When TikTok, the mobile application that allows video sharing, began to gain popularity, Jesús Morales, like many other young people, began to create original content to share on social networks.
What I did not imagine is that in a very short time he would become an influencer and a guardian angel for many street vendors.
The 24 year old said that after being fired from his job at the beginning of the pandemic he decided to use his free time to create funny videos. His visits and followers increased but he did not feel comfortable with his results. He felt that something was missing in those videos.
A short time later he came across recordings of those who left large amounts of tips in restaurants and that of a young woman who gave money to street vendors . The influencers indicated that the money they left was mainly from donations from their followers.
“So I made a video asking for donations to help the homeless,” said Morales, whose name In social networks it is @Juixxe.
Fortunately, he received some donations which, as he indicated in his video, he used to buy food and water for the homeless.
However, his gaze was on his own Latino and immigrant community.
Morales, who is the son of Mexican immigrants, was born and raised in Illinois and a few years ago moved to San Diego, California. He lived in Los Angeles for a year and here he saw the high number of street vendors.
Most of them are undocumented and / or elderly people.
The young man said that he knew very closely the dream of immigrants of wanting to get ahead since as a child he saw it daily with his parents.
“My Dad worked he had multiple jobs and my mom worked as a waitress and she told me that sometimes people just left her pennies for a tip, ”Morales recalled.
To honor the hard work of these people, it was that he began to work on his videos with a purpose: the money collected from his followers would be used to find random street vendors and deliver it to him.
Blessings to strangers
Morales said that so far he has distributed more than $ 90, 000 in donations to street vendors throughout California but primarily in Los Angeles. He added that his followers have donated from a few dollars to amounts of $ 1, 000 in a single transaction .
He assured that this is a team effort since without his followers who make donations, he could not deliver the aid. ‘Juixxe’ is in charge of distributing the money once or twice a week, depending on the amount it collects.
His way of approaching sellers is very peculiar. He asks them to buy all their merchandise and when the sellers accept, Morales offers them money. He usually gives them $ 1, 000, and tells them to keep the merchandise.
In the videos, salespeople are constantly heard thanking him and giving blessings to Morales and his followers. Some even kneel in amazement at not believing that it is true that they are receiving that money.
Morales said that these types of help videos have filled him with an inexplicable joy . “I don’t know them [a los vendedores] nor do I know what they’re going through, I wouldn’t say that I arrive at a perfect time but I do pay them a visit with a purpose,” said the influencer.
A full-time job
‘Juixxe’ said that for a few months creating content on TikTok for his followers has become his full-time job. He now has more than a million followers and his videos have thousands of views. It is from these visits that he receives his salary as well as from sponsors with whom he has recently associated.
“Never in my life would I have imagined that I would be doing TikTok for a living” Morales said. “The interaction with the sellers takes a little while and I can do the video editing in about 20 or 30 minutes. ”
However, Morales said that after delivering the donation to the sellers, he waits a few days or weeks to post the video on social media. He is also responsible for covering the faces of the salespeople who appear in the videos. He does all of this for their safety.
“I would not like any of these vendors to be identified as having money and could steal from them,” said Juixxe, who travels once or twice a week from San Diego to Los Angeles to deliver to those most in need.
He has become another example that youth is interested in helping those most in need. He said that he had always wanted to make these kinds of videos but was afraid of failure but managed to beat it.
“You know that you have to fail to be successful and I have failed many times in my life and this is the only thing I can say with gratitude that it has not failed,” he said with joy. .