How a Bunch of Mexican Trolls Pranked the Internet Rafa Fernandez De Castro - Fusion
go to original July 23, 2016

Whenever tragedy strikes somewhere in the world, a Mexican man known as “Alfonso” seems to be involved somehow. In fact, in just the past two months Alfonso has reportedly died three times in unrelated tragedies on different parts of the globe.

He was on the EgyptAir flight that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, was shot in Orlando’s Pulse nightclub during the June 12 mass-shooting, and killed in Istanbul’s Ataturk airport when the terrorists blew themselves up on June 28.

Alfonso’s image was even featured in a New York Times video of the victims of the Orlando shooting, but later removed after the newspaper acknowledged it couldn’t identify the young man’s true identity or status.



Alfonso, it turns out, is a hyper-local Mexican internet joke that has taken on a life of its own. It’s gone viral and global, yet very few people are actually privy to the joke—and some who are just learning about it don’t find it funny at all.

The idea of unlucky Alfonso was allegedly started by a clique of young Mexicans who spend a good chunk of their free time trolling celebrities and politicians on Twitter. Some of them—contacted by Fusion—claim to know each other in person, while others say they’ve only met on social media.

“Alfonso was part of our group. We organized tournaments to troll famous people on the web. We were just looking to annoy people and have fun,” says @marty_batiato, a young Mexican guy who uses a creepy Fidel Castro avatar.

Batiato claims Alfonso is a real person, but was ostracized from their group of friends when he borrowed money that was never paid back. So the group turned on him and started trolling him on the internet. “We wanted to get his face out there and shame him,” Batiato says.

So who is this Mexican man who keeps getting killed?

Read the rest at Fusion

Image: Elena Scotti/Fusion

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