Cover photo by Martha Álvarez
 EL HOMBRE ARANARyan McGinley Gets Hoodwinked at the Mexico City ZooIn the fall of 2006 I was on the Morrissey Tour. I had been touring since March ‘06, traveling all over the world photographing his concerts and fans. These pictures were taken in November at the Mexico City Zoo.
I was walking into the park where the zoo was located and the first craft cart I e... | |
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  SHEPPARD'S VIDEO-GAME PIEIkaruga, Iron Man, Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of DarknessIKARUGA
The most legendary of shmup games amongst people who don't self-identify as shmup fans, Ikaruga is now on Xbox Live Arcade in 2008 after seeing release on the GameCube in 2003, the Dreamcast in 2002, and Japanese arcades in 2001. So, after seven years of hearing about it, ... | |
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 VICE MAILGay, Lame and Really Annoying, Hamburger For A Brain, Shane MacGowan Is A God, Auf Wiedersehen, Punk, Care Me A River, Speed Spook, The Feminine Mista... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... ANTWERPJuan Carlos Bonifaz
Vice: Who are you and what are you doing here?
Juan Carlos: I'm a musician and I came from Mexico to finish my master's here. I got invited because I won a competition in Mexico and one of the jury members was Belgian. He said he liked the things I did, so now I'... | |
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 BLESS THIS MESSHermano Blanco Is Our Own Private WarlockThere's a city in Veracruz, Mexico, called Catemaco, wherein there dwell a multitude of warlocks. That is correct, nonbelievers: warlocks. Men who are wizardly practitioners of magick, mojo, and (if you get on their bad side) mayhem, and they all live in this one place. Some of them are in it for th... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... BERLINFabrizio del Rincon
Vice: Tell us a little about where you're from.
Fabrizio: I'm from a small farming town in the north of Mexico called Caborca Sonora. It's a tiny place, overrun with cows and ramshackle buildings. I come from a big family, and I'm the youngest of 12 children.... | |
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 COCKSPhotos by Erwan FichouI've been photographing fighting roosters since 2000. The photos here were all shot between 2004 and 2006 in Mexico. The cocks are usually armed with surgical knives that are strapped on one or both of their legs. They use little ones-up to an inch long. Cockfighting is not legal there, but as with ... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... LONDONMonica Gonzalez
Vice: Ay caramba, look at you. Why did you decide to come all the way to London?
Monica: I left Mexico City with my parents due to my dad's job and moved to the States for around two years. Then we moved to France, then to Geneva, and then my dad decided to go... | |
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 EMOS VS.PUNKSTwo Lame Subcultures Battle for the Heart of Mexico CityLegend has it that the whole thing started after the MTV Mexico program Telehit aired an episode with the topic "What is an emo?" The host of the show, an uglier version of Mark McGrath named Kristoff, gave one of those precious talk-show "Let me break it down for you" speeches in which he made crus... | |
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 BUT WAIT, FUCK THE EMOS AND THE PUNKS!Mexican Skins Are the Real Cool RulersRUBEN "RUFFI" RANGEL GONZALES, 28
Vice: So you're like a total skinhead there. How long have you been in the boots and braces?
Ruffi: Since 1999. The first time I saw a skinhead was when I was 15 years old. I went to Monterrey to see the Argentinian band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, and... | |
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 THE KIDS IN CHAPULTEPEC PARKMexico City's busiest park is host to all sorts of street performers, vendors, buskers, and hustlers. Our favorite group is this ragtag family of kids who dress up in bootleg costumes of famous characters.
LAURA: I am in charge of a couple of photo stands here in Chapultepec Park.... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... PARISAbraham Cruzvillegas
Vice: Where are you from?
Abraham: I grew up in a neighborhood that wasn't even a neighborhood-it was land taken by immigrants. It was called Colonia Ajusco because you could see the Ajusco Mountains. It was like a moon landscape, just lava and rocks. The govern... | |
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 AMIGOS CON RAMBOThis guy who dresses up as Rambo used to work in Mexico City's Chapultepec Park, posing with tourists for photos. Now he is in LA, being Rambo at the Universal Studios theme park. Heavy validation there. Congrats, Rambo-impersonator guy.
But we knew him back when he was just a local character. ... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... AUCKLANDXavier Meade
Vice: When did you come to New Zealand and what on earth led you all the way here?
