[marcoshassanlevy]

fore the inception of Los Crudos in 1991, U.S. punk and hardcore already had a handful of Latinx figures involved in the genre’s biggest bands. Artists in The Bags, Black Flag, Descendents, Adolescents, Suicidal Tendencies, Agnostic Front, and so many others made their mark on the scene, yet they rarely confronted their unique life experience in the U.S., instead focusing on general themes of alienation and social unrest. Los Crudos, on the other hand, composed lyrics explicitly about their experience as people of color and immigrants.

Los Crudos played a radical take on hardcore punk – one of austere musicality, maximum speed, and overdriven guitar tones. Vocalist Martin Sorrondeguy spewed concerns of an immigrant in the United States almost exclusively in Spanish (in the spirit of true rebellion, their sole English track was titled “That’s Right We’re That Spic Band“). Their impact shook punk far and wide, and not only for those who spoke Spanish – they influenced non-white and non-binary folks across the scene. The band toured relentlessly throughout the decade, creating connections with groups like Spitboy and even touring south of the border. When Los Crudos hit Mexico, mobs showed up and bum rushed the venues to get inside.

After Los Crudos broke up, Martin formed Limp Wrist, an equally radical band both musically and thematically. Limp Wrist embraced Sorrondeguy and the other members’ queerness to challenge heteronormativity in the punk scene. Again, LGBTQ punks were no strangers to the scene at the time, with political bands like The Dicks, Big Boys, and MDC singing about queerness in the 80s. The movement formalized under the term “queercore,” with bands like Fifth Column, Pansy Division, and Team Dresch. Limp Wrist made their music harder and faster without sacrificing any part of their identities.

Ever the punk lifer, Martin Crudo (as he’s known to fans far and wide) has also been documenting punk through his photography, which he has exhibited internationally. He published a collection called Get Shot! in 2012, and has been invited to talk about the intersection of punk, Latinidad, and LGBTQ identity at various universities.

On September 30, Sorrondeguy hosted the launch of Desafinados, a 9-day event that celebrates all things Crudos as well as the Latinx punk scenes in the Chicago neighborhoods of Pilsen and Little Village. Along with performances, Desafinados will feature talks, lectures, readings, and art exhibits from Latinx punk icons like Alice Bag, Michelle Gonzales, David Zamora Casas, Dorian Wood, Gerardo Villarreal, Cristy C. Road, and many others. We sat down with Sorrondeguy to get his perspective on the event and reflect on the 25th anniversary of Los Crudos.

Organizing a retrospective required Martin to revisit his past, and Los Crudos’ reunion has certainly made the identity of the band clear. The crew decided to reunite in 2013, after learning that a friend – who is a trans woman and played in peer bands in the 90s – had been diagnosed with cancer. “On the spot, I called all the members of Los Crudos and everybody said, ‘Yes, let’s do it.’ It felt right under the condition that it had to be done Crudos-style. It had to be done in a way that felt authentic and comfortable.”

“That’s the true spirit of punk, to challenge within it. We need the rule breakers.”

Martin is not one to dwell on the past, and though reuniting a group he first started when he was young might come off as pure nostalgia, he says it made as much sense in 2016 as it did in the early 90s. “The thing about the lyrics that we wrote 25 years ago is that they are completely relevant today,” he explains. “For me it’s not hard to scream these lyrics and still feel very strongly about them. It’s all still happening. The U.S. is very anti-Latinx and the world is very anti-immigrant, and that also includes us.”

Because those lyrics remain relevant, Sorrodneguy continues to be vocal about underscoring Latinxs’ pivotal role in punk history. He’s brought his expertise on the scene to academic settings, but is reluctant to fully support roundtables on the genre at universities – for justifiable reasons. “I still go to basement shows and I’m still pissed off [laughs]. I never left that. I don’t do many lectures in universities. I see that they invite a lot of scholars who study punk but often they don’t invite punks [laughs]…If I get invited, I’m glad and honored and I do my best to give a true sort of representation of what punk is. I also don’t have a problem with challenging these ‘punk scholars’ because I think sometimes they’re wrong and need to be challenged before it gets written down in their books,” he avers.

Identity is crucial to the style of punk Martin has been playing since he first started his career. “Sometimes people get into punk because they like fast, aggressive music,” he says. But for Latinx punks, the genre encompasses more than teen rebellion. “For Latinxs in punk, living in the U.S. is different than angry suburban white youth…In the lyrics, you find [that] some of those songs are against Mom and Dad, and it’s like ‘I don’t have problems with my mom and dad.’ [laughs] We were living in different realities. We weren’t living in the suburbs and then came to the city. We grew up in the city in gang-infested neighborhoods, [with] corruption and all this stuff. We came from aggressive and violent areas and upbringings as young Latinxs,” he describes.

