-ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

The past year has been a whirlwind for Agustina Vivero, known as “Cumbio” for her love of cumbia music, a fusion of Latin pop, salsa and dance that is popular among Argentina’s lower classes. She has catapulted herself to stardom and unexpected affluence by transforming Internet fame as Argentina’s most popular “flogger” into marketing muscle, signing modelling contracts, promoting dance clubs and writing a book about her life.

Floggers take photos of themselves and friends and post them on photo blogs. Vivero’s fotolog site is among the most viewed Internet sites in Argentina, logging 36 million visits over the past year, she said.

And she is all of 17. “When people see me in the street sometimes they cry or they want to hug me or kiss me,” she said. “Or they hate me.”

A foundation featured her in a campaign to raise awareness for HIV prevention, and a filmmaker is shooting a documentary about her life. There is a Cumbio perfume and talk of a reality-based television show starring Cumbio and friends.

Her unlikely popularity is also redefining stereotypes of youth celebrity in Argentina. Vivero, who is openly gay, describes herself and other floggers as “androgynous” for their unisex clothing. She is comfortable with not being model-thin and eschews dieting.

Last year, when she invited some friends over to her family’s house in San Cristóbal, they took photos of themselves and their trademark big, carefully tousled hair, bright V-neck T-shirts and sneakers. They soon outgrew the house and Vivero proposed moving the gatherings to Abasto. The first week about a hundred kids showed up. By the fourth week the number had swelled to 2,000. Soon she was making regular appearances on television news and talk shows.

The Cumbio craze took off after Guillermo Tragant, president of a marketing company, discovered Vivero last April—Nike wanted “real people from the streets”, Tragant said. The Nike modelling led to promotional appearances. Dance club gigs alone net her $1,000 a weekend, said people close to Vivero.

Her parents have been supportive, welcoming an assortment of her friends to their home for visits that sometimes last weeks. Her bedroom, with its creaky wood loft space where she keeps her computer, has become a refuge for friends to escape their troubles at home.

She says she plans to study to be a television journalist. For now, she is working on lyrics for a band in the vein of Aqua. “I’ll have fun with this while it lasts,” she said. “When it ends, well, that’s that. I’ll still have all the photos.”
(NYT)