“I’m More American Than Bill O’Reilly:” 9 Latina Celebrities Who Aren’t (Or Weren’t) Fluent In Spanish Share Their Perspectives
Growing up Latino in the US, it can often feel like you’re being pulled in two separate directions at all times. On one end, there’s this pressure to be “Latino enough” — to keep traditions alive, wear your identity with pride, and, perhaps most of all — speak Spanish perfectly so you’re not deemed a “no sabo kid.” On the other end, there’s that pressure to assimilate into American culture — to not be “othered” by your peers and, of course, to embrace English. This cultural push-and-pull is something all too familiar for many of us who grew up Latino in the US at a time when speaking two languages wasn’t viewed as a marketable skill to put on your future resume, but as something that was frowned upon.
All that being said, it’s no surprise that many Latino people have complicated relationships with speaking Spanish. I personally am fascinated by reading the diversity of people’s experiences growing up Latino, and so, I did a deep-dive on these 9 Latina celebrities who’ve discussed not being fluent in the language, as well as their perspectives on it. Here’s what they had to say (and whether or not they’ve decided to learn it as adults):
Last month, when Jenna graced the cover of Vanity Fair, she spoke about feeling “Latina enough” while not speaking Spanish. “Because I wasn’t born in a Spanish-speaking country, I know people have a hard time connecting with me,” she began. Neither she nor her father — who is Mexican American — speak the language fluently, but her mother — who is Mexican and Puerto Rican — does, as it’s her first language. Jenna revealed that she gets “so jealous” every time she hears her mom speak “perfect Spanish.”
“I think there’s a part of me that carries a bit of shame,” she continued. “For a second, I was almost nervous to speak about my family’s background because…I feel like I was made to feel like it wasn’t…[valid].” The Beetlejuice star is no stranger to being the “main character” of Latine discourse online. Just last year, she was deemed a “fake Latina” after a video went viral of Anya-Taylor Joy introducing Jenna to her now-husband in Spanish, to which Jenna replied in English.
Back in 2016, Jenna penned an article for PS telling a tale all too familiar for many second-generation Latino kids in the US. In it, she explained that both sides of her family learned English to assimilate. Her great-grandmother on her mother’s side always encouraged her kids to speak English to help her learn and not to draw attention to her undocumented status. “Since my father does not speak Spanish, trying to teach my siblings and me the language when we were little was a struggle…. The plan was for [my mom] to speak it to us and for my father to speak English so that we could learn both languages. The problem was, my father could not understand what my mom would tell us in Spanish, and his constant questioning became too much for her,” she explained. And, so, she never learned.
I think it’s safe to say Jenna’s come a long way with embracing her identity despite the consistent backlash she’s received online. Speaking on the pressure to be a perfect Latina in the public eye, she said, “…Something that I’m learning is…it’s not my job to carry the weight of everybody who’s ever had that experience.”
In an interview with LA Mag, Eva described her family as “ninth-generation Americans,” saying, “We never crossed the border; the border crossed us. We’ve owned the same ranch land since 1603. That’s a big faux pas to think ‘Latino’ is synonymous with ‘immigrant’ or with ‘not from here.’ I’m not an immigrant. I’m more American than Bill O’Reilly.”
Eva explained that while her parents did speak Spanish, they never spoke it to her, as she wasn’t allowed to speak the language in her school in Southern Texas. So, growing up, she never learned. As she grew older and became more involved in political and social activism, Eva decided it was time for her to study up, realizing that speaking Spanish would allow her to better help those she was advocating for. She was 40 years old when she made the decision to do so. In a Today interview, she explained, “Language is really an entryway into understanding a culture in its entirety… So I just had this sudden urge to like: I need to speak Spanish. I need to speak Spanish.”
As a mother, Eva decided that her son Santiago’s first language would be Spanish. She told Kelly Clarkson, “He’s super fluent. And he corrects me all the time. And he does it with attitude. He’s like, ‘Oh my god, mom! And I’m like, ‘What? You’re 4!’ Easy!”
Though Christina grew up in a Spanish-speaking household, her parents’ divorce played a factor in her losing some of the fluency she’d achieved as a kid. She told Hola, “Spanish is not my first language, but it is very much a part of my childhood and a part of how I grew up… But as many in my position, [when] my parents got divorced, I stopped hearing it on a regular basis.”
Of criticism that she isn’t “Latina enough” due to her lack of fluency or appearance, in 2012 the singer told Latina Magazine, “I’m split right down the middle, half Irish and half Ecuadorean. I should not have to prove my ethnicity to anyone. I know who I am.” She went on to say, “I wouldn’t be questioned [about my heritage] if I looked more stereotypically Latina… Whatever that is. All I know is no one can tell me I’m not a proud Latina woman.”
Despite not being fluent, the singer — who has several Spanish-language albums — feels like it’s something that will always live inside her, and does not back down from the challenge of being in spaces where everyone is speaking Spanish, claiming it helps jog her memory from childhood and feels like it’s second nature.
