Viva los emos!!

After weeks of harassment and violence, Mexican emo kids can rest a little easier — their heroes have come to the rescue.

When My Chemical Romance took the stage in Mexico City (this past Saturday at Zero Fest), Gerard Way spoke to the crowd:

“I want to say something today before we continue. Recently we’ve been hearing a lot of stuff about some violence here in your country having to do with kids who want to wear black t-shirts…or some kind of bulls— stuff like that. We don’t want to see any f—ing violence! We came here for one reason, and that’s to be at the f—ing rock show!”

MTV News was on the scene reporting on the recent rash of emo bashings. Our producer’s experience talking to local emo kids after the jump. Plus, more pics of MCR at ZeroFest…

This in from MTV News’ Elena Torres:

So I went back home this weekend, but instead of awkward meetings with people from high school or resting up in the room I grew up in, I brought an MTV News crew to my hometown of Mexico City and we went on a search for some emo kids. That’s right, those 13- to 17-year-old angst-filled, black-skinny-jean-wearing, eyeliner-sporting, 1985-comb-over-sportin’ teens who are getting attacked South of the Border.

MTV wanted to find out: who exactly are these kids that have other cliques in Mexico ticked off to the point of such intense violence? Of course, since this just happened to be my turf, it was up to me to find out. Not as easy as it sounds. Turns out since the kids are constantly getting beaten up, they’ve pretty much gone into hiding. But after a long string of phone calls, I found three places where emos were known to hang out: a local mall, a local bar, and a small subway station called Glorieta de Insurgentes.

The first two locations were complete failures: the bar wouldn’t let us anywhere near it for fear of negative press, and the only kids we found at the mall were wearing Lacoste shirts and Catholic school uniforms.

Finally we all piled in the car and headed toward Glorieta de Insurgentes. Once we got there, the tunnel leading to the station was lined with armed police men: clearly something was up with this place. Then, as we started to come out the other side, we found a small plaza taken over by “los emos.” Skinny jeans and emotions were all over the place. Kids were sitting on the floor moping, friends were holding hands, couples flirting, and one girl was even crying (talk about living up to the rep). The vibe was almost more Discovery Channel — “emos” in their natural habitat! — than MTV. And believe me, the kids had plenty to say…

Look for our continuing coverage of emo bashing in Mexico at MTVNews.com later this week.