Journal of Popular Music Studies, Volume 20, Issue 1, Pages 325

Breaking the Mold of Contemporary Working-Class

Mexican Masculinity: The Rock Urbano Music
of Tex Tex
Mark A. Hernandez

Tufts University
In 1986 a trio of self-trained musicians in Mexico City founded a band
called Tex Tex. Since its inception Tex Tex has played a style of music
popularly known as rock urbano, a blues/hard-rock music that appeals
especially to lower-middle and working-class Mexican male youth in Mexico City and urban areas in the United States with significant concentrations
of working-class Mexican populations (Los Angeles, Chicago, New York
City, and Atlanta). To date the band has released eight albums. This article
focuses on the slyly subversive way in which some of Tex Texs songs engage
the hegemonic Mexican working-class masculinity of its audience.
With the term hegemonic Mexican working-class masculinity I
am combining the concepts of hegemonic masculinity as outlined by sociologist R.W. Connell in Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics (1987) and hegemonic Mexican working-class masculinity as
defined by Alfredo Mirande in Hombres y machos: Masculinity and Latino
Culture (1997). Connell regards hegemonic masculinity as constructed
in relation to subordinated masculinities and to women and as closely
connected to heterosexuality and the institution of marriage (186), while
Mirande argues that the cultural norms of hegemonic Mexican workingclass masculinity include a low tolerance for emotional issues, a strong
belief in traditional gender-based differences, virulent homophobia, and the
need to display sexual prowess with women (6572). Tex Tex and its songs
engage these cultural norms and the gender scripts that they produce, expanding the hegemonic model to include a plurality of possibilities that enable
men to be men in different and more progressive ways. In this article I examine this proposed revision of hegemonic Mexican working-class masculinity
as it intersects with the topic of homosexuality in two Tex Tex songs: Artesano de la construccion from the 1991 album Perdidos, and Cristina from
the 1996 album Subete al tren. By broaching the subject of homosexuality
and using humor to treat the matter seriously, Tex Tex opens a cultural space
for rethinking the values of Mexican working- and middle-class male youth.

Mark A. Hernandez

I will begin this article with a discussion of the emergence of men

in Latin America and Mexico as gendered subjects in the academic literature in the late 1980s in response to changing social, economic, and cultural
factors. Then I will outline the rise of rock urbano music and the professional trajectory of Tex Tex, situating my readings of their songs within
this multilayered context. Finally, I will show that the music of Tex Tex
uses ambiguity to undermine the hegemonic masculinity of its working- and
middle-class audiences and thus encourages them to reflect on the troubled
relationship between hegemonic Mexican masculinity and queerness (male
homosexuality and lesbianism).
The Emergence of Masculinity Studies About Latin America

Anthropologist Mara Viveros Vigoya points out in her article

Contemporary Latin American Perspectives on Masculinity (2003) that
research from Latin America that described men as having gender and producing gender began in the late 1980s. She further notes that this interest in
the theme of masculinity occurred concurrently with the growth of mens
groups interested in transforming their practical gender relations because
they considered these a source of oppression and dissatisfaction not only for
women but also for themselves, a situation which in turn led to workshops
focusing on personal growth (27). Viveros Vigoya attributes this focus on
men and masculinity in gender studies and workshops to significant shifts
in gender relations over the last thirty years:
Economic, social, and cultural changes have characterized the
periodnoteworthy among them are womens insertion into the
labor market and the impact this has had on daily life, sexual roles,
and traditional dynamics of the familyand have made it all the
more necessary to understand and transform the place of men in
present gender relations, both between men and women and among
men themselves. In a sense it is already commonplace to refer to
the so-called crisis of masculinity in Latin America, an expression of the clash between attributes culturally assigned to men and
subjective reactions on the part of men to important social, economic, and ideological changes that produce this gap and that are
instigated and supported in various ways by women . . . . As such, the
crisis of masculinity refers to challenges faced by men with respect to
contemporary masculine identities and practices associated with men

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

that are out of synch with those commonly regarded as traditional

in some sense. (28)
Contemporary studies of masculinity in Latin America occur within the
context of profound transformations in complex societies that are largely
urban, in the huge numbers of women incorporated into the labor market,
and in feminist movements that have questioned male privilege in public and
private spheres (Viveros Vigoya 29).1
In the case of Mexico the crisis of contemporary masculinity has
emerged in conjunction with broad changes in gender relations. Anthropologist Matthew Gutmann argues in The Meanings of Macho: Being a
Man in Mexico City (1996) that the character of masculinity in Mexico
City is ambiguous and that no single model of Mexican masculinity exists
against which men can compare themselves or be compared. Most subsequent studies on Mexican masculinities have focused on the relationship
between hegemonic masculinity and homosexuality, especially in relation to
male homosexuals (see Carrier, Carrillo, and Prieur) and have shown that
the construction of hegemonic masculinity is linked to the presence of male
homosexuals.2 It is within these broad changes in gender relations and this
crisis of masculinity from the late 1980s and 1990s that Tex Tex wrote and
recorded its songs.
Rock Urbano Music and Tex Tex

Tex Tex and its music are associated with a style of music known as
rock urbano. The term rock urbano refers to the blues-rock-inspired music
of Alex Lora and his group Three Souls in My Mind (subsequently rebaptized as El Tri in 1971). After the Avandaro concert in 1971 and subsequent
government efforts to control the public performance of rock music, Mexican rock went underground and found refuge in the hoyos fonquis in the
outskirts of the capital, especially in the northern barrios of Neza, Ecatepec, Naucalpan, and Tlanepantla (Bravo 12). It was in these settings that
Lora and Three Souls in My Mind, pioneers of the original rock en espanol,
became emblematic of a contestatory Mexican rock that resonated with the
working-class male youth of these marginalized areas. Much of El Tris
music combined a rhythm and blues/hard rock style with a discussion of
common social problems that afflicted the lower-socioeconomic classes in
these colonias: drug addiction, homelessness, and domestic violence.3
Inspired by El Tris music, subsequent generations of youth in the
late 1970s began playing a street rock that was heavily influenced by the

