The Make-up Artist who Denounces Nicaragua’s Dictatorship
On Tik Tok videos
HAVANA TIMES – Jessica Loaisiga moved to the United States 15 years ago; 11 years ago, she entered the make-up world. Although she dedicates most of her time to her family and her work cashiering in a pizza parlor, she finds space to create contents on social media about artistic make-up and skin care. She works with several different brands of make-up.
Jessica, 33, assures that she always wanted to raise up the name of Nicaragua. She took advantage of Tik Tok to denounce the repression that Nicaraguans have been enduring since April 2018, when the sociopolitical crisis began. She began using blue-and-white make-up and body drawings that reflect the country and its struggle.
“When events brought all that pain to Nicaragua , it hurt me so much that for a while I had no motivation for anything. I started putting on allusive make-up, drawing on myself, because I was already beginning to experiment with body paint and all that. When I uploaded my first video, I never thought it would reach so many people, especially from my country, and receive so much acceptance from people,” she states.
Currently, Jessica Loaisiga has 115,900 followers on Tik Tok, and her posts have reached 1.2 million “likes”.
The make-up artist tells us that her followers, including many Nicaraguans, ask her for more contents of this type. She says she complies “with great honor,” not to gain more followers, but to express “that it hurts me, it hurts what’s happening in my country, it hurts what’s happening to those mothers who lost their sons, those brothers and sisters, those friends.”
Her first video on Nicaragua
Jessica Loaisiga posted her first video on Nicaragua on November 2, 2018. In it, like many Nicaraguans, she demanded that Daniel Ortega leave power. In 2019, the make-up artist continued making videos, utilizing elements such as the flag, the national anthem, and the national bird and flower of Nicaragua. She has also commemorated the anniversaries of the April Rebellion and Nicaraguan Mother’s Day in her posts, using crosses, candles, books and bullet holes in her corporal designs.
Nicaragua’s Independence Day celebration and the Day of the Dead are other dates she has commemorated with her videos. The posts include the music of Nicaraguan singer-songwriters like Jandir Rodriguez and Carlos Mejia Godoy.
Her videos on Nicaragua have garnered 148,000 re-postings and 22,000 likes on Tik Tok. They’ve also been posted on Facebook and Instagram.
Jessica assures that her artistic creations about Nicaragua always receive positive comments. “That helps a lot – to inspire people to denounce, find out, have everyone know what’s going on,” she says. However, she’s also received threats from Ortega sympathizers, and comments telling her that if she arrives in the country she’ll be arrested. “I delete these and block those people, because I don’t want any negativity in my contents,” she comments.
Learning to do make-up
Originally from Managua, Jessica grew up in the municipality of Tipitapa. When she first arrived in the United States, she worked as a waitress. She began to watch YouTube tutorials about how to do make-up. She also tells us that she participated in make-up contests, and these motivated her to continue learning about that industry on her own.
In addition to the protest videos, Jessica creates and posts contents for other special dates like Christmas, Day of the Dead and Halloween, as well as videos offering reviews of cosmetic products and others about skin care. She states that she doesn’t have a lot of personal clients, because she works directly with some companies. “When I came here, I didn’t know anything, not even how to do my eyebrows. I knew nothing about make-up,” she admits.
This month, [on May 30] Nicaraguans will celebrate Mother’s Day. Jessica Loaisiga says she’s still looking for an idea for her make-up. “Each time, it’s like a commitment I have – every year in April as well as May – it’s a commitment for me to have something to express and to share,” she professes.