Lele Pons
Lele Pons was born in Venezuela but moved with her family to Miami, Florida when she was five years old. She also claims to have Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage (“Lele Pons”). Her career launched at the age of fifteen, on a platform known as Vine, which allows “Viners” to create and share six-second videos.
She was the first person on Vine to reach one billion loops on Vine, and she is one of the most recognizable Viners ever (Firman). When Vine was taken down in 2016 (McAlone), Pons moved on to YouTube as her video-sharing platform of choice; since then, she has amassed 6,434,649 subscribers, making her the comedic Latina YouTuber with the most subscribers, according to Social Blade. To date, she has posted a total of 77 videos on YouTube that average well over one million views each, and some even with tens of millions of views. (“Lele Pons”)
Of the 77 videos, approximately eight – that is, about 10.4 percent of her videos – explicitly mention the terms “Latina”, “Latino”, or “Hispanic” in their titles, or have titles completely or partially in Spanish. Solely observing these numbers, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that Pons has very little representation of her latinidad within her YouTube channel. However, that perspective does not take into consideration how her latinidad is naturally displayed in every video. In much of her content, she switches between English and Spanish multiple times throughout the video (although her videos are predominantly in English). She frequently uses words and phrases such as “dale”, “mija”, “Dios mio”, as well as common curse words such as “pendejo” or “Hijo de puto”. In the videos that are explicitly about latinidad, like “Training to be a Latina”, her accent is noticeably more pronounced. This could indicate either a conscious or subconscious intent to emphasize her latinidad. (“Lele Pons”)
Her use of language in her videos is a prominent display of her latinidad, as are her various references to her heritage. Both in “Miss Latina” and in “Latino Hunger Games”, she represents her country of birth, Venezuela, in the respective competitions. Furthermore, just in the title, “My Big Fat Hispanic Family”, she is clearly identifying with her latinidad. Another way she does this is through her careful selection of music. When the announcer in the “Latino Hunger Games” broadcasts the ‘national anthem’ for all competing teams, a popular Latino song called “El Sonidito” is played, and everyone begins to dance. In “The Perfect Proposal”, her boyfriend brings in a mariachi band for her. Most importantly, every single one of her videos, no matter the content, ends with the same salsa song: “Oye”, a Spanish/Pablo Flores remix of a Gloria Estefan song. Her musical choices are unmistakable expressions of her latinidad. (“Lele Pons”)
These are all mostly neutral forms of representing latinidad. The use of stereotypes – which Pons relies on heavily for her comedic content – however, is a more controversial method because of the societal implications and repercussions9. Although Pons uses many stereotypes in her videos, she regularly employs the ‘crazy Latina girlfriend’ stereotype. In fact, she has a video entitled “Crazy Latina Girlfriend”, which encompasses all the characteristics she uses for this stereotype in other videos. A ‘crazy Latina girlfriend’ – according to content produced by Pons – must be: hysterical, loud, emotionally and physically abusive and possessive.
The video starts at a wedding between Pons and her fiancée, Antonio. About two minutes and 22 seconds into the video, there is a flashback to a party where the audience sees Pons (the crazy Latina girlfriend) accuse Antonio of calling her fat and becoming hysterical, screaming at him. At this point, she throws a ceramic figurine at his head, and it shatters on the wall behind him. Next, Pons sees Antonio talking to other girls. Although he is only giving them directions to the bathroom, she flies into a rage, screaming at both Antonio and the girls. She even assaults one of the girls, attempting to choke her as other people try to pull her away. At the end of the flashback, Pons smashes a brand-new television with a baseball bat because she feels Antonio is paying more attention to the television than to her. Finally, back at the wedding, the minister asks Antonio if he is sure he wants to marry Pons, whereupon he replies with a terrified, but emphatic “no”. Pons threatens him, and he visibly cowers before changing his answer to “yes”.
