Indie Content Creator: Jenny Lorenzo Is A Human Cartoon Representation Of The Cuban American Experience
The digital age has blurred the lines between independent and mainstream. Today, creators can release material through major labels, production studios or publications while also having a presence on outlets that allow them to be their own boss. Though artists were doing this even before the modern era, the increased access to technological resources has been directly proportional to creatives living double lives as both commercial and indie merchants.
Take, for instance, Jenny Lorenzo — she is a Cuban American comedic actor and content creator, known best as the video producer of the Latino-focused we are mitú channel as well as one of the co-founders of BuzzFeed's Pero Like. Since launching her YouTube channel in 2014, she has enjoyed a great deal of success across a range of crafts and platforms while keeping her core intact. Despite having only 232K subscribers, she has racked up over 33 million views overall. The reason this page is important is because it’s where she gets to put out her most original ideas, so even after working with more established organizations, her output through this channel remains steady.
Born and raised in Miami, Lorenzo recently moved to Los Angeles to broaden her scope and pursue comedy at a higher level. In 2017, she received a nomination for "Best Content Creator for a Digital Network” at the Tecla Awards and won "Best Character" the following year for her Abuela character. By 2019, she had secured “Creator of the Year,” demonstrating how quick and steady her rise has been. She currently hosts the Hyphenated podcast alongside fellow comedian Joanna Hausmann and co-host the What’s Up, Disney+! YouTube channel with Andre Meadows.
She became popular online for her Cuban American characters such as Abuela, Maruchi, Laritza, Flor and Michi, who she continues to play even today. It is perhaps what people recognize her best for considering a lot of the work she has done outside her YouTube channel has been behind the scenes.
As an independent content creator, she has her ups and downs, but it isn’t quite clear what she’s trying to accomplish as a comedian. It does, however, seem as though she went for the easiest act i.e. established Western tropes, and ran with it.
Most cultures have plugs like her in Western entertainment — they play caricatures of their own race and ethnicity. There’s a difference between constructing a joke around an identity and making the identity itself the joke; Lorenzo insists on the latter.
A few such examples immediately come to mind: Lily Singh’s impression of the Indian family unit, Tyler Perry’s street-smart Madea and most of what George Lopez says about Mexicans.
Lorenzo’s comedy certainly has a personal touch to it that makes it relatable to others with a similar cultural background, but there is an apparent lack of dignity in her entire operation. Though it may seem like it’s done in poor taste, it raises an important question: how hard do we laugh at ourselves? Lorenzo’s content engagement, despite its deepest critical analysis, suggests that her Cuban fans have a flexible sense of humor about themselves.
A lot of the actors Lorenzo works with are funny and talented, but she herself tends to bring down the energy of her projects by inserting cartoonish representations of the Cuban identity into the mix. Whereas the entire Scooby Doo cast in the above video—David Gallegos, Mimi Davila, Horacio Abaroa—do a brilliant job, the Barbarita La Barbara and Abuela characters ruin the fun by being extra.
And this is something that is central to Lorenzo’s product: overdoing it. Each of her signature characters are just different versions of her overdoing a layman’s impression of Cubans, and it gets annoying just as quick as it gets boring. These characters lack depth, range and accuracy, but still fulfill the purpose of generating laughs. Though this might give some viewers an excuse to laugh at Cubans rather than with them, her comedy is made primarily for those who understand that she’s not trying to belittle her own people.
The majority of Lorenzo’s content comprises rotating lineups of her characters in different scenarios, from Thanksgiving dinners to Halloween videos to Latino twists on classic films. Other playlists and series include reaction videos, song parodies, unboxings and vlogs. Through collaborations, music videos and mini-series, she finds a way to give her version of Cuban Americans a platform for the world to see.
It's obvious that Lorenzo isn’t too concerned about holistic representation, which makes sense because she’s a comedian, so it would be silly for us to take her too seriously.
