The journalist and the “tiktoker”

A few days ago, one of the thousands of fleeting controversies on social networks was focused on Bolivia: journalist Víctor Hugo Rosales criticized the group Ch’ila Jatun for having included the “tiktoker” Layme Hilary in the video for the song “Ya I will not come back”. In the informant’s opinion, the group is famous enough and, therefore, there was no need to resort to “tiktokers” who, in general terms, “don’t contribute anything.”

If we stick to the general lines, we must admit that, in effect, the vast majority of content creators on the social network TikTok do not contribute anything, since their videos only seek to be seen to monetize themselves. There are no teachings and, on the contrary, they amplify anti-values ​​and distort the little that is learned in regular education.

In my opinion, the root of the controversy was not in the uselessness of the majority of the “tiktokers”, but in the person summoned for the video. Layme Hilary is the nickname of Hilaria Layme, a woman originally from the Bumburi de Macha sanctuary, Chayanta province of Potosí. Her family, of nine siblings, is typical of the north of Potosí, where levels of extreme poverty are very high. In order to earn a living, she migrated to Cochabamba where she became employed as a domestic worker. In January 2023 she began uploading videos to TikTok and her life changed radically because she was so successful that she is currently among the most viewed on that social network.

Layme’s key factor is the same as another famous woman from Potosí on social networks, Albertina Sacaca: her talent, charisma and naturalness have earned her millions of followers and, thanks to monetization, both now earn more than many professionals and that has awakened an undeniable envy, since none of them have required university studies to do so.

Albertina has been a victim of vicious campaigns and an audio was even falsified to discredit her. They affected her, but they did not defeat her, because she continues with her thing. What happened with Layme is that she, suddenly, appeared in a video with some gentlemen, the gentlemen sons of the Kjarkas, one of the most emblematic groups in Bolivia. The reaction is similar to that of the fictional San Javier de Chirca when the young man Adolfo appeared publicly arm in arm with the cholita Claudina, the same reaction as when the author of that novel, Carlos Medinaceli, did the same in Plaza 25 de Mayo, from Sucre.

Although he himself did not notice it, Rosales’ reaction was that atavistic rejection of the mixture of supposed social classes that is still known today as racism: “How are they with that?”

He exalted the Ch’ila Jatun to the same extent that he degraded the “tiktokers”. The argument of their uselessness, however, had a direct impact on Layme who, precisely due to her talent, charisma and naturalness, she cannot be considered a person who contributes nothing.

One of the elements most mentioned in the criticism of Albertina is her skin tone, which bothers many people who are still immersed in the anti-scientific anachronism of races. These same people feel uncomfortable with Layme skirts even though, in recent years, that garment has been losing the pejorative meaning it had in the past.

I, who publish videos on TikTok, am not going to deny that the majority of “tiktokers” do not contribute anything. If the majority of Bolivians did not deny our racism, it would be easier to eradicate it.