Rubén Garza, who considers himself a certified metalhead, leads a crowd of rock fans and fellow musicians in a unifying chant: “Abolish ICE!” His band’s song, “I.C.E. Breaker,” which aims at the federal immigration agency, is just one of the tracks that embodies the group’s self-appointed label – they call themselves “Mexican Metal Maniacs.”
Garza’s band, Through N Through, was one of a few groups that rocked the house Feb. 22 at the Work26 Skate Shop’s Metal Matinee, a heavy metal showcase in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood. That’s where Garza grew up. Other metal bands that performed, included First Step to Glory, Crypt, Morbidity, November Riot and Unrivaled.
Of the nearly two dozen musicians performing at the Matinee, more than half identified as Latine or said they identify closely with the Latine community because they were from Latine neighborhoods in Chicago. Seeing neighbors and fellow community members participating in the metal scene led Garza to believe he could do it himself, he said.
“You have these younger bands, like Unrivaled, they’re all Latin American. My little cousins talk to me about metal, which is crazy,” he said.
Growing up, Garza said he always felt like he was the only member of his circle that was into heavy metal.
“I feel like the Latin community has always been a big part of hardcore and heavy metal,” he said, citing bands like Sepultura and Suicidal Tendencies as examples of Latine representation in heavy metal music.
“And that’s what kind of made me think, oh, I could do it too. There’s brown people doing anything I could do,” he said.
Work26 Skate Shop is owned and operated by Jesús De la Rosa, who keeps the space open for local teens and artists to work, hang out, skate, showcase their art and practice their music.
“I hired all the kids who like skating,” De La Rosa said, using funding he receives from a grant the city gives him. He said the shop keeps kids off the street and in a space where they can engage with their interests safely.
Young people, many from Little Village and the nearby Pilsen neighborhood, enjoy the safe space Work26 provides.
Saúl García, November Riot bassist and a high school teacher in Little Village, said his band has played four shows at the space.
“We needed a space for (students) to feel safe and calm and see bands perform,” García said of his high-schoolers. “We’re hoping that this will be the spot.”
Garza echoed García and De La Rosa’s thoughts on the skate shop functioning as a safe space, saying it’s also a place where people can be themselves without judgment. He said that getting involved with music also helps “keep people out of trouble, basically. Like, keep kids away from the drugs.”
“We deal with a lot of people who look down on us for being from (Little Village),” he said. “They think we’re either going to be drug dealers or gangbangers. And that’s not the case.”
Garza said he thinks metal music is a valuable outlet for self-expression.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the resources that other privileged kids get, we don’t get them,” he said. “For us, it’s important to have an outlet for a lot of these younger kids who don’t know where they’re going …what they’re doing with their lives. Maybe this could give them something. Maybe they’ll discover, ‘Hey, I want to paint, I want to sing in a metal band.’”
Many of the participating bands who played at the Metal Matinee already knew each other. Garza and García grew up together along with the members of November Riot and Through N Through. They attended the same high schools in Little Village as their music careers began.
Jake Atut and Esteban “Stebs” Tevenal from the band Morbidity met Garza through connections “on the scene.”
“This is a very tight-knit scene,” Garza said of the South Side bands. “Sometimes, we run on Mexican time because that’s who we are.”
Atut, singer and guitarist for Morbidity, said fans, locals and community members can best support Little Village’s metal scene by attending shows, buying t-shirts and buying or streaming a group’s new music as it’s released.
“If you like something, if you listen to something, go see it,” Atut said. He believes seeing bands in-person “deepens your connection to what you listen to.”
“Then you find all this community that’s here, and people who also decided that’s what they want to do on a Saturday night,” he said.
