[Jabaz, page 3 of 5]

This outrageous image-pun stands out to everyone who remembers this early period as emblematic of the new aggressive irreverence proposed by the monos tapatíos. Post-1968 left politics and revolutionary nationalism were not exempt from its heretical play. Nor were the powerful. Traditional norms of respect (and fear) had usually exempted presidents and other official figures of power from published humor. That time was over.

The radical "edge" of Galimatías, participants say, reflects the arrival in Guadalajara of an influential new personage: Julio Aro, a Mexico City born writer, designer, humorist, and a fearless gay iconoclast. Aro was to catalyze a range of activities in social humor including a program on University of Guadalajara radio called El Festín de los Marranos ('The Party of the Pigs'), and a string of historietas (stories told in comic book format) in the Mexico City daily La Jornada. These bore such titles as La croqueta humor perro, produced by Aro, Falcón, Trino and Jiz, and El Santo y la Tetona Mendoza, produced by Trino and Jiz. Galimatías also registered the arrival at ITESO of another new face recognized today: film director Guillermo del Toro, who worked on the later issues of the magazine and helped finance them.

Galimatías, which continued throughout the '80s, is recalled as a high point for the Monos Tapatíos in multiple ways. Friends and supporters warmly evoke the frequent parties at the home of Jabaz and his brilliant and charismatic partner, Rossana Reguillo (now an well known communications scholar at ITESO) in the Chapalitas neighborhood of central Guadalajara. "It was a group that came together naturally," says Jabaz, with accustomed modesty. The gatherings "weren't political in the usual sense," says Reguillo, "We gathered to play the guitar, sing, talk and laugh. It was new to make fun of the president, the Virgin, the army. They were all amazingly talented." Reguillo and Jabaz, survivors recounted, provided the lugar de reventón for the younger student crowd, many of whom, following tapatío custom, lived at home. Equally importantly, Jabaz provided leadership that focused energies on real projects. Under the wing of the liberal church, ITESO proved to be a relatively tolerant space for their experiments in antisolemnity.

The reventón in Chapalita drew on another of Jabaz's talents, music. As an adolescent he learned to play the guitar, and eventually became absorbed by the Latin American new song (nueva canción) movement. He began supporting his studies by singing in a peña in Guadalajara. Coincidentally, fellow student Rossana Reguillo was also working there to support her studies. Once together, they founded a music club of their own, the Peña Cuicacalli, still a popular night spot in Guadalajara.

Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5