Xavier: I grew up in Mexico City but left in 1979 to travel. I met my wife, who is a Kiwi, in London. We lived in Mexico for four years before moving to New Zealand for good. I now live a... | |
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 MEXICO IS SPOOKYHere Are Nine Reasons WhyI've been an investigator of paranormal and alien phenomena in Mexico since 1974, when I founded one of the first ufology groups in Monterrey. My expertise has led me to participate in international television and radio programs about paranormal and extraterrestrial incidents. I currently work as a ... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN...MELBOURNEJenny Salguero
Vice:Hi Jenny, what brought you to Australia?
Jenny: I grew up in one of Mexico's biggest cities, Puebla. It's southeast of the capital. When I was young, I met a man from El Salvador and we were married and moved to El Salvador.... | |
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 DESTROYING MYSELFGuillermo Fadanelli, one of our favorite Mexican writers, is best buddies with Miguel Calderon, one of our favorite Mexican artists. Here, Fadanelli introduces some of the notebook scribblings that Calderón has made during their epic debaucheries.
I don't remember the moment when I start... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... NEW YORKBernardo Loyola
Vice: Hey, you work for us. What was your first impression of New York?
Bernardo: The first time I came to New York, I came for just a weekend and there was a hurricane. Hurricane Floyd or something. The city was in a state of emergency. I thought, "I'm going to live... | |
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 VICE FASHION - MEXICAN TWINKIESPHOTOGRAPHER: TONY SOLIS
PHOTOGRAPHER'S ASSISTANT: SERGIO OROSPE
STYLIST, HAIR, AND MAKEUP: ROBERTO SANCHEZ FOR TE AMO
Special thanks to Carlos Temores and Clinica Store... | |
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 MEXICAN RASHESContraband, Commerce, and Art in One of Mexico's Most Overcrowded PrisonsI have been going to jail once a week for the past two years now. I stay for about seven hours each time, which means that as of now I have spent more than 500 hours in prison.
The first time I went I was truly scared. There are more than 2,500 men in this jail and when they saw this outsider c... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... TOKYOJesús Salinas
Vice: Mexico is on the other side of the globe from Japan. What did you think of Tokyo when you first came?
Jesús: The biggest shock was how safe Japan is. Tokyo is the only place that is so safe despite being such a large city.... | |
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 HOUSE OF THE SETTING SUNWhere an Aging Hooker Can Find a Little Piece, Oops. We Mean PeaceTepito is one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of Mexico City. It's been a black market since time immemorial, and anything you want, original or imitation, can be found here. Sex can be bought starting at five pesos-from people up to 80 years old.
Xochiquetzal is a nursing home for sen... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... MILANChantal Garduno Israde
Vice: Why did you decide to move to Italy?
Chantal: Actually, I had already lived in Italy as a child, from when I was three to six years old. My parents are both geologists. We had to run away from Mexico.... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... STOCKHOLMPaola Pancardo
Vice: Do many Mexicans move to Scandinavia?
Paola: No, it isn't exactly the first place people apply for in exchange programs. One friend told me that Stockholm was the number one city that she least wanted to go to.
Umm, so how come you moved here?... | |
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 RECORDSEl secreto mejor guardado de Nueva York no es el local de dumpling en Chinatown que solamente yo conozco, ni es el lugar cerca de Wall Street donde inmigrantes Koreanas sonrientes te la jalan felizmente por SOLO DIEZ PUTOS DOLARES, ni es la ensalada de pescado blanco en un lugar cuyo vecindar... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... AMSTERDAMJuan-Ernesto Castano De Sosa
Vice: Do people joke around with your name?
Juan-Ernesto: Not really, although some people act weird when they hear it for the first time. They start to do stupid impersonations of Tony Montana.
So what is a Mexican such as yourself doing in th... | |
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 SKINEMAThis DVD was shot entirely in Peru, which I believe is in the northern part of Mexico, but I'm not very good at geometry so I can't be totally certain. You know the old saying "Don't judge a book by its cover"? That doesn't apply in this case. The cover girl does such a stellar job of foreshadowing ... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... BARCELONAEnrique "Artellano" Hernandez
Vice: How is it that you're in Spain?
Enrique: I came here to achieve a high degree of expertise in art restoration. I came direct from Mexico City. That means I am chilango
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What do you for work here in Barcelona?... | |
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 IF ONLY IT WAS LIKE THAT HEREOpen Season On JournalistsIf you have killed a journalist in Mexico since 1992 you can probably relax about being caught. The impunity rate for murders of members of the press over there is a reassuring 92 per cent. Last year, men in a four-by-four pulled up outside Tabasco Hoy, a leading newspaper, and delivered the ... | |
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 THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC OF THE TELENOVELAMexico's Biggest Export to the World Is an Endless, Gushing Fount of Insane TelevisionIn the summer of 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian television industry was in a profound transition-it needed to find a fast and cheap way to fill the airtime that had previously been occupied by... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... TORONTOJose Maximiliano Suarez Velazquez
Vice: Why did you come to Toronto from Mexico?
