A wacky — and dangerous — viral dance phenomenon that first took off in the United States has hit Mexico, with a Latin twist.
In late June, a video challenge in which people act out the lyrics to the song In My Feelings by Canadian artist Drake went viral.
Some participants started jumping out of their moving cars while singing or miming the lyrics “are you riding,” ensuring that the craze became even more popular.
Now, in Mexico and other Latin American countries, the In My Feelings challenge has morphed into La Chona challenge, replacing Drake’s hit with the 1995 song La Chona by the Mexican norteña band Los Tucanes de Tijuana.
However, as in the original challenge, people are still jumping out of their cars and doing so remains just as dangerous — particularly when it’s the driver: all that has changed is the soundtrack.
It’s behavior that one might expect authorities to frown upon. But that’s not necessarily so.
In videos posted to social media and later pounced upon by news websites, a municipal police officer, a soldier and a machine-gun-toting state police officer in Nuevo León all take up La Chona challenge.
The northern border state’s Secretariat of Public Security issued a statement saying that it knew who the participating officers were but didn’t say whether they would face any kind of penalties.
But in Querétaro there is speculation that a municipal employee who posted a video of herself taking part in the viral challenge was dismissed for doing so and Mayor Marcos Aguilar Vega issued a statement this week calling on residents of the city to act responsibly and not accept “absurd” challenges that could cost “the lives of those who take it on.”
▶ Con todo y metralleta, un policía de #NuevoLeón se una a #LaChonaChallenge https://t.co/sIgmb1rWG2 pic.twitter.com/dc5XFgYhZ9
— Milenio.com (@Milenio) July 26, 2018
One woman who did take on La Chona challenge provided a stark example of what can go wrong.
After jumping out of the driver’s seat, she jogs alongside her slowly-moving car while someone in the passenger seat films her through the open door.
The woman clearly enjoys her performance and hams it up for the camera but when she tries to get back into the vehicle, in a manner akin to mounting a bobsled, she trips and instead of ending up behind the wheel as she intended, finds herself lying on the road.
Source: Diario de Querétaro (sp), The Daily Mail (en), Milenio (sp)
