Argentinian Cumbia Song Goes Viral To Rally Against Macri

The social media campaign “If you wish” is intensifying in Argentina ahead of Sunday's presidential elections, with calls to bring down the unpopular right-wing President Mauricio Macri, responsible for a large part of the current economic-social situation.

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More than two months ago, various feminist and cultural associations joined forces and launched the campaign “#IfYouWish,” convening cumbia-beat flash mobs staged at various points in downtown Buenos Aires to the sound of the track with the same title by Sudor Marika.

The location of each flashmob is kept secret until an hour before the event. Then people meet at the location and blend with regular passersby until the song begins on giant loudspeakers or as live music, and they start dancing.

The hashtag #SiVosQuerés, inspired on the track by Argentina's cumbia band became viral on social media and drawing anti-Macri voters to the streets.

The lyrics urge people to turn their backs on Macri, presidential candidate and leader of the Together for Change coalition. "Macri is gone, Macri is gone; If you wish, Larreta will go too," they say in reference to Macri's defeat at the primary elections on Aug. 11. Horacio Rodriguez Larreta is Buenos Aires' mayor.

Organizers insist that they don't call people to vote for any other candidate.

On Aug. 7, four days before the primary elections, the organizers staged their first “action,” projecting on some of the most emblematic buildings in Buenos Aires the message “Macri is already gone.”

The slogan has also become a song that has become increasingly popular, and flashmobs attract larger and larger crowds over time - it drew more than 1,000 people at the last rally that took place outside the capital’s Planetarium in late September.

This was the last of the group’s three rallies to this date, usually promoted via word of mouth or on the social media platforms of related political movements.

From local residents to the former president and candidate for vice president, Cristina Fernandez, who governed Argentina from 2007 to 2015, people express their refusal of Macri's policies by dancing as a way to counter the gloom and exclusion that has featured the electoral process so far.

“There has been a very dark political atmosphere because the economic crisis is overwhelming," one of the organizers told EFE on condition of anonymity. 

"We believe what is happening (during the flashmob) is that introducing a joyful element not only adds a touch of hope but also gives the idea that political action can be positive.”

In Argentina, “villera” cumbia is a very popular music genre among the working classes – those living in their “villa miseria” (house of poverty) and was strongly stigmatized until recently, now better accepted in more privileged social spheres.