Stay with me. This week, LA Weekly blogger Daniel Hernandez reported on a wave of mob violence targeting Emo kids. I'm thinking white belts covered in blood, toughguy crazies slashing throats with a splintered Hawthorn Heights CD, pink highlights ripped from the scalps of rock n' roll's most hilarious subculture since glam.
Now you might think that this is just a culture clash between liberal, androgynous fashion and traditional Mexican values. But certain intellectuals believe this clash could lead to something much more dangerous.
It all started Queretaro, a small state 160 miles northwest of Mexico City. According to the reputable newspaper La Jornada, Student music fans identifying themselves as punks or darks had taken to online message boards, mocking the emo subculture and challenging the authenticity of the genre. The anamosity came to a head when the punks crashed a gathering of emo students at Queretaro's capitol city center square.
When the dust cleared, the Mexican department of Traffic and Municipal Guard had arrested 22 minors and 6 adults in a standoff that lasted over 22 hours. A young emo couple was severly beaten by a group of punk students. The punks will be charged with assault in criminal court. The mayor of Queretaro, Manuel Gonzalez Valley, expressed regret that nothing the government did served to fix the problem. " The only thing we did this was to arrest the young and ready. But the discrimination remains."
He was more right than he knew. In just 12 days, riots and beatings had broken out in cities across Mexico, from the booze-soaked wonderland of Tijuana to the massive Mexico City. A Mexican VJ went on a televised diatribe, lambasting emo culture, calling it "fucking bullshit." Similar incidents have recently been reported in Chile, where the emo kids are called PokEMOnes. All because some punks were not big on skinny-fit jeans and Aiden CD's. But could it be bigger than that?
Ignacio Pineda is the coordinator of the Cultural Forum Alicia, a center for youth culture. Pineda believes that the violence may be part of a government conspiracy.
" What I see is a very conservative connotation. The deliberate aim is to divide, because [these kids] can offer prospects for the future." Pineda believes that this unilateral devision has ominous implications.
"Violence among various youth groups is not new, it has always existed, but now it has become massive. This campaign is dangerous and can grow and [turn] against blacks, gays, or women," says Pineda.
Emo culture and the effete, dramatic personalities that come with it are not new to the hispanic community. In August 2002, rock journalist Chuck Klosterman wrote an article for SPIN magazine about a Smiths convention he attended in Los Angeles. Upon arriving at Hollywood's Palace Theatre for the sixth annual Smiths/Morrissey convention, Klosterman realized that the overwhelming majority of hardcore Smiths fans are Latino.
"He speaks to us man," one fan told Klosterman. "Where was the one place Morrissey said he was always dying to tour? It was Mexico man, its where his heart is." This East L.A. 20-year-old is described as being carved out of marble, wore a sleeveless flanel shirt and confessed to listening to "There is a Light That Never Goes Out" and "crying like a little bitch."
The fans Klosterman interviewd espoused several theories as to the connection between effeminate, decidedly asexual, decidedly British emo music and Latin American people. Some believe that the rockabilly costumes and pompadour hairstyle Morrissey often wore are a reflection of Latin "greaser" culture. Some believe it is Morrissey's background as an Irish immigrant. His family moved to England where it is believed they were quite alienated from mainstream culture. This, as the theory goes, mirrors the Latino experience in America. But most people interviewed attribute the passion and emotion in the lyrics and style to the passion often attributed to Latin Americans.
But the most interesting part about Klosterman's piece as it relates to the current anti-emo violence across Mexico is the denial of Morrissey's possible sexual orientation.
"The most confusing aspect of Neo-Moz culture is the fact that just about everyone who has ever seen or heard Morrissey assumes he is gay--except for these Latino kids."
One fan outlines the phenomenon specifically, saying "there is a homophobic vibe amongst many Latin Americans who say "we like him so he can't be gay."
Klosterman goes on:
"Though it is understandable how a culture that invented the term machismo might be uncomfortable lionizing a gay icon, its ironic that Morrissey has now been adopted by two diametrically opposed subcultures. Fifteen years ago, closeted gay teens loved Morrissey because they thought he shared their secret; today future Marines try to ignore the fact that their hero might find them foxy."
So it is not without evidence that Mexican intellectuals suggest that perhaps these riots and beatings come from a cultural conservatism, a fear of difference, an adherence to traditional values. But the anger has to come from somewhere.
Édgar Morin, academic director of Acatlan Studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico agrees with Pineda that the violence is suggestive of more serious problems. 
"In Latin America, there are nearly 30 million young people who have no opportunity to study or work and logically, most believing that survival equals crime, tilts the scale of narcotics, piracy or smuggling. If the State does not begin to solve the problems of employment and education, there will be more conflict," Morin said.
In several interviews conducted by La Jornada, emo teens confessed being depressed, deadpan and some even displayed suicidal tendencies. But the punks claim this is all an act. "It bothers me that do not have their own identity, that it stolen from other tribes," a metalhead student named Diego complained. "Its a hybrid. According to them, they hate society but we always see them happy and aware of what they are doing."
Diego accuses emo kids of being superficial, consumerist, and depressive and states that they are not about music or culture but strictly about making a fashion statement.
"The Mexican people are obsessed with appearance," Morin states. "In such a difficult world, being emotional is not taken well. Only the strong survive."
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