“Wild Opera for Urban Tribes”: Migrant Antitheses and the Poetics of the Third Space in Los Mojarras

This article examines the poetics of Los Mojarras in 1990s Lima during Peru's internal armed conflict and neoliberal restructuring. Reading 22 songs (1992–1998) through Bhabha, Fairclough, and enunciation theory, it argues that antithesis organizes the band's work. Chicha and rock articulate tensions of class, race, and territory, while distancing effects disrupt catharsis and move listeners toward critical reflection. Lima appears as a city that both incorporates and discards migrant subjects. The songs also address racialized whiteness, masculinist revenge fantasies, and nostalgia as a political device, positioning Los Mojarras as an aesthetic of negotiated conflict rather than neutral hybridity.