In the most popular TikTok video, Desiree Diaz Carefully place the ingredients in a tiny pan perched on an equally thin burner. He starts with oil and then sofrito, which sizzles satisfactorily in the pan, before adding peppers, onions and garlic. He cooks them until it’s time to add the beans, tomato sauce and tomato paste. The water, added at the end, makes everything come together. This is the second part of it Desirée’s Tiny Kitchen’s white rice, beans and chicken recipe – in part one, she made the white rice side dish and seasoned the chicken – and has over half a million views.
As she chops and mixes ingredients with instruments fit for a Barbie doll, Diaz gently but humorously explains the steps to making the perfect mini plate of Puerto Rican food. Tiny kitchens are hardly a new phenomenon, but Diaz draws directly from her Puerto Rican and Dominican culture to put her own spin on the trend.
Diaz’s innovative content is part of an emerging subculture of culturally specific ASMR videos. Her audience watches her content so she can relax in her 10-minute miniature cooking videos, but initially, she started making Latin-specific content to connect with her younger nephews and grandparents. Now, Diaz has her abuelo taste her tiny food on camera, asks her abuela for recipes, and gets feedback from her estranged nephews, who watch every video she posts. It’s almost like a family production.
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“I really wanted to create content that everyone in my family could enjoy,” Diaz tells Refinery29 Somos. “That was something my nephews did [could] watch as well as my grandparents, and I was able to really get them involved in it. I love to cook, so I took it from there.” And it’s exactly that authenticity that makes Diaz’s content interesting to her audience.
“One of the things he does [my content] The relevant thing is that the viewer can see my personality,” he adds. “They can see me including my culture in these videos. They’ll see me doing a little shopping in the Bronx and people comment, ‘Oh my God, I know exactly where you are,’ and it’s a regular discount store that’s accessible to most of us who are on a low income.”
Currently living in South Florida with her grandparents, Diaz grew up in New York and has a Puerto Rican mother and a Dominican father. Unlike most tiny kitchen content that doesn’t include voices, Diaz uses her Nouya accent and personality to add authenticity to her videos. Her efforts offer a unique Latin ASMR experience that stands out in a subculture of impersonal miniature cuisine that includes American food.
“The first video I made with Puerto Rican food was the tiny pastelitas I made with my nephews,” says Diaz. “This is something that, as a child, I always remember eating. And I had never seen anyone make them in a miniature version, so I gave it a shot. It didn’t get many views, but I kept it going.”
“One of the things he does [my content] relevant is that the viewer can see my personality. They can see me including my culture in these videos.”
Desiree Diaz
Before opening up shop in her fledgling kitchen, Diaz made pimple-popping videos. The shift to tiny food came as a surprise to her existing audience. Once she made alkapuria, about a month into creating this kind of content, Boricua’s tiny meals started to take off. Puerto Rican social media pages shared her video with a wider audience, and Diaz felt proud that her creations resonated with the world. Up until that point, Diaz hadn’t started giving her videos her lively commentary. Once she did, her views grew.
“I started making my videos at first with no commentary, and I thought I had to do what everyone else was doing to be good at it,” says Diaz. “One day, I just decided [put] my mic on and just cooking. And that’s when I realized — hey, these people were really hungry to have someone say what they were thinking while cooking. And it just took off from there.”
The field of ASMR content creation encourages highly specialized niches, perhaps because viewers — who typically watch the videos to relax, fall asleep, or as background noise — have very specific needs as they relate to the deepest memories of comfort. For example, mouth sounds may be relaxing for some, but not for others. Rapid tapping sounds may make one sleepy but energize others. Consequently, there is room for all kinds of content in ASMR, from the weird and quirky to the culturally specific and nostalgic.
“There’s room for all kinds of content in ASMR, from the weird and quirky to the culturally specific and nostalgic.”
Nicole froyo
This explains why Latino ASMRtists who are inspired by their personal lives have a devoted following. Julieta ASMR started consuming and making ASMR content when she moved to the United States from Mexico, leaving her entire family behind. Feeling the loneliness of immigrating alone, Julieta decided to create ASMR content specifically based on her nostalgic feelings about her life in Mexico.
“It was such a culture shock in terms of the family dynamics that American families have versus the dynamics of Mexican families,” says Juliet. “When it comes to Mexican families, we’re all so close. And we see each other all the time. Our houses are always full of family, and I went from that kind of life to a very quiet, almost isolated life here in the US, I felt very alone and everything is very far away. So I thought if I feel lonely, maybe other people feel the same if they live in a different place from their families, so I wanted to bring that kind of comfort to my videos.”
“I thought if I feel lonely, maybe other people feel the same if they live in a different place from their families, so I wanted to bring that kind of comfort to my videos.”
Julieta ASMR
In the ASMR universe, Juliet introduces two characters based on the women in her family. She totally channeled her mother for one of them and her abuela for the other. She pays tribute to the ways her mom took care of her when she stayed home sick from school. In one video, Juliet applies Vicks Vaporub to the “sick” viewer, makes tea and serves hot caldo de pollo to revive the viewer.
“The first time I really dipped my toe into the world of Latino ASMR was on TikTok because they have this filter that ages you and I immediately thought of my abuela,” adds Julieta. “And when I put the potion on, I looked so much like my grandma and a little bit like my mom combined.” Since then, he has proceeded to heal many people’s inner child by offering the viewer a Danish cookie from a tin containing real cookies and not sewing materials. “I was very passionate about cookies,” he adds. “I wanted to have that sense of comfort with this video, where I would say how much I love the viewer and how proud I am of the viewer.”
Experimenting with her own nostalgia resulted in Juliet finding a niche in ASMR. She speculates that people relate to her content because of the tiresome expectations that Latinas are both perfect housewives and independent family heads. Julieta’s content allows her predominantly Latina audience to rest, get the care they deserve.
“There is a lot of pressure on Latina women. … I want my viewers to know that they are doing great. It’s going to be okay, and it’s okay to relax and sleep and let your guard down a little bit.”
JULIET ASMR
“There’s so much pressure on Latina women when they have children to be the heart of the household, to be the perfect wife for their husbands, the perfect mom, the perfect cook, the perfect cleaner, that sometimes we forget that she’s human too,” she says. Juliet. “I want my viewers to know that they are doing great. It’s going to be okay, and it’s okay to relax and sleep and let your guard down a little bit.”
As a queer content creator who came out later in life, Julieta also makes ASMR content for any queer Latinos whose families haven’t accepted them. She emphasizes the importance of representation for her viewers, who may be going through difficult times after coming out.
“I knew I was a lesbian my whole life, but it wasn’t until I moved to America and really had to dig deep and figure out what I wanted and who I was that I decided to be a gay woman.” she says. “So that’s also part of my videos, for any queer people who love to watch ASMR and don’t see themselves reflected in anyone’s content. You have someone who isn’t sorry queer, a lesbian Latina who isn’t perfect, who isn’t going to give you the best sound or the props or the most expensive technology, but I’m going to give you a lot of heart and compassion and understanding for the issues that people face. Latina”.
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