Latin celebrities delete code change

I had just sent a vocal note to my friend when a curious feeling came to me. “Let me listen to that,” I said. As I did, an even strange feeling came to me, a lack of recognition of my own voice. You see, I have sang code for so long that sometimes I don’t know where the real me starts. Obviously, it was my friend, so I was authentic in my language. However, as a person who has been professional for many years, as well as an academic, the voice I heard about reading was only one of the many. And for many modern Latins, it is another aspect of the identity policy with which we must reconcile. This is why it is refreshing to see that recently many Latin celebrities have been more candid as to the pressure they felt for code change or “speak white” and openly reject the practice to kiss their authentic self.

This is undoubtedly due to the current sales power that Latin people enjoy worldwide. Presented by the popularity of Reggaetón and Latin Trap, Latin music as a whole exceeds other markets, with artists like Bad Bunny becoming world stars despite the refusal to make music in English. Over the past two years, streaming services like Netflix have been in great investing in dramas like “Casa de Papel”, “Narcos” and, more recently, “Griselda”, with Colombian actress Sofía Vergara. But you don’t have to come back too far to find a moment when this was not the case.

In the early 2000s, the idea that music sung mainly in Spanish could succeed on the English -speaking market seemed absurd. Meanwhile, you would also have struggled to find shows starring Latin tracks or focused on problems in and around our communities. This meant that to succeed, many promising stars had to get closer to whiteness.

Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin and Thalia have all published crossbar albums in English, addressing the American pop market. Puerto Rican actor Freddie Prinze Jr. explained how the leading roles written exclusively for Latin people were at the time. Now, given the current Acceptance of Latinidad, it is more open than ever how proud it is of its inheritance. And hearing him speak today is hearing a more authentic person stripped, with all Twangs and inflections that have a code change so often tries to cover himself. You can hear it in this interview that he gave to “The Talk” during a press tour.

But it’s not just Prinze. Recently, a video by Mario Lopez eating food with a friend has become viral for the frank nature of his speech. When I was younger, my parents and I looked at the actor on “Access Hollywood”, and the way he spoke always seemed performative to me. However, seeing this side of Lopez in these images was refreshing. It is good to know that, basically, to its most relaxed, it is just another friend. Now that does not mean that code change is always performative. Personally, I have always thought of being able to change code as a resource, which allows me not to mix but of being understood by people who would not normally understand me.

Over the years, I have developed a plurality of accents. I have my noyorican accent that comes out when I am with my family and my cousins. Then there is my Puerto Rican accent that comes out when I am on the island, stretching the syllables of English words so that they integrate into Spanish. And then there is my academic side which comes to the table prepared with its $ 20 words. Years ago, I thought that having these sides for me made me false and that I was not really Latin or the Caribbean enough. But now, I realize that everyone’s authenticity is different and being Letin does not mean being one thing. I remember the Grand Desi Arnaz, who has never minimized his heavy Cuban accent. For Arnaz, authenticity has become an asset, and it is not surprising that he was the first Latin to cohoster a television program in English in the United States. I see parallels with him in Salma Hayek and Vergara, two incredible actors in their own rights who have always embraced their accents and whose stocks have increased because of this.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, you have Latins like John Leguizamo, whose heavy New York accent allowed casting agents to offer him stereotypical roles such as addicts and criminals. But rather than assuming these roles or code switching, he simply possessed it and has cut his own path through Hollywood, even having the chance to deliver the Shakespearean prose in its brand accent as Tybalt in the “Romeo + Juliet” by Baz Luhrmann.

Today, the bases that these Latin icons have laid down have set the tone for many of us to recover our authenticity and delete code change. Sometimes it looks like speaking with our real accents or using the vocabulary that comes to us most naturally. But we also see it in the way many of us have stopped angling our names or are more willing to express ourselves in Spanish or Spanglish. For example, I like the way Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pronounces her name each time she presents herself, even if the Spaniard is not her first language. I love the way Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal break their full names in this interview with Wired because it shows that our Latinidad is something we always wear with us.

At the end of the day, being Latin means being part of a group for which no one is suitable for everyone. And I am happy to see that we no longer feel as much pressure to tighten inside the boxes that strip us of our Sazón, whatever the flavor.

Miguel Machado is a journalist with expertise in the intersection of Latin identity and culture. He does everything, from exclusive interviews to Latin music artists to opinion plays on questions relevant to the community, personal tests linked to his Latinidad, and parts and characteristics of thought relating to the Puerto Rico and Porto Rican culture.