The Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro (also known as the Festival de Avándaro or simply Avándaro) was a historic

Mexican rock Mexican rock music, often referred to in Mexico as ''rock nacional'' ("national rock"), originated in the 1950s. Standards by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Nancy Sinatra, and Chuck Berry were soon covered by bands such as Los Ap ...

festival held on September 11–12, 1971, on the shores of Lake Avándaro near the

Avándaro Golf Club Avándaro Golf Club ( es, Club de Golf Avandaro) is a golf course located in the Valle de Bravo state of Mexico. Located west of Mexico City, it hosted the eventing portion of the equestrian competition for the 1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Su ...

, in a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

called Tenantongo, near the town of

Valle de Bravo Valle de Bravo () is one of 125 municipalities in State of Mexico, Mexico. The largest town and municipal seat is the town of Valle de Bravo. It is located on the shore of Lake Avándaro, approximately 156 km (97 miles) southwest of Mexico ...

in the central

State of Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...

. The festival, organized by brothers Eduardo and Alfonso Lopez Negrete's company Promotora Go,

McCann Erickson McCann, formerly McCann Erickson, is an American global advertising agency network, with offices in 120 countries. McCann is part of McCann Worldgroup, along with several other agencies, including direct digital marketing agency MRM//McCann, expe ...

executive and sports promoter Justino Compean and

Telesistema Mexicano Telesistema Mexicano was the predecessor of Televisa. Telesistema Mexicano was a television alliance made up of the independently owned television flagship stations XEW-TV, XEW Canal 2, XHTV-TV, XHTV Canal 4, and XHGC-TV, XHGC Canal 5 in Mexico, D ...

producer

Luis de Llano Macedo Luis de Llano Macedo (born June 9, 1945) is a Mexican TV and musical producer. History Born in Mexico City in 1945, he is the son of television producer Luis de Llano Palmer and actress Rita Macedo.Andrew Paxman, Claudia Fernández (2013). ''El ...

, took place at the height of

La Onda ''La Onda'' (The Wave) was a multidisciplinary artistic movement created in Mexico by artists and intellectuals as part of the worldwide waves of the counterculture of the 1960s and the avant-garde. Pejoratively called as ''Literatura de la Onda'' ...

and celebrated life, youth, ecology, music, peace and

free love Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues were the concern ...

, has been compared to the American

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

festival for its

psychedelic music Psychedelic music (sometimes called psychedelia) is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline, and cannabis to ...

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

imagery and artwork, and open drug use. A milestone in the history of Mexican rock music, the festival has drawn anywhere from an estimated 100,000 to 500,000 concertgoers. The festival originally scheduled 12 bands booked by music impresarios Waldo Tena and Armando Molina Solis' agency, but a total of 18 acts performed outdoors during the first, sometimes rainy weekend, before a massive crowd. The event was captured in film by, among others, Cinematográfica Marco Polo, Telesistema Mexicano,

Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...

and Peliculas Candiani. Audio was captured by

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

and a live radio broadcast was sponsored by

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, ...

. Images of the festival were captured by photographers like

Graciela Iturbide Graciela Iturbide (born May 16, 1942) is a Mexican photographer. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and is included in many major museum collections such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The J. Paul Getty Museum. Biograp ...

Pedro Meyer Pedro Meyer (born October 6, 1935 in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish photographer based in Mexico. He is one of the pioneers of the digital revolution in contemporary photography. He was the founder and president of the ''Consejo Mexicano de Fotograf ...

and others. The Super 8

short films A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

'' Avándaro'' produced by Gutiérrez y Prieto of Cablevision and directed by

Alfredo Gurrola Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon name Alfred (name), Alfred and a common Italian language, Italian, Galician language, Galician, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. People with the given na ...

and '' Tinta Blanca en Avándaro'' produced by Raul Candiani of Peliculas Candiani and directed by Humberto Rubalcaba were the only films exclusively about the first festival. They were exhibited at international film festivals and theaters in 1972. Other movies, which partially used footage of the festival, were the Cinematográfica Marco Polo film "La verdadera vocación de Magdalena" produced by Anuar Badin and directed by

Jaime Humberto Hermosillo Jaime Humberto Hermosillo Delgado (22 January 1942 – 13 January 2020) was a Mexican film director, often compared to Spain's Pedro Almodóvar. Born in Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, in central Mexico, Hermosillo's films often explore the hypoc ...

and the Super 8 films "The year of the rat" by Enrique Escalona and "La segunda primera matriz" by Alfredo Gurrola. An accompanying soundtrack with a selection of the live recordings produced by

Luis de Llano Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish language, Spanish form of the originally Germanic language, Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese language, Portuguese and ...

's company LUDELL/BAKITA Records and named '' Avandaro, por fin... 32 años después'' (Avandaro, at last ... 32 years later), was finally released in 2003.

Before Avandaro: Massive events, student repression and ''La Onda''

By 1971 Mexico, ruled by the PRI, had organized two of the most important sporting events in the world: the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...

and the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada) and commonly known as Mexico 1968 ( es, México 1968), were an international multi-sport eve ...

, gaining a fresh and modern image its government wanted to show to the outside world. At the same time, its government had violently repressed political youth movements known as the ''

Tlatelolco massacre On October 2, 1968 in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, the Mexican Armed Forces opened fire on a group of unarmed civilians in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas who were protesting the upcoming 1968 Summer Olympics. The Mexican government and ...

'' and the '' Halconazo'', which in turn gave way to the so-called

Mexican Dirty War The Mexican Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) was the Mexican theater of the Cold War, an internal conflict from the 1960s to the 1980s between the Mexican PRI-ruled government under the presidencies of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Luis Echeverría and J ...

of the early 1970s. The Mexican hippies, called "

jipitecas The jipitecas (sometimes called "xipitecas") were the Mexican hippies of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The term was coined by scholar Enrique Marroquin in the late 1960s and used widely in the media afterwards. Other terms for referring Mexican h ...

" by

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

and scholar

Enrique Marroquin Enrique Marroquín (born January 30, 1939 Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican liberal Catholic priest, writer and scholar, considered to be one of the key figures of the Mexican counterculture movement of ''La Onda'' (The Wave) and a strong suppor ...

, created a multidisciplinary movement called ''

'' (The wave). In accordance to their hippie values, La Onda did not advocate a violent overthrow of the PRI, but it did advocate change. By 1969 the government had already banned the musical ''

Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and f ...

