
The rise of Latino tech influencers

A handful of Latino technology influencers on YouTube and social media are helping Hispanics navigate the changing world of smartphones, gaming, and noise-canceling headphones.
The big picture: Dominican American YouTube star Krystal Lora, with her 323,000 subscribers, is among the most popular technology reviewers. She breaks down the latest Apple and Google products for growing Latino YouTube audiences.
The intrigue: Lora often reviews smartphones and comments on how well the technology takes photos of darker-skinned people and practical uses of the devices for families.
- She dissects products like Apple Fitness after testing it out with her sister or shows how family members may use a new tool.
- Like fellow online tech reviewers Brian Tong and Marques Brownlee, Lora tries to simplify new technology and recommends how the tools can affect everyday life.
Omar Gonzalez, a Puerto Rican photographer from Hoboken, New Jersey, with over 120,000 subscribers, reviews the latest high-tech cameras and gives advice to his YouTube audiences on taking better photos.
- Like Lora, he tries to demystify technology and obscure specs for everyday use and give honest, but humorous takes about the latest tools.
Yes, but: Sometimes, the YouTube stars can’t stay away from pressing social issues.
- In a June 2020 post, Lora talked about the discrimination she faced and her reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement as it relates to her Dominican background.
- In an emotional YouTube video, she spoke of losing her grandmother to COVID-19 and pleaded with viewers to do their part to fight the pandemic.
Of note: Spanish-speaking YouTubers, especially in Colombia and Mexico, have also made headway in the tech world, modeling themselves after massively popular vloggers such as Werevertumorro (real name Gabriel Montiel) and Luisito Comunica (real name Luis Villar).
- Villar even started his own cell phone company in 2020.
- Mexicans Carlos Vassan, who reviews Android products, and Andrés Neshudo, who talks apps tips and tricks, have each amassed over a million subscribers alongside YouTubers like Colombian TP Resurrection (real name Juan Pablo Amaya), who breaks down which affordable cell phones are worth it.
And after the global success of ElRubius, streamer star from Spain, and Salvadoran Luis Flores, alias Fernanfloo, a handful of women from Latin America have also become popular gaming YouTubers and Twitch streamers.
Editor’s note: We corrected the spelling of the first name of Gabriella Lora in the photo caption.
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