In August 1972, Jorge Pistocchi sat down in front of a typewriter for the first time in his life. He was twenty-two years old and had already gotten a few jobs as a sculptor. Until then I had no interest in journalism. He had grown up on the street with Miguel Abuelo and the things he had seen and heard had no place in newspapers and magazines. His friend Luis Alberto Spinetta used to insist that he accompany him to the Pelo newsroom, and there he had long discussions with Daniel Ripoll, the magazine's director, whom he accused of showing a face of rock that "ignored reality"._cc781905- 5cde-3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_
Ripoll offered him a column to say what he thought. Then he began to write about the need for poets and artists to be in charge of blowing up a system that was dying. He exclaimed that rock should become the catalyst for experiences that would lead to freedom of body and mind. He wrote about fascism and ecology, about the concrete possibility that in a short time life in this world would end. A few months after starting those publishers, he was asked to run his own magazine. He had no experience, but he was convinced that he had to do it.
Report: Diego Fernandez Romeral
In 1972 I started as a journalist for Pelo magazine. I was more related to the plastic arts; Circumstances had brought me closer to art through sculpture. Before that, I had never written. It had many misspellings and I was embarrassed. If I wrote a letter, I had it checked because it was a mess. I also had a bit of dyslexia and then it was hard for me. In Pelo they told me: “Take half a page and write whatever you want”. And I started quite successfully, many people responded to me. I felt that I had a hot iron in my hand, because I had to start writing; but I felt, at the same time, a commitment to what I was doing. It was a hot iron because there, from an independent position, you very easily made an enemy of everyone. If you said certain things, they were accepted; If you said what you thought, no. I openly said what I thought and had a lot of repercussions for that, for talking about topics that nobody dared. It was a moment in which you had to be on one side or the other. It was a very difficult time to freely say what one thought. I was talking about the reality of that moment from a rock and roll point of view. What the rockers meant at that time is perhaps very difficult to understand from this reality, because there was a very abrupt marginalization. Committing any transgression was highly frowned upon by the people. In Pelo I also drew a comic and it was a lot of fun doing it.
http://anccom.sociales.uba.ar/
The cartoon and the opinion columns are taken from the Pelo magazine website: http://www.revistapelo.com.ar/
In 1972 I started as a journalist for Pelo magazine. I was more related to the plastic arts; Circumstances had brought me closer to art through sculpture. Before that, I had never written. It had many misspellings and I was embarrassed. If I wrote a letter, I had it checked because it was a mess. I also had a bit of dyslexia and then it was hard for me.
In Pelo they told me: “Take half a page and write whatever you want”. And I started quite successfully, many people responded to me. I felt that I had a hot iron in my hand, because I had to start writing; but I felt, at the same time, a commitment to what I was doing. It was a hot iron because there, from an independent position, you very easily made an enemy of everyone. If you said certain things, they were accepted; If you said what you thought, no. I openly said what I thought and had a lot of repercussions for that, for talking about topics that nobody dared. It was a moment in which you had to be on one side or the other. It was a very difficult time to freely say what one thought. I was talking about the reality of that moment from a rock and roll point of view. What the rockers meant at that time is perhaps very difficult to understand from this reality, because there was a very abrupt marginalization. Committing any transgression was highly frowned upon by the people. In Pelo I also drew a comic and it was a lot of fun doing it.http://anccom.sociales.uba.ar/
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