'' after a unique performance of it in

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...

, censuring the rock band ''Los Shakes'' (which included stars Pixie Hopkin, Mayita Campos and Nono Zaldivar), investigating impresario Alfredo Elias Calles (grandson of late president Plutarco Elias Calles) and deporting foreign actors and producers like Michael Butler,

Gerome Ragni Gerome Ragni (born Jerome Bernard Ragni; September 11, 1935 – July 10, 1991) was an American actor, singer, and songwriter, best known as one of the stars and co-writers of the 1967 musical '' Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical''. On Jun ...

and

James Rado James Alexander Radomski (January 23, 1932 – June 21, 2022), known professionally as James Rado, was an American actor, playwright, director, and composer, best known as the co-author, along with Gerome Ragni, of the 1967 musical ''Hair''. He ...

. Such actions were heavily covered by local and American media like

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

and

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

. Writer

Carlos Monsivais Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhere ...

, who witnessed the event, wrote an extensive article about the incident in his book ''Dias de guardar''. Also in 1969, the band Pop Music Team had suffered censorship due to their hit "Tlatelolco" (which only had two weeks of radio airplay) and in February 1971 in

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

, a collective band called Sierra Madre, led by Teja Cunningham, and a state-of-the-art lights spectacle named "Music and light show" had faced repression after a failed attempt to hold a three-day concert, called '' Concierto Blanco'' (white concert) inside the State government palace in Monterrey's main square. The violent incidents after the White concert, which were extensively covered by the media, seriously damaged then

Nuevo Leon Nuevo is the Spanish word for "new". It may refer to: * Nuevo, California, a town in the state of California * Nuevo (band), featuring singer and musician Peter Godwin * Nuevo (Bayamón), a settlement in Puerto Rico * "Nuevo", Spanish-language vers ...

governor Eduardo Elizondo's political career. News from

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

( Varadero '70),

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

( Festival de Ancon),

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

( Festival Buenos Aires Rock),

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

( Festival de los Dominicos "Piedra Roja"),

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

(

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

) and films from American festivals like "

Monterey Pop ''Monterey Pop'' is a 1968 American concert film by D. A. Pennebaker that documents the Monterey International Pop Festival of 1967. Among Pennebaker's several camera operators were fellow documentarians Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles. The pa ...

" and "

" fueled the desire for the jipitecas to host their own major counterculture event. The opportunity arrived in the spring of 1971.

History

Trying to resurrect their popular

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

spot, ''Circuito Avándaro'', after being cancelled in 1969 as a result of the fatal accident of

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

Moisés Solana Moisés Solana Arciniega (December 26, 1935 – July 27, 1969) was a Mexican racing driver. He participated in eight Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on October 27, 1963, and scoring no championship points. He also participat ...

, ''Promotora Go'' owners brothers Eduardo and Alfonso López Negrete in partnership with

McCann McCann may refer to: * McCann (surname) * McCann (company), advertising agency * McCann Worldgroup, network of marketing and advertising agencies * Marist College athletic facilities ** McCann Arena ** James J. McCann Baseball Field * McCann Rescu ...

vice-president

Justino Compeán Justino is a name which is used as both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Justino de Azcárate (1903–1989), Spanish lawyer and politician *Justino Díaz (born 1940), Puerto Rican operatic bass-bariton ...

decided to organize a massive auto race with live rock music acts and consulted then

promoter

to video-record the motoring event and to hire Javier Bátiz and La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata, two of the most popular Mexican rock acts of the time. Luis de Llano was at the time producing a section named ''La onda de Woodstock'' in the

Jacobo Zabludovsky Jacobo Zabludovsky Kraveski (May 24, 1928 – July 2, 2015) was a Mexican journalist. He was the first anchorman in Mexican television and his TV news program, ''24 Horas'' (''24 Hours'') was for decades regarded as the most important in the coun ...

's program ''Hoy Domingo'' (Today Sunday). De Llano assembled a team of around 330 individuals to organize the music part of the festival, among them reporter/musicologist Jaime Almeida, screenwriter Armando Molina, publicist Carlos Alazraki, and MCs Roberto Naranjo and Eduardo Davis. Molina, himself an impresario and musician from '' La Maquina del Sonido'' fame, was appointed Music Coordinator. The music coordination was in the hands of the company ArTe, owned by Molina and Waldo Tena (of Los rebeldes del Rock fame). After many negotiations and declining invitations Molina proceeded to book 12 bands. Designer

Joe Vera Joe Vera (born April 20, 1941, Pomona, California, United States) is a Mexican-American graphic designer, creator of some of the most recognized logos of the early 1970s in Mexico, such as the Emblem of Cancun in 1974 and the poster for the ...

was hired to design the official poster and tickets were sold at AUTOMEX-

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

agencies across the country for MX$25. Jacobo Zabludovsky heavily supported and promoted the festival in his daily news program "24hrs" and he was one of the few mainstream broadcasters to defend it in its aftermath.

The venue

Expectations

As was reported in the

Corpus Christi Caller-Times The ''Corpus Christi Caller-Times'' is the newspaper of record for Corpus Christi, Texas. History There has been a newspaper in Corpus Christi for almost as long as there has been a town. In 1883, the ''Caller'' was started in a frame buildi ...

, a maximum of 25,000 attendees, 122 pilots with their staff (with their number expected to reduce after the technical inspections) and 12 Mexican bands with a possible last-minute inclusion of American bands to bolster the event was expected. The bands were going to play from Saturday 7 pm to Sunday 7 am, making way for the auto race to start in public roads around the lake. 2 weeks before the event, the 5 hotels in town were already booked. In the

TV Azteca TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as some local operators. It owns two national ...

documentary "Historias Engarzadas: Alex Lora" Alex Lora explained that this possible "''inclusion of American bands''" was going to be a surprise visit by

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer Boats * Santana 20, an American sailboat design by W. D. Sch ...

Live Radio Broadcasting

Sports promoter Justino Compean and Radio Juventud General Manager Ramiro Garza made a deal with then

Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, ...

Marketing Director, Vicente Fox Quezada, to sponsor the live broadcasting.

Lighting and sound systems

Héctor Yaber from Telesistema Mexicano was in charge of the lighting system and Gustavo Cota from the company Audiorama S.A. of the

PA system A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

. All equipments were transported by the company Mudanzas Galván of José C. Galván Castro.

