Thesis Defence: Silencing the Sound

Ana Paula Salgado Gutiérrez, supervised by Dr. Jessica Stites Mor, will defend their thesis titled “Silencing the Sound: Informal Censorship and the Politics of Rock in Mexico, 1971–1986″ in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies – Power, Conflict, and Ideas theme.

An abstract for Ana Paula Salgado Gutiérrez’s thesis is included below.

Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Please email jessica.stites-mor@ubc.ca to receive the Zoom link for this defence.

Abstract

From September 11-12, 1971, Mexico held one of its largest rock music festivals to date: The Festival de Rock y Ruedas Avándaro. Set against a backdrop of political and social tension between the counterculture youth, government officials, and conservative society, the festival faced intense backlash and critiques, widely interpreted as a symbol of youth moral decay. In its aftermath, Mexican rock musicians and fans experienced nearly two decades of censorship, navigating a landscape where either they adapted their image and music to gain visibility, or retreated to underground alternative spaces. Despite some scholarship been written around this subject, there has been a crucial misunderstanding on the way the censorship around rock operated: rock was never banned, nor formally outlawed from the public sphere – as current scholarship describes. No documents exist to prove the government ever took legal and formal action against banning rock. Instead, this thesis argues that the government implemented an informal censorship regime, operating through self-censorship, selective programming, social conformity, and repression of non-conforming artist and visible subcultures like punk. By examining archival sources—government reports, fanzines, newspaper and magazine articles—this thesis challenges the misconception of outright prohibition. Through a Foucauldian lens and New Censorship theory, this thesis demonstrates that informal censorship can wield power as effectively as formal bans, profoundly shaping the post-Avándaro rock scene and controlling youth in ways that were often invisible but deeply felt.