Youth identities in early XXI century: Los Mirreyes

Abstract

In recent months a new youth identity has been increasing its visibility and popularity in social networks and in various forums, pages and internet sites: these are called los mirreyes, a new form of the previously named as fresas or juniors in places like Mexico City. They are young people from high socioeconomic status, students in private institutions such as Universidad Iberoamericana and Tec de Monterrey, regular visitors of night clubs and bars; they are also
frequent users of social networks like Facebook where they often put their duckfaced photos along with by their lobukis (that’s the way the mirreyes call their females). They have emerged accompanied with a new way of dressing, a new vocabulary, and all contemporary Mexican young people say that they know a mirrey, but who are they?, where do they appear? In this paper we will make an ethnographic account of this youth Mexican subculture, its style, taste, music and affinities, understanding it, in first place, as one of the first youth identities that emerged in the early XXI century through the internet and, in the second place, as a youth identity that represents the rejection of a México Profundo, that is, the Mexican people without economic resources, without opportunities, brown-skinned: the Mexico to which most Mexicans belong.