The Guatemalan singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona generated a strong comment during one of his presentations in Madison Square Gardenin New York City, as part of his tour What the dry man didn’t saywhen he criticized current parenting models, bullying and social phenomena whose limits, in his words, are not always clear.
Arjona began his speech by remembering advice that, he said, he received from his mother when he was a child:
“Mijo (son), you have no say here until you contribute. For now, shut your mouth.”
From that anecdote, the artist pointed out that many contemporary parents feel guilty towards their children and, therefore, seek to please them in everything. He mentioned that some even allow minors to decide details such as what they are going to eat or where to go on a trip, and he joked about the possibility of letting children choose “what they want to go to school for today: as a boy, as a girl, as a little animal… whatever they want.”
That passage was interpreted as a direct reference to the theriansa term used to describe people who feel or express an identity strongly linked to an animal — a phenomenon around which debates and controversies have arisen on social networks and in educational environments.
In addition to this allusion, Arjona spoke about the phenomenon of bullyingpointing out that in his generation these types of situations “made people stronger,” as well as the fact that in past decades they were not discussed with the same openness as today.
The artist’s reflection on the way parenting is exercised today and the examples used achieved wide dissemination after going viral on networks and generating comments in the media and cultural analysis programs.
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