Mark A. Hernandez

blues-rock of the 1960s and 1970s, with touches of hard rock and heavy
metal. This music was technically and technologically simple (consisting
of a guitar and amplifier system), direct, renowned for its crude sounds (a
mixture of blues and heavy rock), and the poor quality of the recordings.
Around the early to mid 1980s, music critics began referring to this type of
music as rock urbano.
The emergence of the rock urbano movement coincided with the
boom of the much more polished rock en espanol around 1987. Although
rock urbano bands may have benefited indirectly from the marketing and
promotion of rock en espanol groups such as Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos
del Quinto Patio and Cafe Tacuba, commercial radio and television continued to give minimal airtime to this barrio rock (Bravo 13).4 Its burgeoning popularity stemmed instead from the itinerant sound system teams that
organized popular dances in the northern colonias, where DJs would play
rock urbano, cumbia, and salsa. Even more important, the founding of the independent label Discos y Cintas Denver in 1985 consolidated the movement
in Mexico City and enabled this music to be known across the country (and in
select markets in the United States with significant Mexican urban immigrant
populations, cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Atlanta).5
Representative rock urbano groups include Mara (1979), Dama (1979: subsequently renamed Heavy Nopal), Trolebus (1985), Juan Hernandez y su
Banda de Blues (1986), Blues Boys (1982), Banda Bostik (1983), Tex Tex
(1986), El Haragan y Compana (1989), and LiranRoll (1991) [Bravo 12
13].6
Tex Tex occupies a unique space in the rock urbano world. It is
a family operation comprising four brothers: the trio of musiciansLalo
(lead singer and guitarist), Chucho (supporting singer and bass player),
and Paco (drummer)and Vctor (manager of the band).7 Naming itself
Tex Tex in honor of their mythical point of origin, Texcoco, the band promoted itself as playing Mexican rock with touches of Chava Flores, Javier
Sols, Pedro Infante and Tin Tan (Quelpo 26). As I mentioned earlier, Tex
Tex has released eight albums and currently is celebrating its twenty-first
anniversary.8 Its music is eclectic and often includes elements of hard
rock and blues (standard characteristics of rock urbano music), touches of
humor and an unusual openness to incorporating diverse musical styles
(funk, traditional Mexican and Latin music, and reggae). Mexican sociologist Maritza Urteaga has noted that their music is . . . neither old like
the music of other groups in the Barrio Norte nor postmodern. Rather it
resembles a danceable style of fast, heavy rock that appeals to heterogeneous

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

youth from the lower-middle and lower classes in Mexico City (12829).
Over the years, the band has performed at a range of venues in Mexico and
abroad: from the hoyos fonquis and the prestigious Rockotitlan in Mexico
City, to cultural festivals and nightclubs throughout Mexico; concerts in Los
Angeles and Chicago and Atlanta in the United States; and cultural festivals
in El Salvador and Guatemala.9 As a testament to its popularity, fans voted
Tex Tex as the Best Rock Urbano Band six times in the 1990s (Zequeira 10).
Unlike most rock urbano bands who have recorded their albums
with the independent label Discos y Cintas Denver and sought to appeal
exclusively to lower-class teenage male youth from the northern colonias
of Mexico City, Tex Tex has recorded its music with several labels: the
first three albums with the independent label Gas in Mexico City, albums
four and five with the transnational BMG/Ariola, the sixth with independent
label AMV, and the seventh and eighth with independent labels Metropolis
and Proceso, respectively. Moreover, the band has attempted to appeal to
both lower-class teenage youth from the northern colonias and middle-class
audiences in Mexico City and in the United States.10
During its years under contract with the label Gas, Tex Tex recorded
three albums: Un toque magico (1989), Perdidos (1991), and 3 (1992). Un
toque magicoproduced by Francisco Barrios from the pioneering Mexican
rock en espanol band Botellita de Jerezincorporated a melodic fluidity
that aligned their music with pop, and thus made it potentially accessible
to a broader audience (Zequeira 9). Many of the songs from this album
deal with the constitution and dissolution of heterosexual love relationships.
Although Tex Tex had garnered support from its fans from the chavos bandas,11 it managed to cross over and reach middle-class audiences before
release of its second album Perdidos. In 1992 Tex Tex released its third
album 3, which included a staple of heterosexual love songs and alluded to
contemporary social and political issues, as evidenced in the songs Boogie
de la Frontera, about the life of a coyote (smuggler of undocumented immigrants) along the US-Mexico border, and Octubre about the massacre of
student demonstrators at Tlatelolco Plaza in Mexico City in October 1968.
Dissatisfied with the terms of its contract with Gas, Tex Tex sought
to improve its situation. In 1994 Diego Herrera (ex-member of Los Caifanes
and artistic director for BMG/Ariola) approached Tex Tex about signing with
the transnational label, as the band had already consolidated its fan base with
lower-middle and lower-class chavos banda and developed its own musical
style (Tex Tex (de Mexico para todo el mundo) 2). Lalo Mujica explains
the advantages of signing with BMG as follows:

Mark A. Hernandez

La ventaja es que con BMG, ya cuentas con un presupuesto destinado

para la produccion, el horario de grabacion ya es de 80 a 120 horas.
Con GAS nos daban los horarios nocturnos, donde no haba nadie y
con muy pocas horas de grabacion; por ejemplo, en BMG tuvimos
tres semanas para grabar el disco y con GAS lo tenamos que hacer
en tres noches. Otra ventaja es que ya contamos con el apoyo de un
productor, hicimos la coproduccion del nuevo disco con Paco Rosas,
e l es un guitarrista de estudio. Ademas Diego Herrera contrato a
Robin Black, ingeniero ingles que ha trabajado con Cat Stevens,
Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, y La Cuca de Mexico, y a Robin le gusto
la onda de Tex Tex y as fue como se realizo la grabacion. . .. (Tex
Tex (de Mexico para todo el mundo) 2).
[The advantage is that with BMG you already know that you have a
budget for the production, and the schedule for recording is between
80 and 120 hours. At GAS they gave us evening schedules, where
there was nobody around and with very few hours for recording; for
example with BMG we had three weeks to record the album and with
GAS we had to do it in three nights. Another advantage is that we
could count on the support of a producer, we did the co-production
of the new album with Paco Rosas, a studio guitarist. Also Diego
Herrera hired Robin Black, a sound engineer from England who has
worked with Cat Stevens, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull and La Cuca
from Mexico, and Robin liked the vibe of Tex Tex and this was how
the recording came about.]
And so, with the opportunity for improving the quality of the sound recordings, enhancing the national and international promotion and distribution of
their music, and expanding their fan base, Tex Tex signed with BMG, which
bought out the final album that Tex Tex agreed to record with Gas.
While under contract with BMG/Ariola, Tex Tex released two
albums: Te vas a acordar de m (1994) and Subete al tren (1996). Te
vas a acordar de m and Subete al tren continued the trend from their
previous albums of including several songs about heterosexual love relationships and their attendant challenges (Te vas a acordar de m, Me dijiste,
Adolorido and Fast Food) and other songs that allude to social problems, such as drug and alcohol abuse (La pesadilla and Ni una mas),
chronic unemployment and its impact on the quality of everyday life
(Solicito seguro and No hay trabajo) and the difficulty of a son

