The Views: La Karencita Brings Us Down to Earth In Mexico
Handle: She goes by @LaKarencita or @LaKarencitaMX on YouTube, @lakarencitaa on Instagram and @lakarencita on Patreon.
Series: The main YouTube channel has multiple series that are categorized in different playlists. Since the channel’s focus is the creator’s journey and experience with Mexican culture and living in Mexico, there are several playlists about those topics. Aside from the channel’s podcast episode playlist (which contains 72 episodes), the most popular playlist is called “LIFE IN MEXICO (QRO).”
Creators: La Karencita is the channel’s owner and face, but her husband also appears in various videos. They interview people on the street and during their travels, so they are not the only ones providing commentary.
Platform: The content tends to be mostly coming from YouTube, but the creator posts on Instagram and Patreon. She also provides a subscription-based service called “Thrive in Spanish,” where she can teach users Spanish.
Genre/Genres: The content is a mix of commentary and documentary, often in “vlog” style, and is largely about the creator and her husband’s shared experiences across different continents.
Subscribers/Followers: The creator has 72,500 YouTube subscribers, around 3,000 Instagram followers and 37 patrons on Patreon.
La Karencita, a Mexican creator, began posting videos on YouTube in December 2018. Her first video was the vlog of a stroll around a city in Mexico, with the headline in big bold letters: “QUERÉTARO—Demos una caminata por los lindos y acogedores andadores.” The video is almost entirely in Spanish, with English subtitles for non-Spanish speakers. From the first few minutes of the video alone, one can see the amount of care that the vlogger has for the city. The way she goes on to describe the small streets, the colors of the buildings around her, and the different businesses she visits is enthralling and familial. Along with her advice on what food or beverage to purchase and where to do so, this first vlog feels like a chat with a friend. This is her general tone in her YouTube videos, and has persisted for years, even with her husband in front of the camera. The comment section of each video, regardless of where La Karencita is in the world, whether it’s the United Kingdom, Colombia, Ecuador, Vietnam, or Mexico, is filled with people who praise her down-to-earth commentary on her life and share their own stories. Many give their best regards from their countries. It’s assumed that her tone and delivery are the major markers behind her audience growth. This is helped by her close relationship with her husband, who e is a regular on the channel, even if not on camera, is either filming or hanging about in the background. His presence and their interactions make viewers feel like they are chatting with the creator and increase familiarity with them, especially when it comes to topics that come close to the creator’s heart and experience. Her grounding and cultural roots are recurring themes.
Not all of her videos over the years have been like her debut video, which speaks to her evolution as a creator. There are videos where she discusses social issues, like the one on gentrification in Mexico, a street interview in which she asks about citizen worries in Mexico and even a more personal video on the struggles of being in an interracial relationship. On that, she is not afraid to get sentimental, as evidenced by the video she has with her grandma and her aunt, where they talk about their lives in Mexico and their pasts, titled “The side of my life I never show…” She is also not afraid to get vulnerable, particularly when speaking out against racism experienced while in Vietnam, Mexico and in the online space. Though just a few of her nearly 300 videos exceed 20 minutes in length, she delivers her content in great depth, regardless of the emotionality of the topic.
According to the comments on each of these videos, they are well-received and acclaimed for how “real” they are, adding to her relatability to her viewers. Speaking of her viewers, her target audience seems to be people of a similar age: homesteaders, keen tourists, and those who want to settle down and can afford to travel, particularly in Mexico. Travel videos interspersed with social commentary provides a very cohesive blend of realism that is felt in her channel and content, even on Instagram. While her account is more familial and casual than YouTube, she regularly references her YouTube videos in almost each post’s caption, seamlessly redirecting viewers to a different platform. There doesn’t seem to be a big separation in tone between Instagram and YouTube, which is once again cohesive, and most importantly, convenient.
Over seven years of content creation on YouTube, La Karencita has moved houses often, yet the town of her first video, Querétaro, keeps reappearing. For now, it is her home, but it was always apparent through all her videos that no matter where she lived, Mexico would always be her home. The way she has reflected on her culture and identity while away from Mexico indicates a desire for connection that has been met with resounding and continued support from her viewers. This is especially visible in the videos on Querétaro that was created since her first vlog, including a reaction to her original vlog, with an increasing number of existing and potential subscribers chiming in to share their own experiences of Querétaro and Mexico. Evidently, her content has evolved and branched out over the years, but the roots of what it began with remains grounded.
