1979: Primera Guerra

What did come later was the rest of the count. The following editions do not number themselves: the one on December 7, 1979 is billed as “Guerra de Minitecas Nacional”, and the one on February 15, 1980 simply as “Guerra de Minitecas en el Poliedro”. Calling them the Second and the Third is an order laid on top by those who came after, so the story could be told in sequence.

Details of the event

The event took place on July 1, 1979 at the Poliedro de Caracas, starting at 7:30 p.m., under the format of a youth concert that combined orchestras and minitecas. The orchestra Dimensión Latina took part celebrating its 7 years of activity. The show was hosted by Enrique Hoffman and Musiuito Lacavalerie, with part of the event recorded and broadcast on the program Disco Fiebre on Canal 8 (VTV). The ballet of that program also performed, along with Tony Saturno's crew “Descarga Dancer.” The XXV anniversary graduating class of the Colegio San Agustín del Paraíso was in charge of the organization, with the student William Alarcón as its main collaborator.

The press of those days announced it as “Concierto de Orquestas y Minitecas en El Poliedro,” and the show's full name was “Concierto juvenil de Orquestas y Guerra de Minitecas”: the word “guerra” was there from the start. The estimated running time was about five hours and general admission cost twenty bolívares.

The prizes were published in advance: three thousand bolívares for first place, two thousand for second and one thousand for third. The announced panel was billed as the jury “de los bailes” (of the dances), and on it were the two hosts of the night, Enrique Hoffman and Musiuito himself.

Who organized it

Behind the country's first great miniteca show there was no company: there was a committee of graduating students who needed to pay for their graduation. It was called the Comité Pro-Graduación of the XXV graduating class of the Colegio San Agustín del Paraíso, it operated from the premises on Av. “E” in El Pinar, and its president was William Núñez Alarcón, the student the press of the period singled out as the main collaborator and who has his own entry in this Archive's “Hidden Figures.”

It was that committee that summoned the minitecas to a meeting before the event, that auditioned them and that drew up the rules. It was made up of six students:

• · William Núñez Alarcón — President of the Comité Pro-Graduación
• · José Álvarez Castro — Department of Culture
• · Enrique Herrera Silla
• · Juan Policastro
• · Alejandro Casas T.
• · David Millán

The part Radio Capital played

Organizing and conceiving are not the same thing, and it is worth keeping them apart. The event was organized by the school committee; figures from Radio Capital 710 took part in conceiving and staging it — in particular Marco Antonio “Musiuito” Lacavalerie and Enrique Hoffman, who also hosted the night. The format of the great competitive spectacle was developed between William Núñez and Musiuito, according to the available accounts — Musiuito himself claims the concept in a recorded statement.

That the station was involved through its voices does not amount to its having been the institutional organizer, and that last point is not demonstrated. The Archive publishes what is on the record: the committee puts up the event, and Radio Capital's broadcasters put up the format and the stage.

Why 1978 is often given

Anyone looking this night up will frequently find the year 1978, and Radio Capital as the organizer. It is worth explaining where that version comes from, because it has a traceable route and does not arise from carelessness.

The wording appears first in a report by the Venezuelan portal supermúsica, signed by Carlos Viña, which places in 1978 Radio Capital AM 710's decision to organize the first Guerra de Minitecas. A later report in El Universal picks it up, citing that source by name, and from there it passes to memory portals such as Cuando Era Chamo, to forums and to publications that have repeated it ever since. It is the usual route of a fact: once it enters the major press, it stops being checked.

Against that chain, the Archive keeps the announcement of the event itself, which dates itself: “El Domingo 1o. de Julio a las 7:30 p.m.”, beneath the crest of the XXV graduating class of the Colegio San Agustín with the years “1953-54” and “1978-79”. From that first school year to the twenty-fifth there are exactly twenty-five school years, and July 1 falls at the close of the 1978-79 one.