In an LA Times interview, Aubrey joked about blaming her father for not speaking Spanish well. She said, “My abuelo did not want his kids to speak Spanish in Philadephia…he wanted them to speak English. He was very strict about it, and so my dad never learned well enough to teach me.” Like many who grew up around the language, Aubrey can understand it, but she’s not confident enough in her abilities to speak it herself.
Aubrey has been a vocal advocate for embracing all kinds of Latine experiences and people in Hollywood, and not just the stereotypical ones. When an interviewer brought up an article titled “In Praise of Jenna Ortega, Aubrey Plaza and Moody, Deadpan Latinas,” she was ecstatic. “I loved that. That shit is important to me, because that’s my whole thing.” She went on to say, “Even with April Ludgate, it was like, come on. Sofia Vergara is not the only Latina personality. There’s other ones! …it’s important to normalize that there’s all kinds of different Latina people.”
5.
Selena Quintanilla Pérez
Though Selena predominantly sang in Spanish early in her career, she didn’t actually speak the language. Rather, her father, Abraham, assisted her with pronunciation as she learned her lyrics phonetically. The “Queen of Tejano Music” was raised in Texas and grew up speaking English. Selena, however, decided to take it upon herself to learn the language.
In a memoir written by her husband and guitarist Chris Pérez titled To Selena, With Love, Chris detailed her journey learning the language, which truly highlighted her commitment and love of the culture. “In Mexico, Selena mangled her conversations in Spanish like the rest of us, but not for long. She said, ‘It’ll be cool. You watch. I’m going to learn Spanish and surprise everybody.’ Every minute we were in Mexico, Selena’s Spanish jumped up a notch. She got better and better, to the point where I’d have to ask her to slow down so that I could understand what she was saying.”
America discussed her complex relationship with speaking Spanish on Today, sharing how her experience growing up has impacted how she’s raising her son. “I really want him to learn Spanish and speak Spanish and feel confident in that to communicate with that side of his identity and culture.”
“I’ve struggled so much because I’m not a fluent and easy Spanish speaker. I can speak it and understand it, but my mom didn’t enforce it in the home. My mom wanted me to assimilate and she wanted me to succeed in school and she never wanted me speaking Spanish to make it harder for me to speak English. I regret that I wasn’t forced to [learn Spanish].”
In an interview with Con Todo, America explained that as a kid, the adults in her home spoke to each other and to her in Spanish — and thus she was able to understand it — but that she responded in English, so she’s struggled with speaking the language through adulthood. America revealed that she has a Spanish teacher and continues to strengthen her skills, and spoke on how doing so has affected her identity, saying, “I feel like something that those of us raised in many cultures always experience as feeling like ‘Am I enough this? Am I enough that?’ And the… comfortability with Spanish has a lot to do with it…. I’ve had to sort of just accept it for what it is and do my best to know that people are gonna laugh or make fun or roll their eyes. But it’s better than not trying.”
Rosario, who is not a fluent Spanish speaker, told Latina Magazine that she doesn’t think her lack of fluency or inability to make every dish from memory makes her any less Latina. “I think being Latina is about having pride in your heritage…I am 100% Boricua, and I am proud of that.”
In a 2022 interview with the LA Times, Becky described herself as a “200-percent kid,” who — in her own words — are “kids who go between cultures, trying to assimilate to both sides.” While she spoke enough of the language to communicate with her grandparents while growing up, she wasn’t fluent. So, as an adult, she hired her cousin to travel with her across Latin America and tutor her.
The singer has made the most of living in two different worlds at once and actively works to blend her identities in her work in the same way she blends genres of music. “When I started, it was considered an artist’s downfall if they were jumping between genres, because then there’s no identity to latch on to… In the beginning, I wanted to be a rapper like Tupac but who could also sing songs on my guitar like Taylor Swift. And I could do it in English, Spanish or Spanglish because, you know, I’m pocha…. But [people] were like, ‘How do you go from Tupac to Taylor Swift?’ Only Becky would.”
Selena shared her Spanish-speaking journey with the LA Times, saying, “I was fluent in Spanish until I started working at 7. Then my job just kinda took over my life,” making it difficult for her to build on and maintain it. While producing the Living Undocumented docuseries in 2019, she began seeing the ever-changing state of her Spanish-speaking ability in a new light, saying, “Maybe embracing that part of me can be a source of healing for somebody else.”
The star — who has since released a Spanish-language album, Revelación — opened up about the work she put into building her language skills back up, including hiring a coach and studying the more modern, slang-based Spanish younger generations speak today as opposed to the more formal Spanish she grew up with. All the hard work seems to have paid off, though. According to Selena herself, after all her studying and long, meticulous hours in the studio to make the album feel authentic, she went on to say, “Now, I think I actually sound better in Spanish than I do in English.”
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