There’s no denying that Rosalía and her modern interpretation of flamenco music has captivated the world, and her musical feats have helped secure her dozens of award nominations, media spotlights, and accolades. But fans and critics have noticed that as Rosalía’s star has risen, the media’s perception of her has grown increasingly skewed.
The most recent example came this past weekend, when Rosalía’s latest Vogue Mexico cover image was revealed. The cover line reads, in Spanish, “Rosalía + 20 Latino artists making the world dance.” Fans were quick to point out — and not for the first time — that though Rosalía sings in Spanish and has a big Latinx fan base, she isn’t actually Latinx.
"Latinx" is the gender-neutral variant of Latino/Latina, and is a descriptor that refers to people of Latin American ancestry. Latin America includes countries and territories in North, Central, and South Americas, and the Caribbean; it does not include European countries such as Spain, where Rosalía was born and raised.
After seeing the Vogue Mexico cover, which doesn't directly call Rosalía Latinx but does imply it with the wording, fans took to Twitter to point out the nuances of those terms. "Rosalía Spaniard fans are quick to say she’s Latina bc she speaks Spanish, a Latin language, but does that mean France, Italy, Romania, and parts of Canada and Africa, among others that speak Romance languages are also Latinx? Calling her Hispanic is not that hard," one person tweeted. However, it's worth noting that the word Hispanic, while accurate in Rosalía's case, has its own turbulent history.
Another person tweeted in April, "I didn't get constantly made fun of and called guerita and told i wasn't 'hispanic enough' by other mexican kids for y'all to be calling rosalia an actual latina I DID NOT SUFFER FOR THIS."
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It's an issue that keeps coming up. In the past year alone, mainstream media outlets have put Rosalía in the Latinx category, including but not limited to NPR Latino, her recent MTV VMA nomination in the Best Latin category, and a confusing participation in a Billboard magazine video-interview series titled “Growing Up Latino.”
Journalist Isabelia Herrera, in her cover story on Rosalía for The Fader, broke down the cultural discussion about Rosalía’s Latinx identity best, writing, “The Anglophone press has often lumped Rosalía under the monolithic umbrella of Latin music. While she’s collaborated with Latino superstars like J Balvin on a few songs, most of her work draws on a tradition that has little to do with Latin American culture — despite Spain’s deep colonial roots there.”
Rosalía has somewhat acknowledged the press’ misidentification of her, but has done so coyly, telling The Fader, “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?”
But the fact is that there are no decisions to be made when it comes to what qualifies a culture, and it's not correct to interchange the vastly different cultural worlds of Spain with the vastness of Latin America. If Rosalía can outwardly say she is not Latinx, then surely the mainstream press can follow suit.
Teen Vogue has reached out to Vogue Mexico for comment.
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Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: The Problematic History of the Word "Hispanic"
