Series
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La Vota - Carlos Eduardo Espina

August 30, 2024
Social media sensation Carlos Eduardo Espina breaks down his speech at the DNC, discusses how social media influences elections, and debunks myths about immigration.
Show transcript
00:00
Welcome back to La Bota Alejo.
00:08
I am so excited.
00:09
What's going on? Well,
00:10
today, we have someone that people are literally saying might be
00:14
our first Gen Z Latino president.
00:17
That is what's up.
00:19
That is, that is cool.
00:21
Also, he is huge on Tik Tok like over 10 million
00:24
followers and, and he gave a speech at the DNC last
00:30
week, but it blew up like my family in Colombia sent
00:34
it to me and we're like,
00:35
who is he? If two decades ago when my parents immigrated
00:40
to College Station, Texas,
00:45
you told them that one day their son would reach 14 million
00:51
followers on social media,
00:53
graduate law school and speak at the Democratic National Convention.
00:58
They might not believe you.
01:03
We're gonna talk to him.
01:03
Let's talk to him.
01:04
You're inspired. So we want him to rub that energy off
01:06
on you guys. Exactly.
01:08
Let's welcome, Carlos Eduardo Esquina activists and social media sensation.
01:14
Welcome. Carlos. Hi.
01:16
Hi. Thank you for having me.
01:17
Thank you so much for joining.
01:19
We're so excited to be speaking with you today.
01:22
Oh, yeah, me too.
01:22
Me too. I know you're all about Texas.
01:25
You're from Texas. You live in Texas,
01:27
I always ask Texas people in and out or what a burger
01:30
Well, honestly I don't really like either,
01:32
to be honest. I mean,
01:35
I mean,
01:36
water burger. So I really liked it,
01:38
but I ate it so much,
01:40
like when I was young and in high school,
01:42
you know, so I just stopped going too much and then
01:45
in and out. I mean,
01:46
it's all right. So I lived in Las Vegas for three
01:48
years. I went to law school there.
01:50
And the first time I went to in and out,
01:51
I was like, you know,
01:52
because of this whole thing was like,
01:53
oh, this is gonna be amazing and I mean,
01:55
it was good, but it also wasn't like,
01:57
oh, this is like life changing.
01:59
So if I had to choose probably water burger,
02:01
but like I said,
02:01
I don't go there too much either anymore.
02:03
You got burnt out on that water burger.
02:06
But so you mentioned you went to law school in Las
02:10
Vegas when, so tell me a little bit about that because
02:13
you also decided to start creating.
02:15
When did that happen?
02:16
So I grew up when I grew up in college station,
02:19
Texas ever since I was five years old.
02:21
After graduating high school,
02:23
I moved to New York to go to school at Vassar College
02:26
I was there for three years.
02:28
I graduated early in May of 2020.
02:31
And basically like during that time,
02:34
a little bit before my graduation,
02:35
I already had like a job lined up for a nonprofit in
02:38
Texas. But then that fell through because of the pandemic.
02:41
And while I was figuring out what to do,
02:43
you know, an organization,
02:44
a nonprofit, another one reached out to me about doing citizenship
02:48
classes online. So I started doing them on Facebook and
02:53
I was like, hey,
02:53
I should do them on tiktok too.
02:55
So my first content on Tik Tok was about the citizenship
02:58
classes. Those started blowing up pretty fast and,
03:02
you know, started doing social media as a hobby.
03:05
But back then I was like,
03:06
you know, I really like doing social media,
03:08
but it's also like,
03:09
at that point, I didn't think I could make a career
03:11
or anything like serious out of him.
03:13
So while I was figuring out what to do like long term
03:16
I was like,
03:17
oh, let's go to law school.
03:18
So I applied to law school.
03:19
I got a scholarship to go to the University of Nevada in
03:23
Las Vegas. And while in law school,
03:25
that's when I started really like blowing up a lot more on
03:27
social media. And I was like,
03:29
well, I'm already in law school.
03:30
I can't drop out now,
03:31
you know, that would look really bad.
03:32
And I was like,
03:33
I have to take advantage of this opportunity.
03:35
So I found a way to balance both.
03:37
And yeah, I graduated this May and I'm still making content
03:41
So I think it worked out.
03:43
Awesome. I mean,
03:44
again, homeboys hustling.
03:46
No, I'm like,
03:47
I'm taking notes right now.
03:48
I'm like, if he can do it,
03:49
I can do it too.
