Through the streets of Tijuana walks an evil character with his face painted like a sad clown and a brightly colored synthetic wig. Everything else is black up to the boots. He drags his cased guitar and the wind ruffles his long leather jacket. Jesus Hernandez wanted to be a soccer player, but he failed with his feet; the sheet metal of the cars in the mechanical workshop left scars on his hands, so he placed them on the keyboard and composed provocative songs that both praise Christ and abhor God with their tongues made fun of; as his mood dictates, where one day the light reigns and another, the shadows. The music put the mask on him and turned him into El Muertho de Tijuana, a rocker underground who lived a late success and became great among those who enjoy in the darkness of urban venues of sinister presences on stage. He is preparing his third album. 57 years ago, a “very ugly” child was born in the arid lands of Chihuahua, who suffered the troubles of rejection. His brothers grew up beautiful.
Ask. They named him Jesus.
Answer. Badly. Men are evil, we spoil the name of the Nazarene.
R. That was my fellow musicians. They wanted to put the Mummy on me and a lady said, no, it seems that he is dead, put him like that. All my life it’s been bullyingnot only at school, but also in the family, normally the beautiful ones harass the ugly ones.
Q. Was it that ugly?
R. The most on the planet. I would like to see Ricky Martin with me faces, to see if he could hold it. The worst curse on this Earth is to be ugly, how they see you they treat you; if you’re ugly like me, life is very bitchy. Once my mom was making love to me, a friend said to her: why is that child so ugly, Mrs. Maria? She never forgot me, he was about four years old. As a child I was sickly, and I never got dirty. Oh well
Q. Why the face paint?
Q. Do the years weigh you down?
R. It depends, I would have wanted to start my career at 20 and I started it at 47. The mechanical workshop was not my place. I got sick and I couldn’t work anymore and I went with my keyboard to a flea market. Before I was scared, but when there is nothing to eat, the fear goes away. My life has improved ever since. I wanted to be a soccer player, but since I didn’t succeed, I went to Puebla as a fire-eater, because I wanted to return to soccer but nobody sponsored me, I was looking for easy money.
Q. Who taught you to play the keyboard?
Q. And now what is it?
Q. He is still very believer.
R. Yes, of Jesus, and even more so now that my suspicions have been confirmed: I believed in a smiling and human Christ, very motherly, and JJ Benitez confirmed this for me with his series on Troy Horse.
Q. But he says that Jesus Christ also puts him through cruel tests.
R. I make a separation between Christ and God the Father. Christ also had to suffer earthly trials. I want to compose a song that says: ‘You are a sweaty human’… We are very far from the spiritual, divine beings that exist in other dimensions, we are stinky meat that we have to constantly bathe. Our nature is, as it says Troy Horsethe most primitive in the entire universe.
Q. But the human being, so primitive, makes music, something sublime.
R. Imagine the other beings what they will be able to do. I see the injustices of humanity, how much time have politicians stolen from us, the police looked at you and see, come here, they put you in the patrol car and took you to jail, for nothing, those in charge of caring for society are those who break the law the most. That gives an idea of the unfair world, in many things, in others not. You see the jaguar grab the deer and eat it. We have to survive. We are not in a very bright dimension.
Q. In some interview he says that he had many wives.
R. It was a stage, when I started with El Muertho I got the attention of women and I took flight, because I never had them. But you have to choose between eternal adolescence or taking the character a little further. I didn’t want to let him die, I gave the dead man more life.
Q. He left evangelism because he got angry with a pastor.
R. I caught him doing his things in church with a girl whom I was in love with, they disappeared for a while, he took her to the United States and got her pregnant, but before that I had lawsuits with him, because the apostles preached a lot and I told him that preach Jesus. ‘It’s the same,’ she told me. Well no, the apostle Paul is stupid who is only demanding perfection from human beings. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was taking the girl to the United States, she brought her back with a baby just like him, with the pastor’s face.
Q. He likes sex. The two sexes.
R. I don’t believe in labels, but in energy. Men and women experience the same sensation in the orgasm, the flight up to the sky. The labels are put by the priests and the State.
Q. Do you consider yourself anti-establishment?
R. Part, I can’t be a fan, which is what I criticize. There are good things about the system: the Olympic Games, the World Cups, the big rock concerts, the system organizes them. It’s a mix of revolutionary prophets like me and tycoons who just want money.
