On February 27th , Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador posted a tweet that went viral. In this tweet, Obrador posted two photos of a mythical creature named a Aluxe. Aluxe are mythical creatures from Mayan tradition, they are similar to leprechauns or elves and are said to cause mischief. In this tweet, the president claims that one photo was a photo of a real Aluxe that had been spotted in a town recently and the second photo is of an ancient sculpture made by Mayans of the Aluxe. Obrador tagged the tweet saying that “everything is mystical.” The tween has been viewed over 7.9 million times and liked over 40,000 times. The photo has no metadata attached to it, so it is difficult to determine when/where the photo was taken, however some people claim that the photo is remarkably similar to a photo of a ‘witch’ that has been circling the internet for years. People are questioning the intentions behind the tweet – and while many are simply making memes of the Presidents bizarre tweet, others claim that it is a tactic to distract from recent mass protests. In a daily Presidential press conference, the general director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico only addressed the photo of a Mayan sculpture but did not address the president’s claims.
The first news source I looked at was from Remezcla, journalist Kiko Martinez discussed the president’s recent tweet. In the article there is an emphasis on discussing recent protests and concern for electoral processes and democracy. Martinez discusses and provides tweets of people who called the president out for trying to distract the public and news outlets from the recent congressional decision on the electoral process. Martinez also directly discussed the main protest in Mexico City Plaza and provided video footage of the protests. Martinez then also discussed how many viewers of the tweet made fun of the president for creating conspiracy over mythical creatures.
The second source I looked at was from the New York Times. Journalist Jesus Jiménez focused most of the article on describing what the Aluxe is. Jiménez discusses how Aluxe are similar to other well-known mystical creatures, like unicorns. Jiménez expands on what Aluxe are known for, playing small tricks on the outskirts of towns. Jiménez provides some background on where the president claims the photo comes from – an engineer working on the ‘Maya Train’ project that aims to add infrastructure to poorer areas in Mexico – however Jiménez highlights that the engineers name has not been revealed and that other news outlets claim that the photo used by the president is actually an older photo taken by someone claiming they saw a witch in a forest. The article also expresses how at a press conference for the president, the conspiracy was not addressed, rather only the photo of the Mayan sculpture.
These two sources differ a lot. In the Remezcla article, Martinez explores the reasoning behind why this post was made; the New York Times article does not explore the motivation behind the tweet. The Remezcla article explores the political situation that could’ve caused Mexico’s political leader to tweet about a mythical conspiracy. The New York Times article discusses more about what the Aluxe is and its place in Mayan culture and dismisses ideas for the tweets purpose. The titles of both articles is also strikingly different the Remezcla article “Is Mexico’s President Trying to Distract from Protests with Alleged Mythical Creature Sighting?” calls out the tweet’s political importance whereas the title for the NYT, “An Elf? A Witch? Mexico’s President Says It’s the Mythical Aluxe” takes a more comical approach to the situation.
These two articles connect to class themes in a couple ways. Although it may seem unrelated to our class – this news event does relate. Discussing cultural significance of indigenous groups connects to our class themes about the history of indigenous groups in Latin American countries. It was interesting to see how important this indigenous mythical creature is in modern Mexican culture with over 7.9 million views and 40,000 likes on the tweet. There is also the theme of the threat of democracy – while the tweet does not directly interact with the recent political protests there is a connection made by Remezcla. The tweet, if it is a distraction, relates to our discussions of politics in class.
Sources
Martinez, Kiko. “Is Mexico’s President Trying to Distract from Protests with Alleged Mythical Creature Sighting?” Remezcla, 27 Feb. 2023, https://remezcla.com/culture/mexico-president-andres-manuel-lopez-abrador-protests-democracy-aluxe-elf/.
“World Report 2022: Rights Trends in Chile.” Human Rights Watch, 13 Jan. 2022, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/chile.