Celebrity Latinidad on Twitter

Conclusion

            The short takeaway from this project is that the most popular Latina celebrities on Twitter do not spend many of their tweets on talking about or referencing their latinidad directly. Spanish tweets were present but not in very large numbers, even for native-Spanish speaker Sofia Vergara. There were also several references to Latin American countries, but mostly by Colombian-born Sofia Vergara, and once again in very limited numbers. And finally, the only use of Latina hashtags was by Jennifer Lopez who was part of the #somosunavoz campaign. This is not to say that these three women are not working to represent their latinidad; in fact, it has been noted throughout this project that each has talked about being Latina on other forms of media. But it is significant that they have not used Twitter to express their latinidad and support representation of Latinas.
            The lack of discussions of latinidad on their Twitter feed can represent two things: first, that part of being Latina is being a whole person, with important parts of their character that are not necessarily defined by being Latina. For example, Selena Gomez has worked to bring awareness about her disease, lupus; Jennifer Lopez is known for her philanthropy; and Sofia Vergara has talked honestly about having cancer. The second thing to consider is that Twitter may not be their preferred platform for Latina representation. As noted in the section on Spanish tweets, part of the function of their Twitter profiles is to market their products to fans, not necessarily to tweet out activist agendas. And it can be discouraging when seemingly innocent hashtags for Latina representation do not actually represent any form of activism; a search for tweets with the hashtag #latina will pull up many unrelated and even undesired results (for example, from porn companies) rather than activist movements.
           It is the personal decision of each of these celebrities whether or not they want to promote Latina representation on Twitter, but it is disappointing that their marketing on Twitter does not seem to put much effort into connecting with their Latina followers. Instead of embracing Latina hashtags and talking frequently about their heritage, these Latina celebrities are choosing to express their latinidad on Twitter by posting infrequent but sincere tweets about their heritage and Latin roots.