Security

The security was going to be in charge of the State of Mexico's Judicial Police chief Cuauhtémoc Cardenas (not the politician of the same name), who was going to receive support from 200 state troopers, 120 army troops and 50 Special Agents from the Secretariat of the Interior as well as Valle de Bravo's Fire Department. Nevertheless, reports of the total amount of security agents were mixed. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' reported a total of 700 law-enforcement agents.

Terms between the organizers and mayor Montes de Oca

The festival president Eduardo Lopez Negrete and Valle de Bravo's then-mayor Juan Montes de Oca Loza agreed that no liquor was going to be sold. Beer would be sold only with a meal. In an in-depth radio/video interview with radio host Rafael Catana, Armando Molina stated that mayor Montes de Oca suggested to Valle de Bravo's inhabitants to be polite with the hippie crowd as they felt being overwhelmed by the excessive numbers of them. In the end, not a single Valle de Bravo inhabitant complained about the hippies.

Cancellation of the auto race

Early Saturday morning it was decided, as stated by Alfonso Lopez Negrete, in an on-site interview made by a Telesistema Mexicano, to cancel the auto race due to the quantity of festival attendees which surpassed all expectations. The ''Circuito Avandaro'' auto-race was going to be suspended for decades to come since authorities tied the sport with massive crowds.

The music

Pre-festival

As stated by Armando Nava, Alex Lora and De Llano in the "Memorias de un cierto dia: Avandaro" documentary, tens of thousands of jipitecas were already on-site so activities started September 9 (Thursday) with special shows and even some brief concerts some bands like El Amor, Dug Dug's and Three Souls in my Mind offered while at the same time doing their sound-check for Saturday. By Saturday 11 at 6AM, hundreds of thousands of attendees were already on-site so Molina and De Llano decided to formally start the festival with a "Pre-festival". The acts which performed were: * Carlos Baca (

Yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

session and

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

lecture) * Eduardo Ruiz Saviñón and

UNAM The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

's experimental theater troupe with Carlos Steward. (Performed

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

's "

Tommy Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

) *La Ley de Herodes (band of the famous

Arau Arau is the royal capital of Perlis, Malaysia with a population of around 20,000. The red-roofed Istana (Royal Palace) is a mixture of colonial and pseudo-Moorish architectural styles. This town is the disembarkation point for visitors travell ...

family.) *Zafiro * La Sociedad Anonima * Los Soul Masters * La Fachada de Piedra with Larry Sanchez (39.4)

Festival

La Fachada de Piedra concluded their act at approx. 5pm. After a brief pause the festival resumed as follows: *

Los Dug Dug's Los Dug Dug's is a rock group from Durango, Mexico, best known for their work in the 1960s and early 1970s. Los Dug Dug's is one of the first Mexican bands to show The Beatles' influence, and noted as one of the first Mexican rock bands to write ...

*El Epilogo * La División del Norte *

Tequila Tequila (; ) is a liquor, distilled beverage made from the Agave tequilana, blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, Jalisco, Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands ...

* Peace & Love * El Ritual * Bandido * Los Yaki with Mayita Campos * Tinta Blanca * El Amor * Three Souls in my Mind At around Sunday 9am, Three Souls in my Mind finished their act and the massive exodus started.

Festival development

As stated by Armando Molina in the official soundtrack (narration part) and by his then assistant Jaime Almeida, the whole festival was held in peace with the only problem being that the attendees destroyed the barricade and invaded reserved areas of the light towers and even the stage. In the official soundtrack desperate calls for order from Molina's assistant Roberto Naranjo and band members from ''Dug Dug's'', ''El Epilogo'', and ''Peace and Love'' can be heard. At one point, an attendee fainted and Tequila's world-class Mexican-American singer, Maricela Durazo, ordered the crowd to take good care and protect her. As many thousands of jipitecas were on-site since Friday 10, co-organizer Luis de Llano stated the famous phrase: "They survived for three days sharing rain and mud; that was in attempt to have an identity." Francisco Martinez Gallardo, chief of the medical team and voluntaries of the improvised in-site hospital stated: "There was one case of acute appendicitis, 20 intoxicated with pills, 50 with marijuana, 5 with alcoholic congestion, 5 cases of gastroenteritis and some with wounded heads, ankle fractures and burns."

Exodus

President Luis Echeverria agreed to send 300 buses to pick up some of the attendees. The news were cheered with a rarely seen approval for a Mexican president from his country's youth. As one of the organizers yelled, with heavy use of slangs, through the audio system: "Lets cheer up Luis Echeverria, who is gonna send 300 buses of 50 seats each so we can go back...is a good guy that fella" (un aplauso para Luis Echeverría que nos va a mandar 300 camiones de 50 pasajeros para el regreso ... a todo dar el chavo ese). As can be seen in the Gurrola film, thousands upon thousands of hippies were walking from the site and many of them were overwhelming the buses.

Aftermath: ''Avandarazo'' and controversies

As can be heard in the soundtrack, the band ''Peace and Love'' performed the songs "Marihuana" and "We got the power", that were considered controversial to Mexican society. At the same time, Peace and Love front-man Ricardo Ochoa used some foul language in order to cheer up the crowd, echoing what

Country Joe McDonald Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (born January 1, 1942) is an American musician who was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish.Richard Brenneman"Country Joe McDonald Revives Anti-War Anthem", ''Berkeley ...

did at Woodstock. Since the festival was being broadcast live through ''Radio Juventud'' and relay stations all over the country, some segments of society took this as a direct threat to the establishment ("Marihuana" for advocating open drug-use and "We got the power" for wrongly associating it with a possible popular uprising). The possible association of jipitecas with subversive and radical political movements is what caused the so-called ''Avandarazo''. In the aftermath of the post-festival turmoil, several interviewed Avandaro attendees declared that the whole festival was held in peace and not a single major accident happened but Moya Palencia, then

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

, accused the organizers of acting with intent and

Carlos Hank González Carlos Hank González (August 27, 1927–August 11, 2001), nicknamed ''El Profesor'' ("The Professor"), was a Mexican politician and businessman. Originally a teacher, he was an entrepreneur who built political contacts along with businesse ...

