Rubén Ramírez | “Dreams do come true”

Rubén Ramírez is a 26-year-old graphic designer from Maracaibo, currently residing in Santiago de Chile. Rubén is one of the most popular Venezuelan content creators on social media because his comedy videos, especially lip-syncs, have gone viral on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. His videos have hundreds of thousands of views and in each one of them, he shows us the charisma and the ability to reinvent ourselves that characterize us as Venezuelans. Rubén is a migrant who brings joy to his thousands of followers with his talent and wit and who makes us feel proud to be Venezuelans

-Tell us a bit about your life as a migrant. Why did you emigrate? How do you about Chile? Do you see yourself spending the rest of your life there?

The reason I migrated was the same as many other Venezuelans might have: living in Venezuela was becoming more difficult every day. I felt trapped as a professional and as a person, I felt stuck. 2017 was a very tough time in Venezuela because there was a shortage of essential products and public services were a mess. I’m a graphic designer since there was no power, I couldn’t work, and little by little I was losing clients.

I was the first migrant in my family, and although they were a bit reluctant, I decided to take a risk and come to Chile. At that time I thought that if things did not go well, I could return to Venezuela, but thank God everything has flowed as it should and I am still here. I feel really good in Chile, there are many Venezuelans and it feels good to know that even though you are far from home, there are people who speak like you and who have things in common with you.

-Your lip-sync tiktoks have gone viral. Tell us how did you start doing them and what was your motivation?

I started doing lip syncs because I live alone and isolation was killing me. I was very paranoid about the whole pandemic thing, I did not want anyone to visit me, I did not want to go out, etc. At that time I financially supported my family, and if I got infected and stopped working, I was not going to be able to help them.

My way of draining this confinement was by doing TikToks. The ones I did at the beginning were different from the ones you see today, but with practice, I managed to find my style, which focuses on lip-syncing iconic Venezuelan audios.

The first time I saw one of my videos go viral I was shocked, and even this was before TikToks. In 2019 I made a Christmas commercial like the ones on television, and little by little people began to retweet it, I went to sleep and the next morning when I woke up it had already been viewed thousands of times and had even reached artists and important people of Venezuela.

-Do you think doors have opened for you thanks to your TikTok? Has your networking capacity increased? How did you survive that transition from being a normal boy to having people following your day-to-day life?

Yes, TikTok has definitely opened many doors for me; It allowed me to meet people I never thought I would get to meet. There are many people who say that social networks are vain, but I see the beauty in them, they are means to connect with other people, to brighten their day, to help each other.

I have always posted everything I do on social networks, so I did not experience a transition as such. But, I must admit that I feel that now I have greater responsibility and I must be more careful with what I post because I do not want to become a bad example for some people or give them a bad impression.

– You are very versatile and you also sell Venezuelan ham bread. And not just any ham bread, but Pan de jamón feliz (Happy ham bread). Tell us, when did you decide to do this? Was it a lifelong passion or was it something that came out of nowhere?

Not at all! I am very bad at cooking, and those who know me know that everything I cook burns. But I decided to make ham bread to get closer to my roots because I had not found a ham bread in Chile that I liked. I found several recipes and I was perfecting them little by little. As I told you before, I post everything on my social networks, and so people began to ask me to sell them my ham bread.

I sold many ham breads that December and when the pandemic started, they suspended my employment contract and I said to myself: “This is the only thing I know how to do, so we are going to sell ham bread,” and I did very well. Making these breads is therapeutic for me, it relaxes me a lot and I love meeting my clients and best of all, I’m not selfish with my recipe because I even have it on my YouTube channel hahaha.

– How far does Rubén want to go? Which are your future plans? What do you imagine doing in a few years?

If you ask me right now, I tell you that I am not sure how far I want to go, but I know that what I am doing is taking me far, and this is what makes me happy. The pandemic and the loss of family and friends due to COVID, has made me think that life is too short to postpone doing the things that you really like, and that is why I decided to start doing everything that would make me happy. Since some time ago, I stopped doing things just to please people, and this has made me a more complete person. Everything I do I like and I enjoy it.

-What is your message for the people who are reading this?

I tell everyone who is reading this interview that it is not cliché when they tell you that dreams come true. If you keep fighting, you will achieve what you want, I am proof of that. We all have dreams that we want to achieve, but many times we minimize them, put them off, underestimate ourselves, etc. I know many people who died without doing what they wanted to do and others who have been very close to dying and now see life in a different way and are happier. I don’t think it is necessary to get to that point to make the decision to strive to achieve everything we want. Be constant, and work hard, with a lot of focus and you will see how little by little doors open, and dreams stop being dreams and become reality.