Is Rosalía Latina or Hispanic? This is a question that can get people confused. Would you be able to explain the difference between Latino and Hispanic? If you are not sure, keep reading!
There are communities where distinctions of this kind are key and without doubt. However, it gets more complicated when there is an audience involved and one of these two labels is attached to a particular person who happens to be a rising star in the music world. Rosalía, for example.
This artist has emerged as one of the latest hits in the music scene. She got two awards at the MTV Music Video Awards 2019. One of them is for the best Latin video. So far so good. The catch: a big debate started in social media questioning the label Latin for Rosalía, who is Spanish, from Barcelona. Do you know why?
The usual assumption is that “Latino” or “Latina” would identify someone from Latin America, including Brazil. However, it is now argued that nobody can be more “Latina” as Rosalía for she comes from a country that speaks one of the languages that come from Latin. She actually speaks two, Catalan being another Latin language spoken in North Eastern Spain.
To confuse things further, some add that in the States anyone who speaks Spanish is considered Latino, regardless of origin.
So let’s try to sort all this out. First of all, it would help to differentiate between the geographical and the cultural. From that perspective, Rosalía may not be Latin in that she is not from Latin America, but her music is. According to USA Billboard Latin music is any song whose lyrics are at least 51 percent in Spanish. Whilst it is understandable that some pragmatic decisions need clear criteria, this does not quite resolve the question for everyone.
Another dimension to geography is that of the context in which this controversy comes up. This is happening in America and it is among people whose ancestors come from Latin America where this is more of an issue. In Europe, Rosalía’s music could count as Spanish or as Latin because Spanish comes from Latin, and that is that. The controversies in Spain regarding Rosalía still exist, by the way, but they are more to do with arguments around cultural appropriation. A matter for a different article, soon.
It was mainly in seventies America where Hispanic, a category created by the USA government to encompass all the people coming from countries where Spanish is spoken, was contested. Hispanic had, after all, some negative connotations, as it was associated to the Hispanic conquest of the Americas and hence to Spain. Also, Latino or Latina seemed more inclusive as it would also mean people of indigenous and African origin.
The idea that Latino or Latina should be defined by language has also been contested by this community, as its members speak other languages besides Spanish, such as some indigenous languages like quechua or aimara. But also they may not even speak Spanish at all, like those who speak Spanglish and English, who nevertheless consider themselves Latinos, as their family roots are in Latin America.
On the other side of the spectrum, one may find people with Latin American ancestors that would not consider themselves neither Hispanic nor Latino or Latina. This is to do with a long-standing high intermarriage rate and a decade of declining Latin American immigration.
Of an estimated 42.7 million U.S. adults with Hispanic ancestry in 2015, 37.8 million self-identify as Hispanic or Latino. But another 5 million (11%) do not consider themselves Hispanic or Latino, according to Pew Research Center estimates. It is interesting to note here that studies, as the one that delivers these figures, discusses this section of the population as Hispanic, not Latino. It also refers to it as the second largest racial or ethnic group in the States, as if it was possible for all those 42.7 million to fit easily into one. This brings up again the question of context. Depending of where this discussion takes place, academic paper versus social media or the street, one word takes over the other.
To top it up, the long-standing Latino and Latina terms are being challenged within this community. Latinx, is the gender-neutral term used increasingly by young U.S. Latinos. It is also the title of a book by Ed Morales, which precisely addresses the idea of mestizaje or hybridity. In this way not only he proposes to overcome the binary notion of race prevalent in the USA, but also tackle the complexity of identity for those who do not identify with whiteness and who are “the result of hundreds of years of intermixing among African, European and indigenous peoples in Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean. Latinos can be black, white, brown or anything in between”. This is another reminder of how identity resists classification as an ever evolving reality. It does generate heated discussions, but it is also flexible and adaptable to express inclusiveness, as LGBTIQ rights gain a place within societies across the globe. “Skin color, national origin, whether one lives in the mainland United States or outside of it, and one’s ability to speak Spanish, not to mention gender and sexual orientation, all play a role in one’s self-concept”.
To sum up, the question has been addressed to show some of the complexities that are contained in it. There are no easy answers, but you are now much more informed about the main lines of argument. The question remains alive and kicking and resists oversimplification. The debate continues. Watch the short clip below for a taste of how unclear this topic still remains.
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