I became a skinhead in 1987 because, unlike the rest of me, it felt like a simple identity to manage. It would have been more hardcore to embrace the chaos.
Wow. Another fantastic essay Norman. You don't hear many people talking about being Latino in hardcore and the many ways people try to identify us, the ways we self-identify, etc.
Reading this also made me think about the correlation between Latinos growing up ultra Christian/ conservative households and eventually identifying as straight edge when we discover hardcore. It was true for me, and definitely a lot of the kids I came up with in the South Florida hardcore scene.
I was watching a documentary about the professional wrestler Bret the hit man hart and during that time in the 1990s Vince McMahon created the character stone cold Steve Austin who was intended to be a villain but the opposite happened the fans loved him. And when Vince was asked to explain the popularity of stone cold he said “we no longer live in a society where there are clear cut good guys and clear cut bad guys.” And it reminded me of Richard Nixon even though nixon did some messed up stuff he was the first president to acknowledge the existence of Latin Americans by pressuring the us census department to hire a advisory group that consisted entirely of Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans. Their goal was to create a new cultural identity for Latin Americans on the us census because at that time when it came to race there were only two options black or white. So the advisory board created the term Hispanic.
I love this so much, how rarely do we hear Mapuche culture mentioned in punk/underground music circles??? My grandma was Mapuche and also came to the US at a young age due to oppression .. long story. Mad solidarity and hugs to you <3
Thanks for your reliable candor, Norman. I'm reminded of some hard conversations that ended up being a welcome mental shift during my last stints in college. My mother's family is originally from southern Mexico and my father's family is split between mainland Italy and Sicily. Growing up in Los Angeles and generally spending more time with my Mexican family, I always identified as or "felt" more Latino than Italian but my parents were both raised with a distinct bent toward a whitewashed identity or at least what was considered American. One day I asked if I could shave my head, and my mom flatly said no. It wasn't worth arguing but I was curious why, and she later explained to me that it was because of her fear I'd be identified as a potential gang member. Without typing up my own essay, I tried to carve an identity through both metal music and hardcore music with limited success but I've ultimately arrived at a point of aiming to be the combination of cultures that have influenced me whether they're from my birth family or my chosen family. I look forward to the interview with Crystal!
When reading about your father I was reminded of my own father. My father was born in 1939 in a small town in Italy called terranova. I once asked him what is your earliest childhood memory. He told me when he was three he remembers the nazis coming through his hometown and they were looking for a place to go to the bathroom and of course everyone in the town locked their doors. So the only place in town where the doors were open was the church. So basically this group of nazis used the church as a bathroom. They defected in the pews the urinated on the walls. So after he told me this I asked him after coming to USA would you ever go back to terranova and he said never.
This is an area I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. My father was Mexican, while my mother is of Irish & Italian descent. That being said, my father never spoke Spanish in the house. I’d hear it at family gatherings, but not enough to pick up on it. These days my friends love to reduce me as “white” because I don’t speak Spanish, and wasn’t raised exclusively Mexican. This really bothers me as my father was a great man and passed away when I was a teenager (35 now), and my friends disregarding my Mexican heritage feels like a disrespect towards my father. As they say “it be your own people, sometimes”.
Saludos and solidarity from California! I used to read your zine back in the day and loved the introspective line you always took. It always felt like you were channeling that “We’re not in this Alone” LP energy in your writing. I loved this essay. It hit a lot of my own stuff- in particular the dodgy stuff we tolerated back then. Even when we were identifying as ARA and fighting boneheads, we still knew every word to every song on those first Skrewdriver EPs and read Schism where our hardcore heroes discussed gaybashing. Weird times. Especially so many of us went from skinhead and hardcore kid to KRSNA consciousness to whatever came next. I really loved how you framed this as a fitting in/identity mechanism. Really on point. Cheers for putting your writing out there. Stoked to read more…
Wow. Another fantastic essay Norman. You don't hear many people talking about being Latino in hardcore and the many ways people try to identify us, the ways we self-identify, etc.
Reading this also made me think about the correlation between Latinos growing up ultra Christian/ conservative households and eventually identifying as straight edge when we discover hardcore. It was true for me, and definitely a lot of the kids I came up with in the South Florida hardcore scene.
I was watching a documentary about the professional wrestler Bret the hit man hart and during that time in the 1990s Vince McMahon created the character stone cold Steve Austin who was intended to be a villain but the opposite happened the fans loved him. And when Vince was asked to explain the popularity of stone cold he said “we no longer live in a society where there are clear cut good guys and clear cut bad guys.” And it reminded me of Richard Nixon even though nixon did some messed up stuff he was the first president to acknowledge the existence of Latin Americans by pressuring the us census department to hire a advisory group that consisted entirely of Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans. Their goal was to create a new cultural identity for Latin Americans on the us census because at that time when it came to race there were only two options black or white. So the advisory board created the term Hispanic.
I love this so much, how rarely do we hear Mapuche culture mentioned in punk/underground music circles??? My grandma was Mapuche and also came to the US at a young age due to oppression .. long story. Mad solidarity and hugs to you <3
This reminds me of Stuart Hall's 'New Ethnicities' essay from the early-90s.
I don't know if I've read that one specifically, but I've definitely read Stuart Hall and he's a legend!
Thanks for your reliable candor, Norman. I'm reminded of some hard conversations that ended up being a welcome mental shift during my last stints in college. My mother's family is originally from southern Mexico and my father's family is split between mainland Italy and Sicily. Growing up in Los Angeles and generally spending more time with my Mexican family, I always identified as or "felt" more Latino than Italian but my parents were both raised with a distinct bent toward a whitewashed identity or at least what was considered American. One day I asked if I could shave my head, and my mom flatly said no. It wasn't worth arguing but I was curious why, and she later explained to me that it was because of her fear I'd be identified as a potential gang member. Without typing up my own essay, I tried to carve an identity through both metal music and hardcore music with limited success but I've ultimately arrived at a point of aiming to be the combination of cultures that have influenced me whether they're from my birth family or my chosen family. I look forward to the interview with Crystal!
When reading about your father I was reminded of my own father. My father was born in 1939 in a small town in Italy called terranova. I once asked him what is your earliest childhood memory. He told me when he was three he remembers the nazis coming through his hometown and they were looking for a place to go to the bathroom and of course everyone in the town locked their doors. So the only place in town where the doors were open was the church. So basically this group of nazis used the church as a bathroom. They defected in the pews the urinated on the walls. So after he told me this I asked him after coming to USA would you ever go back to terranova and he said never.
This is an area I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. My father was Mexican, while my mother is of Irish & Italian descent. That being said, my father never spoke Spanish in the house. I’d hear it at family gatherings, but not enough to pick up on it. These days my friends love to reduce me as “white” because I don’t speak Spanish, and wasn’t raised exclusively Mexican. This really bothers me as my father was a great man and passed away when I was a teenager (35 now), and my friends disregarding my Mexican heritage feels like a disrespect towards my father. As they say “it be your own people, sometimes”.
Saludos and solidarity from California! I used to read your zine back in the day and loved the introspective line you always took. It always felt like you were channeling that “We’re not in this Alone” LP energy in your writing. I loved this essay. It hit a lot of my own stuff- in particular the dodgy stuff we tolerated back then. Even when we were identifying as ARA and fighting boneheads, we still knew every word to every song on those first Skrewdriver EPs and read Schism where our hardcore heroes discussed gaybashing. Weird times. Especially so many of us went from skinhead and hardcore kid to KRSNA consciousness to whatever came next. I really loved how you framed this as a fitting in/identity mechanism. Really on point. Cheers for putting your writing out there. Stoked to read more…