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Tony Barrera

b. 1963, Puerto Angel, Oaxaca; d. May 1998, Mexico City. Tony Barrera was the official DJ for the soundsystem "Polymarchs" originating from Oaxaca to Mexico City in the late 1970s. His brother Apolinar and sister Mary founded Polymarchs in 1979 and Tony, only 15 years old at the time, would take control of the turntables as Polymarchs' official DJ until 1984 where DJs such J.F. Rangel and Jaime Ruelas (now a graphic designer for Musart) took over temporarily as Tony Barrera decided to take time off due to school. He eventually dropped out and continued his dream in Polymarchs in 1985. Polymarchs and Tony's success kept increasing as the Polymarchs fad continued when Polymarchs would headline great hi NRG disco acts such as Tapps, Gloria Gaynor, Frank Loverde and Sylvester. In 1987, Tony decided to work with Tapps's original composer, Allan Coelho in a hi NRG latin disco act originating out of Mexico City. Together they released "Duri Duri (Baila Baila)" as part of Click, which continued until 1991, yet Barrera would not continue as a composer until 1992 where Allan Coelho joined him into making Barrera a singer. His hits continued with the Polymarchs' fad until 1998 where Barrera was strangled to death in a hotel room in southern Mexico City due to rumours of his homosexuality acts. He has been tributed by Musart, Polymarchs, and by their new DJ Victor Estrella various times such as Casa Popular in 2003 and Zocalo 2002 and 2005 in which more than 90,000 people gathered that night to tribute Barrera.