The new message that the Cuban regime considers subversive is not even pronounceable. DPEPDPE, an acronym for “from pinga the country of pinga este”, has become in recent days the hashtags most used by activists within the Island, especially since the Government launched a campaign against it, considering it a serious threat.
Last May Day, several citizens denounced in networks that the State Security had carried out an operation to confiscate the sweaters with which the slogan has been popularized, accompanied by a doll with a childish outline, an open mouth and a resigned gesture, a garment with which some activists encouraged people to attend the official march of that day if they were forced to participate in their workplaces.
At the same time, Etecsa included the initials in its long list of censored words when sending an SMS, among which are “dictatorship”, “human rights”, “free elections” and even “Psiphon” or “VPN”, in addition to 14ymedio.
Deisy, one of the buyers of the sweater who was questioned by the political police, tells 14ymedio that she acquired it for 350 pesos through trade on-line Échate Esto, dedicated to printing garments with different designs, although “there were several businesses selling that same pullover” and “some people announced on Twitter that they were printing up to 175”.
“It was the clumsiness with which the regime reacted that elevated the meme”
The agents had a list with buyers of the garment. “I wouldn’t know if they got the list because they have the cell phone of someone from that brand or if they themselves provided them with contacts as a way of cooperation, because they are investigating them,” details the young woman, who assures that they released her when they were convinced that “I did not know anything”.
“It was the clumsiness with which the regime reacted that elevated the meme,” says Deisy. “Regardless of whether or not someone called to put it on for May Day. Because that would have been a small action and of little or no consequence.”
In the private channels of Échate Esto, the design of that sweater is announced at least since novemberand it has not been uncommon to see images of young people dressed in the garment on social networks while they are on the bus or in some public place, but it was from this last week that the matter has become viral.
To circumvent censorship, the activists have simplified the campaign in recent days and, instead of including #dpepdpe in their messages, they simply use the doll that accompanies the sweater, an original drawing by a designer who calls himself Flower of Cows.
The artist already boasts in his networks of being “the home of the characters that angered the Cuban government.” This Wednesday, he tweeted: “Dear new Cuban followers, thank you for your kindness in recent days. I love the drawings of him and I love the characters-media [sí, el muñeco es una media] they’re using as their profile picture.”
“I immediately realized that it was very ductile and very effective”
Flork was referring, for example, to the “portraits” that the visual artist Julio Llopiz-Casal has made of numerous activists, journalists and other ordinary citizens, using that character as a basis.
“I immediately realized that it was very ductile and very effective,” Llopiz-Casal tells this newspaper, who says that he had already seen how many network users were modifying Flork’s drawing for their messages.
He began to do it almost by chance, quickly, with a phone application, at the request of a friend, identified on the networks as Guajiro Cubano, and from there, an avalanche of requests came, such as those of Saily González, Fernando Almeyda, Daniela Rojo, Luz Escobar “and even people I don’t know at all.” Although the demand exceeds his capacity, he says, he tries to tell everyone that he is, happy to interact in this way with other Cubans.
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