Cristina García’s heartwarming videos with her grandpa, Papá Lupe, are inspiring younger generations to appreciate the time they have with their grandparents.
Papá Lupe is everyone’s grandpa now – at least that’s what the thousands of comments pouring into Cristina García's TikTok videos are saying.
García, 32, and her 88-year-old grandfather, Guadalupe Covarrubias, have become pretty popular on TikTok. Not just for their entertaining videos, but because of the message it sends to the younger generations: spend as much time as you can with your grandparents.
“I’m truly lucky to have him, to be able to spend time with him,” García said. “You read the comments of people that are missing their grandpa and it makes me wanna cry.”
The duo from Garden Grove post a variety of videos documenting some of their happiest moments together locally and in Mexico.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
In one of her videos, García shows her grandpa a small brown cow that her mom had crocheted her. Papá Lupe can be seen laughing and commenting on how the cow does not look like much of a cow. “It looks more like a rat,” he said between laughter and “moo-ing” noises.
García then decided to take her Papá Lupe to Build-a-Bear Workshop in the city of Orange to get his own stuffed cow. In a video that now has 5.9 million views, García and Papá Lupe are seen picking out the cow and going through the process of building it together.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
Papá Lupe then records his voice onto a small box that is meant to go inside the stuffed cow. “What sound does a cow make?” García is heard asking her grandpa.
Neither of them can contain their laughter as he tries to imitate the sound. Papá Lupe’s cow was then stuffed with filling by the employee. He then grabs a small pink heart that will also be placed inside the stuffed cow.
“Rub it between your palms so it can be very warm,” the employee is heard telling Papá Lupe. “Then tap it so it can be very strong. Now rub it on your stomach so it will never be hungry.”
Then it was time to choose a name. “La mala suerte,” meaning bad luck in Spanish, Papá Lupe said jokingly. He finally settled on naming it “La Changa,” which means the monkey.
García added a small stuffed carrot to complete the stuffed cow’s look.
Thousands of people commented on García's video. Many of them expressed how much they loved this moment between a granddaughter and her grandfather.
“I wish my grandpa was here with me to make his own Build-a-Bear,” one user commented.
“Sorry to tell you he’s OUR Papá Lupe,” another user said.
“Lord, why didn’t I think of this when my grandpa was alive,” someone else said.
"When my grandpa comes to the USA I'm going to take him to do a Build-a-bear thanks for the idea," another person said.
García says this isn’t the only video of Papá Lupe that has added to his TikTok fame. She recalls the first viral video of her and her grandpa was one where he complimented her Crocs.
That video has over 3 million views and shows Papá Lupe trying on García's pink Crocs while dancing around in them. Users flooded her comments telling her to buy him his own pair, she explained.
"It makes me happy," Papá Lupe said in Spanish. "I feel satisfied that people follow me."
Papá Lupe has about 40 grandchildren and about nine great-grandchildren, but it seems he now has thousands more on TikTok who have “adopted” him as their grandpa.
“I feel very happy because they are moments that I am remembering and I like that more people see what I am experiencing,” García said.
She says the content she posts with her grandpa is unplanned. She simply records the moment when she wants to capture a special moment. “They are happy moments,” she added.
“It is an honor for me that people look out for me and everywhere I go, they see me as if I were really their dad,” Papá Lupe said.
“I just feel I’m very blessed to have the family that I have,” García said. “I would have loved to have this type of technology when I was younger, because there’s so many memories, when we’d come to the rancho, the summers.”
She says she records these memories not only for herself, but for her family as well, sending them to her cousins and aunts.
García says she gets messages from people sharing stories about their grandparents who have passed and the memories they have of them. “It touches your heart,” García said.
“When I talk to Papá Lupe, his little eyes light up when he talks to me about his animals, his crops and all that,” García said.
García's content seems to resonate with many people because it reminds them of their grandparents who have passed. For others, it’s a reminder to spend time with their grandparents while they are here.
“Listen to them. They have a lot to teach you, they have a lot to tell you,” García said. “At the end of the day, tomorrow is not promised.”