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

disclosing his homosexuality to his father (Padres desnaturalizados). According to Mexican rock critic Jorge Zequiera, sales of Te vas a acordar de
m and Subete el tren reached unprecedented levels for a rock urbano group,
but of insufficient quantity to meet the expectations of the transnational label
(10).12 And so in 1998, BMG dropped Tex Tex as well as many other rock
en espanol bands that had been signed under its subsidiary label, Culebra
Records.
After searching unsuccessfully for a label with which to record its
sixth album Accion y reaccion, Tex Tex decided to self-produce it with the
support of Juan Garca, a long-time friend, movie maker, and publicist who
owned a small label called AMV (Artes, Musica y Videos). They released
it in May 2001 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Mexico City and subsequently
toured throughout Mexico and the United States.13 Like its previous albums,
Accion y reaccion contains a significant number of songs about heterosexual
relationships (for example: Leno, Dulce soledad, Srta. Martnez Punk,
and Necesito amor) and conflicts between parents and children (Pakito
and Ecologo). In 2004 Tex Tex released its seventh album De donde somos
y a donde vamos, a double CD with newly released songs (many about
heterosexual love relationships) and re-edited songs from previous albums.14
In late 2006, Tex Tex issued its eighth album, 86, which includes songs
about heterosexual relationships in the Internet age. While many of Tex Texs
songs dealt with the trials and tribulations of heterosexual love relationships,
some took on the controversial topics of homosexual love and gender-role
deviance. It is in such songs as Artesano de la construccion and Cristina
that Tex Tex broached taboo subjects in the lives of their audiences and
thus challenged the cultural norms of hegemonic Mexican working-class
masculinity.
Artesano de la construccion: Corporeality and the Construction of Gender Identities

Tex Tex
Artesano de la construccion from Perdidos (1991)15
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

El se quiso suicidar.
Una manana
su mama lo encontro
vestido con la ropa
de su hermana
y era la ropa interior.
Los olanes y encajes
eran su fascinacion

He wanted to kill himself.

One morning
his mom found him
wearing clothing
of his sister
and it was her undergarments.
The frills and lace
fascinated him

10

Mark A. Hernandez

9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43

se miraba al espejo
se senta como un bom bon.
La puerta se abrio
Su madre lo miro
y horrorizada
a su marido le grito.
Llego el papa
lo empezo a insultar
eso te ensenan
en la universidad
pero manana te vas
a trabajar
de artesano
de la construccion.
Tuturururapa
tuturururapa
tuturururapa
tuturururapa.
El trabajo y el sol
su cuerpo transformo
y ahora le dicen
que es todo un play boy.
Las mujeres lo admiran
dicen que es un bom bon.
Si le preguntan
cual es su ocupacion
soy artesano de la construccion.
Tuturururapa
tuturururapa
tuturururapa
tuturururapa
tuturururapa
tuturururapa
tuturururapa
tuturururapa.

he looked at himself in the mirror

he felt like a bonbon
The door swung open.
His mother looked at him
and horrified
she yelled for her husband.
The father arrived
he began to insult him
they teach you these things
at the university
but starting tomorrow you are going
to work
as a construction
worker.

The work and the sun

transformed his body
and now they tell him
that he is a real play boy.
The women admire him.
they say that he is very desirable.
If they ask him
what he does for a living
I say that I am a construction worker.

Artesano de la construccion is a song about a working-class male

youth and his struggle to act on his desire to dress in womens underwear
while appearing to fulfill his parents expectations of heteronormative Mexican working-class masculinity. It narrates the story of a working-class mother
who discovers that her teenage son cross-dresses and on the fathers ploy
to rechannel this gender-improper behavior and its attendant implications
into heteronormative masculinity. The story is told from the perspective of
the cross-dresser-turned-muscleman son, who narrates the incident in thirdperson until the final verse of the song when the he abruptly shifts to the
first-person singular with the dramatic declaration that I am a construction
worker.
The opening line of the song indicates that the son harbors a great
deal of shame and guilt about his behavior, for when his mother found him

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

11

in his sisters undergarments, he wanted to commit suicide. He knows that he

is in for a rough time with his parents for his gender-improper conduct. At
the same time, the son remembers feeling whole and self-actualized when he
wore his sisters undergarments because (in verse 10) he felt like a bonbon.
His mother, however, reacted with horror over the discovery and quickly
summoned her husband to straighten out their son. The father instantly recognized the sons behavior as transgressing the norms of hegemonic workingclass Mexican masculinity and sprang into action. He verbally assaulted the
son, making the assumption (in traditional Catholic style) that homosexual
desire and cross-dressing are perversions caused by bad influences, especially the university. In the fathers mind, homosexuality is more of a sinful
act or attitude brought on by exposure to degenerate elements. By exposing
his son to homosocial working-class groups like construction crews rather
than heterosocial, mostly middle-class groups like university students, the
father expects that the son will adopt a masculine identity.
For men and women throughout Mexico, the body is a consistent point of reference for determining what a man is in comparison to a
woman (or to other men, for that matter). As Gutmann notes, Whether this
involves rudimentary matters of strength and sexual dimorphism or age and
the achievement of manhood with puberty, the body is often the arbiter
of last resort. Body political economiesthe inscription of socially based
inequalities on bodiesoften provide the currency in which identities and
interests are exchanged (Introduction: Discarding Manly Dichotomies in
Latin America 10). Until recently in Mexican popular culture, the homosexual was seen as a transvestite and thus inherently effeminate.16 From the
fathers perspective, the sons wearing of his sisters undergarments suggests
that the latter is in sexual denial (of his masculine virility). For the father,
the son is at best a maricon, a metaphor for femininity in men, that connotes
the pretentious, the refined (as suggested by the sons donning of his sisters
encajes and olanes), the verbalized and culturally educated (as evidenced
by the fathers disparaging reference to the sons university education as the
culprit for this behavior)all this in opposition to the strength of the manly
body. Even worse from the fathers perspective is the possibility that his
son is a travesti, which in the context of working-class culture in Mexico
City, suggests that the son wants to be sought out and penetrated by men he
considers to be heterosexual (Chant and Craske 150). Whatever the case
may be, the father finds his sons transgressive behavior unacceptable and
immediately proceeds to recast his son in his own image as a traditional
Mexican working-class man. For the father, masculinity is tied to the

