Credit: Edward Saenz
By Indira Zaldivar & Edward Saenz
Since leaving behind the corporate world, food enthusiast Esmeralda Obispo has built a full-time career for herself, reaching tens of thousands of viewers with crave-triggering videos about food spots in Houston and Pasadena. Her mouth-watering content is shared under her notable social media account,“antojoshouston.”
Transition from Corporate Worker to Independent Influencer.
From working in corporate roles including as a business developer for a social media management company, Esmeralda has found career fulfillment by fully transitioning into her role as a successful food influencer.
“I was used to gray and cold…sitting behind a computer for eight hours a day,” Obispo told Que Onda Magazine in an exclusive interview.
“The most interesting thing that would happen was wondering what was for lunch today.”
“Now, I get to meet so many wonderful people through what I do.”
She now finds herself visiting new places, attending events, learning more, and “feeling a lot more connected with everyone in Houston.”
Filling in Cultural Gaps, One Video at a Time
With more than 110,000 followers on Instagram and more than 60,000 on TikTok, this Latina food influencer in her 20s living in Pasadena, Texas fulfills a more meaningful purpose: addressing the lack of content that represents her Hispanic culture.
“At some point, influencers only looked and sounded a certain way,” Obispo said. “Every single post that I saw was representing some other culture that wasn’t Hispanic or Latino. It was mostly everything else but Hispanic.”
“All of the audio was the same,” she said while explaining the cultural gap in content.
“I want someone that sounds like me, I want the music that I listen to. I want someone to take a picture of some really good tacos with some ‘corrido’ in the background.”
Her Mexican heritage, rooted from her parents, is heard loudly through her videos which are narrated in her native Spanish, English, or sometimes “Spanglish.” The Latino music she plays as audio on her reels resonates with those who appreciate Latino musicians beyond trends.
While she showcases Hispanic food insightfully, Esmeralda has also caught the attention of restaurateurs from different backgrounds who want to connect with her and showcase their cuisines from around the world through her powerful platforms.
Overcoming challenges
However, her success story is not without challenges.
“Once I started creating, going to those events, and running into those circles where other influencers were, it was very difficult for me to be accepted,” she shared.
“It was very difficult for them to take me seriously or see me as a serious influencer because I didn’t sound like them, because I didn’t produce the same type of content as them.”
She credits her family—parents, husband, sister, and brother—for encouraging her to grow from the process and move past the negative feedback.
As someone who’s championed through cultural barriers, Esmeralda is thrilled to see so many other Spanish-speaking influencers take over the food scene and influencers from diverse backgrounds branching out into Hispanic food scenes.
To anyone aspiring to follow in her footsteps as a food influencer, she advises to “just get it done.”
“Just go out there and actually get it done because it’s the only way that it will get done.”
“You won’t stop being embarrassed about taking content in front of people unless you practice it. You won’t get better at creating that content unless you practice it. If your fear is that you’re only going to get a couple of views or that it’s not going to give you the results that you want, I’d like to remind them that there is an audience for everything.”
Inspiration Behind Her platform
Esmeralda’s Mexican immigrant parents are also the inspiration behind her successful platforms. From appreciating the culinary knowledge from her chef father who studied in Mexico City, to understanding the importance of food and customer service learned from her mother, who worked as a waitress, Esmeralda has valued the function of food in both the household and beyond from a young age.
The Work Behind the Screen
In roughly 30 seconds, her videos, filled with dynamic shots and mouth-watering visuals can trigger cravings in anyone watching through a phone screen.
That captivating engagement per post is a product of multi-hour work behind the scenes. For this food star, capturing the content is the easiest part and the voiceover is the most fun and time-consuming part of the post-production process.
Although she confessed that this niche started out of boredom, her thoughtful selection of restaurants is now a key, yet evolving, part of the process.
“At the beginning I was bored,” she said. “My sister and I would get in the car and just drive. Whatever we encountered, that’s where we would go in, and I would make a video.”
Later she tried research, which proved to be less helpful due to information overload. Now, she mainly selects restaurants from “DMs” in her inbox.
The Person Behind the Screen Star
Beyond the glamour from her life as a food enthusiast, Esmeralda enjoys being a mother to her beautiful daughter, spending time with her supportive husband and family, and engaging in casual leisure activities such as movies, books, and crossword puzzles.
“Family, antojoshouston and then me,” she said about the order of her priorities.
For anyone interested in connecting with Esmeralda’s antojoshouston, she re-assures that it’s not a long process.
Simply message her directly on Instagram or TikTok, or send an email to start a conversation.
