Jenesis Basillio was at a small gathering when she met a girl named Maria. "She was making fun of her name,” recalls the first-generation Cuban American. “She said she never liked it because, ‘It’s a Hispanic name, a maid’s name.’” Understandably, this rubbed Basillio the wrong way — especially considering that Maria wasn't of Latin American descent.
"[Maria] saw people reacted to her [positively], so she spoke Spanish gibberish, dyed her hair and eyebrows a different color, went by Maria Guerra, and started wearing dark brown contacts,” Basillio recounts. According to recent social media hashtags, Maria's behavior is best described as Latina-fishing, a term describing the effort to "appear Latina" when you're not.
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Fashion designer and first-generation Mexican American Allyn Romero notes that this particular brand of appropriation is rampant on TikTok. “I can’t necessarily pinpoint a specific content creator, but I definitely saw a lot of non-Latin content creators reaping the benefits of presenting themselves as such,” says Romero. “I didn’t give it much thought at first, but when you see actual Latino content creators not being given the same recognition, it is upsetting.”
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"I didn’t give it much thought at first, but when you see actual Latino content creators not being given the same recognition, it is upsetting."
Allyn Romero
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Take Brooklyn Chipman — a young non-Latine white woman who previously made TikTok videos under the name Una Gutierrez, cosplaying a Latina teen by dying her hair black, wearing dark contact lenses, and using makeup to make her skin appear tanner. After she was publicly called out for Latina-fishing, she came clean and deactivated her account.
Non-Latine white women like Maria and Brooklyn have been able to effectively cosplay Latinas because, while we know Latines come in all shades and phenotypes, the dominant representation of Latine identity is also white. The Latinas that these women aim to emulate also have fair to olive-toned skin, long, black hair, and brown eyes, and usually stylize with the Hot Cheeto Girl, chonga, or chola aesthetic.
“There’s not one way to look Latina, or to be Latina,” says Natalie García, a first-gen Chicana and founder of the series Chicana in the City. “We are multifaceted, diverse, and ever-evolving — in every way. We don’t belong to just one category.”
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"There’s not one way to look Latina, or to be Latina. We are multifaceted, diverse, and ever-evolving — in every way. We don’t belong to just one category."
Natalie García
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Still, this singular portrayal of Latina womanhood is so widespread that, oftentimes, Latinas who don’t fit this description are themselves accused of Latina-fishing. The main perpetrators? Their own community.
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This, unfortunately, is a microaggression that Basillio knows all too well. As an Afro-Latina, the content creator has been accused of Latina-fishing several times — especially by people on TikTok. “You want to be a Latina so bad. Go be yourself,” reads one comment.
Basillio’s response? A stitch in which she shows herself surrounded by the Cuban flag. By and large, commenters had her back. “Yeah, because they forgot we come in different shades,” said one user. Several others pointed out they’re also Black Latines who deal with similar microaggressions. “They love to claim [we] come in different shades, until it’s an Afro-Latina/o,” another user commented.
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"This singular portrayal of Latina womanhood is so widespread that, oftentimes, Latinas who don’t fit this description are themselves accused of Latina-fishing. The main perpetrators? Their own community."
Natalie Arroyo Camacho
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Basillio says she’s been accused of Latina-fishing for as long as she can remember, especially when she was a teen. “Everyone saw me as Black — but they assumed I was a mix of white [and African American] due to my lighter skin.”
Despite Spanish being her first language, Basillio recalls people accusing her of taking Spanish-language classes. She also remembers comments about her hair. “People would say that I didn’t have ‘Hispanic hair or genes,’ and that made me feel out of place.”
Additionally, non-Latine white women trying to pass themselves off as Latina to gain an audience — and an income (side-eyeing you, Rosalía, Ariana Grande, and Lana Del Rey) — is also problematic. Regrettably, these examples aren’t limited to pop culture.
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"People would say that I didn’t have ‘Hispanic hair or genes,’ and that made me feel out of place."
Jenesis Basillio
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Take Jessica A. Krug, for example, who pretended to be a Black Puerto Rican scholar. Or Rachel Elizabeth Seidel, who changed her name to Raquel Evita Saraswati and lied about being Latina and Arab. Seidel held the chief equity, inclusion, and culture officer position at a social justice nonprofit for several years.
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These vicious lies cost Latinas a lot — including well-deserved opportunities, upward mobility, proper representation, and true inclusion, to name just a few.
There is a better way to borrow from a culture; one that doesn’t require stealing or lying to kick it. Just look to the Japanese lowriders in Nagoya who dress like East LA cholas. They’re not trying to steal from us to pass lowrider looks or ideas off as their own. Instead, they’re thoughtfully paying homage to a culture that they identify with.
Therein lies the key difference between appropriation and appreciation. Changing your name or appearance to pretend you’re part of a community you’re looking to exploit? Appropriation. Adapting your style to reflect the respect you feel for a culture you’re honoring? Appreciation.
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"Latina-fishing is more than brown lip liner and winged eyeliner. It's the erasure and watering down of our identity in every form."
Natalie García
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But you can’t appreciate a culture that you don’t understand. And make no mistake: Pigeon-holing Latinas — to a look, stereotype, or personality — is not a way to understand us.
We are as deadpan as we are spicy. We are as bilingual as we are monolingual. We are Celia Cruz as often as we are Yalitza Aparicio as often as we are Sofía Vergara. There is no one way to look or be Latina, as García said. And she wraps up the dangers of Latina-fishing just as eloquently.
“‘Latina-fishing’ is more than brown lip liner and winged eyeliner,” says García. “It's the erasure and watering down of our identity in every form.” And that’s something we just won’t stand for.
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