, then governor of the State of Mexico, condemned the festival's organizers and in his own defense stated that "They were given permission to perform a sporting event, but instead presented a rock festival" but, as stated by Armando Fuentes Aguirre ''Caton'', his political opponents took this as an opportunity to destroy his presidential aspirations. Opinions from the world of politics, religion and academia were deeply divided. While influential university professors and La Onda writers such as Parménides García and

José Agustín José Agustín Ramírez Gómez (born 19 August 1944) is a Mexican novelist, short story writer, essayist and screenwriter. He is considered as one of the most influential and prolific Mexican writers of the second half of the 20th century. Career ...

, mostly gave the festival a positive review, and some intellectuals like

Paco Ignacio Taibo I Paco Ignacio Taibo I (19 July 1924 in Gijón, Asturias – 13 November 2008 in Mexico City), was a prolific Spanish- Mexican writer and journalist. Life His birth name Francisco Ignacio Taibo Lavilla González Nava Suárez Vich Manjón. He w ...

Elena Poniatowska Hélène Elizabeth Louise Amélie Paula Dolores Poniatowska Amor (born May 19, 1932), known professionally as Elena Poniatowska () is a French-born Mexican journalist and author, specializing in works on social and political issues focused on th ...

(herself an attendee),

Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...

and José Emilio Pacheco gave a fairly positive evaluation too, others criticized it negatively like Roberto Blanco Moheno and Eduardo "Rius" del Rio. Writer and political activist

Carlos Monsiváis Carlos Monsiváis Aceves (May 4, 1938 – June 19, 2010) was a Mexican philosopher, writer, critic, political activist, and journalist. He also wrote political opinion columns in leading newspapers within the country's progressive sectors. ...

initially gave the festival a negative review but changed his mind soon afterwards. As Guadalajara Cardinal

José Garibi y Rivera José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

condemned it, popular liberal priest and festival attendee Enrique Marroquin praised it, publishing in Piedra Rodante a controversial article in its defense called "God wants the rain so we can unite." There was also a notable incident at La Profesa, when during mass in homage to Mexico's Independence figure Agustin de Iturbide, a group of about 250 individuals belonging to a conservative civil movement left the building in protest as mass was being served by

Monsignor Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...

Rafael Vazquez Corona, a strong supporter of the festival. Monsignor Vazquez Corona was then heavily criticized by then rector of the

University of Guadalajara The University of Guadalajara ( es, Universidad de Guadalajara) is a public higher education institution in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. The university has several high schools as well as graduate and undergraduate campuses, which are distr ...

, Dr. Garibay Gutiérrez, in his 1972 book about the festival "El gran desafio: Volver a pensar". Union leader Fidel Velazquez simply called the festival "a

Bacchanalia The Bacchanalia were unofficial, privately funded popular Roman festivals of Bacchus, based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult of Liber, and probably arrived in Rome ...

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Ojeda Paullada labelled it as a "

witches' Sabbath A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals. The phrase became popular in the 20th century. Origins In 1668, Johannes Praetorius published his literary work "Blockes-Berges Verrichtu ...

" and President of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, Enrique Olivares Santana, yelled in a press conference: "Let there be no more Avandaros in the republic!". Finally and under pressure, president

Luis Echeverría Luis Echeverría Álvarez (; 17 January 1922 – 8 July 2022) was a Mexican lawyer, academic, and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who served as the 57th president of Mexico from 1970 to 1976. Previously, ...

made a strong statement against the festival, saying: "While we regret and condemn the phenomenon of Avándaro, it also encourages us in our belief that only a small part of our youth are in favor of such acts and entertainment." President Echeverria then proceeded to crack down La Onda. Some early 1970s hit-songs like "Avandaro" from Rosario, "Seguir al sol" by Pajaro Alberto and others which commemorated the event, were banned from radio air play, Radio Juventud DJs Félix Ruano Mendez, Jaime Marin and Agustín Meza de la Peña were temporarily suspended but, contrary to popular belief, they were not terminated. On the other hand, the influential Piedra Rodante magazine was indeed terminated in early 1972 and festival co-organizer Justino Compean left the country for a while. The band Tinta Blanca and other rock musicians tried unsuccessfully to hold a meeting with president Echeverria with a famous protest outside

Los Pinos Los Pinos (English: ''The Pines'') was the official residence and office of the President of Mexico from 1934 to 2018. Located in the Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest) in central Mexico City, it became the presidential seat in 1934, wh ...

. After a short time the protest was peacefully dissolved.

Films and TV

Short films

*''Avandaro''. A 1971 Super 8 short film of approximately 20 minutes of footage with live soundtrack, produced by Luis Gutiérrez y Prieto and directed/edited by

. Photographers were awarded-filmmakers Héctor Abadie, David Celestinos and Sergio Garcia Michel. Facing government pressure in the aftermath of the festival, the film was briefly screened in selected theaters, cultural centers and international Super 8 film festivals only. By the end of the 1970s, the film was acquired by ''

'' thanks to the efforts of Gutiérrez y Prieto. As stated in Garcia Michel essay ''Toward a fourth cinema'': "Apart from the technical achievements, Luis always sympathized with this Movement, sponsoring films such as Avándaro, Pasiones assionsand La lucha he Struggle the first two were transferred from super-8 to videotape and belong to Cablevisión." In 2006, the company Video Grupo Empresarial included it as a DVD-extra in the release of the 1983 Sergio Garcia film ''Three Souls in my mind: Una larga experiencia''. *''Tinta Blanca en Avándaro''.

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, educ ...

short film produced by Raul Candiani and directed by the band's manager, Humberto Rubalcaba Zuleta, about the band's participation in the festival. The film was exhibited at the Berlinale and awarded third prize ("Sombrero de Bronce") at the IVth Guadalajara's International Short Film Festival. Mexico, 1972. *''Avándaro: Imágenes Inéditas''. Rarely seen footage shot on-site by Sergio Garcia in 1971 and transferred from Super 8 to digital in 2008 by American filmmaker Angela Reginato. This posthumous work was premiered on February 2, 2014, in Mexico City at the Benemérito de las Américas cultural center. Mexico 2008.

Documentaries

*''Avándaro 20 años después''. Documentary produced by Enrique Quintero Marmol, Mexico 1991. *''Avándaro''. Documentary produced by Tres Tristes Tigres/Enrique Quintero Marmol. A longer version of the 1991 documentary. Mexico 1996. *''Las glorias de Avandaro''. An independently produced documentary by Arturo Lara Lozano, Carlos Cruz, Manuel Martinez, Angel Velazquez and Arnulfo Martinez y Torres, Mexico 2005. *''Bajo el sol y frente a Dios''. Independent documentary by Arturo Lara Lozano/Enciclopedia del rock mexicano. Mexico, 2016.