12

Mark A. Hernandez

appearance of being strong and muscular; thus, he wants to toughen up and

hypermasculinize his effeminate son. Beginning tomorrow, as lines 2122
indicate, the son is to become a construction worker.
In the second section of the song (lines 2735), the fathers plan to
transform his son into a hypermasculine heterosexual male appears successful, at least on the surface. The construction work has buffed him up and
as the singer declares in line 30, Es todo un play boy. This suggests that
women find him desirable (but not necessarily that he finds them desirable
in return). This crucial omission leaves the resolution of the song open to
two contrary interpretations: first, the boy has become a heterosexual man
through hard physical labor; and second, the boy has become a hard-bodied
object of homosexual desire (a macho man of the YMCA-era gay culture
of the 1980s).
I would argue that the closing lines only tell us that the son has learned
to perform, or perhaps caricature, heteronormative Mexican working-class
masculinity. The son enacts the wisdom of the dictum Obedezco pero no
cumplo, as he performs normative Mexican heterosexual masculinity for
the benefit of many women while keeping open the possibilities of continuing
to cross dress and having sex with men. When others ask him cual es su
profesion?, the son proudly replies, Soy artesano de la construccion. On
the one hand, the ending suggests that the son is happy that he has been
hypermasculinized and that he no longer wishes to behave in a feminine
manner. On the other hand, it also hints that the son has hoodwinked his father
and family into believing that he is now heterosexual and no longer desires
having sex with other men. Could it be that the son uses the words Artesano
de la construccion to mean that he is adept at crafting/constructing his
heteronormative male persona to camouflage his homoerotic desires? That
he has become an artisan of appropriate gender performance? Unable to
openly defy the will of his parents, the son has learned to play along, but
may still be dressing in womens underwear and having sex with other men.

Opening the Straight Male Partners Closet: Tex Texs Cristina

After Sally left, my first move was to try to win her back, to get
her to come home and talk, to make love. Within a month I stopped
trying. I cant compete with this woman, I decided. Its obviously
some tricky technique in lovemaking she has that I cant duplicate
because Im a man.. . .What a terrible blow to my ego it was! Id

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

13

rather Sally had run off with another man than a woman, a hundred
times more. Id have understood that and been able to combat it.
Sally, I wouldve said, I can earn more money. Im stronger. Im
faster. This way I felt I was not an adequate man. It completely
destroyed my self-image. (Dan, Because Im a Man, Buxton 14)
While Artesano de la construccion deals with a Mexican workingclass youths struggle to express his transgressive desires in the context of
a homophobic family situation, Cristina deals with an adult heterosexual
male who discovers that his female partner is a lesbian (or possibly bisexual),
who has left him for her female lover.
Tex Tex
Cristina From Subete

al tren (1996)17
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35

Yo me encontraba desesperado
me senta un hombre fracasado
pues, la mujer que yo amaba
con otra vieja se cachondeaba,
se acariaban a cada rato
les gustaba la lengua de gato.
Estaba a punto de enloquecer
fue entonces cuando te encontre.
Oooh, Cristina, dame ya mi medicina,
dejame tocar esa parte de ti
que me hace sentir
como nunca sone alguna vez.
Oooh, Cristina no me niegues ya la cura
dame la cura que me cura la locura
de tenerte aqu junto de m.
Y me encontraba muy acomplejado,
me senta un perro desgraciado,
pues, la mujer que yo amaba
no la llenaba con lo que le daba.
Ped consulta con un doctor,
me receto inyecciones de sostenon.
Estaba a punto de enloquecer,
fue entonces cuando te encontre.
Oooh, Cristina, dame ya mi medicina,
dejame tocar esa parte de ti
que me hace sentir
como nunca sone alguna vez
Oooh, Cristina no me niegues ya la cura
dame la cura que me cura la locura
de tenerte aqu junto de m.
Vamos, ven mi nena,
Note hagas del rogar,
te deseo, nena,
pero tenemos que ir pronto al hotel,
Oooh, s, s, s.

I found myself feeling desperate

I felt like a failed man
well, the woman that I used to love
was getting it on with another woman,
they would caress each other off-and-on
they liked performing oral sex on each other.
I was on the verge of going crazy
it was then that I found you.
Oh, Cristina, give me my medicine
let me touch that part of you
that will make me feel
like Ive never dreamed before.
Oh, Cristina dont deny me the cure
give me the cure that will cure me from this madness
of having you here next to me.
I found myself with a major complex
I felt like an unfortunate dog
well, the woman that I used to love
I did not satisfy her with what I was giving her.
I made an appointment with a doctor,
he prescribed heart medicine injections for my impotence.
I was on the verge of going crazy
it was then that I found you.
Oh, Cristina, give me my medicine
let me touch that part of you
that will make me feel
like Ive never dreamed at any time.
Oh, Cristina dont deny me the cure
give me the cure that will cure me from this madness
of having you here next to me.
Lets do it, come here my baby
oh dont make me have to beg you to come with me.
I want you, baby,
but we will need to go soon to the hotel for a quickie,
Oh, yes, yes, yes.

14

Mark A. Hernandez

While the protagonist of Artesano de la construccion becomes a

more confident performer of masculinity (even if we are not sure whether
his intended audience are women or men), the protagonist of Cristina is
in a full-blown crisis of a performative nature because he has stage fright.
In both songs, homosexuality functions as the destabilizing force that must
be overcome through performance. Responding to an unexpected revelation
about his ex-lover, the heterosexual man seeks to win over a young woman
named Cristina and thereby restore confidence in his sexual desirability. The
lyrics alternate between the memories of the speaking subjects relationship
with his former unnamed girlfriend/partner (verses 18, 1623) and his
current attempt to seduce the younger Cristina and restore confidence in his
own sexual desirability and heterosexual masculinity (verses 915, 2430,
and 3135).
According to Amity Pierce Buxton, director of the Straight Spouse
Network in El Cerrito, California, two million spouses in heterosexual
marriages in the United States have or will come out to their spouses as
gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (Straight Spouse Network 3). If and
when they come out to their spouses, their straight partners are often devastated. Many spouses feel that the straight community stigmatizes them
and fear that family members, friends, and professionals will not understand
their unique issues. While their partners may find support in gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender organizations and celebrate their own coming out,
straight spouses often cope in isolation and retreat into their own closets
(4).18
Social science research on the topic of spouses in heterosexual
marriages and relationships in Mexico who come out to their spouses as
gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender is nonexistent. So are studies on the
impact of the coming out of a partnered woman as lesbian or bisexual on the
heterosexual male partner. Tex Texs Cristina, however, openly broaches
these topics. Moreover, it engages the underlying cultural norms of hegemonic working-class masculinity, and proposes a road map for heterosexual
men who want to restore their self-image after their female partners come
out as lesbian or bisexual. The song is remarkable for explicitly addressing
the subject of the other side of the closet, that is, the coming out crisis and
its impact on the straight male partner. In Mexico (as in most Latin American
countries), available literature on the coming-out process is geared toward
middle-to upper-class gay or bisexual youth who are dealing with coming out
to their friends, family, and in society, but virtually none addresses the issue
as it intersects with the coming-out process for individuals in heterosexual
relationships (see Riesenfeld).