03:51
Oh, yeah, I have a question about your tiktok specifically
03:54
because you do a lot of Spanish videos,
03:56
right? Like, why do you create mainly content in
03:58
Spanish? I don't even know.
03:59
I just kind of like I just felt natural.
04:01
So like I said,
04:01
when I started social media,
04:03
it was kind of like,
04:04
you know, I'm just going to share what I'm already doing
04:06
There's already a a lot of people putting stuff out there
04:08
in English. Like I wanna do something different and you know
04:10
like do it in Spanish,
04:12
but specifically for Latinos here in the United States,
04:15
it was funny because when I gave my speech at the DNC
04:17
there was a lot of people like,
04:19
oh I didn't know this guy spoke English,
04:20
you know, so like there's this misconception that if you speak
04:23
Spanish, you don't speak English or if you speak English,
04:26
you don't like, I mean,
04:27
a lot of us exist within both worlds and I think I
04:29
don't only speak to those people who don't know English.
04:32
I speak to a lot of people who know English,
04:34
but they just, you know,
04:35
like to consume stuff in Spanish for people like my parents,
04:38
you know, like they know English,
04:39
but they just feel more at home more comfortable with Spanish.
04:42
So, I mean,
04:42
being able to bridge that gap,
04:44
I think is really important.
04:45
I know I, I relate to that.
04:47
I, I feel like I naturally speak in Spanish so I
04:49
I enjoy your content very much and we actually read somewhere
04:53
that 20 million people watched the DNC but content creators specifically brought
04:57
in 55 million views.
04:59
Do you think social media is a future for this election?
05:02
And just in general for politics down the road?
05:04
Yeah. No, I mean,
05:05
that's what I was actually looking at today.
05:07
So it's funny because Telemundo they uploaded my speech before I
05:12
did because obviously I was speaking and then doing everything after so
05:15
like on their social media on just tiktok alone,
05:18
it has a 7.5 million views or something like that.
05:21
It's been shared. I don't know how many times and then
05:23
also they shared it on Instagram and I was like,
05:25
that's awesome. So I res shared it too.
05:27
I was stressed about like having the subtitle and everything myself.
05:30
And then I'm like,
05:30
oh Telemundo already did it for me.
05:32
So like, I was so much and then to your question
05:35
of how this relates to the election,
05:36
I think more and more people are getting their information from
05:41
social media, which is a good or bad thing depending how
05:44
you look at it.
05:45
But it's the reality that we can avoid.
05:47
And I think the Democratic Party realized that and that's why they
05:50
invited so many of us,
05:51
you know, quote unquote content creators and you know,
05:54
influencers, whatever you want cause us to be there.
05:57
And I think that was a really a smart move on
05:59
their part honestly. And during your speech,
06:02
you said to be pro immigrant is to be pro America Reagan
06:06
knew that welcoming immigrants is not a Democratic or a Republican value
06:12
It is an American value to be pro immigrant is to
06:20
be pro America. What do you think is the biggest problem
06:26
facing immigrants this election year?
06:28
I feel like the narrative has just been allowed to shift so
06:31
far to one extreme to the point where even like,
06:34
you know, progressives and Democrats are like adopting a lot of
06:37
these talking points. I think there are serious conversations to be
06:40
had about like what's going on at the border or you know
06:43
like border security,
06:44
all these kinds of stuff.
06:45
But when you completely let that overshadow the reality of the millions
06:49
of people who are already here,
06:51
like for over the past two years now,
06:53
everything about immigration is the border,
06:55
the border, the border and obviously the border is important and
06:57
I'm I'm not saying it's not,
06:59
but we also can't forget the millions of people who are already
07:02
here who have been here for many years.
07:04
And you know, I think the biggest challenge is how do
07:06
we shift the narrative back not only push back against,
07:10
you know, this hateful anti immigrant rhetoric but propose a counter
07:13
narrative that paints immigrants for what they truly are good.
07:16
People who pay taxes,
07:18
who contribute, who in their vast majority don't have a criminal
07:21
record, don't have anything,
07:22
you know. I mean,
07:24
it's just positives all around for the country.
07:26
So how do we move back to that?
07:28
And I pulled out that Ronald Reagan quote,
07:31
which was actually quite interesting cause I was like,
07:33
you know, Ronald Reagan is not someone who I really agree
07:35
with on a lot of stuff.
07:36
But even then you look at Republicans previous in the past,
07:41
their stances on immigration were night and day compared to what we're
07:44
seeing right now. So like it's crazy to think that like
07:47
Ronald Reagan was more pro immigrant than some Democrats nowadays.
