Mexican family’s YouTube channel is attracting new islanders

With the aim of helping people immigrate to Canada, the family channel has grown a lot since they started it.

By Val Mandujano, April 5, 2023

Jaime Tinoco and his wife, Sara Bolaños, were standing in the middle of the MacMillan Centre at Holland College. Hundreds of people started crowding around them and screaming their names.  

It was at that moment they knew they had achieved something big. 

Jaime Tinoco and Sara Bolaños have reached more than 14,000 subscribers on the channel that gave their lives a radical turn since moving to P.E.I, Canada. MEXICANFAMILYINPEI INSTAGRAM PHOTO

    They decided to take their little meet-and-greet after their fans at a coffee shop. They sat at a table, while a long line of people waited for their turn to chat with the Mexican couple. 

    At the table, the next family sat in front of the youtuber couple that inspired them to change their life, chatted for some minutes, took a selfie and left. The next couple sat, and that repeated until the line was done. 

    “That was the moment I realized what the channel had achieved. We had managed to influence in a certain way, the decision of many people to change the course of their lives,” said Bolaños. 

    Tinoco and Bolaños have been vlogging about their experience living at P.E.I for five years now, ever since they moved from Tijuana, Mexico. 

    In 2018, the dream of migrate to Canada was achieved by the family. However, when they first moved to P.E.I, they struggled to find information about basic things like renting a home, finding schools, jobs and prospects. 

    “I was worried. As a mom, I was wondering where I was going to send my kids to school. Where can I find information for that?” said Bolaños. 

    Because of that, they decided to start a YouTube channel talking about P.E.I, to share their experience and important information about the island.  

    In 2018, the channel Mexican Family in PEI was opened and started to grow ever since.  

    “In 2018 and 2019 it was the boom of our channel, because people were curious to know where P.E.I was,” said Tinoco. 

    The channel was never born with the idea of making a profit or gaining hundreds of thousands of followers. It was just to help and to inform people," said Bolaños. 

    What they wanted to do was to highlight P.E.I for people outside Canada, especially Latin people, so they could get to know the island.  

    “I remember that I told my friends about the channel, and one of them said to me ‘And why Mexican Family in P.E.I? Why not Mexican Family in Canada? What is P.E.I?’, that's what it's all about, letting people know what it is,” Tinoco said.  

    Currently, the couple has 14 thousand subscribers. 

    The influence and growth their channel have had, led more people from Latin America and even Europe to move to the island.  

    But it doesn’t stop there.  

    Tinoco studied Computer Information System at Holland College in 2019, and shared his experience at the institution, inspiring people to choose the college as an option to study abroad.  

    Thanks to the family, Holland College started to receive new students from Latin countries that they had not had before, such as Chile or Peru.  

    This led to the college naming the couple as official ambassadors. 

    The experience has given the family, the opportunity to meet people from all around the world, including Spain and Turkey.  

    “Once in a restaurant, a girl from Turkey approached, talked to us in Spanish and told us she managed to arrive to P.E.I thanks to our videos,” said Tinoco. 

    What surprises them the most is that even Canadians recognize them from their videos.  

    The family also met Philip Brown, Charlottetown's mayor, and Alf Blanchard, the province Public Relations Officer. He took a photo with them and Tinoco gave him a tiny Mexican flag. 

    “When we started the channel, we never imagined the reach our videos would have. Even when walking in Halifax people recognize us. Many people have told us they chose P.E.I because of our videos,” said Bolaños.  

    The family just received their permanent residency a few days ago and plans to continue informing with their videos. 

    “For me here is a paradise, there is a lot of vegetation. That is what I love about PEI, it's very quiet. The islanders are very friendly too.” said Tinoco.  

    Bolaños said, “I will always be grateful that this was the province which opened the doors to Canada for us."