Pages: 24 & 25
Observation, Analysis and Critique
QUEEN!
What really happened in Puebla?
By Jose Luis Pluma
Photos Camarillo
What actually happened at the Puebla concerts was not reported honestly by the press, it was instead decided to spread sensationalist lies. Since we were there, we will try to clarify certain doubts so that the people who did not see, can form a measured criterion.
Abuse of bus pricing:
I took the bus because I wanted to experience, among all the stupidity, what could really happen without anyone finding me. And the first surprise that I found was that on Friday the 16th at four in the afternoon I was going to get my ticket to avoid problems: however, when I got to the window the dispatcher told me: "If you are going to go to Puebla right now It costs you sixty pesos, if not, it will cost you a hundred.
And the quickest thing I did was shout: "Mexico Cool and dear I hope I die far away from you!"
Lack of signs to the stadium:
Arriving in Puebla, the first problem was finding a lodging and, to top it all, the ads didn't look like those in the federal district. Anyway, going to the edge of the city somewhat resolved this situation, but only for me, because there were guys who didn't even know what was happening, the next day, I realized that kids had fallen asleep on the edge of the stadium. By the way, there was never an address or signs to locate the famous Zaragoza Stadium. You asked some people and it seemed that they didn't even live there, they would tell you they did not know. You would ask the taxi drivers and they answered you reluctantly: "It's over there!" pointing vaguely, in that sense more care must be taken. Instead of driving The Rock and Rollers away attempts should be made to make them welcome, what happened here was the opposite.
Lighting outside the stadium:
Another thing that was very bad, there was a lack of lighting on the outskirts of the stadium, both for the entrance and the exit. More than ten tripped on the stairs, twisting their ankles or hitting their buttocks as they fell. What would it have cost for them to place a row of spotlights. Hopefully you do not ignore this observation; the darkness also gave rise to the sale of beers and bottles, since among the darkness they are shielded from prying eyes. In addition to this, it provides security to the public, forces order and avoids problems of slamming into doors.
Stairs to the field were missing:
Inside the stadium, it was not easy to get into the stands, or get off the field. Stairs were missing! Those details were not considered. The injuries of dislocation of the ankles from jumping would have been avoided. It was also obvious that many people were looking for the toilets that they never found. No signs, no directions, nothing.
They really gave the public what they paid for.
The police brutality:
They did not touch me, in particular, but many who were decently waiting to enter were beaten no matter where they hurt and who they were. How can we remain silent in the presence of their animal instincts to attack defenseless young people and children! The policemen took care of them all and bled many without a proven cause, most only attacked back out of fear. Dear god! The wounded they mention in the press were the ones beaten by the police. Not even Flash Gordon could save them.
Another fan throws the dust:
Inside, the pitch was not covered with thick tarps to prevent people from throwing dirt out of the stadium. They didn't think about that either. You already know how mischievous and relaxed guys are and if they are given weapons, they will mess around doing their own thing. Due to the delay in the group coming on stage these guys were getting more angry and bored. That exasperates and makes rock audiences very impatient.
It should be taken into account not to let food, cameras, tape recorders or anything else pass, until you forget it!
The college kids with joints [blunts / weed]:
These were the ones who threatened people, the so-called security (since they slammed three doors: two and a half, five and a half and eight at night) and the businessmen (who had no more minimal detail of what it is to organize a rock concert) And do not doubt that they raped a girl on the way out when she was looking for her boyfriend and they took her away in a car (a boy was beaten for defending her).
The organizers are to blame for not protecting people properly, and they are still fuming tear gas!
[Can someone translate this better? I'm not sure i understand it, Who raped the girl, the security? the businessmen? the College kids? and the slamming doors bit.... what does that mean?]
The return:
At the exit, we were all feeling hungry, but not a single damn restaurant could be found. So the front window of a bakery was smashed in order to eat something. The thing about the crystal clear Chemis La Coste was that some thieves who took advantage of the confusion to loot (they got caught and their photo were even published in the press), Even after seeing this the locals never locked their houses, it was the opposite, they were seeing how everyone passed by in cars or on foot. It was the town gossip!
lack of transport:
At the exit, everyone wanted to return to the federal district, Well, when we got to the station, we met the dispatchers who shouted: "No tickets until five o'clock in the morning!" ...
The guys said: "Well, sell us some one-time tickets"....
They replied reluctantly and attackingly: "Not until five" and even seeing the demand they would not get extra runs.
The organizers (Artimex) did not think about this either. After having sold tickets for a concert for fifteen million pesos, there would be no harm in putting fifty or sixty trucks at the disposal of the people. It's Shit!
