Chicano Lyrics in Manic Hispanic’s Punk Rock Covers
Ana Ruiz Segarra
Punk music is often seen as an expression of resistance and its music scene portrays the constant seeking of rebellion: a rebellion against the system, big corporations, capitalism, and, for Latinx musicians, also an opposition to racial discrimination and unfairness. The diversity and tension between races and cultures in East L.A. produced a broad range of hybrid music such as Chicano punk rock (Spence 5). Groups that played Chicano/Latino punk rock in Los Angeles started to appear around the 1970’s but they had a disaffection towards their Mexican background (Shonk and McClure 94). Around 1990s, the Chicano/Latino punk scene started to burst out in the U.S. due to the problems that Latinos were facing (Zavella 31). The iconic band Manic Hispanic, a Chicano rock band from Orange County in Los Angeles was part of this East L.A. renaissance. This band that was formed in 1992 specialized in cover versions of punk rock songs by slightly renaming the songs and adjusting the lyrics to address Chicano culture (Noble). Manic Hispanic’s covers like “God Save the Queen,” originally a title by The Sex Pistols, are the first attempts of the band to keep alive the spark of punk rock while going against the mainstream. The mix of English and Spanish that is present in this song and the mispronunciation of the lyrics turn this cover into a clear example of linguistic mestizaje.
The lyrics of this iconic Sex Pistols’ song were translated by Manic Hispanic directly from the original lyrics as for example “Dios salve a la reina / ella no es humana/ No hay abertura, / ni necesidad” (Manic Hispanic, God Save the Queen). They continue in English “We’re not the future/ we don’t understand”. Other Manic Hispanic cover titles are more creative as for example “Barrio Land,” which was originally named “Garage Land” by The Clash. Songs like the Adolescents’ “Amoeba” became “Amigo,” while Rancid’s “Ruby Soho” became Manic Hispanic’s “Rudy Cholo”.
The title of the song “Rudy Cholo” and its lyrics contain references to Chicano culture. The word cholo for example is a term to describe people that are affiliated with or admire gangs (Vigil 3). Rudy Cholo’s lyrics such as “Echoes of the Oldies, / comin' thru my barrio walls” show simple changes of words like “bedroom” to “barrio” and “reggae” to “the Oldies”. The original Ruby Soho’s lyrics say, “Echoes of reggae/ Comin' through my bedroom wall” (Rancid). Moreover, Manic Hispanic’s “Rudy Cholo” tells the story of a man that is running away from prison as the lyrics say “He's runnin' away from the man./ They tried to bust him for a drive-by,/ so he's leavin' while he can./He can't make it in the Pinta,/he'll go crazy locked up inside”. While Rancid’s song talks about a man who is breaking up with his partner because he got famous “He's singin' and she's/ There to lend a hand/ He's seen his name on the marquee/ But she will never understand,” Manic Hispanic changed the lyrics of this song to resonate with a situation Latinos/Chicanos, an overly imprisoned population in the US, could relate to. In the last part of the song “Rudy Cholo”, the name of the partner was changed to a Hispanic name Lupe. The mix of small word switches and whole song meaning changes make punk rock classics their own. In a similar way that the term Chicano helped Mexican Americans to create their own culture, Manic Hispanic songs helped Latino punk rockers to appropriate these punk rock classics.
The term Chicano also represented a political and cultural identity for Mexican Americans (Gutiérrez 58). Bands such as Manic Hispanic used their covers and original songs to express their unconformity with politics and culture. A Manic Hispanic’s cover “Mexican Society” is a good example of this. “Mexican Society,” a hybrid cover of “American Society” by L7, was strategically transformed to express the way some Chicanos felt about being partly Mexican. L7’s song “American Society” was originally a protest against the American stereotype, while Manic Hispanic cover is a protest against the Mexican stereotype. To exemplify this fact “American Society” lyrics say, “I don't want to drown in American society/ Don't want to be rich”. While in turn, Manic Hispanic’s “Mexican society” lyrics says: “Don't wanna drown in a Mexican society/ I wanna be rich”. I argue that “American Society” is critique of capitalism and “Mexican Society” is a critique of those Chicanos who do not want to be Mexican anymore.
If we analyze the rest of the lyrics of “Mexican Society,” they continue “Can't you see the way I dress? / All greased out with our head nets / There's too many ratas in my casa”. Where the original song says, “Now can't you see the way they dress / They dress / Well they're a bloody tax mess”. So, Manic Hispanic reinforces the idea of the Mexican stereotype and how some people want to be free of it. To conclude, the lyrics of Manic Hispanic’s song covers portray the idea of a Chicano community which has a culture and a common language. Manic Hispanic use a mix of English and Spanish, Chicano slang and Latino experiences to manifest their Latino/Chicano identity. Along this short analysis, I found that Manic Hispanic songs go against the mainstream using mainstream punk songs as a mean.
Bibliography
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