Backlash against rock music and live performances was a symbolic way for the government to tighten its grip on the nation. There would not be another Halconazo during the 1970s, but of course the reigning PRI party would never give people a chance to march together again: the Brigada Blanca made sure to exterminate any opposition.
The more daring, innovative bands of the 1970s did not survive the inhospitable conditions for music making. None except for one: El Tri, which began as a cover band called Three Souls in My Mind. They had played at the legendary Festival de Rock y Ruedas de Avándaro and began writing original songs in Spanish, not just playing covers. In the mid-seventies, El Tri recorded the first explicitly anti-government rock song: “Abuso de Autoridad.” They obviously did not have a major label behind them.
Nobody was ever punished or found guilty for the Halconazo, which echoed a previous armed attack in 1968—the Tlatelolco massacre. In 2006, ex-president Luis Echeverría pleaded guilty and was put under house arrest for his participation in the Halconazo. He was later exonerated and charges against him dropped. None of the men who led the attacks against activists during the Dirty War ever did any jail time, either. Many of them have now died quietly in their beds of old age. Some went on to have successful political careers: Alfonso Martínez Domínguez became the governor of Nuevo León.
In 2019, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador released the archives of the Federal Security Directorate, which contain information about the Dirty War and the political persecution of activists by the Mexican government.
We’ll never know the exact number of victims of the Dirty War. My novel is noir, pulp fiction, but it’s based on a real horror story.
The Author’s Playlist to Velvet Was the Night
LISTEN ON SPOTIFY at randomhousebooks.com/​VelvetWasTheNightPlaylist
“Todo Negro” by Los Salvejes
“Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley
“Dream Lover” by Bobby Darin
“Can’t Take My Eyes off You” by Frankie Valli
“Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles
“Abuso de Autoridad” by Three Souls in My Mind
“Run for Your Life” by Nancy Sinatra
“Quiero Estrechar Tu Mano” by Los Ángeles Azules
“El Día Que Me Quieras” by Carlos Gardel
“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” by The Platters
“Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley
“Satisfacción” by Los Apson
“Sin Ti” by Los Belmonts
“Lost in My World (Perdido en Mi Mundo)” by Los Dug Dug’s
“Blue Velvet” by Arthur Prysock
“Shain’s a Go Go” by Los Shain’s
“Bésame Mucho” by Antonio Prieto
“El Cigarrito,” 2001 Digital Remaster, by Victor Jara
“Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” by Nancy Sinatra
“Cuatro Palabras” by Juan D’Arienzo
“White Room” by Cream
“Agujetas de Color de Rosa (Pink Shoe Laces)” by Los Hooligans
“Somos Novios” by Armando Manzanero
“Kukulkan” by Toncho Pilatos
“Solamente Una Vez” by Lucho Gatica and Agustín Lara
“No Me Platiques Más” by Vicente Garrido
“Piel Canela” by Eydie Gormé and Los Panchos
“Dream a Little Dream of Me—with Introduction” by The Mamas and the Papas
“Volver a los Diecisiete” by Violeta Parra
“Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles
“Are You Lonesome Tonight” by Elvis Presley
“Surfin’ Bird” by The Trashmen
“At Last” by Etta James
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley
“The House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals
“The Girl from Ipanema” by Stan Getz, João Gilberto, and Astrud Gilberto
“Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra
“Pobre Soñador” by El Tri
Gracias por la música, padre
Acknowledgments
A BIG THANK you to my agent, Eddie Schneider; my editor, Tricia Narwani; and the production team at Penguin Random House. My interest in music was fueled at a young age by my father, who waxed on nostalgically about certain bands. Noirs have a proud tradition in Latin America. The first noir writer in Mexico was Rafael Bernal, who published El Complot Mongol in 1969. So thanks to Rafael and the other writers of old noirs.