How a Uruguayan-American Creator Reached 22 Million People — Without a Media Company Behind Him

Carlos Eduardo Espina is the most important Spanish-language news creator in the United States, and he built it from a pandemic citizenship class.

By Board of Creators ·

Carlos Eduardo Espina is the most important Spanish-language news creator in the United States, and he built it from a pandemic citizenship class.

Source: The New Yorker — Graciela Mochkofsky, March 31, 2026

What Happened

With nearly twenty-two and a half million followers across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube — a figure representing roughly a third of the American Latino population — Carlos Eduardo Espina has become one of the most followed news-adjacent creators in the United States.

Espina's rise began during the pandemic. Graduating from Vassar College in 2020, he found himself uncertain about next steps. Drawing on years of experience teaching citizenship classes, he began offering lessons on Facebook. His first Spanish-language video explaining the path to U.S. citizenship went viral almost immediately.

The turning point: the Biden administration recorded a TikTok with Espina to announce an immigration executive order. The video drew tens of millions of views and led directly to a New York Times profile and a speaking invitation at the Democratic National Convention.

Why It Matters to Creators & Brands

This story is about a structural market failure that one creator filled with his phone and a clear purpose. Legacy Spanish-language media was not serving its audience with accessible, trustworthy, free policy explainers at the moments they needed them most.

Espina moved into that vacuum and built a media institution larger than most regional TV networks.

Espina is candid about the structural bias facing Spanish-language creators: English-language influencers with far smaller audiences often receive greater compensation and institutional access. This is a documented market inefficiency — and a major opportunity. Brands that identify and invest equitably in high-trust non-English-language creators before the rest of the market corrects are buying strategic access to underserved audiences at a significant discount.

For creators, Espina's arc models something Board of Creators considers foundational: utility-first content creation. He didn't start with production quality or entertainment value. He started by answering the one question millions of people couldn't find answered anywhere else.

Practical Takeaway

Find the Spanish-language — or Yoruba, Hindi, or Tagalog — Espina in your category. Then invest in them before the market discovers them. The multilingual creator economy is the most under-resourced and highest-growth segment in the space.

Critical Thinking

Espina's story raises a question about journalism ethics that the New Yorker piece frames but doesn't resolve: is a creator-activist model compatible with the news-trust mandate his 22 million followers have granted him? Espina openly advocates for immigration policy positions while also reporting on them. The line between advocacy and reporting becomes harder to police at scale without editorial infrastructure. As news-creators grow, the field needs shared disclosure and sourcing standards that don't require institutional affiliation to enforce.

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