Q. Send congratulations on Valentine’s Day, do you believe in that?
R. Yes i think. It is partly consumerism, but it serves for good things, emotion, romanticism, a healthy excuse to snuggle up, love each other. I always want to see with infantile eyes, not intellectual eyes, which are very distrustful, limited and demanding.
Q. For distrustful, you, who did not trust even this interview.
R. I also have my dark, skinny profile. But I try to make the luminous, infantiloid prevail.
Q. Don’t you have children?
R. Thank God I never went through that trauma. I wouldn’t have the freedom of mind that I have, I wouldn’t have created my songs. It’s a responsibility rock’n’rollers don’t need.
Q. What are you doing with the music?
R. Well, I thank the covid for that pause, because when he played with other bands in Mexico he told me, how skilled, how technical. And I started to rehearse, I won’t play like them, but I’ll do something more decent. I’m rehearsing at forced marches, this hand can’t stand to touch it anymore. With the guitar, the keyboard I already recorded it on tracks. That is my hurry, that my technique is ready in three months.
Q. Do you now live alone?
R. I have a virtual girlfriend. After I have my musician title, let’s see if the girlfriend becomes personal. She is waiting for me. My plans are to go to Mexico City, what I lack of life will develop there. There is more movement there.
Q. And that Tijuana is not just anything.
R. Yes, what happens is that they denied me a visa, I wanted to go to the United States, but they took 4,000 pesos from me, the unfortunates, and they didn’t give it to me, the usual, the ugliness, they send you to the interview with a fucking asshole… I didn’t wear makeup, but I shave my eyebrows, even so I tried to introduce myself, but… in this world, appearance rules.
Q. You no longer play in the streets of Tijuana?
R. Now I’m not interested in earning money, but my technique, I don’t want to stay in a mediocre. I have two albums, one I charge on Spotify and another one stayed my manager with him, it is very common, the manager he stays with the record and the musician, dressed as a troublemaker. I take it as learning, music shines brighter when you’re over sadness, defeat. My third album is going to be called The little rat and the Dead in concertI’m about to finish it.
Q. And who is the rat?
R. She stayed at home right now, she’s very intrusive, very nosy She’s a stuffed animal that comes alive and has a voice and accompanies me to sing some songs. But he contradicts me, for example, I say anything and he corrects me: ‘old fool, don’t listen to him’ [imposta la voz].
Q. But you don’t have to be sad to be a rocker, right?
R. There’s a depressing rock’n’roll that you listen to and feel down, an aggressive one that seems like you’re being scolded, that’s all right, and another, rhythmic, happy, like the Beatles. Scorpion has some very depressing songs
Q. It’s not that his lyrics are very cheerful either.
R. In my defense I can say that I did them unconsciously, that’s how they came out. The bad thing is that I don’t see much where to go for joy… I’m composing one called I’m the devil, the queen of depressions, I am the devil, envious, jealous, macho, I am Luzbel. I’m going to narrate my shadow, pray.
Q. You can’t get enough of that double character, Christ and the devil, that always fights within you.
R. Naturally, it takes a lot of wear, but there are escape valves: I like sport a lot, I cycle every day, my rehearsals last three hours, my hand can’t take it anymore at this age. I like the videos on YouTube, the funny ones, the falls, but that it be a healthy humor, not dark. I don’t like horror movies, bloody, or the news, I wonder how they manage to see so much news of shootings, murders, how they manage to be happy.
Q. He likes fame, anonymity sucks, he says.
R. Human beings are fallen gods, we like praise, which is one of God’s greatest pleasures. I had a cabinetmaker friend who made furniture for Michael Jackson and I would see him sitting with a little dog, as if lost, bored with life, just waiting for the moment on stage to be praised. It’s a godsend when you taste that worship. I have tried it, on a lesser scale logically, he was a monster.
Q. You can be the most religious rocker in the world. What do you think of current music?
R. They forget about Christ. Nobody mentions it.
Q. Who are your musical idols?
R. Idols are forgiven everything, I have forgiven Gene Simmons for his chuecuras and I value his legacy, his magic in the Show.
Q. A few years ago he toured Spain, Colombia, Switzerland.
R. Just as God takes away from you, he also gives you some things…
El Muertho de Tijuana leaves the bottle of water and says goodbye singing through gospels: “With a crown of thorns, you became king forever”; “That shift, the most energetic music is the cheerful Christian, they already put a guitar in, they are energetic, you come out well charged.” “Oh, and please put my Facebook address,” he says. There it is.
