Lenin Gutierrez

Lenin Gutierrez is a rising dance star. But it wasn't always that way. Lenin grew up poor in a single parent home led by his loving mother who worked tirelessly to provide a basic home and food for Lenin and his two older sisters. Even though the family didn't have much, she taught her children to be self-sufficient, honest and caring. Lenin's biggest goals in life are to pursue his career as a professional dancer, graduate from college, and to use his talents and skills to help make people's lives better. Lenin became instantly hooked on dancing at the age of 12 when a friend named Jeremy brought him to one of his dancing classes. Dancing is all he has wanted to do ever since. Two of Lenin's main dance influences were Michael Jackson and Daniel Cloud" Campos. While in high school Lenin joined the schools dance team and he began to understand that to reach his goals, he would have to do it all on his own. He had to start earning and saving money for his college education and he applied for and was hired as a barista at a San Diego Starbucks where has as continued to work for several years. When Lenin reported for his shift at Starbucks on June 22, 2020, he expected it to be a day like any other. It wasn't! He was about to experience something that would set in motion a series of events that would change his life forever. It all started when Lenin politely asked a woman customer to put on a face mask as required by Starbucks policy. That was when things turned ugly. The woman has since become known as, "San Diego Karen". Lenin was only doing his job by enforcing the Starbucks mask policy. But this woman created a huge scene by yelling loudly, flipped him off, swearing, insulting and berating Lenin and called everyone else in the Starbucks "sheep". But he kept his cool and remained polite. She took Lenin's photo, threatened to get him fired and did all this while in the store in front of other customers. Then she left, but she wasn't done! If that scene wasn't bad enough, in an attempt to humiliate and embarrass Lenin, she posted her version of the encounter on social media and the story went more than viral, it went ballistic! Instead of generating the intended hatred for him, people fell in love with Lenin and one reader Matt Cowan was so moved he even started a GoFundMe campaign to try to raise Lenin a $1000 tip for standing up to San Diego Karen. That fundraiser went ballistic too. Cohen drove to San Diego, asked Lenin to meet him and opened up a box with his $100,000 tip in cash. Not only did her attempt to humiliate Lenin not work, it actually made him famous. The kindness and generosity of a whole lot of strangers has changed Lenin's goal of a college dream into reality. People even started referring to Lenin as Lenin the Legend of Starbucks. Lenin became the subject of scores of newspaper articles and local and national network TV news stories for months and he has appeared on many TV talk shows. Wanting to share the love he received from strangers, he became a spokesman for a fund raiser to benefit San Diego Artists Relief Fund and help them raise over $125,000 to benefit struggling artists affected by the pandemic. You can see the Video he made for them here. Overnight, Lenin went from being an obscure barista at a San Diego Starbucks to suddenly having millions of people across the United States and around the world knowing and loving him for his talent and his friendly, kind, endearing personality. What better time for him to start working on taking his dancing career to the next level and beyond. Lenin has signed with an experienced personal manager who is working with him, helping him to open doors and expand his options for a multi-faceted career in entertainment. Lenin appeared in his first film, a short subject called "Cereal Killers in 2020. He is hoping to use his dancing skills in many more films and TV shows in the future.