TV specials

*''Jueves Espectaculares : Avándaro''. Special program of this Telesistema Mexicano's

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

. Presenter

Julio Alemán Julio Méndez Alemán (November 29, 1933 – April 11, 2012) was a Mexican actor.Canal Once Once (Eleven; formerly Once TV México and Canal Once) is a Mexican educational broadcast television network owned by National Polytechnic Institute. The network's flagship station is XEIPN-TDT channel 11 in Mexico City. It broadcasts across ...

/Enrique Quintero Marmol, Mexico 2003. *''Memoria viva de ciertos dias: Festival de Avándaro''. Special program produced by Canal 22 (

CONACULTA The Secretariat of Culture ( es, Secretaría de Cultura), formerly known as the National Council for Culture and Arts ( es, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes or CONACULTA), is a Mexican government agency in charge of the nation's museums ...

). Includes interviews with Alex Lora, Luis de Llano, Armando Nava and others. Mexico 2003. *''La historia detras del mito: Avándaro''. Special program produced and aired by

, Mexico 2012. *''El observador: 40 años de Avándaro, Partes 1 y 2''. Special program produced by Television Metropolitana S.A. de C.V.-

Canal 22 XEIMT-TDT, known as Canal 22, is a television station located in Mexico City. Broadcasting on channel 22, XEIMT is owned by Televisión Metropolitana, S.A. de C.V., and operated by the Secretariat of Culture. It is one of Mexico's principal pub ...

Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes The Secretariat of Culture ( es, Secretaría de Cultura), formerly known as the National Council for Culture and Arts ( es, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes or CONACULTA), is a Mexican government agency in charge of the nation's museums ...

, Mexico 2013. * ''Susana Adicción: Hablando del Festival de Avándaro''. Special program dedicated to the festival conducted by

Monclova Monclova (), is a city and the seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. According to the 2015 census, the city had 231,107 inhabitants. Its metropolitan area has 381,432 inhabitants and ...

-born singer

Susana Zabaleta Susana Zabaleta Ramos (; born September 30, 1964) is a Mexican soprano singer and actress. Early life Born in Monclova, Coahuila, Monclova, Coahuila, she moved to Mexico City in 1985. In 1986 she performed in the Sala Ollín Yoliztli and inter ...

. Produced by Luis de Llano for UNICABLE-TELEVISA. Mexico 2013. *''Observatorio Cotidiano: 45 años de Avándaro''. Special program to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the festival. Includes a short documentary about festival photographer Graciela Iturbide. Produced by

TV UNAM TV UNAM (stylized as ''tvunam'' and ''tv•unam'', formerly written ''teveunam'') is an educational television network owned and operated by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. Programming on TV UNAM generally co ...

. Mexico, 2016. *''Leyendas: Avándaro''. Special program hosted by Luis de LLano where he interviews Justino Compean, Graciela Iturbide, Alex Lora and other people involved with the festival. Produced by Televisa. Mexico, 2017. *''Maravillas y Curiosidades de la Filmoteca de la UNAM: Avandaro''. Special program hosted by Rafael Avina where he conducts an in-depth interview with filmmaker Alfredo Gurrola about his legendary Super 8mm shortfilm 'Avandaro'. Produced by TV UNAM. Mexico, 2017.

The festival in documentaries about Mexican rock

*''Nunca digas que no: Tres decadas de rock mexicano''. Documentary produced by

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, USA 1996. *''Yo no era rebelde, Rock mexicano 1957-1971''. Documentary from ClioTV, produced by

Enrique Krauze Enrique Krauze (Mexico City, September 16, 1947) is a Mexican historian, essayist, editor, and entrepreneur. He has written more than twenty books, some of which are: ''Mexico: Biography of Power'', ''Redeemers'', and ''El pueblo soy yo'' (''I a ...

. Mexico 1999. *''BACK''. Documentary about the history of rock music in Guadalajara and the involvement of some of its bands in the Avandaro Festival. Produced by the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Mexico 2006. *''Rock n Roll made in Mexico: From evolution to revolution''. Documentary directed by Lance Miccio and produced by

Canned Heat Canned Heat is an American band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. The group is noted for its efforts to promote interest in blues music and its original artists and rock music. It was founded by two blues enthusiasts Alan Wilson and Bob ...

drummer

Fito de la Parra A unit prefix is a specifier or mnemonic that is prepended to units of measurement to indicate multiples or fractions of the units. Units of various sizes are commonly formed by the use of such prefixes. The prefixes of the metric system, such a ...

. USA, 2007. *''Documental 1968-1971: Los Jefes del Rock''. Documentary directed by Guillermo Piñón. Set as a fictional story, several persons involved with the festival are interviewed. Produced by Canal 22/CONACULTA. Mexico, 2008. *'' Gimme the Power''. Documentary by

Olallo Rubio Olallo Rubio is a Mexican filmmaker and broadcaster. He is known for his documentaries '' So, What's Your Price?'', '' Gimme the Power'' and '' Ilusión Nacional'', and the feature film '' This Is Not a Movie'' Career Rubio's career began in ...

about the band Molotov and how Mexican rock music has always had, since the late 1950s and passing through the Avandaro Festival until modern times, an ambiguous relationship with the Mexican government and society. Contains interviews with people involved in the festival like Luis de Llano, Sergio Arau, Alex Lora and Armando Molina. IMCINE-

Mexico, 2012.

Documentaries in production

*''Avandaro''. In 2012, Mexican filmmaker Javier "Panda" Padilla of the movie '' Suave patria'' stated that he was making a documentary about Avandaro but with no due date on sight. In late 2013 he stated that the project, made in cooperation with Enrique Krauze's Editorial CLIO, is stalled due to copyright issues and that it might take years to come into fruition.

The festival in movies and TV shows

*'' La verdadera vocación de Magdalena''. Contains a segment with a fictional appearance of La Revolucion de Emiliano Zapata and

Angelica Maria ''Angelica'' is a genus of about 60 species of tall biennial and perennial herbs in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, reaching as far north as Iceland, Lapland, and Greenland. They grow ...

at the festival. It uses some real footage of the festival interspersed with a fictional recreation of it. Directed by

. Mexico, 1971. *'' Los Polivoces''. A comedy TV show of the early 1970s. The frequently seen

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...