And there is something harder to argue with than a poster: the plaques. An announcement is printed beforehand and can change; a plaque is engraved afterwards, with the event already over. The one the committee gave to Soul Discoteque closes with a line at the foot — “Caracas, 1 de Julio de 1979” — and records, in passing, that it had been selected “entre las 8 mejores minitecas de la capital”. The date of the show is July 1979, and the metal says so.

That may also be where the misunderstanding began. Beside the crest, the poster carries “1978-79” in print: those are the years of the graduating class that was putting on the party, not the date of the show. From a line like that it is easy to walk away with the first number. It is a possible explanation, not a proven one.

The rules of the game

Unlike the later sound clashes, here it was the school committee that chose the competitors, by audition, and that drew up the rules. That set of regulations is one of the most revealing documents of the movement, because it describes exactly what counted as merit in 1979:

• · No choreography or dance routine of one's own could be presented.
• · The music was left to the criterion of the discjockey, who could repeat songs if he thought it necessary.
• · The running order was drawn by lot among all the participants on the day of the show itself.
• · The speakers and the rest of the connections were handled by Audiorama: all of them played through the same central system.
• · Thirty minutes of performance per miniteca, with two of grace; going over meant disqualification.
• · The mixes could be done on turntables or on tape recorders — but bringing them prepared in advance meant disqualification.
• · Only three members per crew could go up on stage.
• · No member could speak to the judges during the three hours beforehand or in the course of the show.
• · Judges' scale out of 100 points: 25% equipment, 70% personal presentation, work plan, music and mixes, and 5% responsibility.
• · Whichever came out as “the best among the best” had to perform for a further stretch, now outside the competition.

The running order

The order of performance was drawn by lot, and each miniteca received its own in writing: a numbered card, in the committee president's own hand, with a single line. “Arrancas con el 1er lugar. Suerte…” (You start in the 1st slot. Good luck…).

“I never patented the idea”

Years later, Marco Antonio “Musiuito” Lacavalerie told where all of it came from: the idea of the great show at the Poliedro was his, together with William, the student who led the committee. “I never patented the idea or anything like it,” he says; many announcers took it up and went on presenting shows like that, at the Poliedro and in other venues, without any of it being credited to him.

From his account come two memories that give the scale of what they staged. One is the format they planned: counted minutes on stage to chain at least ten mixes, judged by a panel — “the mastery and the quality with which they made those mixes always impressed me.” The other is the staging he devised: a parachute hung in the center of the venue, loaded with confetti and balloons, which opened in the middle of the show over more than ten thousand people. He also remembers the scare: people packed together and lit bonfires on the floor, and in a place like that a major fire would have been terrible. Once the 80s were under way he left the format and devoted himself to television.

Judges and participants

The panel of judges was made up of emblematic voices such as Jesús Leandro, Carlos Eduardo “Charlie” Ball, Jimmy Craisens, Beatriz Crocquer, Rolando Freytes, Marcos Vinicio Lacavalerie, William Rey, Alejandro Blanco, Enrique Hoffman and Musiuito. The funnel came in three stages: out of some 60 minitecas from all over Caracas the committee selected 10, and 8 finally took the stage:

• · Disco Music
• · Savannah
• · Explosión
• · Lechuga's People
• · New Fire
• · Crazy Full
• · Soul Discoteque
• · Supervolumen

The absentees

Erotic Soul and Rex Solu were also selected, but they did not attend. Although the poster announced the presence of the Orquesta Dimensión Latina, no one recalls its actually attending the event.

The poster for the event was already printed when the ten selected became eight, so it was corrected by hand: the two lines of those that did not come were painted over and the figure heading the list was touched up.

Results

The rest received plaques for taking part. During Soul Discoteque's performance, the company Audiorama (in charge of the audio) disconnected all the cables of its central sound system in the middle of the set.

The close of the night was the prize-giving. Musiuito and Enrique Hoffman ran it from the stage, and the crews came up to collect in a body: operators, helpers and hangers-on packed into a semicircle that ended up taking over the whole stage. None of them went back down empty-handed — not even Soul Discoteque, whose sound had been pulled out from under it mid-set.

