Stay hot and exude confidence by maintaining a curvy figure while also fitting below a size 2. Keep a natural tan skin that is not too dark and makes you glow as soon as you step into the sunlight. Have a slight accent that is intriguing and mysterious but isn’t too confusing to understand and easy to poke fun at. Be tempting but not promiscuous, be very in tune with your sexuality but also be very heterosexual. These are the standards that are often placed on the shoulders of Latina women in order to embody the full “Spicy Latina” narrative – an idea that many Latina women are pressured to conform to or are how they are often portrayed in media.
According to the OC Weekly column, Ask a Mexican, by Gustavo Arellano, the earliest known use of the word “spicy” to describe a woman, was in 1866. The earliest mentions Gustavo could find referring to Latina’s as spicy was from The Philadelphia Star in 1909, with an article calling a Latina, “a hot tamale”. Later in 1919, a vaudeville advertisement, in The Seattle Star for a show called The Spanish Vamp, described the show as “A Spicy Dish of Señorita’s”. The term “spicy señorita” appears again in a 1940 St. Louis Post-Dispatch ad for Down Argentine Way, a musical that offered “Spicy Senoritas . . . Sultry Songs . . . in the South American Way!”
The term “Spicy Latina” is damaging because it implies that all Latina women should look, act and be perceived in a certain way to “gain” the title of being spicy and hot. Instagram is filled with hashtags such as #crazylatinasbelike and #latinasarebetter that seem to be dedicated to worshipping Latina’s for their sexual prowess, fighting abilities, and their cooking and cleaning skills. It is also worth noting that lgbtq+ Latinos and those who identify as Latinx are often excluded from the “Spicy Latina” classification. Afro-Latina’s are also the most hypersexualized and fetishized, however, because of western society, it is very easy for them to be seen as the “Spicy Latina” or the “Angry Black Woman” if they are too dark-skinned, fight to rough, or are too crazy. The unfortunate thing is that so much of the colorism, sexism, and racism inherent in the “get you a Spicy Latina” narrative across the internet is that it completely eradicates and erases the overwhelming diversity found in the Latin/Hispanic community.
Latina women should have the liberty to express their sexuality in a way that they seem fit for themselves and should not be shamed if they choose to do so. However, it is important to recognize that fetishizing an entire racial community by slapping the “Spicy Latina” title on every Latina woman is gross, demeaning and downright racist. Latina women deserve better than being equated to being “spicy” and should not be ridiculed if they do not fit into a single category that society has placed on them.
As a Latina myself, I completely resent the “Spicy Latina” stereotype, but I believe the worst part of it all is that it can hold the authorization to make one believe they might not be “Latina enough” if they don’t check all the boxes of the “Spicy Latina” narrative. However, I am here to tell you that you are good enough, you are not a flavor or an object to be racially fetishized. The term “Spicy Latina” dismisses all our experiences to one narrative when in reality the Latin/Hispanic community is filled with diversity and experiences that deserve to be told.