Luis Castilleja, once a liberal Hollywood actor, is now El Temach, Latin America's leading manosphere influencer with 11 million followers. His sister Alex says his transformation is shocking and they no longer speak.
She says he began in 2020 with noble intentions to help men, but quickly developed a "Messiah complex" and turned to blaming women, mimicking Andrew Tate's successful formula. The BBC investigation found El Temach earned an estimated $1.5 million from social media views from April 2025-26, plus hundreds of thousands from super chats and workshops.
The investigation also examined Andrew Kibe, a Kenyan influencer promoting similar misogynistic content. Both deny being misogynistic. A Gen Z fan from Mexico, Julián, liked over 3,000 manosphere videos and now says feminism has made men's problems invisible. A Mexican doctor, Fernanda, says her ex-partner used El Temach's videos to justify controlling behavior, including locking her in a room and threatening to kill her.
El Temach's team rejected the allegations as unfounded and taken out of context.