Who was ‘El Piturris,’ the Mexican influencer killed in Sonora?

Luis Antonio Escalante Gutiérrez

Years before he was killed in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora, the influencer José Luis Esparza Güicho came to be known as “El Piturris.”

The nickname originated from one time during his childhood when Esparza’s father came home drunk, Luis Antonio Escalante, the producer of Esparza’s podcast, told CNN.

His father tried to call Esparza by the name “Pirruris,” a famous television character at the time. Instead, he drunkenly called him “Piturris.”

“Then, as a joke among the other family members, ‘Piturris’ stuck,” Escalante said.

Many years after that story, this would still be the nickname by which Esparza was known — not only within his family, but also on social media and on his podcast La Guarida, which had launched one year ago.

Luis Alberto González, who is called “Huicho,” is the show’s co-host and Esparza’s friend for more than two decades. He says it was always easy to work with Esparza to record the episodes, in which they shared their life experiences and exchanged jokes.

“It was easy because Piturris, more than anything, wasn’t a character. He was a person whose anecdotes, stories and everything he told on the podcast were real; they were people’s lived experiences,” González told CNN.

“I think we were successful because things happen to all of us in life, but we look at them differently by laughing at what happens to us. You tell what happens to you every day as a joke, and people identify with it,” he said.

The latest episode of La Guarida featuring both hosts was posted on YouTube on Wednesday and received more than 34,000 views. On Thursday night, hours after Esparza was killed, Escalante said in a video that they had already recorded two more episodes, which will be released in the coming days.

Esparza was 37 years old and the father of a young boy. He was active on Facebook and Instagram, where he shared images of his family, humorous content, and videos of himself singing banda music or visiting public places.

Over time, his content gained traction, reaching a combined audience of 130,000 followers on both accounts as of Saturday.

González says Esparza was very outgoing from a young age and liked spending time with older people.

Escalante says that when they began developing plans to launch La Guarida, they thought of Esparza as a host because he was “easygoing” and people liked him.

Before becoming an influencer, Esparza worked in the family business: a taco restaurant located in downtown Ciudad Obregón, a city in the southern part of Mexico’s Sonora state.

Esparza’s family ran the restaurant, called Los Güichos, for about 50 years, as it became very well known among locals, Escalante said.

Even while growing as a content creator, Esparza continued working at the restaurant.

The business would also become the site of his killing.

On Thursday morning, an armed man arrived at the establishment and shot Esparza, before fleeing on a motorcycle with another person, according to the Sonora Attorney General’s Office.

On Friday, the Attorney General’s Office said it was investigating a possible connection between Esparza’s death and another killing that occurred Wednesday in the nearby town of Cócorit, in which the target was a relative of Esparza by marriage who allegedly wrote songs for a criminal organization.

“Based on this information, one of the main lines of investigation is that the homicide may be related to a confrontation between criminal groups linked to drug trafficking. The Attorney General’s Office is continuing its investigation to determine the involvement of those responsible,” the office said in a statement.

Esparza’s death is the latest case in a series of murders of Mexican influencers over at least the past two years.

There is no official record of how many influencers have been killed in Mexico. According to a CNN tally, there have been nine cases in the state of Sinaloa alone since 2024, while others have been recorded in states such as Baja California, Jalisco and Morelos.

From Cesar Gastelum/Instagram

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As the investigation into Esparza’s killing moves forward, a memorial Mass was held on Friday. His friends and colleagues continue to express their condolences.

In a video posted to social media on Thursday night, Escalante offered his condolences to Esparza’s family and said that the La Guarida team would take some time off.

“What we did was spread joy, and we need to heal and be well before we can continue our work,” he said, his voice breaking as he recalled a phrase Esparza often used to end his videos: “Keep your spirits up.”

González also remembers those words, which he considers emblematic of the friend with whom he shared the microphone.

“His motto was ‘Keep your spirits up.’ That was his motto, because he was a taco vendor… he was a taco vendor who looked at life and lived like someone who lacked nothing, even though he did face hardships,” he said.

“On every podcast, he would crack open a large bottle of beer, and his motto was to keep your spirits up, you don’t need much to be happy. You can have 99 problems, and if you have just one reason to be happy, that’s enough,” González said.

