Rodrigo González (25 December 1950 – 19 September 1985), better known as Rockdrigo or ''El profeta del nopal'' ("The Nopal Prophet"), was a Mexican singer-songwriter. He died at age 35 with his girlfriend, Francoise Bardinet, when the apartment building in which he was living collapsed in the Mexico City earthquake of 19 September 1985. His early death made him a legend in Mexican rock.

Biography

Rodrigo was born in

Tampico, Tamaulipas Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. It is located on the north bank of the Pánuco River, about inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and directly north of the state of Veracruz. Tampico is the fifth ...

. He studied

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

for a brief time at the

Universidad Veracruzana Veracruzana University () is a public autonomous university located in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Established in 1944, the university is one of the most important in the southeast region of México. Its academic organization is a structure ...

Xalapa Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexico, Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In 2020 census the city reported a population of 443,063 ...

before moving to

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

in 1977 with the desire to make music. He arrived to the capital and began playing in bars and

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

s. At first, he survived by singing covers in the streets of the city "in the English style." Over time, he began to create an oeuvre from his experiences on the streets. The lyrics of Rockdrigo mixed the urban lifestyle with the troubles of the urban poor, and found many listeners among students. His songs could also be regarded as tender, for instance, " Metro Balderas," the ballad about a man who had lost his lover, and ends up hijacking a subway train. In the early 1980s, he and other musicians including Rafael Catana, Jaime Lopez, and Roberto Ponce founded the ''La Liga de Musicos Errantes y Cantantes Rupestres'' (The League of Wandering Musicians and Prehistoric Cavemen Singers), which became known as the ''Movimiento Rupestre'', a

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

scene that strongly influenced Mexican rock for the next ten years or so. Their music was similar to the

Nueva canción (European , ; 'new song') is a left-wing social movement and musical genre in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, characterized by folk music, folk-inspired styles and socially committed lyrics. is widely recognized to have played a profou ...

movement in protesting social conditions, but unlike Nueva canción, they used street slang in their lyrics, were not overtly political, and drew on U.S. folk music instead of traditional Mexican instruments and sounds. Rockdrigo wrote the manifesto for the group. In 1983, novelist

José Agustín José Agustín Ramírez Gómez (19 August 1944 – 16 January 2024) was a Mexican novelist, short story writer, essayist and screenwriter. Publishing under the pen name José Agustín, he was considered one of the most influential and prolific Me ...

said that Rockdrigo had "achieved what is, for me, an extraordinary accomplishment: making Spanish sound perfect, truly natural in rock'n'roll....From the beginning I thought that Rodrigo González was our version of Bob Dylan with a sense of humor." At the time of his death, Rockdrigo was living in an apartment in the Unidad Tlatelolco, which was devastated by the 1985 earthquake. After his death musicians would gather at the Metro Balderas station on 19 September to commemorate him and the earthquake and sing his songs. His daughter, Amandititita, survived and later became a

cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Africans during colonial times. Cumbia is said to have com ...

singer and songwriter. In 2011, she and others unveiled a statue of Rockdrigo at the Metro Balderas station.

Music

As of 2007 there were four collections of his music: *''Hurbanistorias'' (''Urban stories'', 1983), a self-made record Posthumous: *''El profeta del nopal'' (''The Nopal Prophet'') *''No estoy loco'' (''I'm not Crazy'') *''Aventuras en el DF'' (''Adventures in DF'')

Films

* ''No tuvo tiempo: La Urbanistoria de Rockdrigo González'' by Rafael Montero * ''Un toke de roc'' by Sergio García Michel * ''Por qué no me las prestas?'' by Sergio García Michel * ''¿Cómo ves?'' by Paul Leduc

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Rodrigo 1950 births 1985 deaths Mexican male singer-songwriters Mexican singer-songwriters 20th-century Mexican poets 20th-century Mexican male writers Mexican male poets People from Tampico, Tamaulipas Deaths in earthquakes Natural disaster deaths in Mexico 20th-century Mexican male singers