Mónica García
14 de octubre 2019
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How many disqualifying adjectives can be said without breathing in 30 seconds? “Vandals, delinquents, terrorists, criminals, selfish and insensitive minority, plague, pest, tiny, dregs, promoters of violence, vampires, insignificant, residue, relegated, coup monger, small beings, toxics, freaks, diabolical, promoters of abortion, fakes, fakes, fakes,” recites almost without air Ricardo Zambrana, filmmaker and for TV presenter, in the first 15 seconds of his #ChayokerChallenge.
In all, Zambrana repeats 42 of the many adjectives uttered by Vice President Rosario Murillo, in her daily statements since April 18, 2018. According to this young man, he decided to create the challenge because it always catches his attention the way government sympathizers label the people who protest against the crimes of the dictatorship as “being full of hate, only for denouncing crimes and injustices.”
“It seems that they do not take into account the amount of nonsense and vulgarities that have come out of their leaders’ mouths, fostering real hatred towards those who do not think like them or towards those who dare to point out their crimes and abuses of power. What could be a clearer example of hatred than the terms in which Mrs. Murillo has referred to those who want a country truly in freedom and democracy,” adds Zambrana.
The #ChayokerChallenge is a form of liberation
The challenge has become popular on Twitter, although some have also uploaded their videos to Facebook. In fact, according to Zambrana, an hour after he published it, a relative that lives faraway wrote to him on WhatsApp, telling him that he has received it from a friend from Lyon, France. “Right there I supposed that the thing had gotten a little out of control. I could not do anything more but laugh at the surprise,” he explains.
Zambrana notes that with this challenge he realized that when a person expels out loud and without any limits their hatred, bitterness and scorn as has been spread by “one of the most pernicious and wicked figures in our history,” as he refers to Murillo, “one feels liberated,” he assures.
“You realize that, on this side, we may not be perfect, but we are not motivated by any hatred, or ambition, only by a collective feeling that this country deserves something better. Obviously, I have received my good dose of hate from government supporters. But things like this make us recall that she can control weapons and violent mobs, but she will never control the conscience and the thinking of the majority. She (Murillo) will never realize that whatever comes out of her mouth represents what is in her heart. But many of her supporters, sooner or later, will recognize it,” the creator of this challenge insisted.
Many have replicated the challenge
The name of this challenge was inspired by the cartoon of Pedro X. Molina, who days before Zambrana uploaded his video, drew a cartoon with the same name and according to him (Zambrana), this was what motivated him to make a video.
Molina comments that before he did it, he had already thought of another idea for the cartoon of the day that he does for Confidencial, but “at that moment Mrs. Murillo came out with a string of insults to the people and I was struck by her degrading discourse, which becomes transparent in her visual degradation as a person,” he says.
“Her hatred, frustration and resentment towards the people is so evident that you even feel it coming out of her pores. I saw that and I thought that it was ridiculous, but at the same time, a dangerous stunt coming from a psychopath with power like her. And with that in mind: her antics, her deranged behavior and the premiere of the new movie the Joker, and BOOM! the connection was made. As sometimes happens from nowhere (or everything) and came out ‘Chayoker,’” narrates Molina.
Molina added, “it’s great that once again people have appropriated cartoons and it has inspired even to make a challenge. It is always good to experience that connection with the people.” The cartoonist further comments that when making a recount of all the adjectives the Vice President has hurled, reinforces the memory of her deeds while helping Nicaraguans to deconstruct her insults and return them with humor “to neutralize her attempt at humiliating us.”
“And also, on the more serious side of the equation, it contributes to make visible the danger it implies for someone with power and influence over fanatical and murderous people to try to dehumanize the victims to “justify” in a veiled way the violence against them which could lead to more beatings, more kidnappings, more torture, more deaths, more crimes against humanity,” the cartoonist explained.