So Sorrondeguy set out to address that reality with Los Crudos, writing songs about his experience as a child of Uruguayan immigrants. “There was a dictatorship and most American punks would go ‘What? What are you talking about?’ It was one thing to write a song about El Salvador from a U.S. perspective – and that was cool, I think there were some great bands who did good stuff – but when you have people coming from certain places and have dealt with these ugly realities and they go writing songs, then it’s a little different. It got to a point where we needed to write our own songs about these things that were important to us.”

“I like punk too and I like to suck dick and I don’t give a fuck if you don’t like it.”

Ever since Los Crudos first started, there has been a huge movement of Latinx punk and hardcore in the U.S., as well as bigger exposure and scene unity between bands from Mexico, Central and South America, and Spain. As a sort of godfather to so many things happening right now, from Downtown Boys to Latino Punk Fest in New York, I ask him what he thinks of the proliferation of Latinx punk. “I think it’s cool. When you talk about Latinxs in punk, there are so many, and not all of them sing about identity. I think that’s what’s differentiating when you say ‘Latinx punk�� instead of just regular punk, because it’s sort of a statement. You’re putting a stamp on yourself which is good, but you have to be careful because some kids might go, ‘This is just for us.’ And I’ve never been into that mentality. I’ve always been into making connections with people who weren’t from where we’re from. Los Crudos spread out to so many communities and different people because we weren’t about isolating ourselves.”

“I fear the formula, you know?” Sorrondeguy continues. “Like, ‘Oh, I’m a Latinx in a band so I need to speak about politics and identity,’ and I don’t think you have to. If that’s not you, don’t do it.” Sorrondeguy favors authenticity and artistry over performative politics. “I want to see some totally freaky queer person doing something that has nothing to do with queerness as political…I’m curious about what people bring to punk or take or give to punk. I get bored easily when bands do the same thing over and over and over. I think kids are afraid to take risks, to look different from their peers and their scenes. When they step outside of their peers and scenes, te critican, but si te están criticando, maybe you’re doing something fucking cool, you know? [laughs] I said to people in the past who have interviewed me that I don’t believe all bands should tell me all their politics, after which they tell me, ‘But that’s what you do!’ Yeah, that’s what I do and what I have done, I don’t expect everybody to follow in my footsteps.”

Martin Sorrondeguy at University of Pennsylvania in March 2015. Photo by David Ensminger

Queerness has been a big part of Martin’s music, most notably in his work with Limp Wrist. Since LGBTQ communities have gained more visibility in both the underground and the mainstream, we wondered how Sorrondeguy saw things develop in the punk scene. “Over the years, there has been a much larger presence of queer punk and people coming out or being more visible. I’ve seen that there’s a lot more trans kids that are part of the scene and I think that’s amazing. You wouldn’t see that sort of thing in a hardcore punk setting 15 or 20 years ago. People were so afraid because punk and hardcore had a very macho exterior, and to a certain degree I get it, because you have to fight a lot, to be always ready to battle. Because you were a weirdo y la gente te veía raro and they would fuck with you. You’re fighting to create your own space within punk, to say, ‘I like punk too and I like to suck dick – that’s who I am – and I don’t give a fuck if you don’t like it.’ That’s the true spirit of punk, to challenge within it, especially once it became more codified and [adopted] more rules. We need the rule breakers.”

Martin sees the future of punk in empathy and positivity, as tools to counterbalance oppressive forces facing POC communities. “I fear that this younger generation will have this sentiment of defeat. One of the things I talked about [at a recent festival] was, ‘No matter what they do if they gentrify us out of our neighborhoods, or that this clown Trump is saying these horrible things about your community, your families, your people and who you are – no matter what, we will always survive; we’re not going anywhere.'”

Sorrondeguy is quick to emphasize that political progress comes from experimentation, rather than division and aggression. “[Right now] in politics, if you don’t think exactly like other people think and you don’t say exactly what they want you to say, they just insult you and call you a sellout. It’s almost like there’s a wave of fascism within the left. ‘Oh my god, you don’t think like me! You’re an asshole!’ That’s a really fucked up mentality to have. It’s bizarre; there’s no room for subtleties or mistakes or room for people to experiment, explore, and learn.”

The Desafinados festival is a culmination of Los Crudos and their peers’ longtime efforts to uplift Latinxs in punk history. “[The exhibition] is a history of how punk started happening in our neighborhood. It starts with the first show that occurred in 1987 and then the beginning of Los Crudos and all the other bands that came afterwards. We also invited artists from our neighborhood who were always supportive of our bands and used to come see us…it’s kinda of like a community.” Twenty-five years after Los Crudos’ inception, the project keeps the flame alive in this trying political climate, and celebrates the band’s continuing legacy.