Abstract

MORENO ELIZONDO, J. Rodrigo. Counterculture and Leftist Students. Music Festivals and Covert Protest in Mexico: Avándaro and Monterrey, 1971. Secuencia [online]. 2019, n.105, e1594.  Epub Sep 05, 2019. ISSN 2395-8464.  https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i105.1594.

This article provides an interpretation of the links between the political practice of the left and counterculture in musical festivals through the promotion of covert protest, taking advantage of the anonymity of the crowd. It describes the tense relationship between these two worlds, which existed for about a decade until they eventually converged, after being subject to government repression, within the sphere of open, mass music performances. Counterculture was not a sphere automatically linked to the left, since it was continually fought over by the state and its institutions in order to co-opt it as well as by the anti-capitalist left. The paper analyzes the factors that led to this convergence, but also to their eventual distancing due to the tensions inherent in counterculture, the depoliticizing and mediating efforts on the part of the government and public discredit.

Keywords : counterculture; social protest; left; infrapolitics; music festivals.

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