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

15

Unlike many rock urbano and ranchera songs in which the heterosexual man laments the loss of a woman when she leaves him for another
man, the heterosexual male in Cristina matter-of-factly understands and
accepts her decision to be with another woman. As he gradually understands
how their sexual incompatibility affected their sex life (Pues, la mujer que
yo amaba/con otra vieja se cachondeaba, /se acariciaban a cada rato les
gustaba la lengua de gato), he no longer blames himself for his partners
departure. This speaking male subject is relatively progressive in that he
acknowledges a responsibility for his partners sexual pleasureor lack of
sexual pleasure in this case. After his girlfriend/partner leaves him, he opts
not to condemn all women as unfaithful but immediately seeks out another
woman, Cristina, who will restore his sense of sexual desirability and thus
his sense of heteronormative masculinity.
At the same time, this revelation does not leave the protagonist
unchanged. The discovery of his partners same-sex orientation seems like
a confirmation of his own sexual inadequacy and, even more troubling, the
disclosure of her same-sex attraction causes him to doubt his own (heterosexual) manhood. And thus, the speaking subject feels like un hombre
fracasado because he was unable to satisfy her sexual needs (No la llenaba
con lo que le daba). Rendered sexually impotent, he attempts to cure this
dysfunction with a visit to the doctor who prescribes injections of sostenon,
a heart medicine that was popular among Mexican curanderos and charlatan
doctors during the 1980s as a cure for impotence, a pre-Viagra treatment for
erectile dysfunction.19
For the protagonist, Cristina represents the possibility of reversing his
impotence and restoring confidence in his own attractiveness. His primordial
interest is to have sex with her, and thus instantly restore his damaged sense
of heteronormative masculinity. But shortly thereafter, he fantasizes about
having a more enduring and ongoing relationship with her as suggested in
the verses Oooh, Cristina no me niegues ya la cura/dame la cura que me
cura la locura/de tenerte aqu junto de m. But by the end of the song, he
once again seeks only a momentary escape from his suffering and reverts to
his original notion not of having a long-term committed relationship with her
but merely getting laid. At this point the speaking subject is now content to
have a casual liaison with her at a hotel de paseo and attempts to portray this
arrangement as mutually agreed upon (see lines 3135 above). The song
ends with the speaking subject still in damaged heterosexual limbo. Like
Artesano de la construccion, this song also leaves the conclusion open to
contrary interpretations: Has intense physical desire for a quickie restored
his masculinity, or has this desire merely temporarily restored it (and might

16

Mark A. Hernandez

not last long enough even to make it home)? What is clear, however, is that the
protagonist is on the road to healing his damaged self-esteem after learning
of his ex-lovers coming out. He accepts her lesbianism (or bisexuality) and
wants to move on with his life.
Conclusions

Macho probado es macho calado. [A real man is he who has been

fucked by another man.]
Cual es la diferencia entre un mexicano homosexual y uno que no
lo es?
Dos copas.
[What is the difference between a Mexican homosexual and one who
isnt? Two drinks.]
Jokes from Mexican popular culture20
Film and cultural critic Sergio de la Mora reminds readers in
Cinemachismo: Masculinities and Sexuality in Mexican Film (2006) that
in Mexican popular culture the sexual and gender transgressions of the
archetypal Mexican macho are a constant source of pleasure, fun and banter (68). Nonetheless, de la Mora argues that while male homosexuality
figures prominently in Mexicos picaresque tradition, it is no less at odds
with the countrys cult of machismo (69). Similarly, anthropologist and
cultural critic Jose Limon examines the role of sexual bantering among
working-class Mexican-American men in Brownsville, Texas in the late
1980s. In Carne, Carnales, and the Carnivalesque (1994) he explores the
connections between homosociality (same-gender social interactions) and
homosexuality among this group and analyzes the sexual and scatological
play and gestures among carnales, a kinship term used among brothers or
close male friends that grounds homosocial relations in flesh (carne) and
blood. He argues that when these friends introduce the aggressive idiom of
sexual and social violation, they reframe that aggressive speech and gesture as play, and in the process, demonstrate confianza (trust) and respeto
(respect) (132). Thus, this sexual bantering serves to create camaraderie and
forge group solidarity.
Like Limons carnales, Tex Tex records songs about heterosexual
love that address what it means to be a man in Mexico and the ways in

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

17

which its young lower-middle and working-class male audience experience

masculinity and sexuality. In addition to these typical engagements with
hegemonic masculinity, the bands noteworthy hits Artesano de la construccion and Cristina explore the dangerous intersections between hegemonic masculinity, cross-dressing male homosexual desire, and lesbianism.
So what do these two songs say about Mexican masculinity and gender relations in the early-to-mid 1990s? Does Tex Tex use humor in these songs in
order to create space for alternative sexualities or to further perpetuate and
oppress gay men and lesbians?
By the early 1990s, homosexuality and gayness had penetrated the
consciousness of Mexican society, in large measure because of campaigns
surrounding HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Socioliogist Hector Carrillo
remarks in The Night Is Young: Sexuality in Mexico in the Time of AIDS
(2002) that [h]omosexuality has become one of the most debated and contested sexuality-related issues in contemporary Mexico and that the topic
was placed squarely on the table of national discussion in the mid-1980s as
a result of a local AIDS epidemic (110). While knowledge of homosexual
cultures was mostly limited to homosexuals and their heterosexual allies
before the mid 1980s, Carrillo notes that AIDS changed all this (110).21
Perhaps in response to these changes, Mexican popular cultural expressions
(film and rock music) began to broach the topic of homosexuality. For example, Mexican film director Humberto Hermosillos Dona Herlinda y su hijo
(Dona Herlinda and Her Son) (1984) told the story of a middle-class professional man (Rodolfo) from Guadalajara who, with the full knowledge and
tacit consent of his wife Olga (a middle-class professional woman) and his
mother (Dona Herlinda), kept a live-in working-class male lover (Ramon).
For literary and film critic David William Foster, this movie represented
a . . .significant reinterpretation of clan arrangement possibilities . . . that
are legitimated by the full participation of the actors involved. . .[the movie
offers]. . . a proposal for subverting the Mexican patriarchy, through significantly, the agency of Dona Herlinda herself, the one figure most charged
with defending the heterosexist system (24344). This movie was a box
hit in Mexico and put the topic of homosexuality before the movie-going
public.
While Hermosillo treated the topic of male homosexuality in a serious but humorous fashion that offered no overt challenge to the dominant
patriarchal order, several Mexican rock en espanol bands demonstrated a
pronounced homophobic bent. The Monterrey hip-hop band Control
Machete released La Lupita on the album Mucho barato (1996), a
song which denigrates lesbians with the refrain: Pinche lupita, pinche