• · First place: Miniteca Crazy Full (Julio La Guardia and “El Perro”), prize of 3,000 Bs.
• · Second place: Miniteca Explosión (Dante Tulipano, Alejandro de Santis and Toni Zoz), prize of 2,000 Bs.
• · Third place: Miniteca Supervolumen (Fiorenzo Iannarella), prize of 1,000 Bs.

Cultural impact

This first Guerra de Minitecas was not only a musical competition: it was the start of a cultural dynamic that would raise the minitecas to protagonists of Venezuelan nightlife. Stagecraft, spectacle, voice and youth identity converged that night, creating a phenomenon that shaped the aesthetics, the sound and the collective memory of entire generations.

Credits and sources

• · History based on “La Revista de las Minitecas” by Vladimir Medina (special edition celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Colegio San Agustín del Paraíso), and on press reports of the period. Information gathered and verified by Cultura MTK.
• · Primary press source: period clipping “Concierto de Orquestas y Minitecas en El Poliedro” — from it come the full name of the event (“Concierto juvenil de Orquestas y Guerra de Minitecas”), the five estimated hours of show, the seven years since the founding of Dimensión Latina, the composition of the “jurado de los bailes” and the prizes of Bs. 3,000, 2,000 and 1,000. The general admission of Bs. 20 appears on the ticket itself.
• · Rules of the contest (the committee's auditions, the ban on choreography and on pre-recorded mixes, 30 minutes with 2 of grace, a maximum of 3 members on stage, the running order drawn on the day itself, the ban on speaking to the judges and the 25/70/5 scale): set of regulations of the XXV anniversary graduating class of the Colegio San Agustín, collected in the compilation on the history of the minitecas by Héctor Martínez (Retro Manía Lara). Cited with attribution.
• · Authorship of the show, the mixing format, the parachute of confetti and balloons, the more than ten thousand people and the crowd's bonfires: interview with Marco Antonio “Musiuito” Lacavalerie published by the channel Minitecas Originales on YouTube, verified by oEmbed. Accessed August 1, 2026.
• · Composition of the Comité Pro-Graduación (the six names, William Núñez Alarcón's post and the school's premises) and the numbered card 0538 with the running order: two period documents from the archive of La Revista de las Minitecas (DJ Vladimir Medina) — the foot of the letter convening the minitecas, with the school's stamp and six autograph signatures, and the card handwritten and signed by Núñez Alarcón — kept in the CMTK Archive.
• · Full name of the show, date, time, crest of the XXV graduating class with the years 1953-54 and 1978-79, the 8 chosen from 60, Tony Saturno's crew and the Bs. 20 admission: poster of the event itself, kept in the CMTK Archive.
• · The version placing the event in 1978 with Radio Capital AM 710 as organizer: report by Carlos Viña for the Venezuelan portal supermúsica, later picked up by El Universal citing him by name and spread by Cuando Era Chamo, “Minitecas de los ochentas” (cuandoerachamo.com). Contrasted with the poster of the event.
• · The name “Primera Guerra de Minitecas” in the organizers' own words, the selection “entre las 8 mejores minitecas de la capital” and the date “Caracas, 1 de Julio de 1979”: plaque awarded by the Promoción XXV Aniversario of the Colegio “San Agustín” to the miniteca Soul Discotheque, kept in the CMTK Archive. Dated physical evidence.
• · The posters of the following editions, which do not number themselves: “Guerra de Minitecas Nacional” (December 7, 1979) and “Guerra de Minitecas en el Poliedro · El 15 de Feb.-80”, both kept in the CMTK Archive.
• · The prize-giving (the two hosts running it from the stage, the semicircle of crews and the plaques in hand): photographs of the ceremony kept in the CMTK Archive, archive of La Revista de las Minitecas (DJ Vladimir Medina). Which plaque each crew received is on record in the Archive; the engraved text is not legible in the available copies.