''Armandaro Valle de Bravo'', was supposed to be a jipiteca and was named after the event and Armando Molina. In his debut episode, he is supposed to be interviewed as he and his parents were returning from the festival. Mexico, 1971–1973. *''

Güeros ''Güeros'' is a 2014 Mexican road comedy-drama film directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios. Set in Mexico City in 1999, the film tells the story of three restless teenagers searching for a folk-rocker during the Mexican capital's student strike. The fil ...

''. Ariel awarded

road movie A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienatio ...

directed by

Alonso Ruizpalacios Alonso Ruizpalacios (born 1978) is a Mexican film director. Biography Ruizpalacios was born and raised in Mexico City. He studied stage directing in Mexico City, before moving to London where he trained as an actor at RADA. Ruizpalacios writes a ...

. It tells the fictional story of four characters who, in the middle of the 1999 UNAM strike, decide to find the legendary ''Epigmenio Cruz'', an artist who once "made

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

cry" and was scheduled to perform at the festival. México, 2014.

The ''Telenovelas'' (soap operas)

*''

Así en el Barrio como en el Cielo ''Así en el barrio como en el cielo'' (English: ''So in the neighborhood as in heaven'') is a Mexican telenovela produced by Fides Velasco for TV Azteca. It is an original story of Guillermo Ríos, Leticia López Margalli and Eugenio Derbez. ...

'' (English: So in the neighborhood as in heaven). A

soap opera, produced by Fides Velasco and written by Guillermo Ríos and Leticia López Margalli. The plot uses the Avándaro festival as its starting point and main base. Mexico, 2015. In May 2009 and then in May 2014, Luis de Llano, of

Televisa Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...

, formally announced that he was preparing a soap opera with the Avándaro festival as its background.

The Play

*''Avandaro'': A comedy written by Carlos Alfonso Nava and directed by Cristian Magaloni. Three women from very different walks of life check in at a hotel close to the festival. As they are getting ready to show up to the concert, things will not go as planned. The play received laudatory reviews by critics and the blessing of Alex Lora. Mexico, 2018.

Literature exclusively about Avandaro

Books

*''Avándaro: Aliviane o movida?'' Book written by Vicente Anaya, Eligio Calderon, Carla Zenzes and José Luis Fernandez. Published by Editorial Extemporaneous, Mexico, 1971. *'' Avándaro''. Book written by Luis Carrión Beltrán with pictures by

, published by Editorial Diogenes. Mexico, 1971. *''Avándaro ¡Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!''. A collection of essays from different authors collected by Antonio Elizondo. Published by Editorial Paralelo 32, S.A. Mexico, 1971. *''La Trampa'' (The Trap). A three-part essay about the Mexican youth. Its third chapter, entitled ''El gran desafío : volver a pensar'' (The great challenge : to think again), deals with the festival. Written by Luis Garibay Gutiérrez, published by the Autonomous University of Guadalajara. Mexico, 1972. *''

Nosotros Spanish personal pronouns have distinct forms according to whether they stand for the subject ( nominative) or object, and third-person pronouns make an additional distinction for direct object (accusative) or indirect object ( dative), and for ...

''. Comprehensive

photo-book A photo book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. A photo book is related to and also often used as a coffee table book. Early Early photo books are characterized by their use of ...

about the festival, written by ''Tinta Blanca's'' manager Humberto Rubalcaba, with collaborations from Karen Lee de Rubalcaba, Alfredo Gonzalez and Mario Ongay. Pictures by Jorge Bano, José Pedro Camus, Francisco Drohojowski and Joel Turok. Contains an often cited Prologue by world-renowned journalist

. Editorial NOSOTROS. Mexico, 1972. *''Avandaro: Una leyenda'' (Avandaro: A legend). Book written by Juan Jiménez Izquierdo, a Festival attendee. Eridu Producciones. Mexico, 2011. *''Informe Avándaro 1971''. Published in 2014 but originally written in 1971 by intellectual Francisco Javier Estrada and politician Héctor Marín, then recently graduated from

Normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to Teacher education, train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high s ...

. According to their testimony, they were both appointed by the then General Direction of Public Education (the actual SEP) to make a report about the events of the festival. Published by Casa del Poeta Laura Méndez de Cuenca, Mexico 2014. *'' Yo estuve en Avándaro''. Written by Federico Rublí K. With photographs by Graciela Iturbide and a prologue by Luis de Llano. Trilce Ediciones. Mexico, 2016. *'' Avándaro : la historia jamás contada''.

Graphic Novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

written by Luis Fernando Enríquez Rocha. Editorial Resistencia, Secretaría de Cultura de la CDMX. Mexico, 2018. *''Avandaro: Lo que se dijo y lo que no se habia dicho''. A yet-to-be-published book by Armando Molina Solis.

Comics

*''Aliviane a la Madre Tierra''. A series of comics produced by Carlos Baca about the adventures of "Avandarito" (Little Avandaro) and his friends. Published by ''Revista Pop'', Mexico 1971–1973.

Magazines

Among many others, the most notorious ones were: *''

SIEMPRE! ''Siempre!'' is a news and political magazine published in Mexico. The magazine is published on a weekly basis. By the end of the 1960s the magazine became a significant part of Mexican politics and an important publication for democratization ...

: "Avandaro"''. Reputable political magazine. While it did not approve some of the excesses committed by the jipitecas, it defended the position taken by then governor

Hank Hank is a male given name. It may have been inspired by the Dutch name Henk,The Origins of 10 Nicknam ...

and severely criticized the exaggerations of the media about the event. Mexico, 1971. *''Casos de Alarma: Avandaro, el infierno''. Exploitation magazine. Fictional story, purported to be real, about a troubled couple; a hippie woman (''La encuerada de Avandaro'') and a man with an opposing point of view of the Festival and the counterculture. Published by Alarma, Mexico 1971. * ''Piedra Rodante: "La verdad sobre Avándaro"''. La Onda magazine. In-depth reportages about the festival including the renown "Dios quiere que llueva para unirnos" by liberal priest Enrique Marroquin. Published by Editoriales Tribales S.A., México, 1971. * ''Por Que?: "Avándaro: Miseria del régimen"''. Left-leaning magazine. In-depth reportage criticizing La Onda hippies and the festival, according to the magazine's political point of view. Published by Mario Menéndez. México 1971. * ''Cancionero internacional de oro En Onda: "Festival 11 de septiembre de 1971". Music magazine. In-depth reportage about the festival and the band Peace & Love. México, 1971. * ''Alerta: "Musica, droga y sexo: El frenesi de Avándaro"''. Exploitation magazine.. México, 1971. * ''Figuras de la cancion: "La noche de Avándaro"''. Music magazine. In-depth reportage about the festival and the band Three Souls in my Mind. The magazine was an instant hit, selling 100,000 units in its release. México, 1971. * ''POP: "Avándaro"''. Music magazine, which included the famous comic "Aliviane a la Madre Tierra" by Carlos Baca. México, 1971.