That's why the kids tried to drive a bus and that's why a window and a station clock broke. It was not for lowerly!
Conclusions:
Seeing all the serious events, we can only say that the only other time there was terror and death was in a soccer classic at the Azteca Stadium. Nothing here was caused by uncontrollable youth who cannot stop being impetuous, restless and innocent.
Nobody protected them and yet the thing went smoothly.
'There were deaths' is laughable, Reading the nonsense in the press that, instead of helping, attacks the youth. They only worry about destroying and crucifying everything that smells young. If the authorities allow another concert, the press has to be fair. Oh and if they want a collaboration from us, we give it, but it will cost because we have had our experiences. Amen!
Page 26
This is a page of lyrics, mostly in English, there are a couple of typos
Page 27
An EMI Advert, for the "sacred coexistence of Rock music"
Pages 28, 29, 30, 31
QUEEN! QUEEN! QUEEN!
Enough abuse NOW STOP!
BY VLADIMIR HERNANDEZ G.
Before the Puebla ConcertsOn Friday the 16th in the afternoon, the day before the first Puebla concert that the English band Queen would perform, in our newsroom, in the offices of this, your CONECTE magazine, the highest officials gave the last orders to each and every one of the collaborators that we would cover the event, with the aim of a special and extraordinary issue. None of us had a ticket, or passes or badges, the kind that are popular in the specialized press; Nobody had provided them to us, not even from the organizers and businessmen who had brought Queen to the country, let alone munch from their recording house, Capitol. Strange measures were being taken, now, when we have to report on the performances of a first group visiting us, really in moments of current and future projection, at the height of their creativity and maximum levels fame and popularity! A Rare opportunity for us as practically the only youth and rock publication! Unusual and inappropriate, then, instead of giving the reporters their most careful attention ... they would hit them with sticks, as they always do when reviewing rocker meetings! Shocking and amazing at the same time ...
- "No one has tickets, everyone should buy them or try to enter through their credentials", -the editor told us-, "we have rented a van, a combi, so that everything is done together; they will leave in the morning starting from the house of the editor-in-chief" ...
After the last statements, with the details that each person would cover, the editor himself, as an advisory joke, ended the editors' meeting: "And please, guys, be very careful on the highway, absolutely no alcohol; it would not be at all pleasant if i was the only one alive to do the magazine next week ... "
The joke made me think, not of the possible misfortune of an accident, one side of the Popo or Iztlacihuatl, no ...
but rather, I thought we could travel their in different ways and collect information from different angles and different times; And like two on one side and those on the other, with me taking my own path and schedule, ... I just hope and prey the joke does not become an omen.....
Saturday afternoon; bound for PueblaI let the morning pass and sometime after noon I set off towards the corresponding Bus Station, on the Metro, to San Lazaro; La Tapo was as usual, crowded, with passengers arriving and departing, the lounge and lockers were packed with suitcases and bags all destined for Puebla. There was a whole impatient crowd, with phenomenal queues and even fights, because of the tiny supply of fights, because of the tiny supply of a bus each exorbitant; all with the same destination: Queen!
When I managed to get to one of the information windows, they told me that towards the "City of Angels" there would be no space until very close to midnight And the concert was more or less planned to start at eight thirty!
At the moment it was almost five PM; I had approximately three and a half to four hours to complete the 120 kilometer trip. So, having a new plan in a few seconds, I bought a ticket "heading" to Chalco! I boarded the bus and we left.
The route would take us to just Outside the city, it leaves you right at the toll booth to Puebla and Oaxaca. There I started the hitchhiking trip, It was with luck that in a few minutes a young man would pick me up and take me in a single ride, the hands of my watch indicated we were just ahead of six.
The guy, a magnificent driver and the best conversationalist, would offer me a more than pleasant trip; He would leave me at the entrance to Angelcopolis, barely an hour and a half later, in a gas station, telling me: - "You must continue on the road; it will take you there bypassing the traffic population, until more or less very close to the Zaragoza Stadium; I am already very late for something urgent downtown, I cannot take you to the stadium, but here, at the gas station, there will be plenty of who will approach and help you ... "
I got out and, as he told me, in a few minutes, a mature man, driving a huge tanker loaded with non-flammable fuel, would greet me with a thousand smiles, he agreed to leave me at the next junction and only a couple of kilometers from the arena campus; Before going down, the atmosphere began to get me, from the outside, with lots of teens and typical rockers girls, heading towards where we all were going, to meet the Queen of Rock Opera in their symphony...
