Raphael Vicente has a story told in the British newspaper The Guardian

The name of the influencer Raphael Vicente, 22, reached the other side of the world when he was portrayed in the British newspaper The Guardian this Wednesday (8). He is described as the viral TikToker who wants to show the joy of the Brazilian favela, in addition to the poverty and crime already so portrayed, to an audience of 3 million followers.

A resident of Complexo da Maré, in the North zone of Rio de Janeiro, Raphael creates comedy content with his family and brings creative versions of viral songs and dances from Tik Tok. One of them was noticed by the singer Shakira, who praised him via social networks for the video for “Waka Waka” for the 2022 World Cup, recorded with Dance Maré, a group he founded.

Sister Maria Eduarda Reis explained to The Guardian the importance of Raphael’s role on social media: “even people from the favela are used to seeing their community disfigured in the media, as just tragedy, violence, shootings, police operations”. Instead, the influencer extols the cultural qualities that made him relevant in the eyes of the British newspaper.

Raphael also commented on his motivations for going out into the world: “I’m a black, poor, gay boy who’s lived on the tide my whole life”, he contextualizes. “Our struggle always requires twice as much effort, twice as much work”.

The positive effects of TikToker’s work were exposed in practice. After the release of the World Cup video clip, a Google search on news related to Complexo da Maré returned more positive articles to the user than the usual dominant violence headlines.