18

Mark A. Hernandez

culera/Pinche lupita, puta, ramera/Pinche lupita, pinche lesbiana/Pinche

lupita, pinche marimarcha [Fuckin lupita, fuckin lazy woman/Fuckin
lupita, whore, prostitute/Fuckin lupita, fuckin lesbian/Fuckin lupita,
fuckin dyke (verses 2024)]. The following year the irreverent Mexican rock en espanol band Molotov released its controversial signature song
Puto on its debut album Donde jugaran las ninas? (1997). As Sergio de
la Mora notes, puto is a derogatory homophoic term that refers to a male
homosexual . . .[and] is linked to the sexual stigma of female prostitution
(puta) and to the devaluation of women in general (185, n. 5). While members of the band argued that they employ the term puto in the song to refer
to cowards, numerous gay groups in Barcelona took offense to the songs
lyrics because they say that the lyrics continue to denigrate gay men.22 The
explicit homophobia of these popular songs from the mid 1990s makes Tex
Tex songs all the more noteworthy.
If for no other reason, Artesano de la construccion and Cristina
are remarkable for their direct engagement of the subject of homosexuality, especially in the genre of rock urbano music in which the core
audience is hypermasculine heterosexual working-class youth. These songs
engage the topic in a serious but humorous fashion and enter into a critical
dialogue with the cultural norms of hegemonic working-class Mexican masculinity. They represent an intervention from the realm of popular culture
in a broader discussion about what it means to be a (working-class) man in
Mexico today. Hector Carrillo in his article Neither Machos nor Maricones:
Masculinity and Emerging Male Homosexual Identities in Mexico (2004)
argues that discussion of masculine male homosexuality in urban Mexico is
. . .becoming relevant to understanding the identities of all Mexican men
precisely due to the increased visibility of masculine homosexual men who
contribute to a broader social questioning of previously accepted male identities and the dominance of machismo. Because of this visibility, the notion
that everyone who calls himself a man is by definition sexually attracted
to women is strongly challenged. This challenge forces all men to reflect
on where they fit in the landscape of possible male identities (351). While
there is a long history in Mexico of using humor to question regulatory norms
related to masculinity (for example: in the turn-of-the-century penny press),
what is new in Tex Texs songs are the scenarioshomoeroticized construction workers and lesbian betrayaland the more or less open discussion
of queerness (rather than outright homophobia) in rock music. While using
humor to destabilize gender norms is a traditional practice in Mexico,
the characteristics of that humor change with the times. And the more open

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

19

discussion of gayness is one those characteristics that reflects Mexican life

in the 1990s.
Since Tex Tex has the trust and the respect of the audience, it has
the potential to simultaneously reinforce and question conventional notions
of gender as well as to expound alternative models of Mexican masculinity.
In the final analysis, I would argue that the music of Tex Tex opens a space
to challenge, modify, and potentially alter established notions of hegemonic
heterosexual masculinity and to create the opening for men to be men in
different ways. Precisely because the members of Tex Tex are so adept at
performing hypermasculinity (see the bands website), they have clout with
the fans and the confidence to broach alternative models of masculinity for
the bands audiences.
Select Discography

Tex Tex. Perdidos. Mexico City: Gas, 1991.

. Subete al tren. Mexico City: BMG, 1996.
Notes
1. For a summary of research on masculinities in Latin America, see
Gutmann and Viveros Vigoya (2005).
2. For an analysis of the connections between masculinity and homosexuality in Mexican literature from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, see
Irwin.
3. The term rock urbano also refers to the musical style of the rupestres.
In 1984 Rockdrigo Gonzalez and friends founded the Liga de Musicos Errantes
y Cantantes Rupestres, a collective of soloist troubadours who produced semiacoustic songs with social content to address daily trials and tribulations of life in
Mexico City. Known as el profeta del nopal, a Dylanesque type with a Mexican
twist, Rockdrigo used the acoustic guitar and his harmonica to make music that
depicted the everyday life of the lower socioeconomic classes. Rockdrigo and his
fellow rupestres (Rafael Catana, Roberto Ponce, Armando Rosas, Eblen Macari,
Roberto Gonalez, Fausto Arreln and Nina Galindo) played an intellectual brand
of folk music (`a la Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Crosby Stills and Nash) in a
South-American folk rock style that appealed to university educated, middle-class
audiences and sought to avoid commercialization (Manueles 127; Personal Correspondence with Tere Estrada). For further information on Rockdrigo and his
music, see Hernandez and the Rockdrigo Official Web Site.
4. As Ruben Martnez has noted, transnational labels tend to promote tamer
versions of rock en espanol bands, since traditional chavos banda music groups

20

Mark A. Hernandez

appeal mostly to lower-class listeners not considered worthy of attention by record

companies (164). Moreover, record companies only sponsor rock en espanol bands
that are considered profitable, and often a bands potential success is determined
by its appeal to the middle-class buyer. Bands that are considered to appeal to a
lower-class audience such as Banda Bostik and El Haragan, and rock urbano bands
distributed by independent label Cintas y Discos Denver are not thought of as
commercially viable, though records sales by Denver suggest otherwise (Personal
Interview with Octavio Aguilera Lopez & Solorzano-Thompson 63).
5. In June 1985 Octavio Aguilera Lopez (a personal friend of Alex Lora)
founded Denver Records to reissue two albums by Three Souls in My Mind. In 1985
Denvers catalog consisted of only fifteen albums; today it boasts a catalog of over
450 CDs and 500 cassettes (Personal Interview with Octavio Aguilera Lopez).
Around 1986 such styles as rock urbano, punk and heavy metal surged in popularity
with lower-class youth, and in the same year Denver began signing rock urbano
groups such as Heavy Nopal, LiranRoll, Banda Bostik and El Haragan y Compana
and heavy metal groups such as Transmetal. As transnational and national record
labels for the most part have ignored the music of rock urbano and heavy metal
groups (which do not receive much airplay on the radio nor appear on television),
Denver fills an important niche in the market for these types of recordings and has
resorted to innovative marketing techniques (for instance, hiring VW Combis to sell
Denver tapes and CDs at the Tianguis del Chopo on Saturdays and at designated
places in the northern barrios on certain days of the week). Denver is the most
lucrative of all the independent labels in Mexico. In fact, Denver is popularly known
as Vende because the label sells so many tapes and CDs each year (Zequeira 12).
Consumers in Mexico City will find Denver tapes and CDs in such major music
stores as Tower Records and Mix-Up, smaller neighborhood records shops in the
northern barrios, and at the Tianguis del Chopo on Saturdays.
6. The most recent groups from the 1990s include Interpuesto (1990), Los
Gestos de la Dona (1992), Caneza (1993) and Sur 16 (1997) [Bravo 1213]. The
closest Latin American equivalent of Mexican rock urbano is rock chabon from
Buenos Aires. Pablo Seman and Pablo Vila define rock chabon as a nationalistic
but marginal rock that is the music of gangs, street corners, guns, knives, alcohol,
and of the unemployed and chorritos (petty thieves) [70]. For further discussion of
rock chabon, see Seman, Villa and Benedetti, as well as Seman and Villa.
7. The original lineup consisted of Lalo, Chucho and friend Pedro Martnez.
In 1989 brother Paco replaced Pedro Martnez, who left the group to become the
drummer for El Tri, and brother Vctor came on board as manager.
8. The official discography includes Un toque magico (Gas, 1989), Perdidos
(Gas, 1991), 3 (Gas 1992), Te vas a acordar de mi (BMG, 1994), Subete al tren
(BMG, 1996), Accion y reaccion (AMV, 2000), De donde somos y a donde vamos