Soundtracks

Live soundtrack

*'' Avandaro: Por fin...32 años después''. Released by Luis de Llano's own company Bakita-Ludell Records and produced by Javier Tena. Initially to include only 12 live tracks, the final product includes 17 live tracks as recorded in the festival. The CD was presented at the

Hard Rock Café Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a British-based multinational chain of theme restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and rol ...

in Mexico City. Comprehensive description by Armando Molina. Mexico, 2003.

Other soundtracks

*''La Fachada de Piedra en Avandaro Valle de Bravo''. An EP with four studio tracks produced by Discos Orfeon, Mexico 1971. *''Love Army en Avandaro''. An EP with four studio tracks produced by Discos Orfeon, Mexico 1971. *''Los Free Minds en Avandaro Valle de Bravo''. An EP of four studio tracks produced by Discos Orfeon, Mexico 1971. *''Los Soul Masters en Avandaro Valle de Bravo''. An EP of four studio tracks produced by Discos Orfeon, Mexico 1971. *''Super Onda Chicana Vol. II: Vibraciones del 11 de Septiembre de 1971''. Compilation by

Fontana Records Fontana Records is a record label that was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. The independent label distributor Fontana Distribution takes its name from the label. History Fontana started in the 1950s as a subs ...

, which

BILLBOARD A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

magazine incorrectly labelled as a Live Recording of the event, Mexico 1971. *''Rosario: Avandaro'': Hit single by the band Rosario, issued by Philips. Mexico, 1972. *''Rock en Avandaro''. A compilation of twelve studio tracks produced by Discos Orfeon, re-issued in CD in 2005. Mexico 1972. *''Tinta Blanca: Avandaro''. Hit single from Tinta Blanca, issued by Philips. Mexico, 1971. *''Tinta Blanca: Ecos de Avandaro''. A re-issue of the band's 1971 hit single "Everything's gonna change" originally released by Philips. Re-issued by Cisne RAFF, Mexico 1973. *''Coleccion Avandaro''. LP, CD and Cassette re-issues by Discos y Cintas Denver of Peace & Love and El Ritual's debut albums as well as Three Souls in my Mind's first two albums. Mexico, 1985-1987-1992-1999. *''Vibraciones de Avandaro''. A compilation of studio tracks produced by

PolyGram Records PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

in 1994 and re-issued in 1996 to celebrate the festival's 25th anniversary. Mexico, 1994–1996. *''Festival de Rock y Ruedas en Avandaro Valle de Bravo''. A compilation of studio tracks of different bands produced by

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...

, Mexico 2002. *'' Ecos de Avandaro''. A double CD compilation with studio works of different bands. Produced by

Sony BMG Music Entertainment Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

, Mexico 2007.

Curiosities

''La encuerada de Avandaro''

In spite the spirit of the age and that many people were completely naked swimming in the lake, walking in the middle of the crowd or even on stage without a problem as can be seen in the film, one woman, as the band La Division del Norte was playing, performed a

striptease A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "ex ...

and caught the attention of the cameras. Her strip-tease was captured in the Gurrola film and shots of her appeared in many other media. When the footage and pictures were shown, the public baptized the woman as ''La encuerada''(the naked woman). The woman was interviewed on-site by Elena Poniatowska; however, another interview, thought to have been real for decades, was published in the rock magazine Piedra Rodante in late 1971. In 2001, a bitter dispute between the owner of the magazine Manuel Aceves and then collaborator and music critic Oscar Sarquiz about the veracity of the interview took place in ''La Jornada'' newspaper. Finally, it was confirmed by Federico Rubli and further explained in the TV Azteca documentary that the interview was completely bogus. A few years after the festival the band Three Souls in my Mind composed a song called ''La encuerada de Avandaro'' which would become a hit in the underground movement.

The lost Telesistema Mexicano videotapes

Shot by Telesistema Mexicano cameramen under direction of Carlos Alazraki, those tapes were destined to become part of the planned TV special but were confiscated by their own company as soon as Luis de Llano showed up for work. Some footage of these tapes has been released since 1971 in movies and documentaries. In a 2001 interview, Luis de Llano recalled this situation and stated that may he find the tapes he will produce a movie with them though it is widely believed that they were sent to a storage in

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

, and that years later the whole place burnt out. He also made clear that, contrary to popular belief, the

Secretariat of the Interior The Mexican Secretariat for Home Affairs ( es, Secretaría de Gobernación, SEGOB, lit=Secretariat for Governance) is the public department concerned with the country's domestic affairs, the presenting of the president's bills to Congress, their ...

did not confiscate the tapes. An independent investigation, as shown in the ''Las glorias de Avandaro'' documentary, made as a request through the Federal Institute of access to information (

IFAI The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is India's largest professional accounting body under the administrative control of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. It was established on 1 July 1949 as a statutory ...

) produced the official document proving that, indeed, the government did not confiscate the tapes.

Booked acts who failed to show up

* Love Army - As stated by the former band singer Pajaro Alberto in the ''Glorias de Avandaro'' documentary, the band suffered a minor car accident while on the road from Mexico City to Avandaro. *

La Tribu La Tribu is a Canadian independent record label founded in 1999 in Quebec. Noted artists * Dorothée Berryman *Robert Charlebois * Les Cowboys Fringants * Dee * Dumas * Louise Forestier * Fred Fortin/Gros Mené * Jorane * Juste Robert (fr) *Ka ...

- As stated by Armando Molina in the live soundtrack, La Tribu cancelled at the very last minute but their record company,

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

, sent La Division del Norte in their place.

