From today it’s on Prime Video 13:14, the challenge to help, the documentary made by Juanpa Zurita about how he was able to help the victims of Ocuilan, State of Mexico. We spoke exclusively with Juanpa himself and some others involved in this project that changed lives.
By Alberto Rojas Eguiluz
With the 2017 earthquake, many places and communities in Mexico were affected. Juanpa Zurita, taking advantage of her enormous convening power, founded Love Army, a project to collect money and rebuild homes. The chosen one was that of Ocuilan, but due to the same inexperience of the youtuber in the field of construction, things were getting complicated to the degree that many thought that he was keeping the money.
In 13:14, the challenge to help, Juanpa shows us the whole process in which he ended up helping many people thanks to Love Army, and by the way, he explains in detail what happened with the money. From today you can watch the documentary on Prime Video. Here we leave you our interview with Juanpa Zurita, direct Santiago Fabregas and Wendy, one of the beneficiaries of the Love Army.
How was the process of making the documentary and letting people know that there was no trans behind it?
Juanpa: The documentary was an accident, as you know I record everything, and in this case we thought it would take three months, but it was three and a half years. I only dedicated myself to telling the facts but I had kept this material from the odyssey, Eugenio Derbez joined in, who was a very important piece in the mission because he brought Santi to the table.
Santiago: This story had to be told because of the number of people involved. The idea was to make a film that had different points of view, from the affected people to Eugenio, Juanpa, the media and the foundations that participated.
What was the most important thing you learned from this whole process?
Juanpa: Well, I finally matured (laughs). The most important thing was that it is worth holding on, being firm and doing the right thing, there were moments where I doubted it, why was that happening if what we were doing was something very beautiful? That is what we want to promote with this piece, if someone feels that they do not have as much experience, they should help out, they will be covered in mud, they will be criticized, but doing the right thing is worth it.
What was the good that came out of all this?
Wendy: That this changed my life completely. Rebuilding a house takes years, and the arrival of a boy like Juanpa, who in his madness said “we are going to rebuild it”, was the best.
Juanpa: The greatest reward is the relationship I have with the people of Ocuilan, a very nice friendship grew, it’s very cool how we get along, I never thought that was what I was going to get. We started watching for the people of Ocuilan and then they ended up watching for us (laughs), that’s very nice, it’s something very personal that I feel very proud of, when I look back I say, “how did we do it?”.
What will happen now that Ocuilan is on his feet?
I went every Saturday for more than three years, now going to eat a tlacoyo is better than going to supervise a play. With this I realized that helping has more to do with the impact than with the intention. It doesn’t matter if you help 100 people or one, the important thing is to take that action, we can all do it every day in small things to make a place cooler for everyone, absolutely everyone can do something from their trenches and their possibilities. Now there is the most beautiful part, which is to enjoy the relationship we have instead of running around to see if we finish or not. the other day I took my parents to see the town and I went to have some tlacoyos, it was the first time I went without any pressure, that was very nice, we made a projection because beyond the world seeing it, the important thing It was that the inhabitants of Ocuilan saw it, that we closed that cycle, it was very emotional, I cried a lot because there was a very strong complicity between the families and us, and when I saw the documentary with them I felt the conclusion of the project, we had finished the construction of the project a year and a half ago, but it did not feel, emotionally it was closed there.
In the documentary you say that you can’t climb a mountain after coming down one, is there already a next mountain?
Yes, Everest (laughs). There will always be new projects and more mountains, but as I was saying, when it comes to helping, it is important, you always have to do it, and the important thing is in the intention, when you throw a seed and you don’t know how big the tree could come out. .