Doña Elena, a sweet Quechua woman, whose popularity skyrockets on TikTok with her medicinal recipes

​Elena Quispe (54) did not know gold. The father of her children won her over by showing it to her, he was a miner and when he showed her a small golden piece she was amazed. Even more so when he suggested putting it on her teeth. Since then that was his dream, first there were three and then six teeth that he now looks smiling, the others also have a metallic shine, but they are no longer gold, but platinum. His golden smile is seen almost daily in his videos of TikTok.

That smile is worth a lot, not because of the precious metal, but because of her gift as a sweet and simple woman. Now she is famoushas more than a million followers on TikTokbut long before that, she was a girl who At the age of 12, his parents left him in charge of his younger siblings.while they went to the city, looking for better life prospects because In the countryside there were days when there was not even enough to eat.

That’s why Elena did not finish third grade. He had a very sacrificed life, one of those in which To get a pain pill I had to walk more than eight hours, going down and up the hill, in its province Muñecas (La Paz). That prepared her to be the woman she is now, a very strong one, full of vitality and knowledge about the benefits of herbsto whom their grandmothers had to appeal to cure all kinds of pain that the distant and inaccessible pill could not cure.

The magic of social networks

Elena’s children are three: Vanessa (35), Fanny (32) and Ever Santos (29), all of them are Yujra Quispe. But They grew up far from their mother because their father migrated to Santa Cruz and took them with him.

Elena stayed in her little house in the countryside, with her animals and dedicated herself to selling everything, including used clothes. They did not see each other, but contact was always resumed around birthdays. Five years ago Elena left the house and the animals and came to Santa Cruz. Although he started selling meat, with the arrival of the pandemic sales dropped and he found himself at home without much work.

It was then that his youngest son, who is a content creator and also interested in everything that has to do with marketing, She came up with the idea of ​​taking advantage of her mother’s talent and knowledge in the kitchen. As if prepared for a life in front of the video camera, Doña Elena He had already set up a kitchen in his patio, where he has stoves made of clay, an oven also made of clay, and a row of jars and plates of the same material.

That is currently your scenario, where tries to produce content almost daily. Fame came quickly, The third of his videos went viral, it was about papaya and the way to consume it to lose weight and to deworm children. “I love papaya, it lifted me up and united my family”she repeats several times, very grateful for the fruit that launched her to stardom.

“I had no idea about her charisma, knowing her I discovered who I dated, I got the spark from my mother,” says Santos, who He has a team of six people to produce everything that Doña Elena’s followers demand.

“She transmits peace, she is very calm and smiling. My friends connect with her and I am happy to have her alive,” says Santos, whoAnd he never imagined that his mother would be the main figure in one of his projects that has 1.1 million followers since he was born 8 months ago on TikTokalmost a million on Facebook and 100 thousand on Instagram.

“The recipe with papaya was something that changed our lives, positioned us and skyrocketedit was the third video we made,” recalls Santos, who has now realized that his mother agreed to do what he asked to spend more time together and get to know each other. “It wasn’t for fame or profits,” that’s why they both say that The papaya was the beginning of a closer and stronger relationship.

“(I was) distanced from my children, I was left alone because their father came with the wawas,” she remembers sitting in her patio with a dirt floor, where there are several plants that she has plantedup to this point it has been obtained on a lot of about 350 square meters, in the May Day neighborhood, right at the end of Moscow Avenue (between the seventh and eighth rings).

Is it difficult to live in Santa Cruz, with so much heat and dirt streets? We asked him, and he immediately responded: “There is life here, Santa Cruz is beautiful and there is more entry (you earn more money).” He admits that with so much heat it made him want to go back, but sooner rather than later he got used to it and now he would never consider leaving.

Your current income comes from social networks. “Thanks to papaya, I love papaya,” he says, remembering that at first he felta bit of fear and discomfort because there was no shortage of unpleasant comments that criticized her for giving medicinal recipes, “now you have become a healer,” they told her in a mocking tone after watching the cooking. “I got used to it and then I answered: ‘yes, I’ve come back and with this I’m going to save your life,'” she told them, and now she recognizes that with that she felt more eager to move forward.

Doña Elelna thanks God for her work and entrusts herself to Him, asking Him for wisdom for each of her recipes because her followers put them into practice and she does not want anyone to be harmed. With dedication he takes care to explain the contraindications.

Now the comments with ‘hate’ are the minority, they follow her daily and complain to her if she doesn’t upload content. “They are waiting and I cannot fail them,” he asserts.

Mrs. Elena turns out very rich humacha cheese either cheese, a saucer typical of La Paz gastronomy. It consists of a cheese melted in yellow chili, hard-boiled eggs chopped, corn shelled and white potato. “It is c“It is a country food and is consumed mainly during Holy Week,” he explains. It is also a skill in making papalisa chili, and in reality, with all kinds of national culinary dishes, because he already knows how to make all the cambas dishes and they turn out very well.

But he owes his angel in the kitchen not only to his medicinal recipes and his skill with food, but also to his golden smile and his cheerful and humble character. “Even if we are sad, we must be happy, because we can get sick,” he wisely advises. He speaks Spanish, Quechua and Aymara.

​Proud of his mother in a skirt

“I don’t remember much about the moment we separated, I was six years old,” says Santos, his youngest son. What he does remember is that his father had a tire shop and he left them all at home and only saw them on Sundays.

And he recognizes without hesitation: “I joined with my mother through social networks, we have been producing content for a year and a half. When I met her and her culture I fell in love, I love that she wears a skirt and I am very proud of that,” admits Santos, for whom, in addition, discovering his mother’s good taste was what finally closed the circle.

Now they are an ideal duo that complements each other very well. “We burst the networks as a team,” he says happily, because he is an influencer – he has two million followers – producing and sharing cortofilms of reflections and content on infidelities.

“I value always instilling God in me. All the time he tells me: don’t forget to talk to God, who is the first in our project,” confesses Santos, who after learning about his roots thanks to his mother, is more proud than ever of his origins in Muñecas, the cheese humacha and his sweet Quechua mother.