Morrissey is anti-immigrant and backs a white nationalist political party. Why don't fans care?
LOS ANGELES - For years, when professor Melissa Mora Hidalgo wasn't teaching classes at Cal State Fullerton or UC San Diego, the Los Angeles-based culture writer could often be found on stages throughout the region, singing songs made famous by her musical hero, British rock star Morrissey.
With her hair piled up in the singer's familiar rockabilly pompadour, Hidalgo, under her alter ego "Melissey" and backed by an all-female band, would cosplay at Morrissey club nights, crooning heartfelt renditions of his two decades of beloved outsider alternative-rock hits, including those from his star-making turn as leader of 1980s Brit-pop quartet the Smiths.
Hidalgo, author of the 2016 book "Mozlandia: Morrissey Fans in the Borderlands," says that from an early age she was drawn to the singer, "both the music and the look. My fandom was really about the songs, the music, his brattiness. I loved that. And as a butch, as a queer woman, I wanted my hair like his. I wanted to look like him."
But when Morrissey closes out his tour at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, in support of his recent album, "California Son," Hidalgo won't be there. "I don't have it in me," she says with a sigh. In recent years, Morrissey has pushed a political and social agenda that she can no longer ignore.
The singer is nothing if not a provocateur. A vegan and fervid supporter of
