When the lines of “Latina” are blurred
Nominated for Best Latin Video, Best Choreography, and Best New Artist at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, it is clear that Spanish singer Rosalía is paving her way in the industry. Her 2018 album El Mal Querer which mixes flamenco and pop beats to provide a fresh modern sound, was nominated for five awards at the 19 Latin Grammy Awards and songs from the album won awards for Best Urban Fusion Performance and Best Alternative Song. She has seen support across the entertainment industry, as Kylie Jenner, Pharrell, Sean Paul, and Billie Eilish have recognized her talents.
However, her music isn’t the only thing sparking discussion; Rosalía’s positionality in the genre has raised more questions than she cares to answer. While Rosalía may be a Latin music star, she is not Latinx; she’s a white European woman hailing from Spain.
“Latinx” is a gender-neutral alternative of Latino/Latina which is a descriptor that refers to people of Latin American ancestry and ethnicity. As a term that is referential to geography, Latinx can refer to people from almost all countries and territories below the United States of America, such as the Caribbean, Mexico, and Ecuador; it doesn’t refer to Spanish-speakers from European countries. While Hispanic and Latinx are often used interchangeably, they are far from being synonyms for one another. Hispanic is a term which refers to language, it concerns and identifies countries whose primary language is Spanish. Not every Latin American country’s primary language is Spanish–take Brazil for instance, where the primary language is Portuguese–and not every Hispanic person is Latinx.
With interviews in NPR Latino, being on the August 2019 cover of Mexico Vogue featured as a “Latino Artist,” and staring in an episode of Billboard’s “Growing Up Latino” web series in which she says she “feels 100 percent Latino”, Rosalía is fully embracing an identity that is not hers, and seems to be oblivious to the implications and consequences of what she’s doing.
While the physical racial ambiguity that Rosalía and many other Spanish artists have allows for her to be profitable for Latin music companies and the genre itself, her class position–she is comes from Barcelona, a cultural hot spot and favourite vacation destination for the rich–affords her significant advantages. To a middle-class family, Rosalía can be seen as a familiar and non-threatening performer. By positioning Rosalía as the “It girl” of Latin music, despite her not being Latinx, award shows and media outlets are using her Eurocentric version of exoticism as a replacement for actually showcasing diverse artists of color.
Rosalía’s refusal to declare her whiteness is the largest factor in her success. She embodies a Latinx look that white people love without actually being from Latin America, and she uses colourful aspects of Latinx culture that white people love, all while being a white European woman, allowing white listeners to enjoy aspects of Latinx culture without having to interact with, appreciate, or acknowledge Latinx artists.
Some of her most popular songs like “Con Altura” have roots in Afro-Latinx culture, and by working with Latinx artists in her music she’s ultimately targeting the Latinx demographic. By using reggaeton inspiration for her music, and ultimately for her success, Rosalía is partaking in modern colonialism as she takes up space in a culture that is not hers. Rosalía is following in the haunting violent footsteps of her beloved Spain, a country that invaded and brought violence to many Latin American countries. While white women tend to hide behind their racist actions under the guise of ignorance, Rosalía can’t do this. At twenty-six, she’s a grown woman who must be held accountable for her actions and there’s been enough discourse on this issue surrounding her that she must be aware by this point. Hell, she’s even been asked about her cultural appropriation in a few interviews. Rosalía’s actions and strategies for success through culture baiting feel very thought out and purposeful. If her music is good it’s because Afro-Latinx and Latinx music is good, her success rides on work that Latinx artists put in long before she started her career.
Aware of the culture vulture concerns, in an article for The Fader, Rosalía continues to provide vague responses when asked about her own success at the hands of marginalized people. “If Latin music is music made in Spanish, then my music is part of Latin music,” she said. “But I do know that if I say I’m a Latina artist, that’s not correct, is it? I’m part of a generation that’s making music in Spanish. So, I don’t know—in that sense, I’d prefer for others to decide if I’m included in that, no?”
Rosalía praised her Barcelona heritage during her acceptance speech at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, and it’s unclear why someone so proud of their European positionality won’t publicly state that she isn’t Latinx. Rosalía can’t interchange the vastly different cultural, historical, and political worlds of Spain and Latin American countries. Nor can she escape the repercussions of pretending to be a part of a culture that is not hers, by waiting for others–particularly for members of the Latinx community–to claim her as their own.
Latino/Hispanic is an ethnic, NOT a racial term, your ignorance is astonishing; I bet you don’t speak the language.
