This was some time ago, but anyhow I really wanted to publish that I've been featured in Dr. Alderete's new illustrated book,"I am nobody"/Yo soy un Don Nadie". Published by Black Bones Editions and introduced in September 2008 in Mexico City, Paris and Lyon, the title ironically points out the low brow celebrities that have built Mexico City's underground scene at Foro Alicia.
Let me tell you a little about this place. Started back in 1995, the Alicia was one of the very first that organized counterculture shows in Mexico City. Back in those days, mainstream and big record labels highly controlled the way music was going to be listened and consumed in Mexico. Let me remind you, young kids, that there was no internet, no myspace, no facebook. And of course, along the big names and bands, there was a small scene that was generating in the city, against the trend of the city's listener who used to (and still!) spend the wage at a cover bar. This subterranean scene embraced then-unknown styles such as surf, garage, hip hop, punk and metal. This is where Alicia broke through, opening an alternative space to shelter the non broadcast music, the unpopular sounds and guitar solos, the screams and the soon-to-be legends several years later: Los Esquizitos, Sekta Core, Las Ultrasónicas, Lost Acapulco. Inside, colorful paint murals bear witness of thousands that have played in the venue, the aisles that keep secret encounters and innocent kisses, beer clinking, laughs and disputes. Besides being a musical venue, Foro Alicia is a record label and studio: Grabaxiones Alicia: Música contra el Poder (Music against Power) and has published several records through the years.
I remember well the very first time I step in at Alicia. It was the debut of my brother's punk rock band, The Ten Cake in 2001. This was the very first time I visited a rock venue like this. Some years later, I decided that the place would fit perfectly for a presentation for INVASION!, my co-founded fanzine with Alejandra Espino. Little I knew that some years later I would take the scenario with Dagger, Occulta and The Sweet Leaf.
Dr. Alderete's book feature aesthetically what you would encounter in the place: sharp color palettes and shiny silver motifs that fill Lucha Libre masks which now stand for one of the most popular genres in Mexico: surf rock. Some say that kids that attended wrestling matches at the Arena Mexico some blocks near from the place, would later head to Alicia still wearing their masks. The book's portraits speak of each particular soul: there's Ultrasonicas's drummer Jenny Bombo posing with her characteristic tough attitude, there's Ali Gua Gua unveiling her big sweet heart, there's Nacho Pineda, Alicia's head man, captured with that respectful and calm air. When Dr. Alderete asked me if he could take a picture of me for a new book project, I just smiled shyly.
