‘Spaniards Are Not Latino’ – John Leguizamo Just Entered the Emilia Pérez Chat
Everyone is talking about Emilia Pérez, for good or bad. Some people have taken issue with the perceived commodification of Mexico. John Leguizamo entered the chat this week about the movie’s casting. Karla Sofia Gascón faced mounting controversy after her offensive tweets became public knowledge recently. Now, Leguizamo is adding to the conversation with his own take on the actress’s casting.
John Leguizamo is officially calling out the casting for Emilia Pérez
Leguizamo is honestly saying what a lot of people have been thinking in an Instagram post. Specifically, the actor called attention to Karla Sofía Gascón’s Spanish background. As Leguizamo simply stated, “Spaniards are not Latino.”
Scandals continue to plague the cast and crew of Emilia Pérez. Using French director Jacques Audiard to tell the story immediately angered Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. Additionally, Audiard didn’t give Mexico its dues as a country worthy of telling its own stories. Moreover, the main characters are played by people who are not Mexican, although Selena Gomez’s father is of Mexican descent.
“We are not the same culture or ethnicity or race,” John Leguizamo wrote in his Instagram caption. “Latinos are mostly part indigenous and Afro Latinos mix! We only share language with Spain! Stop casting Europeans in our hard fought roles! Spain 🇪🇸 colonized and destroyed our empires and stole our wealth!”
Some people did have things to say in response to Leguizamo’s comment. Many Spaniards in the comments are angry that Leguizamo said they aren’t Latino. They made their opinions known, claiming ownership of the term due to their history as a country and their language.
“God! I thought that ignorance of that speech was only among low-level people in South America. I see that it is very widespread,” one commenter wrote. “Latinos are those from the Lazio region and therefore all of us who derive from the Roman Empire or took its culture, that’s to say, WE SPANISH ARE MORE LATIN AND MUCH LONGER than the so-called Latin Americans.”
Words are important, and semantics matter
The argument for saying that Spaniards are Latino stems from what people consider to be Latin countries historically. Yet, this can be a sticky argument to make. People argue that the term Latino is much more encompassing. Despite the argument, most people understand that the term Latino means people of Latin American descent. Some commenters argue that Italians, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Greek people are considered Latino.
However, using Latino to refer to someone from France just feels weird. The French language did derive from the Latin language but that doesn’t make them Latino. Arguing that anyone with remote ties from the Lazio region around Rome is also something people claim to make others Latino, according to the angry comments. But, again, do we call Italian people Latino?
Latino is a specific term that refers to people who are from Latin America. From Mexico to Chile and over to the Caribbean. Hispanic is a term that can be used to include Spain and part of Latin America, excluding countries that don’t speak Spanish, like Brazil, Suriname, and French Guiana.
There is a common misconception that Latino and Hispanic are interchangeable phrases, and that simply is not true. No matter how loud you get, that is a fact that won’t change. Latino is based on the geographical understanding of Latin America, which was colonized by several European countries. “Hispanic” is tied directly to countries that primarily function with the Spanish language.
