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Where in the '80s world is Miki Gonzalez?

 
Published Sept. 8, 2016

On our geographic trip this week, we grab our passports and head down to South America. No, not to Brazil and the Olympic city of Rio, but next door to Peru. Did Peruvians rock in the '80s? Yes, they did with Miki Gonzalez and Vamos A Tocache.

While the most historic site in Peru is the ancient Incan fortress of Machu Picchu, the west coast country of Peru has big cities like Lima but it also has its share of smaller towns like Tocache, which is home to about 20,000 residents.

As a college transplant at Cal State in Berkeley, Miki Gonzalez became inspired by new wave and post punk music and when he returned to Peru he started his music career and in 1987 he released the album Tantas Veces (Spanish for Many Times) with the featured single Vamos A Tocache (Come On Tocache). The video falls in line with the song lyrics as a radio deejay announces that Gonzalez is playing a concert in Tocache on Saturday night and implores the town of Tocache to show up and support the concert. The video shows the road less traveled that Gonzalez and his band take to reach Tocache as they travel by plane, bus, the back of a pickup truck and hoof it by foot in the Amazon to reach their gig.

Gonzalez is still in music and has released different versions of Vamos A Tocache, his most recognized song.