Social media influencers and comedians Aly Sánchez and José Mesa are photographed at a home in Miami, Florida on Wednesday, July 5, 2023. Sánchez and Mesa are known for various comedic characters that they bring to life on social media. MATIAS J.OCNER [email protected]
Yoyislaisy de la Fe is 23 years old. He arrived from Cuba in 2022, in the midst of the migration crisis that has seen nearly 230,000 Cubans cross the border between Mexico and the United States.
Since then he has lived in Miami with his immigration document I220-A and is waiting for his green card. When she thinks she can’t, when she feels the burden of emigration is too great, when everything seems unreachable in her new life, she has the inseparable Amy de las Mercedes by her side to remind her of that that she will go far and never give up. Head.
Yoyislaisy or Yoyi and her friend Amy de las Mercedes are the characters created by the Cuban psychologist José Mesa and the actress and influencer Aly Sánchez who have won the hearts of Cuban immigrants with the popular phrase “cabecita arriba”, a kind of self-help slogan .
Among the many messages of thanks Mesa receives each day, one came from a mother who was walking her daughter through her final chemotherapy sessions. In the video, the mother says to her daughter: “Come on, cheer up”, which shows Mesa that it was very worthwhile to make these sketches together with Sánchez, which have gone viral on social networks more than once.
“Cheer up has become a motto for self-improvement, you can, let’s go, I’ll go to you, I’ll go to myself,” Mesa, 34, said in an interview with El Nuevo Herald.
Yoyi’s popular character came into his life unintentionally. Mesa studied psychology in Cuba and earned a master’s degree in developmental psychology after arriving in the United States seven years ago. Today, in addition to being a behavior analyst, he records the funny videos with Sánchez every week that his almost 118,000 followers wait for every day.
“It’s something I didn’t expect, and at first I was sorry, I’m still very sorry,” Mesa admits.
How the Yoyi character that fascinated Cubans was born
It all started when one day Sánchez picked up another of his characters and asked Mesa, his brother-in-law’s partner, for help. They had so much fun that they uploaded the content to the networks of Sánchez, who has around 457,000 followers on Instagram.
The fans also liked it and they asked for more videos of both of Sánchez, who, in addition to her usual humorous performances in cabarets or her well-known character as Migdalia Rondón, is also a presenter of the Univisión program “El News Café”.
“We do it because we enjoy it,” says Sánchez. “If you do things and you don’t have fun, they don’t get good. And I think that’s what happened with the audience, with the fans who realize that you’re having fun.”
So they agreed to keep making videos of up to five minutes, they opened an Instagram account for Mesa, which had 20,000 followers in less than a month, and Yoyi’s character continued to take shape.
If Sánchez had to say how similar Mesa and Yoyi are, he would say that in almost everything: “He eats like Yoyi, he’s as painful as Yoyi, he’s good like Yoyi, calm down.”
A young Cuban recently arrived in Miami
In her characterization, Yoyi’s character is a young woman who recently arrived in Miami, “painful but sharp”, who hardly speaks, who wants to be a singer and needs someone to defend her, while her friend Amy de las Mercedes talks a lot and is always there. ready to defend them.
Together they left Coco Solo and Los Pocitos in Havana, traveled through Central America from Nicaragua and did all sorts of jobs in the United States: from installing slam windows to cleaning houses. They performed at model auditions and took part in the Fourth of July celebrations.
“I wanted the characters to be newcomers from Cuba because at the time they were born there were a lot of newly arrived Cubans. We were all coming to this country for the first time, and I wanted to leave the message that principles are always tough,” says Sánchez.
“The idea is that they arrived with a 1220-A document, but they will start working, have money and meet people. I wanted to make that clear because when you arrive here you have a thousand doubts about what’s going to happen with your life,” he adds.
For his part, Mesa acknowledges that “the emigration process is very tough for anyone, whether they’re Cuban or from another country. You’re leaving your roots behind.”
Neither Sánchez nor Mesa have a pre-written script at the time of recording their skits, which are entirely improvised.
“Aly is very funny. Sometimes I have no idea what he’s going to say and I have to interrupt it because it makes me very funny,” says Mesa.
The duo is gaining more and more notoriety not only among Cubans but also among a wider audience. The characters draw the attention of children, older adults, and people of all genders. The videos they publish daily reach 70,000 to 80,000 views, some even more than a million. Every once in a while, a challenge arises, with participants saying the same thing as the already popular phrase, “Head up,” while others say things like “Drip Up” or “I’m Going You A Kick.”
But his sketches not only stayed on the networks, but were also carried over to presentations at cabarets in cities like Orlando or Tampa, or to his frequent appearances at the Flamingo and La Mesa in Miami. Yoyi even visited Cuba once.
Mesa and Sánchez don’t know what direction the characters will take, for now they’re just having fun and entertaining the audience while sending a message of acceptance, improvement, and patience. Sánchez has no doubt: “The most important thing is that people take a message with them.”