Acts who declined to participate

*La Revolucion de Emiliano Zapata: As stated by member Javier Martin del Campo in the fair use trailer for ''Bajo el sol y frente a Dios'' documentary, the band was already booked for September 11 to appear in Monterrey. As the band was heading north, they saw thousands of fans going south for the festival. *Javier Batiz: As stated on the fair use TV Azteca documentary ''La historia detras del mito: Avandaro'', he considered Molina's payment offer too low. Later, he regretted his decision and tried, together with his sister singer Baby Batiz some members of ''Los Locos'' and his girlfriend, to get to the festival but were stranded in the traffic jam and his girlfriend at the time got ill while on the road.

Legacy and Official Recognition in 2019

The festival remains a controversial issue in Mexican society. After the festival, Mexican rock music was almost banned and was segregated to the so-called ''Hoyos Funkies'', illegal gatherings in abandoned warehouses and supported mostly by the proletariat. A few years after the festival the hippie movement around the world collapsed and Mexico's La Onda was no exception, giving way to the ascension of other music genres of the mid-1970s such as

Disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

, Urban rock,

Punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

, Romantic Ballads, Heavy Metal,

Progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

and, exclusively in the Mexican scene, the ''Rupestre movement'' championed by Rockdrigo Gonzalez. The world-class quality of the bands that participated is generally praised by critics and public alike and the festival was little by little being acknowledged by official publications from respected institutions such as

INEGI The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI by its name in es, Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática) is an autonomous agency of the Mexican Government dedicated to coordinate the National System of Stat ...

and COLMEX and in November 2019, right after the death of Armando Molina, Senator Marti Batres via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

gave his sympathies to Molina's family members and made the announcement about the official recognition that the Senate would do to the Festival. On November 25, 2019, the Mexican Senate gave a formal recognition to different musicians who took part on the festival as well as a tribute to Molina, effectively putting an end to 48 years of Government censorship to Avandaro. The festival is often regarded as a milestone in the history of rock music, the hippie movement and post-WWII Mexican society in general.

Picture gallery

Photographer

, himself an Avandaro attendee, produced a collection named ''Avandaro 1971'', available online. In 2016, the Museo Universitario del Chopo in Mexico City, exhibited a collection of Avandaro photographs taken by

Notes

External links

Official Recognition by the Mexican Senate
From the official YT channel of the Mexican Senate.
SIEMPRE!: Festival de Avándaro.
Fair-use ISSUU powered document of the magazine's Avandaro special.
Avandaro: The Play.
Fair-use trailer of the play with the same name. From Alegoria TV channel.
Tinta Blanca en Avandaro
Humberto Rubalcaba's short film, available for fair-use. No sound and with watermark.
Maravillas y Curiosidades de la Filmoteca de la UNAM: Avandaro
Fair use TV special, from TV UNAM's official YT channel.
Observatorio Cotidiano: 45 años de Avándaro
Fair use TV special, from TV UNAM's official YT channel.
Pantalla de Cristal: Enrique Quintero Marmol
Fair use CONACULTA video interview from Quintero Marmol's own YouTube channel.
In Memoriam: Avandaro
Documentary from Canal Once IPN. Available for fair use from the Producer's channel.
Documental 1968-1971: Los Jefes del Rock.
Fair use documentary from the official Canal 22-CONACULTA YouTube channel.
Así en el Barrio como en el Cielo
Free streaming TV Azteca's Telenovela based on the Avandaro festival. Free streaming authorized by and from the official TV Azteca

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel.
Memoria Viva de Ciertos Días - Festival de Avándaro
Fair use documentary produced by

.
Avándaro, Imágenes Inéditas
Fair-use posthumous documentary by Sergio Garcia, available from Cultura Independiente channel.
Refried Elvis: The rise of the Mexican counterculture
Available as e-book for fair use from the

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

website.
Rafael Catana: Armando Molina en Pueblo de Patinetas
In-depth video/radio interview with festival co-organizer Armando Molina.
''Avandaro 1971''
Collection of art photos by Pedro Meyer.
BACK
Fair use documentary about rock music in Guadalajara and the bands that were involved in the Avandaro festival. Contains interviews with musicians from La Fachada de Piedra, Spiders, 39.4, La Revolucion de Emiliano Zapata and more. From the official channel of 39.4 singer Larry Sanchez as professor of the UAG, its producer.
Historias Engarzadas: Alex Lora.
Fair use documentary about El TRI's frontman Alex Lora, his involvement in the Avandaro festival and career in general. Contains interviews with Three Souls in my Mind drummer Charlie Hauptvogel, La Onda writer José Agustin, impresario Armando Molina and more.

-approved YT channel.
SuSana Adiccion: La represion de Avandaro
Fair use spots of the TV special available in the

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

website. Interviews with filmmaker Alfredo Gurrola, producer Luis de Llano and more.
Nosotros
1972 book by Humberto Rubalcaba, available for fair use in Scribd.
Avandaro
Fair use super 8 shortfilm produced by Luis Gutierrez y Prieto and directed/edited by Alfredo Gurrola, 1971.
Las glorias de Avandaro
Fair use and independently produced documentary by Arturo Lara Lozano, Carlos Cruz, Manuel Martinez, Angel Velazquez and Arnulfo Martinez y Torres, Mexico 2005.
La historia detras del mito: Avandaro
A fair use documentary produced by TV Azteca, 2013.
Programa especial "El observador": 40 años de Avándaro, Parte 1
First part of a fair use special program produced by Television Metropolitana S.A. de C.V.-Canal 22. Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 2013.
Programa especial "El observador": 40 años de Avándaro, Parte 2
Second part of a fair use special program produced by Television Metropolitana S.A. de C.V.-Canal 22. Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 2013.

From the Appalachian Getaway Magazine, 2005.

Carlos Baca's official website. Avandaro Comics and pictures available for fair use.
Enrique Marroquin
Enrique Marroquin's official website. Pictures and Avandaro/La Onda-related content available for fair use.
Piedra Rodante
Complete collection of the iconic

tabloid available for fair use by

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

.
Alfredo Gurrola
Gurrola's official website which includes free links to his Avandaro iconic film and more. {{DEFAULTSORT:Festival Rock y Ruedas de Avandaro 1971 music festivals Counterculture festivals Hippie movement History of the State of Mexico Music festivals established in 1971 Rock festivals in Mexico Valle de Bravo