Ten years ago, Edgar Martínez was pushed off a log by his primo, Fernando. The incident was filmed and posted on YouTube, amassing nearly 50 million views. So, what has he been up to lately? Let’s catch up.
“I think sometimes things happen that suddenly change your life, but it all depends on one just taking things in the best way, and always with a smile,” he said.
Now 21 years old, Edgar is a communications student and has big dreams of becoming a TV presenter.
Everyone has that embarrassing uncle. The one who busts out dancing in public, or makes incredibly old-school dad jokes. Embarrassing uncles keep you guessing what they’ll do next and oftentimes you and your cousins are embarrassed by his bizarre behavior. If you can’t think of an embarrassing uncle, chances are it’s you, you’re the embarrassing uncle or tía. This Mexican man from Wyoming is the quintessential embarrassing uncle, except the internet, unlike your cousins, is loving every minute of his antics.
Tío TikTok might be a little older than the app’s intended audience, but he still managed to make his content go viral, even when he didn’t even know what TikTok was.
Credit: @Doggface208 / TikTok
Tío TikTok aka Nathan Apodaca is the grown man who’s single-handedly bringing Gen-Z app TikTok, to Millennials. If you’re wondering what TikTok is, don’t worry. It is basically the second-coming of Vine. It is all about short videos that play in a loop for everyone to enjoy.
Remember Musical.ly? Maybe you remember the times of Vine? It’s hard to keep up with the constantly changing social media landscape as some apps gain notoriety, others merge, and even more die out. As non-members of the Gen Z generation, it’s even harder to keep it all straight.
The old app Musical.ly was rebranded as TikTok and it’s quickly become Gen Z’s app of choice.
If you do remember Musical.ly, you may know that in August 2018, it rebranded as TikTok. And Vine? That app was the victim of an ever-changing internet and suffered a slow death, causing users to feel the dejection of media abandonment. TikTok though has stirred up a revival of short video clips. Only now, it’s even more interactive, collaborative, and downright addictive.
Apodaca was introduced to the app by his Gen Z daughters, and his videos soon went viral.
Tío TikTok was unaware of the popular video-app himself. His daughters, Makyla and Angelia, are the ones who first introduced Apocada’s to the platform. His youngest daughter even helped him film his first video, which quickly went viral. Apodaca confesses that he was stumped as to what to do, or what type of content to publish on his app, but his eldest daughter came to the rescue and suggested he did his usual goofy dances on camera. And just like that, Apodaca turned into a TikTok sensation.
Tío TikTok’s 16-second videos are simple and hilarious, and they touch a chord with young audiences for their humor.
Credit: @Doggface208 / TikTok
Apodaca shares 16-second bite-sized clips of himself dancing and performing to a tune. His perfectly in-sync interpretations, have gained him nearly 90 thousand followers. Tío TikTok usually jams out to classic ’90s gangsta rap like DMX, Dr. Dre, Eminem or Twista and Gen Z-ers and Millennials alike, can’t seem to get enough of his nostalgic vibes.
In his video’s he’s usually goofing around at work or high off weed which has made his content recognizable.
In one of his most liked posts, Nathan is seen sitting on a conveyor belt lip-syncing Sublime’s ’90s classic hit ‘Santeria’ at the factory where he works and films most of his videos. The post earned 26.9 thousand likes and received thousands of hilarious comments like “*OSHA has entered the chat*” by @BertoBitch or “The workers that package for WISH…”
Apodaca is the stoner uncle you never knew you needed on social media.
His hashtags regularly include 420, 710, ‘high’ and ‘gogreen’, stoner terms used to celebrate dabs and cannabis concentrates. His song choices, usually pulled from an unpredictably random selection, often celebrate the plant too. @Doggface208 aka Nathan Apodaca loves weed so much that he, ingeniously, linked his PayPal account on his TikTok bio for donations; “Now accepting donations 4 Flower 🍃 n white Ts PayPal apodacadogg208@gmail.com” reads his profile description. Whether the account is real or not, we’re not sure, but you’re welcome to send a little donation and let us know.
Most TikTok users may be under 30 according to Apple Store download stats, but we’re sure that this guy’s hilarious videos will attract an older demographic to download the app too.
Dads, you have to love them, especially when they’re left to rule the house when mom’s away. While they generally try their hardest, some dads can be big kids and the house will essentially remain unsupervised by a responsible adult. This mom learned that the hard way after she handed over the torch of responsibility to dad while she took a little nap. She woke up to find that dad had shaved off the baby’s hair and her reaction is priceless.
This video proves that sometimes you just can’t trust a Latino dad alone with the children.
New mom Jasmin Aileen Valero, wanted to catch up on some sleep after the exhausting task of taking care of her newborn baby. Dad, Joshua Luevanoz, was entrusted with watching over baby Jazlyn, while mom took a little nap. To Jasmin’s surprise, she woke up to find out that dad had shaved Jazlin’s entire head of hair, leaving their newborn looking like a little diaper-wearing kiwi.
Mom clearly didn’t expect to wake up to such a surprise. Suffice it to say, she wasn’t happy.
The Californian family shared the video of Jasmin being given the shock of a lifetime and the internet loved it, except for a few viewers going as far as to call it ‘child abuse.’
Jasmin had only just woke up when Joshua handed her the baby and began filming. Next thing you know, he’s pulling a little blanket off Jazlyn’s head to reveal their newly bald baby. Jasmin’s reaction is one of true surprise or horror if you will. “Why’d you do that?” she asks holding back shocked laughter and tears. Many news outlets have reported that dad shaved the baby’s head as a prank. But if you grew up Latino, you know that in a Latino household, shaving a baby’s head is no prank, it’s serious business and there’s bound to be a group of elders putting pressure on the new parents to rid the child of his or her hair, for the sake of tradition.
Behind every bald baby, there’s an Abuelita or tía telling new parents everything about the millenary tradition of shaving the baby’s head.
Credit: @planetamama / Twitter
“Is shaving the newborn baby’s hair necessary for his hair to grow stronger?”
The Latino tradition of shaving the baby’s hair is true and old. Many call it: pelar, rapar, rasurar or afeitar al bebé. It’s a tradition widely spread throughout many Hispanic countries. I can confirm that it’s a common practice in Venezuela, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Spain, Ecuador, and Mexico. Why do crazy moms, abuelas —and unsuspecting dads as it turns out— shave the baby’s hair? According to tradition, the new hair will grow thicker, more evenly, and beautiful.
Experts explain that shaving a baby’s hair will not make it thicker or change its texture. Baby hair changes depend on the normal development of the child, and his or her genetic make-up. Where this tradition started, I wouldn’t know, trying to find out would be like trying to trace back the origin of ‘el cucuy, ‘nobody knows, it’s just been a tradition for centuries and centuries. There’s no information explaining where we picked up this idea from. But it is, unfortunately for this mom, still a very common practice.
Latinos aren’t the only peoples who shave off little innocent babies’ heads. Muslims do it too, perhaps this is where the tradition started?
Credit: @hztweets / Twitter
Surprisingly, Latinos aren’t the only people who believe in this magic capillary legend. Shaving the baby’s head on his seventh day on earth is a common practice amongst Sunnah Islamic followers. They believe that only boys should have their heads shaved as “a means to drive them closer to Allaah.” If we keep in mind that many Latino traditions originate from Spain, which was occupied by Muslims for centuries, maybe that has something to do with how all the shaving started.
