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Netflix’s
Rompan Todo is a six-episode documentary limited series directed by Picky Talarico, best known for his work on music videos for Gustavo Cerati and Juanes. The documentary attempts to tell the history of rock Latine en español from the 1950s to the present day through testimonies from an enormous cast of musicians who literally wrote the history. It’s a wild and convoluted ride.
This story is well worth being told. Rock music in Latin America began by translating big hits from the U.S., it was then adopted as the sound of a revolution by various generations. In the series, we get to see how it rapidly evolved going from squeaky clean outfits in Mexico to tke on a louder, scarier tone in places like Peru. Among its subjects, it explores psychedelia in Argentina, the fiasco of the Avandaro festival in the early 70s in Mexico, how Chile’s Los Prisioneros inspired the country’s grassroots anti-dictatorship movement, and more.
The result has given Break It All (or Rompan Todo in Spanish) a level of drama, depth and consequence few rock docs can match. Amid its dense, six-episode expanse, the show tells of “missing” or murdered musicians during the fascist regimes of the 60s, 70s and 80s, including Victor Jara in Chile; widespread censorship, including a decade-long ban on rock in Mexico in the 70s; and a steady characterization in the press of the bands as depraved subversives. At the same time, Latin America has managed to produce a virtual goldmine of guitar-driven bands since the 60s that, in Santaolalla’s view, “sometimes surpassed the content of rock that has been produced in the Anglo world”.