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

21

(Metropolis, 2004) and 86 (Proceso, 2006). There are also four compilation albums
with the bands greatest hits: Lo mejor de Tex Tex (Gas, 1992), En concierto: Vol.
I y II (Gas, 1993), Los munecos desenchufados: Tex Tex Unplugged (Metropolis
2002) and Lo mejor de Tex Tex (BMG, 2002).
9. On July 14, 2002, I saw Tex Tex perform at a rock urbano concert in
the city of Toluca. This concert, like many rock urbano concerts, took place on a
Sunday afternoon in a modernized version of an hoyo fonqui, in this case, at an
open-air auto repair shop on the outskirts of the city. Each of the eleven invited
bands performed between 30 and 45 minutes on a stage under a tent. There were no
bathroom facilities, and many vendors from El Tianguis del Chopo in Mexico City
sold tapes and CDs, food and rock urbano merchandise (especially t-shirts of the
groups performing that day). I estimate that 1,500 fans attended the event (many
of whom were dancing in the mosh pit), and tickets cost 120 Mexican pesos (about
$12 US).
10. In July 2006, Tex Tex completed a three-day tour in the United States
and played at clubs in Atlanta; Virginia City, Nevada; and Inglewood, California.
A ticket sold for $35.00 at each concert.
11. As Hector Castillo Berthier details in his article on chavos banda, the
concept of banda is socially and culturally complex. At one level, the term refers to
a form of voluntary association among groups of chavos (kids), generally averaging
thirty members who range in age from twelve to twenty-four years old and whose
collective and territorial identity is forged in relationship to their immediate urban
environment, or barrio (neighborhood). Although female members and even bandas
formed exclusively by women exist, in general, bandas are predominantly formed
by male youth. At another level, however, banda is also a space of social contention;
it empowers youth who have very limited economic, social, or even moral resources,
who do daily battle just to stay alive. Banda implies not being alone. Banda allows
for unity within the marginalized urban zonesthe cinturones de miseria (poverty
belts) that continue to proliferate throughout Mexico Cityas well as a defense
from the world outside (24344).
12. In an interview with Mexican rock critic Alfredo McDeere, Lalo responds with bitterness as to why it took so long for the group to release Accion y
reaccion: . . .quedamos tan escamados con nuestro paso por la compana trasnacional en la que estuvimos que no nos quedaron muchas ganas de que nos violaran
otra vez. . . (14) [we were left so wary after our stint with the transnational company
that we did not have much enthusiasm for them to violate us again].
13. In many respects Accion y reaccion is a reaction to the bands experience
with BMG. In the liner notes, Tex Tex expresses its appreciation to AMV for its
willingness to record the songs . . .de una manera y directa sin tantos artificios

22

Mark A. Hernandez

tecnicos y compromisos comerciales. . .. [in a direct manner and without so many

technical artifices and commercial compromises].
14. For further information about Tex Tex and its music, see Tex Texs
official homepage (http://www.tex-tex.com).
c 1991 by Gas
15. Artesano de la construccion by Tex Tex. Copyright 
Records. Copyright renewed. International copyright secured. Used by permission
of Tex Tex. All rights reserved.
16. Ben Sifuentes-Jaregui defines transvestism as the performance of gender, of what historically and culturally has been labeled femininity and masculinity (3). The word transvestism itself, he argues, contains an etymological
conflict: on the one hand, transvestism comes directly from the Latin transvestire, to dress across; on the other hand, from the Latin through the French,
trans-vestire becomes travesty, which later is travesty in English. So, on the one
hand, transvestism signals a crossing from one gender space to another; on the
other hand, it is a travesty or a lie (4).
c 1996 by BMG. Copyright renewed.
17. Cristina by Tex Tex. Copyright 
International copyright secured. Used by permission of Tex Tex. All rights reserved.
18. Straight spouses, like their gay, bisexual or transgender partners, question whether the marriage can continue and, if that is possible, what compromises
will be necessary. Some gay-straight couples in the United States divorce quickly
because of the straight spouses anger or desire for monogamy, or the gay spouses
desire to live his or her life honestly or to start same-sex relationships. Although
conclusive data does not exist, anecdotal evidence and trends suggest that lesbian
wives tend to leave their marriages more quickly after disclosure than do gay men
and bisexual men and women (Straight Spouse Network 6).
19. Personal correspondence with Vctor Mujica Sanchez. I would like to
thank Vctor for sharing this insight.
20. Quoted in de la Mora, 68.
21. In 1991 Mexican film director Alfonso Cuaron (director of the international 2001 hit Y tu mama tambien) released his debut film Solo con tu pareja (Only
With Your Partner). This movie narrates the story of Tomas Tomas (a successful
advertising executive), who seduces many women, and one of them named Silvia
(a nurse who works for Tomass friend and doctor Mateo) becomes angry because
Tomas has dumped her and decides to change Tomass blood test results to indicate
that he has AIDS. At this very moment Tomas vows to change his hedonistic life
style and meets Clarisa, a new neighbor in his apartment building who works for
Mexicana Airlines. Both are depressedTomas over his AIDS diagnosis and Clarisa because her fiance is cheating with another stewardessand plan to jump off

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

23

the Torre Latinoamericana (Mexico Citys tallest skyscraper) and commit suicide.
But at the last moment, Tomas learns that he does not have AIDS and Clarisa realizes that she loves Tomas. At this point they have sex on the roof of the skyscraper.
This movie was a big hit with Mexican audiences and put at center stage the issue
of AIDS. My comments about the movie draw on the summary in Mora, 197201.
22. Mexican cultural critic Carlos Monsivais, however, sides with Molotov
and notes that the song was played and sung along by people in gay nightclubs
(quoted in Schelonka 10304). For the full lyrics to Puto see the Molotov Homepage.

