The Wendy Sulca Phenomenon

Back in May, I posted a little blurb about Wendy Sulca and her song "Papito", an ode to her dead father. I also put the above video on YouTube, which alternates heart-wrenching shots of a teary eyed Wendy singing at her father's grave with scenes of choreographed dance moves and an overly made-up Wendy sitting on the beach. The whole thing is bizarre to say the least and although Wendy's grief seems genuine, the video certainly raises questions of exploitation. After all, not too many little girls would come up with the idea to film a music video at their newly-dead father's grave.

Nevertheless, after a few days of obsessing about Wendy I filed this odd little slice of Latin America into my memory and figured that I probably wouldn't hear about Miss Sulca again.

I was wrong.

In recent weeks my inbox has been flooded with messages saying "Nuevo Comentario Sobre: Wendy Sulca - Papito". After months of virtually no one watching the video, it was apparently re-posted on a few websites, including this porn-ish site (I don't get it either - gross) and a Chilean blog called Por La Puta. The video is now up to around 20,000 views on YouTube, which is still relatively small but an exponential increase from just a couple of weeks ago. The comments section on the video's YouTube page has also exploded with people chiming in about everything from child exploitation to whether the music is folklorico or cumbia.

It is nice to know that I helped start such a lively debate, although I might just throw my laptop out the window if I keep receiving "Nuevo Comentario" e-mails.