07:50
You know, like one thing we have to accept and especially
07:53
when we say, you know,
07:54
the United States is the greatest country on earth.
07:56
As long as you are the quote unquote,
07:58
greatest country on earth.
07:59
People are gonna wanna come here then that's not a bad thing
08:01
You know, why do people want to come to the
08:03
United States instead of going to China or Russia?
08:05
Because the United States is what it is.
08:07
So we have to accept one that people are always gonna wanna
08:09
come here. That said,
08:11
how can we create these legal pathways for them to be able
08:13
to come without having to risk their lives.
08:16
I mean, just think about it.
08:17
If someone is paying a coyote 10 $15,000 to be able to
08:22
smuggle them across the border,
08:23
you don't think they would pay the US government the same amount
08:26
to be able to come here legally work here.
08:28
Have a work permit.
08:29
Like, so why don't we look at those solutions that will
08:31
actually reduce the number of people at the border.
08:34
So I agree with all parties that what's going on on the
08:37
border right now is a real problem and we can't ignore it
08:40
I just think the solutions I propose,
08:43
which I find to be the most logical are very different than
08:46
anything else that's being proposed.
08:48
I mean, instead of,
08:49
you know, taking this anti you know,
08:52
immigrant super hard line deport everyone approach like,
08:55
OK, how can we open up,
08:56
you know, channels,
08:58
legal channels that are accessible that are good for the United States
09:01
that are good for immigrants that are good for everyone involved.
09:04
And that's what I want to shift the narrative back towards the
09:07
issues, not the problems instead of the solutions that you know
09:10
each side is proposing that I know that the surface.
09:14
But I appreciate that.
09:15
I really appreciate that.
09:16
I'm like, I want to hear more like this is fascinating
09:19
to me, these sound like break it down for me because
09:25
I'm not that, you know,
09:26
in it. But if you explain it like that.
09:28
I think that more people would actually,
09:30
oh, that is a valid point.
09:32
I have to ask,
09:33
what are your aspirations for the future?
09:35
I mean, anything in the realm of politics?
09:38
I see the comments.
09:39
I know, I know people,
09:42
people like. So it's funny because every time that happens,
09:45
people have this whole argument of whether I can run for president
09:49
or not. It's actually funny.
09:50
So obviously I want to be involved in politics.
09:52
Like, I think it's cool being able to be a speak
09:54
at the DNC and meet with politicians.
09:56
But like, you know,
09:57
you can have a seat in the room from like a community
10:00
perspective and like, you know,
10:01
when you have that power behind you,
10:03
then instead of like,
10:05
you know, the other thing is too,
10:06
like, once you actually go into,
10:07
you know, a position or you run for something and you
10:10
like, affiliate with like a party,
10:11
like, you know,
10:12
hard line and everything,
10:13
a lot of times,
10:14
you know, you maybe aren't able to speak as much as
10:17
you want to or you have to like,
10:18
you know, a lot of the work that I care about
10:20
is not necessarily what's always being talked about,
10:23
you know, in congress,
10:24
that kind of stuff.
10:25
So it is difficult and obviously that takes away time from what
10:28
you really care about,
10:29
which is doing that community help.
10:30
So, I mean,
10:31
I wanna say no,
10:32
because you never know,
10:32
what can happen. I think the pandemic,
10:34
you know, if five years ago you asked me,
10:35
do you ever think you're gonna be a,
10:36
a content creator? I'd be like,
10:38
no, that's really stupid.
10:39
But now I'm a content creator,
10:40
you know, so like,
10:41
you never know. But at the same time,
10:43
what I really enjoy is like working with people,
10:45
you know, and spending that time in the community.
10:47
Yeah. Well, Carlos,
10:50
I mean, we appreciate the time and we can keep
10:52
going on and on,
10:52
but we appreciate the breakdowns you gave us throughout this this
10:55
call and obviously you wanna send people your way and show you
10:58
love and you know,
10:59
check out what you're doing.
11:01
Do you mind plugging your socials,
11:02
follow you up, Twitter and then all the other platforms.
11:04
Carlos Despina vote November 8th.
11:12
Thank you so, so much Carlos for joining us.
11:15
We really appreciate it.
11:16
Oh, yeah, I think it's November 5th,
11:17
right? Is that the election last November 8th was last time
11:25
vote November 5th. Shout out Carlos for not checking me and
11:32
my date.