路易斯·安东尼奥·埃斯卡兰特·古铁雷斯

在墨西哥西北部索诺拉州被杀害的几年前，网红何塞·路易斯·埃斯帕扎·圭乔就以“El Piturris”而闻名。

埃斯帕扎的播客制作人路易斯·安东尼奥·埃斯卡兰特告诉 CNN，这个绰号源于埃斯帕扎童年时期的一次经历，当时他的父亲喝醉了回家。

他父亲想叫埃斯帕扎“皮鲁里斯”（Pirruris），这是当时一个著名的电视角色。结果，他父亲喝醉后，却把他叫成了“皮图里斯”（Piturris）。

“后来，在其他家庭成员之间开玩笑，‘Piturris’这个名字就这么定了下来，”埃斯卡兰特说。

多年以后，埃斯帕扎仍然以这个昵称为人所知——不仅在他的家人中，而且在社交媒体和他一年前推出的播客节目《La Guarida》中也是如此。

路易斯·阿尔贝托·冈萨雷斯，人称“Huicho”，是该节目的联合主持人，也是埃斯帕扎二十多年的好友。他说，和埃斯帕扎一起录制节目总是很轻松愉快，他们在节目中分享彼此的生活经历，互相开玩笑。

“这很容易，因为皮图里斯首先不是一个虚构人物。他是一个真实的人，他在播客中讲述的轶事、故事和一切都是真实的；它们都是人们的真实经历，”冈萨雷斯告诉CNN。

“我认为我们成功的原因在于，人生中每个人都会遇到各种各样的事情，但我们看待它们的方式不同，我们会用笑声来面对。你把每天发生的事情当作笑话讲出来，人们就能产生共鸣，”他说。

由两位主持人共同主持的最新一期《La Guarida》节目于周三发布在YouTube上，观看次数超过3.4万。周四晚，在埃斯帕扎遇害数小时后，埃斯卡兰特在一段视频中表示，他们已经录制了另外两期节目，将在未来几天内发布。

埃斯帕扎37岁，是一位小男孩的父亲。他活跃于Facebook和Instagram，经常在上面分享家人照片、幽默内容以及自己演唱班达音乐或游览公共场所的视频。

随着时间的推移，他的内容越来越受欢迎，截至周六，两个账号的粉丝总数已达 13 万。

冈萨雷斯说，埃斯帕扎从小就非常外向，喜欢和老年人待在一起。

埃斯卡兰特说，当他们开始制定推出 La Guarida 的计划时，他们想到了埃斯帕扎作为主持人，因为他性格随和，人们都喜欢他。

在成为一名网红之前，埃斯帕扎曾在家族企业工作：一家位于墨西哥索诺拉州南部城市奥布雷贡市中心的墨西哥卷饼餐厅。

埃斯帕扎一家经营这家名为 Los Güichos 的餐厅约 50 年，埃斯帕扎一家在当地非常有名，埃斯卡兰特说。

即使在内容创作方面不断成长，埃斯帕扎仍然继续在餐厅工作。

这家企业后来也成为了他被杀害的地点。

据索诺拉州检察长办公室称，周四上午，一名持枪男子来到该场所，开枪射杀了埃斯帕扎，然后与另一人骑摩托车逃离现场。

周五，总检察长办公室表示，他们正在调查埃斯帕扎的死与周三在附近科科里特镇发生的另一起谋杀案之间可能存在的联系。在那起谋杀案中，受害者是埃斯帕扎的姻亲，据称他为一个犯罪组织写歌。

“根据这些信息，主要调查方向之一是，这起凶杀案可能与贩毒团伙之间的冲突有关。总检察长办公室正在继续调查，以确定涉案人员，”该办公室在一份声明中表示。

埃斯帕扎之死是过去至少两年来墨西哥网红遭遇的一系列谋杀案中的最新一起。

目前尚无官方记录显示墨西哥究竟有多少网红遇害。据CNN统计，自2024年以来，仅锡那罗亚州就发生了9起此类案件，其他案件则发生在下加利福尼亚州、哈利斯科州和莫雷洛斯州等地。

图片来自 Cesar Gastelum/Instagram

墨西哥网红遇害事件激增，敌对贩毒集团派系之间爆发血腥冲突

随着对埃斯帕扎遇害案的调查不断深入，周五举行了追悼弥撒。他的朋友和同事们继续表达哀悼之情。

周四晚间，埃斯卡兰特在社交媒体上发布了一段视频，向埃斯帕扎的家人表示慰问，并表示拉瓜里达队将休息一段时间。

“我们所做的是传播快乐，我们需要先疗伤康复，才能继续我们的工作，”他说，声音哽咽地回忆起埃斯帕扎经常在视频结尾说的一句话：“振作起来。”

冈萨雷斯也记得那些话，他认为这些话象征着与他一起主持节目的那位朋友。

“他的座右铭是‘保持乐观’。这就是他的座右铭，因为他是个卖墨西哥卷饼的小贩……他是个卖墨西哥卷饼的小贩，但他看待生活、生活的态度就像一个什么都不缺的人，即使他确实面临着种种困难，”他说。

“在每一期播客节目中，他都会打开一大瓶啤酒，他的座右铭是保持乐观，快乐并不需要太多东西。你可以有99个烦恼，但只要有一个让你快乐的理由，那就足够了，”冈萨雷斯说道。