I’m Latino, and I’m American.

In a previous post I gave a shoutout to Mitú for producing content in English and Spanish, because depending on the context, I like to have both (kind of like 30–40% of Hispanic Americans according to Simmons Research). This is regardless of whether I prefer to read it in Spanish because it makes more sense (my friend Joanna knows what I’m talking about), or whether I want to share something with a friend who only speaks one language. Importantly, I identify as American… as well as Latino. This isn’t contradictory, shouldn’t be confusing, and probably applicable to many first/second/third generation Hispanic Americans. Marketers seem to finally be figuring it out.

Pew Research published a report on how complicated identity is for Hispanic Americans, and noted that most identify more with their family country of origin. It is important to recognize that this was also in 2012. But in recent years, most of the growth in the Latinx American community is coming from those of us born here. This seems to be translating into a closer Hispanic community which may have previously divided itself by it’s family country of origin.

Like Mitú and Remezcla have so astutely perceived, digital media brands are catching on and popping up to address the gap in our market. My good friend Zoe Saldana has decided to launch her digital media brand focused on millennial and Gen Z Hispanic Americans (ok, maybe I haven’t met her, but it feels like we are good friends). BeSe, which is meant to be a play on “to be” in English and Spanish, aims to “amplify the voice and untold stories of cultural pioneers reflecting and shaping the collective American experience,” check out this article on Blavity to learn a little more (shoutout to Blavity). Zoe is certainly not the only one catching on to this.

Telemundo trademarked the term “two hundred percent” to denote Hispanic Americans who feel one hundred percent American and one hundred percent Latino. I must admit that they hit the nail on the head. I was born and raised in the United States and actively decided to live here. This does not dilute my affinity for Uruguay, the country where the vast majority of my family lives, and where I have lived and visited many times. I am American, I am Uruguayan, and I appreciate when content producers recognize that.