Spain and Latin America, September 6, 2021
Front cover of the first issue in Spanish
On Sunday, August 29, a group of young Orthodox Christians from several countries of Latin America and Spain launched the Death to the World zine (a type of homemade magazine made popular in rock/punk subcultures which consisted of newspaper-cut letters, typewritten articles and handwritten poems) in Spanish translation, available for free.
The first issue is already available online.
Death to the World was launched in the ‘90s by former rocker Justin Marler who converted to Orthodoxy, and revived by John Valadez in the 2000s. Marler remains close to the mission of Death to the World and Valadez is now a priest in the Antiochian Orthodox Church, serving at Saint Timothy’s Church in Lompoc, California. Both have given their green light for the Spanish-speaking version.
The translation project is the result of almost a year and a half of cooperation between young converts from Ecuador, Mexico, and Spain who decided to join together to publish such material available for the Spanish-speaking public.
Daniel and Nestor from Ecuador, both converts and now parishioners of the Moscow Patriarchate, started the project in 2019 after leaving the extreme heavy metal scene they had belonged to for many years and after deciding to take a more Christian approach towards evangelization.
“We were naïve,” says Daniel, 32. “We didn’t know what to do when we became rockers. We were seeking for a higher ideal, something that would be against the modern world.”
Sharing his conversion, story, he continues: “I was a rebel, I was looking for something else in my life. After spending a year in a Catholic seminary in Argentina, I returned to Ecuador and began to stray away from the faith. Then I found heavy metal.”
“My downspiral into the world of rock ‘n’roll was a deep one: I ended up practicing Norse Viking magic and conjuring the so-called ‘gods’ against my enemies. At least I still believed in something, a realm beyond this world of lies.”
Daniel as a metal head, and now as an Orthodox Christian
After ten years of spending vast amounts of energy, creativity, and organization in the metal scene, after joining with his friend Nestor, with whom they created several metal and artistic projects, Daniel simply stopped being “metal.”
“I was surfing the internet and discovered a website featuring a bearded man and a skull: He was a monk from Athos,” Daniel recalls.
He adds: “There was nothing more metal than these bearded, scruffy looking, yet so brutal men who were living in the wilderness and had rejected the lies of fashion and the tyranny of hypocrisy.”
The revelation had begun. Suddenly, Daniel was able to find an interesting text recommended by an acquaintance, entitled Nihilism: The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age.
It was Fr. Seraphim (Rose).
Daniel emphasizes that Fr. Seraphim was instrumental in his conversion to Orthodoxy, as he saw himself somewhat reflected in the life of the American mystic and self-denialist of the modern world, while embracing the Truth of Christ.
First page of the first issue in Spanish
“I will never be the same. After I read Fr. Seraphim’s articles and sayings in the original Death to the World zine, I began a search that ended in my formal conversion to Orthodoxy.”
Daniel was received in the Russian Orthodox Church about a year ago, and he’s been more active than ever in Church life since then.
“I don’t know what will come of my life. I try to leave it up to God; it’s not up to me,” he concludes.
Death to the World En Español has its own Facebook and Instagram pages, and the team is planning to publish online the original classic zines that were so popular in the ‘90s.
Learn more about Death to the World at their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/DTTWzine
and their official website:
http://deathtotheworld.com/
For Death to the World En Español, you can visit their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/dtwspanish
And their Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/deathtotheworldspanish/
The first zine fully translated into Spanish:
https://issuu.com/seekingfaith82/docs/zine_1_castellano_dtw?fbclid=IwAR3FqOQf_A6V42Jc7S_x9uBlY1-vUiwbTHu9tz4GbIm5ksT7RQYkYvlFWog
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