... and instantly a taxi passed me, it stopped a few meters ahead and realizing that it was stopping for me, I ran and caught up with it; We agreed on a price for taking the rest of the way, the driver told me:
- "This is a very big, very important event, the presentation of this group; since the beginning of the week boys began to arrive setting up tents around the stadium and after Wednesday, it was hardly enough. I was taking more people from the bus stations, or leading them from here to the center, really, it was a long time since I worked so tirelessly. Today has been madness and I must have eaten my cakes, without stopping driving ... Of course here in Puebla we are used to celebrating parties and fairs with the visit of many thousands of people; Right now we are celebrating something, but, with this, this group ... nobody expected it, nobody imagined it. With so many thousands arriving who knows what will happen at the exit? No way that everyone can leave at the same time in trucks! Where on earth are they going to sleep ...?"
The man did not finish speaking, he stopped again to pick up two guys with heavy rucksacks, both very young, surely they were only just teenage, they looked as though they had only just started puberty.
- "We have arrived!"- The most beardless one exclaimed somewhat triumphantly.- "We came in a taxi, from Mexico City!"
- "You came by taxi?" - The driver asked them, "That must have been very expensive ..."
-- "Oh no, not so much!" - They both stopped in unison, - "It was not so expensive; after all, we were in the terminal, at six, without any hope of getting a ticket and getting here on time and we did it in less than an hour and a half!"
- "And did you bring tickets to the concert?" - I asked them in turn.
-"Yes, yes, We bought them at the boletronico, for both functions, for today and tomorrow, we are going to stay! We were thinking of going to the Traffic concert, ... but we thought better of it, with what they charged for these, to a single show of them, we will see the two of Queen, and as you can see, even subtracting what we have gone through in the taxi, we still have plenty for the truck back to Mexico City. And with luck we even have enough for the hotel and meals to!"
After a few blocks, walking around the wheel, the driver refused to go on because the traffic jam prevented him from getting any closer. So we got out; the slowness of the circulation was evident; there was no place for one more car among the hundreds of people, all racing.
To get closer to the stadium we had to go up and down, through steep and broken streets; the arena was nestled on the slopes of hills and, before we saw it, still several hundred meters away, we could perceive music, rock! The Rolling Stones! .....
They were being played in a masterful volume, as an "invisible" show opening for Queen! (What would have been played before?) We continued walking, still together as we cut cross country and saw a lot of restless rushing; inter-solitary couples and groups, all in total happiness and youthful relaxation. Suddenly we looked up at the sky and above the leafy treetops the lights of the reflectors; We were approaching, after the bends, through the high part of the mountains and thus, we later saw, in the background, the high walls of the arena. There were hundreds of people milling around everywhere, with the background sound of the Stones mixed with the anxious murmur of the crowd that had already fled inside, from the stands and the central playing field; The sound was generalized inside, almost ordered in obvious presumption and outside, actually palpable ...
Already more and more people raced together, young people of both sexes, a few mature people and even children, running around or in the arms of their adolescent parents. Sweet vendors and makeshift beer bottle stands, taco and garnacha shops, cooked and roasted corn, drink, tecate and model vendors, ticket resellers ... suspiciously selling at the box office price and even cheaper; the tickets looked faded as though they'd been used to gain entry 3 or even 4 times previously.
I lost my two new friends in the turmoil as went down to find the entrance, the entrance doors were on the other side; I went down happy but agitated, in the middle of the fair, but a little worried that I could not finally enter ...
... it was past eight, and there were still so many people outside! And it became more and more difficult for me to walk and move around; I was among more people every second, no longer in hundreds, but in thousands. I Located the first door, the one flanked by cops armed with tremendous whitewashed clubs; they were not letting anyone through. I kept going around the stadium and, soon I saw a super crowd in front of the public door, I approached it, I knew it was going to be a titanic task .......
The pressure and anxiety heated up with every second of reaching closer the neck of a funnel of people reaching as far as it could to the ticket office; On the sides and edges, glued to the wall, there were queues, diverse, tight, and there, at the point, the crowd was tightening frantically and when I least imagined it, I was right there, in the center of the demonic whirlpool, trying to all means not to lose balance, stumble and fall, to end up trampled. Every minute things got more and more red-hot, ... in a ridiculous and exasperating slowness; I looked out at the head of the line for a better view and saw what the reason: The usual, "The super-motive!, The super scrupulous check-up and search by police. Shit! The usual and never ever! I Remember the patience and impatience unleashed, with Winter, With Mayall, With Purple, Boararkansas and in each and every one of the multitudinous concerts carried out in our country. From these eighties, throughout the Seventies, the Sixties, ... and I even remember; as a kid, during the fifties, I had practically the same experience in the historic cafes cantantes of the apoca!
