Here’s the gist of this piece: listen to Latine* hardcore, even if (or especially if) you don’t speak Spanish or Portuguese. That’s it. (*I’ll be using Latine for this piece because that’s what I’ve seen most but you can use Latinoamerican, Latin American, or whatever else you want.)

I’ve been debating how to write this piece in a way that strays far from any Woke 1.0 tropes because, reader, I am a honky. A cracker. A mayo monkey. But, perhaps most fittingly for this piece: a güero. I’m a white guy who’s into indie wargaming, A24 films, and (you’re not going to believe this) hardcore music. The jokes write themselves. But I’m not saying this to be self-deprecating or to fake embarrassment; I’m saying this because, regarding the premise of this piece, if I can find and appreciate Latine hardcore: anyone can. 

In his Golden Globe award acceptance speech for Parasite, director Bong Joon-Ho famously said, “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” 

For me, this was a “yeah, duh” sort of quote at the time. I grew up with parents who’d watch foreign films on the weekends, who’d encourage me to try new things and explore the greater world around my suburb through movies, books, and art. I had learned Spanish in middle school and high school, and taken multiple semesters of Latin American studies in college. So, in my mind, of course there’s so much to experience once you can vault over the small hurdle of film subtitles. You just… do it.

But, for whatever reason, I had never applied that sentiment to music.

When I became vegan a little over 3 years ago, I started researching vegan straight edge bands. I’d known of course about the big ones: Earth Crisis, Path of Resistance, One King Down, etc. But I wanted to know more. A lot more. Eventually, I found Point of No Return. The titles were in Portuguese, which was a little daunting to me. I could get a translation of the lyrics, but would that hit the same? Would I even relate to the lyrics if I couldn’t understand them without using Google Translate?

Like most things in my life, I was overthinking it. I hit play on “Pedra” and was blown away. The lyrics (which PoNR have included on their bandcamp page) are about Palestinians and their spirit of resistance in the face of mechanized slaughter. You don’t need to speak Portuguese to feel chills when the chant of “A morte da justiça, diante do mundo que se cala (The death of justice, before a world that falls silent)” hits. 

From here, I started digging deeper. I found out that Buenos Aires historically had an incredible Vegan Straight Edge scene (from longrunning bands like Mil Caras to older bands like xAutocontrolx that were genre-bending and weird as shit), and then I found my favorite scene in Santiago, Chile. I listened to Hoy es el Día and any lingering reservations I had about listening to “music with subtitles” were wiped away. Here’s their song “Bienvenidos a este Infierno (Welcome to this Hell)” and you’ll see why.

While I was drilling down into more Latine hardcore, I started noticing a similarity: a through-line of forefront political rhetoric from band to band, across scenes and countries. When I think of English-language bands, “political bands” are the vast minority. Sure, there are really great political bands (like Refused, Sabertooth Zombie, Contention, among others) and, of course, subgenres like crust punk or d-beat that are almost exclusively political in nature. But when thinking about the number of bands that played fests like Sound & Fury or FYA Fest the last few years… the number of political bands just isn’t that large. 

In Latinoamerica, it seems that being political with your art is the rule, not the exception. This makes a lot of sense when you understand that, for a lot of Latines, especially South Americans, engaging with politics has meant more than just voting every 2-4 years and putting out a yard sign. Because of almost constant political turmoil (that the United States has caused in nearly every case, indirectly or not), Latinoamericans have had to fight for their freedoms in a very real, physical way that most people in the United States or so-called “Western” countries simply haven’t. That changes how people think and act. It changes both the societal norms for talking about politics as well as the ways people orient their speech and art. 

For me, this is incredible to see and hear. As someone who grew up in the Bush years and has seen the stupidity of American politics and the fecklessness of Democrats on display for my entire life, it’s beautiful to learn about and experience political movements that actually fucking accomplished something, whether that’s the Zapatistas (EZLN), or the Revolutionary Left (MIR), or Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), or others. It’s also crushing to see the outcomes of many of those movements, most of which ended in coups that were spearheaded or backed by the United States. But being able to experience, just for a moment, for the length of a song, that soul of resistance will change you.

Obviously I’m not saying that there aren’t people or bands in the US who directly engage with politics in their art. Like I just mentioned, one of my favorite bands of all time (Sabertooth Zombie) is profoundly political. And the Latine bands that I’m talking about are also Vegan and/or Straight Edge, which are both inherently political statements, so that’s worth noting. 

Conversely, this isn’t to pigeonhole every Latinoamerican as someone who has to be a political savant. It would be ridiculous to assume that someone is a radical anticapitalist simply because they were born south of Texas. However, there does seem to be a cultural willingness to engage with political thought in a way that simply doesn’t exist on a large scale in the US.

For example, Chile famously birthed Victor Jara, one of the country’s most popular songwriters of all time, who was brutally tortured and killed by the Pinochet regime for writing Socialist songs. The closest the United States has come to that level of vocal protest (not even espousing Socialist thought, to be clear) from a pop musician is Green Day’s “American Idiot” or Billie Eilish wearing an “ICE Out” pin at the Grammys. 

Those actions aren’t meaningless, but I have a hard time believing Billie Joe Armstrong would have written “American Idiot” if he thought he was going to be shot in the head and have his corpse thrown in the streets for doing so. Maybe Billie Eilish would, though. I really don’t know. 

What I do know, however, is that Latine hardcore is able to address political matters deftly and often. xRitualx from Buenos Aires is an excellent example of writing thoughtful, politically charged lyrics that don’t come off as heavy handed or forced. They remind me sometimes of Verse or Have Heart in that way.

To briefly return to the second paragraph, this is what I meant: I don’t want to sound preachy or patronizing, and I definitely don’t want to sound accusatory. I’m not going to be the white guy scolding other white people for not listening to Latine hardcore. I don’t think that hardcore listeners in the US (or otherwise non-Latine countries) choose not to listen to Latine hardcore because of subconscious xenophobia or some other sinister reason.

I think that, unfortunately, a lot of us–like Bong Joon-ho addressed in his acceptance speech–don’t want to get out of our comfort zone. That’s understandable, especially in a world that’s been designed and redesigned every day to break us down. Having to go out of your way to find a new band, in a new scene, in a new (to you) language sounds like work. And it is.

But that’s exactly why I’m writing this. I want to do what I can to make it easy for anyone to access Latine hardcore. Because it’s a whole new world of hardcore that I’ve loved experiencing, and I hope you can enjoy it too.

Here’s a list I made on RateYourMusic (that I’m continually updating) of Latine straight edge bands. 

Here’s a blog I found (that stopped updating in 2016) where I originally found a lot of these bands.

Here’s DESDE AFUERA, a compilation I did through the label of Latine hardcore (Artwork by Luis Ramirez)

Here’s an excellent fanzine from Argentina so you can find new bands: https://www.instagram.com/hacer_zine/

Here’s another awesome fanzine/label from Buenos Aires so you can find other new bands: https://www.instagram.com/xeneldesiertox/