For Sarai, the video became like a home movie forever on repeat. “My mom was always checking it,” Sarai said. “My dad was playing it when he was washing clothes.”

It all came together through a mix of accident and authenticity.

Sarai’s father, Juan Carlos Gonzalez, is from Costa Rica. Her mother, Diana Gonzalez, is from Peru. They came to the United States when they were about Sarai’s age. Devout Catholics, they met in church. Mrs. Gonzalez is a computer analyst at a Newark hospital and Mr. Gonzalez left his job as a construction engineer to be a stay-at-home father. Sarai is the oldest of their three daughters, and as a child, “she would sing everywhere. ‘Mother Goose,’ ” Mrs. Gonzalez said. “The microphone, that was her best friend.” And she was always self-assured. In her mostly pink bedroom, a hand-painted sign says, “I am awesome!”

Last year, recognizing her charisma, Sarai’s parents enrolled her in a program run by Actors, Models and Talent for Christ, or A.M.T.C., a Christian talent and modeling ministry. She traveled to Orlando, Fla., and was picked up by an agent in New York. But it was her father who saw the casting call for the video on an actors database.

The director, Torben Kjelstrup, also entered the picture almost by chance. Mr. Kjelstrup, who lives in Copenhagen, won a contest to make the video for “Soy Yo,” which is off Bomba Estéreo’s 2015 Grammy-nominated album, “Amanecer.”

He didn’t intend to make a political statement. He was inspired by the message of the song — “about being yourself,” he said — and by a photo of his girlfriend from high school. “She had braces, red hair, this incredibly ugly track suit,” he said. “She just had something.”