Jose: The principle reason is because I'm gay, and for gay people in Mexico it's not easy. I'm from Quaretaro, about three hours south of Mexico City. I had some problems there, so I came to Toronto abo... | |
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 CHINGA TU MADRE(And Your Sister, and Your Neighbor, and All of Her Friends, and the Delivery Guy, and, Hey, Let's Videotape It and Sell It on the Internet)Mexican photographer Jose Luis Cuevas has been working on a series of photographs documenting the world of homemade Mexican porn for the last four years now. We talked to him about his work, and then afterward we spoke with... | |
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 A MEXICAN IN... VIENNAMariana Garci-Crespo
Vice: Why did you decide to move to Vienna?
Mariana: Because of art. I studied linguistics and opera, and Vienna is the birthplace of opera. I love Vienna.
When you think about subcultures, is there a difference between Mexico City and Vienna?... | |
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 UK RECORDSAs it's the Mexico Issue we popped over to our buddy Ivan Mendiola's flat in London and played him a stack of this month's records so that we could get a real-life Mexican's view on recorded sound in June 2008.
Ivan is a 24-year-old from Monterrey in northeastern Mexico who's lived in Engla... | |
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 AY CARAMBA!Mexican Food in London Mostly Tastes Like SewageThis we know because we grabbed a Mexican who we found doing capoeira in a park with a bunch of Brazilians and dragged her around three of what purported to be London's best Mexican takeaway joints. Turns out that if they were trying to peddle their burritos back home, they'd be hounded out quicker ... | |
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 MISSIONARY STYLEDiaries of a Stupid White Girl in MexicoI grew up in an evangelical Christian church where my father was a reverend and my mom taught Sunday school. Evangelical Christians are those real pushy Christians who think that everyone else but them are going to hell, even Catholics and Jews. They are largely responsible for field missionary work... | |
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 ON WITH THE SONIDERO!Las Fiestas Mas Locas en Mexico CitySonideros are commonly described as the club DJs of Mexico. Towards the end of the 1950s, they began to liven up neighbourhood dances, block parties, and popular salons in Mexico City. Substituting the traditional trios, groups, and big bands, they performed at quinceanera birthdays, b... | |
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 RAW CHINA - THE RED GAS STATIONby Jocko WeylandWhen I asked Henry where to catch the 988 bus from Dawanglu he gave me a skeptical look and asked "Why do you want to go all the way out there?" For a lifetime Beijinger, the 988 meant going out to the undesirable hinterlands. Henry seemed suspicious that someone who'd been in the country for less t... | |
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 SKELETONIZERPaul Oestreicher Turns People Into ClayWe ran into this guy on the subway lugging a two-foot tall, anatomically perfect skeleton holding a plumb line up to a smaller skeleton on a pedestal. Naturally, we had to have a word. A few days later we were standing in Paul Oestreicher's studio surrounded by cracked skulls, jagged limbs, deconstr... | |
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 MARION BARRY: GUARDIAN ANGEL OF PUNK ROCKBy Ian SvenoniusMarion Barry, the much maligned former mayor of Washington, DC, is mostly known as a punch line. As a synonym for "smoking crack," he embodied white America's media-based fantasy of 80s urban blacks-entitled, lazy, corrupt, drug addled, and taking advantage of poor white people's Christian tendency ... | |
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 HELLO, I'M A CIVIL WAR REENACTOR!Excuse Me, I Mean a Progressive, Campaign Living HistorianBill Cross is a Civil War reenactor with a wide range of battles, ranks, and personae under his belt and the current treasurer of the Rowdy Pards "progressive, campaign living history society." Growing up his father hauled him to all the major Civil War battlefields. "As an adult, I became more inte... | |
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 SWEET HONEY IN THE BLUESAn Introduction to Sanctified Blues & Bluesy GospelA few years ago, when that big Scorsese-produced PBS special of films about "The Blues" was about to premiere, I was exceptionally psyched to hear that Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings Of Desire) made one about this gospel blues singer named Blind Willie Johnson. In Wenders' film (which sucks... | |
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 GEORGE SAUNDERSThe Vice InterviewGeorge Saunders is that rare sort of writer who may have gone ahead and invented a new genre. I'm not really sure to call it yet, but it's something along the lines of Dystopian Social Satire. I would say something else here about Chekhov and magical realism, but I don't want to get too clunky. Mayb... | |
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