When a cholo met a punk. How Maldita Vecindad’s Roco learned about Chicano culture

The Instagram account Rock Archivo LÁ, curated by history professor Jorge Leal PhD, posted a video of Roco Pachukote from Maldita Vecindad and how he learned about Chicano culture in Mexico City. 

Roco talks about his first encounter with pachucos through Tin Tan films. He remembers the film “El hijo desobediente” where the barrio of Santa Monica is mentioned. That’s how he became aware that the concept that barrios were not just in Mexico but in the U.S. as well.  

Later on, when he was in high school in 1982 in CCH Azcapotzalco on the evening shift, when mostly older people went to school, he met Ernesto Olivo, who had his hair pulled back, dressed in his Dickies and Bostonian shoes. Olivo became his first cholo friend. 

Olivo lived in Tijuana but he moved to Mexico City to help his grandmother, who owned a restaurant and later became the first drummer of Maldita Vecindad. 

“That was my first encounter with the Chicano culture and with cholos,” Roco said. 

Roco said he knew about pachuquismo but as something he saw in the movies and through what his dad would tell him about. 

Through Olivo, he saw how “cholos were like the grandchildren of the pachucos.”

Rock Archivo LÁ will be posting more segments of their conversation with Roco. Be sure to check on Instagram.