This video is problematic in so many ways. It demonizes Latina girlfriends, negatively affecting the way society perceives them; this is especially true in this case considering the size and range of Pons’s audience. It normalizes domestic abuse. One of the most disturbing aspects of the video was the other Latina girls sitting on the sidelines and cheering Pons on as she abused Antonio, rather than being concerned and/or attempting to intervene. The encouragement, rather than the prevention and/or deterrence of domestic abuse both contributes to the negative perceptions of Latina women and essentially promotes domestic abuse in relationships. Young, impressionable minds make up a sizeable portion of Pons’s viewers, and content that normalizes abuse is dangerous for them to see. Although the comedic use of stereotypes can be an entertaining way to express latinidad, it is also risky, as the creator of such content is walking a fine line between reinforcing stereotypes and presenting stereotypes in a humorous manner.She was the first person on Vine to reach one billion loops on Vine, and she is one of the most recognizable Viners ever (Firman). When Vine was taken down in 2016 (McAlone), Pons moved on to YouTube as her video-sharing platform of choice; since then, she has amassed 6,434,649 subscribers, making her the comedic Latina YouTuber with the most subscribers, according to Social Blade. To date, she has posted a total of 77 videos on YouTube that average well over one million views each, and some even with tens of millions of views. (“Lele Pons”)
Of the 77 videos, approximately eight – that is, about 10.4 percent of her videos – explicitly mention the terms “Latina”, “Latino”, or “Hispanic” in their titles, or have titles completely or partially in Spanish. Solely observing these numbers, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that Pons has very little representation of her latinidad within her YouTube channel. However, that perspective does not take into consideration how her latinidad is naturally displayed in every video. In much of her content, she switches between English and Spanish multiple times throughout the video (although her videos are predominantly in English). She frequently uses words and phrases such as “dale”, “mija”, “Dios mio”, as well as common curse words such as “pendejo” or “Hijo de puto”. In the videos that are explicitly about latinidad, like “Training to be a Latina”, her accent is noticeably more pronounced. This could indicate either a conscious or subconscious intent to emphasize her latinidad. (“Lele Pons”)
Her use of language in her videos is a prominent display of her latinidad, as are her various references to her heritage. Both in “Miss Latina” and in “Latino Hunger Games”, she represents her country of birth, Venezuela, in the respective competitions. Furthermore, just in the title, “My Big Fat Hispanic Family”, she is clearly identifying with her latinidad. Another way she does this is through her careful selection of music. When the announcer in the “Latino Hunger Games” broadcasts the ‘national anthem’ for all competing teams, a popular Latino song called “El Sonidito” is played, and everyone begins to dance. In “The Perfect Proposal”, her boyfriend brings in a mariachi band for her. Most importantly, every single one of her videos, no matter the content, ends with the same salsa song: “Oye”, a Spanish/Pablo Flores remix of a Gloria Estefan song. Her musical choices are unmistakable expressions of her latinidad. (“Lele Pons”)
These are all mostly neutral forms of representing latinidad. The use of stereotypes – which Pons relies on heavily for her comedic content – however, is a more controversial method because of the societal implications and repercussions9. Although Pons uses many stereotypes in her videos, she regularly employs the ‘crazy Latina girlfriend’ stereotype. In fact, she has a video entitled “Crazy Latina Girlfriend”, which encompasses all the characteristics she uses for this stereotype in other videos. A ‘crazy Latina girlfriend’ – according to content produced by Pons – must be: hysterical, loud, emotionally and physically abusive and possessive.
The video starts at a wedding between Pons and her fiancée, Antonio. About two minutes and 22 seconds into the video, there is a flashback to a party where the audience sees Pons (the crazy Latina girlfriend) accuse Antonio of calling her fat and becoming hysterical, screaming at him. At this point, she throws a ceramic figurine at his head, and it shatters on the wall behind him. Next, Pons sees Antonio talking to other girls. Although he is only giving them directions to the bathroom, she flies into a rage, screaming at both Antonio and the girls. She even assaults one of the girls, attempting to choke her as other people try to pull her away. At the end of the flashback, Pons smashes a brand-new television with a baseball bat because she feels Antonio is paying more attention to the television than to her. Finally, back at the wedding, the minister asks Antonio if he is sure he wants to marry Pons, whereupon he replies with a terrified, but emphatic “no”. Pons threatens him, and he visibly cowers before changing his answer to “yes”.
NOTES:
- A "loop" is a term that describes views on Vine.
- The author uses the word “approximately” when referencing her calculated percentage to account for human error, as she counted the videos herself.
- The videos that fit the criteria of expressing latinidad, in descending order starting with the most recently posted: “Latino Hunger Games” (2017), “Miss Latina” (2017), “Feliz Navidad” (2017), “Training to be a Latina” (2016), “Crazy Latina Girlfriend” (2016), “Dating a Latino Vampire” (2016), “Spanish Soap Opera (Telenovela)” (2016), and “My Big Fat Hispanic Family” (2016).
- The teams that participated in "Latino Hunger Games" are Colombia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba.
- The author will not go into great depth about societal implications or repercussions of stereotypes here because that is not the main focus of her research: how latinidad is represented on YouTube. It was important to mention, but the author will mainly discuss which stereotypes are used most frequently by the YouTuber.
