¡Ojo! Latine media, art & cultural happenings to keep your eye on.
Bringing you a selection of new and notable LGBTQ media curated by GLAAD’s Spanish-Language & Latine Media & Representation team.
Younger latine people are more likely to identify as LGBTQ, and with over 62 million Latines in the US alone, it is crucial to celebrate and amplify inclusive media that represents the wide range of Latine experiences. Here are just a few examples of creative projects doing just that.
If you love a show, film, song, or book, please remember to share about them on your socials, so that others can also know about great queer Latine media.
Bi+ Latine Musicians Spotlight
Annually, from September 16-23, GLAAD, the Bisexual Resource Center, and Still Bisexual recognize the bisexual+ community for Bisexual Awareness Week, culminating in Celebrate Bisexuality+ Day on September 23.
Bisexual+ Awareness Week seeks to accelerate the acceptance of the bi+ (bisexual, pansexual, fluid, no label, queer, etc.) community. In honor of both #BiWeek and #LatineHeritageMonth, this new !Ojo! section highlights some of this bi+ writer’s favorite bi+ musicians.
Mabiland
Colombian singer, songwriter, and rapper Mabiland carved out a space in the Latin American music industry with her unique blend of rap, R&B and neo-soul topped off by powerful lyrics informed by her experiences as a queer black woman in Latin America.
Her latest album NIÑXS ROTXS is described by Alán Pelaez Lopez in the article “Mabiland Is Queering R&B en Español” as an “intergenerational love letter from adult Mabiland to baby Mabiland, and a framework of how LGBTQIA+ Latin Americans can potentially address and reclaim their narratives.” Standout songs in the album include “WOW,” “Ashé,” and “NIÑXS ROTXS.”
Watch the beautiful music video for my personal favorite Mabiland song, “Diablo” featuring Tonga Conga, below!
Kali Uchis
Colombian-American singer and songwriter Kali Uchis talked to Gay Times about her latest Album, Orquídeas, named after Colombia’s national flower. Uchis explains the title: “Orchids represent femininity to me, and a celebration of my Latinidad.”
Rachel Grace Almeida from Gay Times asked Uchis if she ever feels like she doesn’t fit into the English-language or Spanish-language music industries, especially as a Bisexual Latina woman, Uchis replied:
“Of course. But I think the feeling of not fitting in is good; I think it’s possible to accept it, without necessarily needing the validation that comes with a feeling of belonging… I don’t expect people to know who I am, and they don’t know. This is my second album in Spanish, and sometimes I have the feeling that I am doing double the work, because I’m trying to break into different markets. These albums are completely different worlds.”
Her critically acclaimed album, Orquídeas, features standout tracks like the bisexual anthem “Labios Mordidos” featuring Karol G, luxuriously dramatic “Te Mata,” and old-school reggaeton bop “Muñequita” featuring El Alfa and JT.
Watch the music video for “Labios Mordidos” below!
Omar Apollo
Grammy-nominated Mexican-American singer, songwriter, and actor Omar Apollo recently told Complex, “my natural state is always longing.” With a reputation for sonically capturing the feeling of heartbreak, his “second album sharpens the darkness of a romantic estrangement into glittering pop gems. Apollo is still full of longing, but he’s ready to show his claws” Aimee Cliff writes in Pitchfork.
Apollo who is “never coy about his sexuality” talks about queerness and fluidity with Variety, and touches on his identity in his work, including “Bi-Fren” and “Kamikaze” from his earlier work in Apolonio EP.
Watch the music video for “Done With You” & stream God Said No!
Latine TV You Can’t Miss
Élite Returns With Its Eighth and Final Season
The newest, and final, season of Élite, the hit Spanish Netflix series known for its LGBTQ characters and its increasingly messy plotlines involving the uber-wealthy students at Las Encinas, is out now. A review in Gay City News mentions that “there is, of course, a murder that rocks the students” as well as “plenty of partying and sex, not to mention extra-curriculars like blackmail, extortion, jealousy, betrayal, and manipulation.” For fans of the series, it seems like Season 8 reliably serves up a classic “Élite” flavor.
Gary M. Kramer notes that “The show may feature topical themes like immigration, racism, and inequality, but the reality of those issues, as well as the depiction of its LGBTQ content, seem designed for building soapy storylines.”
Catch the Season 8 Trailer below:
Standout Latine Music Releases
Arca and Tokischa Release Their Highly Anticipated Collaboration
Venezuelan musician, producer, and experimental artist Arca released new single “Chama” in a collaboration with Dominican rapper and songwriter, Tokischa. Arca has been at the vanguard of Latin American electronic music throughout her career, and has been nominated for two Latin Grammys and one Grammy.
A review in Clash describes the single as an experience that is “replete with trance-like transitions and icy reggaeton breaks, ethereal moans and granular murmurs, the pair fashion a borderless frontier-free anthem for the ostracized and disenfranchised.”
In a press release, Arca dedicated the song to “all the dolls, the queens, and the good little witches. If I shine, it’s for us. Courage to all my butterflies in defending softness, tenderness, magic, and sweetness in a world full of hardness. Shine without fear, chamas.”
Watch the moody “Chama” music video below!
Empress Of and Urias Collaborate on House Banger “Femenine”
Honduran-American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer Lorely Rodriguez, known professionally as Empress Of, released her new single “Femenine.” Harper’s Bazaar described it as “a taste of her upcoming career-best album, [Feminine] is a house banger that mirrors exactly where she’s at—empowered, embodied, wholly self-realized—while manifesting exactly what she wants in a partner.”
The track features Urias, a Brazilian singer, songwriter, dancer, model and activist. As a trans woman in Brazil, a country with high rates of transphobic violence, Urias reflects on the importance of visibility in an interview with Casey Delport:
“I think it’s always important when one of us has this ‘spotlight’, it opens the conversation to the subject that ‘we exist’, and we do not only exist in the streets at night. From now on people will see us anywhere we choose to be seen.”
Watch the “Femenine” feat. Urias music video below!
Best From The Web
Powerful Documentary about Latina Community Leaders Transcending Addiction
Our friends at The TransLatin@ coalition released a documentary web-series titled “Transcend Addiction.” The series showcases the resilience and leadership of Maria Roman and Bamby Salcedo, two community leaders who have overcome addiction and are making a significant impact on the Trans, Gender Non-conforming, and Intersex community.
Watch their powerful stories below.