Thirty years of rock ... and the same tale, but more unpleasant! Are these humiliations registered...?
What is the use of buying tickets from the government papa, in their ticket offices to avoid the torturous queues, the squeezes. Why do they give so much trouble to the respectable members of the public, when they as a consumer, at most, try to bring in maybe one or two cigarettes or a little bottle of liquor, in minimal quantities and personal use? When it's obvious that the drug traffickers manage to enter with kilos of goods and alcohol to do their business inside. It is clear that they do not go through these thrashings and searches; It is not possible, when inside you can see them with their huge packages of drugs, for sale ..... Obvious, inside, protected by the same corrupt authorities!!!
Where do the stupid orders to hit and beat come from ... Beatings for people who show up, with their tickets in their hands, that they have paid for carelessly, these are not criminals, but simple children, mostly anxious, who upon arrival find they have fraudulent tickets and whose only requirement is to see the show for which they have paid ...? If the organizers and the group itself have already had the sold-out sales for the two functions in profit, days in advance, Why not give some leeway to these young ones when they have supercompleted the economic issue, in expenses and earnings?
Foolish questions, and if there were answers they would be even more foolish! While we swayed, elbow to elbow, all rockers there, we realized that they were never going to get everyone to enter. Not due to lack of space in the stadium (although this could well have happened); but because the people who had not yet managed to enter, perhaps between twenty and thirty thousand fans, realized that in the face of such extensive searching, so long, so thorough, they would last all night, until dawn ... and also, we all knew that Queen must be about to start the show!
Then came the mob ... the cry of DOOR !!!, DOOR !! DOOR!! BANG! Do not be late!!!; first a shout, then the deafening choirs to the chest: DOOR !!!, DOOR !! DOOR!! And each one, showing above their heads, in pointed hands, their entrance ticket. What had been the use of buying them at the boletronicas government facilities by paying them the service of extras and supposedly to avoid resales?
At the entrance, seeing the "threat" of the crowd chanting, more and more police cavemen appeared in olive clothes, with protective helmets, brandishing their frightful batons.
The push was strong, forward ... and the screaming, phenomenal, What followed was an advanced study in how not to handle crowds. When the front row was close, the battalion of madmen began to strike, first the threat, then the bellies of men and women, without any difference (could they differentiate?) And one of them made their baton fly, hitting on collars, foreheads ... on shoulders, the entire length and breadth of its macabre circumference; disorder was transformed into a guerilla campaign ...
There is frolic of the public; But, first a shower of bottles begins to crash on the guards and later became like a torrential rain of stones and a thousand objects; the police, barking mad, can be seen, in turn, taking the stones and bottles to "respond" to the attack.
And there you have them, the guardians of order, repelling the enemy, the antisocial mass of teenagers who are painted the colour of criminals ...
They are the most deserving of the greatest punishments and beatings ... or death itself, after a well-placed blow; to those deserving of the crime, more, much more, than the murderers, the bank robbers, the rapists, the terrorists themselves and more, still much more, than the hunger of the people, than the politicians, of illicit enrichment , more than the eculators of primary needs, more than the lenines or traffickers ..!
God ... what a disturbed and disturbed world! For shame!
- And, the people running, terrified, screaming, with a thousand woes of pain emitted, between the roars of the smashed bottles on both sides ... and, two, three and five minutes, (it was ten or it was fifteen ... .?) total confusion absolute madness unleashed ...
and, suddenly, the line of fans who had managed to sneak away, covering themselves as best they could, enduring blows and crashing and more cans and bottles, stones and sticks, "showing that they did it calmly, and in order" as ordered, began to move inward, and I with them!
A rabid herd passed by the ticket clerks, who did not even ask me for my entrance, but they rushed to search me, between the legs and ankles, groin, waist, chest, armpits, arms and, surely, behind the ears! And just as they did with those who were ahead of me ... and behind. I thought that the worst was going to be in the past for me; but no, no!
In front of me there were two lines of young girls, between seven and eight on each side and each one in an omnipotent pair, with luxury of force, they were searching me, slowly and in the greatest delay and, according to them, conscientiously; As I was going through the ignominious fence and finally entered the entrances of Zaragoza, I did not want to turn my face back at all, I wanted to leave that hell as free as possible, so gratuitous and lacerating.
