MeAnda - Don

MeAnda - Don is a satirical video created by non-profit Mexican independent organization VideoGENTE. The name of the song is "Don" and is supposedly performed by a fictitious band called "MeAnda". The name of the fake band and the song are both a parody on the Argentinian band Miranda! and its 2004/2005 pop hit "Don".

The lyrics of the video talks about a young gay man who is telling his boyfriend (called "mayate" in the local slang) that he (the boyfriend) is becoming as gay as him (the gay man). This is understandable in the cultural context of Alvarado, as it's explained later in this article.

The video has clearly the format of a home-amateur video and a very cheap look-and-feel.

Viral distribution

In January 2006, VideoGENTE was invited to make a satiric video for a local contest of video parodies in a night club, in the town of Alvarado, Veracruz, in Mexico. They wrote the lyrics of "MeAnda - Don" and later they shot the videoclip, mostly in the night club where the contest was to take place and picking up random local people to satirize the integrants of the Miranda band and their performance in their original video.

The song was instantly a local hit. The kids of Alvarado start to spread it in mp3 format, and later someone upload it in the internet to popular video sites like YouTube and Dailymotion. It started to be referred and commented in numerous blogs in Spanish and published on websites, given to the fact that the video is free

Cultural context of gay references

The video and the song lyrics was made with a crude sense of humor, poking fun at the gay population of life of Alvarado, where young homosexuals often make fun of themselves and frequently use vulgar references to their queer lifestyle in the town. In other cultures this might be offensive but in the cultural context of the town, allegedly a "liberal" one, the incisive humour is celebrated with laughs, and even little kids sing the song [http://www.videogente.com/videos/don/meanda-don.htm] as if their content were appropiated for them.

The question about that the boyfriend of the gay (called "mayate" in Alvarado and many Mexican places) is not gay is a widely discussed issue in Alvarado and all of Mexico. Being a macho culture by history, it's commonly accepted that the "mayate" (term taken from a small bug) is not gay, he can have a girlfriend and may perform every man's activity in the community despite his active role in the homosexual relationship. The true nature of this sexual condition is generally ignored and openly accepted as something normal by the conservative and religious sector.

Criticism

Some letters were received in the VideoGENTE site [http://www.videogente.com/contacto/] , complaining that the video and the song discriminated the homosexual community and that it shows a strong homophobic tendencies. The organization states that they're only playing at the rythmm of their culture and the video is not mean to laugh at the gays, but it is made to laugh along with them, taking the issue with a tongue-in-cheek, deliberatedly unworried attitude.

Lyrics

Lyrics of "MeAnda - Don" uses very crude language and rude slang terms to tell the story. They were not censored in their local town.

Festivals and TV appearances

VideoGENTE received an invitation to submit the "MeAnda - Don" video to the 16th Annual InsideOut Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, for what they rendered an English subtitled version in its original video format (version circulating in the web was in a lower definition). The video was programmed in the "Latin Trash" section and was exhibited in May 20, 2006, in Toronto.

The video was commented in some shows of the Mexican television network TVAzteca.

External links

* Official VideoGENTE site. [http://www.videogente.com]
* Page where the video can be viewed and downloaded, in its original edition [http://videogente.com/videoclips/meanda-don/]
* English-subtitled version of the video. [http://videogente.com/videoclips/meanda-don/meanda-don-english/]
* InsideOut Page where the video was programmed. [http://www.insideout.on.ca/16Annual/highlights.htm]