Besides, Rosalia ancestry is Spanish and… Cuban.
Abbie MOSER👃👃👃👃 ???? Free Palestine you colonizing devil!!!!!!!!!!!
The author doesn’t even care to address the difference between Catalan and Spanish culture, and the fact Rosalía is from Catalunya, an autonomous region itself colonised (currently) by Spain. Barcelona and the region (costa brava) are not a”favourite vacation destination for the rich” (which seems a myopic North-American view) but an area of mass tourism for working-class Europeans of all ethnicities and skin colors. The author also doesn’t express whether she is speaking on behalf of themselve as a LatinX person, or just as an uber-woke criticaster and self-proclaimed culture judge, in lieu of. What The Strand perhaps fails to see is that debates about cultural appropriation, gender-neutralising someone else’s language (LatinX is not something you can even pronounce in Spanish, it’s an English-language invention) and even wokeness as a fashionable moral superiority game are in themselves North American export products, and a form of cultural imperialism now forced upon Europe, South-Korea or Japan. The world is not black and white. History is not linear. The same people wanting recognition for the unique richness of Latino/Latina culture should recognise that they themselves, their music, language, art, kitchen… are a product of colonization AND cultural exchange. Maybe Abbie Moser cares to explain what her ancestry is, how she suffers from Rosalía’s supposed failing to acknowledge the various sources of her musical collaborations, and why a white LatinX singer of Italian descent from Buenos Aires would be allowed to sing reggaeton, but her sister from Barcelona not? Fighting the results of colonization with a new form of woke colonization seems pretty pointless.
not the stan in the comments justifying literal colonialism for the sake of pop music…………… lmao anyway
any latine (myself included ;p) can tell you that spanish artists have been doing this for decades. enrique iglesias? not latino (he’s a mixed south asian man actually, his moms filipina). bebe? not latina. alejandro sanz? not latino. marta sanchez? not latina. the list goes on. spaniards stay capitalizing off of afro-/latino culture and i doubt its something that’ll ever be addressed critically by the music industry.
The person who wrote this article has clearly never been to Spain or know s**t about it.1 Spain is not even a rich country 😂 Spain is a very cultural and racially diverse country with lots of history in itself if you look up the history of Andalusia you would understand it use to be a MUSLIM country before white Christian came lol Spain was also colonised. Please go educate yourself as not everyone who lives or was born in Spain were colonizers! There is a community of indigenous people also within Spain called Romani people who are not white…go look them up actually a lot of the culture was taken from them that even Latin x have embraced also there are people who are from Spain with African descent after taking DNA tests also due to its complex history so stop generalising Spain itself. Her being white has nothing to do with her music or who she works with just like there are many WHITE Latina/latinos who embrace their culture some of whos ancestors are colonizers themselves with not even 1% indigenous or African. . Rosalia brings a lot of her culture into her music flamenco is Spanish not South American. Without Spain there wouldn’t be such thing as a Latina or Latino they would just be indigenous or African there would be no salsa bachata or Spanish speaking people so please just stop and appreciate spanish culture regardless of what happened 1000s of years ago before you were even alive or go take your discrimination against spaniards elsewhere because this article makes no sense, just sounds like a whole lot of hate and jealousy from someone who has been brainwashed by White American history to hate and discriminate by what they have been told
“Without Spain there wouldn’t be such thing as a Latina or Latino they would just be indigenous or African there would be no salsa bachata or Spanish speaking people so please just stop and appreciate spanish culture regardless of what happened 1000s of years ago before you were even alive or go take your discrimination against spaniards elsewhere because this article makes no sense, just sounds like a whole lot of hate and jealousy from someone who has been brainwashed by White American history to hate and discriminate by what they have been told”
people in latin america are still feeling the effects of colonialism to this day, presently. to say that people need to ‘get over’ something that happened ‘1000s’ of years ago is frankly, incredibly callous and shows how much YOU know about latin america and how the land and its people were brutalized by spaniards. there were still residential schools in latin america well into the 1970s, and so much of the general culture has been shaped and marred by colonial caste systems, colorism, racism, etc. brought by colonialist powers. not to mention the uh, literal slavery and genocide.
also romani aren’t indigenous to europe, and they’re certainly not only found in spain, they’re a nomadic ethnic group whose roots trace back to india.
like i’ve never even heard a song by rosalia, i just saw your comment and thought, oh so people really are that mindless and numbskulled that they go online and make ignorant and racist comments about colonialism and appropriation online. like on purpose. with their whole chests. yikes!