Works Cited
Berthier, Hector Castillo. My Generation: Rock and la Bandas Forced Survival
Opposite the Mexican State. Rockin Las Americas: The Global Politics of
Rock in Latin /o America. Eds. Deborah Pacini Hernandez, Hector Fernandez
LHoeste, and Eric Zolov. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2004. 24160.
Bravo, Ricardo. Rock urbano: La voz de la Banda. Nuestro Rock 8.80 (2002):
1213.
Buxton, Amity Pierce. The Other Side of the Closet: The Coming-Out Crisis for
Straight Spouses and Families. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
Carrier, Joseph. De los otros; Intimacy and Homosexuality among Mexican Men.
New York: Columbia UP, 1996.
Carrillo, Hector. Neither Machos nor Maricones: Masculinity and Emerging Male
Homosexual Identities in Mexico. Changing Men and Masculinities in
Latin America. Ed. Matthew C. Gutmann. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2003.
35169.
. The Night Is Young: Sexuality in Mexico in the Time of AIDS. Chicago: U of
Chicago P, 2002.
Chant, Sylvia, and Nikki Craske. Gender in Latin America. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers UP, 2003.
Connell, R. W. Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics. Stanford,
CA: Stanford UP, 1987.
De la Mora, Sergio. Cinemachismo: Masculinities and Sexuality in Mexican Film.
Austin: U of Texas P, 2006.
Foster, David William. Queering the Patriarchy in Hermosillos Dona Herlinda y su hijo. Framing Latin American Cinema: Contemporary Critical
Perspectives. Ed. Ann Marie Stock. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1997.
23545.

24

Mark A. Hernandez

Gutmann, Matthew C. Introduction: Discarding Manly Dichotomies in Latin

America. Changing Men and Masculinities in Latin America. Ed. Matthew
C. Gutmann. Durham, NC & London: Duke UP, 2003. 126.
Gutmann, Matthew, and Mara Viveros Vigoya. Masculinities in Latin America.
Handbook of Studies on Men & Masculinities. Eds. Michael S. Kimmel,
Jeff Hearn and R.W. Connell. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2005.
11428.
Gutmann, Matthew. The Meanings of Macho: Being a Man in Mexico City. Berkeley: U of California P, 1996.
Hernandez, Mark A. Chronicles of Mexico City Life: The Music of Rockdrigo
Gonzalez. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 26 (2007): 6378.
Irwin, Robert McKee. Mexican Masculinities. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P,
2003.
Limon, Jose E. Carne, Carnales, and the Carnivalesque. Dancing with the Devil:
Society and Cultural Poetics in Mexican-American South Texas. Madison:
U of Wisconsin P, 1994. 12340.
Manueles. El rock de la urbe. Rockdrigo Gonzalez (El Profeta del Nopal). Ed.
Modesto Lopez. Mexico City: Ediciones Pentagrama and CONACULTA,
1999. 12729.
Martnez, Ruben. The Other Side: Notes from the New L.A., Mexico City and
Beyond. New York: Vintage, 1993.
McDeere, Alfredo M. Tex Tex: Otra vez en accion. Nuestro Rock 8.79 (2002):
14.
Mirande, Alfredo. Hombres y machos: Masculinity and Latino Culture. Boulder,
CO: Westview P, 1997.
Molotov Homepage <http://www.molotov.com.mx>.
Mora, Carl J. Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 18962004. 3rd ed.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2005.
Personal Correspondence with Tere Estrada. E-mail. March 20, 2003.
Personal Correspondence with Vctor Mujica Sanchez. E-mail. September 10,
2004.
Personal Interview with Octavio Aguilera Lopez. Mexico City. July 17, 2002.
Prieur, Annick. Memas House, Mexico City: On Transvestites, Queens, and Machos. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1998.

The Rock Urbano Music of Tex Tex

25

Quelpo, Pablo. Con Tex Tex: Rock Mexicano Tiene Oxgeno Pa Rato. Sabor
Musical (1995): 2627.
Riesenfeld, Rinna. Papa, mama, soy gay. Mexico City: Grijalbo, 2000.
Rockdrigo Official Web Site <http://www.rockdrigogonzalez.com.mx>.
Schelonka, Greg. Mexican Rock and the Border Under Globalization. Peace
Review: A Journal of Social Justice 18.1 (2007): 10108.
Seman, Pablo, and Pablo Vila. Rock Chabon: The Contemporary National Rock
of Argentina. From Tejano to Tango: Latin American Popular Music. Ed.
Walter Aaron Clark. New York & London: Routledge, 2002. 7094.
Seman, Pablo, Pablo Vila, and Cecilia Benedetti. Neoliberalism and Rock in the
Popular Sectors of Contemporary Argentina. Rockin Las Americas: The
Global Politics of Rock in Latin /o America. Eds. Deborah Pacini Hernandez,
Hector Fernandez LHoeste and Eric Zolov. Pittsburgh, PA: U of Pittsburgh
P, 2004. 26189.
Sifuentes-Jaregui, Ben. Transvestism, Masculinity, and Latin American Literature:
Genders Share Flesh. New York: Palgrave, 2002.
Solorzano-Thompson, Nohemy. Act Like a Man: Portrayals of Lower-Class Mexican and Chicano Masculinity, 19502000. Ph.D. diss., Cornell U, 2003.
Ann Arbor: UMI, 2004.
Straight Spouse Network. Opening the Straight Spousess Closet: A Guide for Understanding Issues Facing Families with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual or Transgendered Spouses. Washington, DC: PFLAG, 2001. Available online at
http://www.pflag.org/fileadmin/user upload/StraightSpouse.pdf.
Tex Tex (de Mexico para todo el mundo). El Molcajete: Boletn de rock mexicano
(1995): 12.
Tex Tex Official Homepage (http://www.tex-tex.com).
Urteaga, Maritza. Por los territorios del rock: Identidades juveniles y rock mexicano. Mexico City: CONACULTA and Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud,
1998.
Viveros Vigoya, Mara. Contemporary Latin American Perspectives on Masculinity. Changing Men and Masculinities in Latin America. Ed. Matthew C.
Gutmann. Durham, NC & London: Duke UP, 2003. 2760.
Zequeira, Jorge. La independencia: Un camino cada vez mas viable. Nuestro
Rock 8.79 (2002): 1213.