Martín Sorrondeguy is the lead singer of hardcore punk music band Los Crudos, which gained success in the 90’s. The band paved the way for later Spanish-speaking punk bands in the United States and Latin America to increase the presence of Latinos in the predominantly white punk subculture. Martín is also the founder of the DIY record label, documentary film director, author and a prominent figure in both the straight edge scene and the queercore scene.
How is rock in Spanish different from rock in English?
A lot of people especially in the Latino-Chicano community believe rock is a white person thing. You ask people, okay what kind of music should Latinos then be listening to? Rock in the Americas and in Latin America goes way back to the 60’s. So how is it different?
When Los Crudos toured in the 90’s, the U.S. scene became very tamed for a period. The rough edge of the 80’s dissipated. We went over to Mexico and it was so over the top and insane, it felt like going backward to the 80’s again— it was like punk and the aggressive side still existed.
When did you officially speak out about being gay and how did that affect the band?
When I came out initially with Los Crudos, it was around ‘95 or ‘96. The majority of people were extremely supportive from the get-go, and that’s the beauty of the real underground punk scene— people really are much more open to that sort of diversity. There were a few people that were bothered by the fact that I came out, and I think some of that came from within the Latino scene, which is a little disheartening, but the majority of the people embraced the fact that I was open about that side of my life.
Do you think that your coming out may have freed other people?
I’ve had younger people come up to me and say ‘you know what, you’ve had a huge, positive influence on me. I’ve struggled with these issues, and you made this sort of easier for me; I feel like I can relate to somebody else and I don’t feel alone.’ There is something really powerful about that. I’ve always hoped that, even with Los Crudos, just on the cultural linguistic level, people and other Chicanos and Latinos were feeling this sense of empowerment.
What experiences have inspired the politics in your lyrics?
A lot of the songs were written while we were all in Chicago, in the Pilsen neighborhood, which is predominantly Spanish-speaking. We were paying attention to things that were affecting Latinos and Chicanos in other parts of the country. We said ‘Okay, how are the decisions of these people trying to pass laws going to affect us, how are they going to affect our family?’
We took our experience and said, ‘our existence is truly different than the average American.’ It was our protest, through our art and music. That’s how we wrote a lot of our songs. It talked about immigrants, and our parents’ history who migrated.
Did you feel a sense of solidarity with the other immigrants in Pilsen?
We had Mexicanos and all these different kids and we were are all having a similar experience in the neighborhood, but with very varied roots and stories. We kind of brought it all together—there was something really unique to that.
It was the first time in that neighborhood that I ever saw generational Latinos and Mexicanos and kids who had been here forming bands, doing projects and hanging out with people who just recently crossed over with no papers. There was art, music and creative things happening in solidarity—for me that was extremely powerful.
What do you want to communicate most through your music?
When I think of my neighborhood, or the Mission or east L.A. or South Central or San Antonio, and I think of the kids coming out of those neighborhoods, one of the most important things for me to demonstrate is that you all have the ability and power to make something happen, to create. Not to let the environment dictate how we’re supposed to be, but we dictate what we want to be.
I think we’ve been trained to believe that we don’t have the power to do things, and it’s important to say ‘yes you do, yes we do.’ That, for me, is one of the most important things that could be passed on to the young people of our neighborhoods.
Los Crudos will be playing at a three-day benefit concert featuring various artists at Gilman Studios in Berkeley, called ‘This Is Not A Step: A weekend of Politics, Music and Community,’ June 28-30. Check out Los Crudos performance on June 29. Passes are $36 to all three Gilman shows.