Latin Chivalry v. Music: What’s Right?
As far back as I can recall, my dad always opened and closed the passenger car door for my mom before getting in himself. Coming from a Colombian household, this type of behavior was routine and, most importantly, expected. Even when he couldn’t open the door, my dad would send me as a proxy to open the door for my mom. Often, this was followed by comments from my mom praising my dad for his chivalry. My time in Colombia only further hammered home this shared Latin American cultural value of the importance of chivalry and machismo. Machismo teaches little boys to open the doors for their mothers and young men to “protect” women through robust masculinity. Chivalry and machismo, however, often do not translate to respect and equality for Latin American women. Revered music genres such as Reggaeton and Mariachi are shining examples of the influence of sexism within Latin America. The messages disseminated in Latin American music highlight the far-reaching gap between its deeply ingrained chivalry and contrasting reality of casual sexism.
Aside from the entirely gendered Spanish and Portuguese languages, machismo and chivalry are already dispersed throughout Latin America as foundational blocks of the culture. As Colombian feminist Catalina Ruiz-Navarro told the BBC—in an article exposing sexism in Latin America—“Men in Latin America are often proud of being machista and many women like their ‘protective’ macho men.” This machismo presents itself as unequivocally expected acts of chivalry towards women. Unfortunately, machismo and chivalry are not synonymous with respect towards women. Although chivalry generally has positive connotations, this behavior inherently requires male dominance over women and demands eternal gratitude from women for basic acts of politeness. Dominant demeanors towards women are so prevalent that a Gallup survey from 2014 ranked Latin America last (out of Asia, Europe, former Soviet countries, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa) when it came to treating women with dignity and respect. The embodiment of the sexism created by chivalry and machismo in Latin America? Music.
Reggaeton, a popular genre of Latin music, especially amongst teens, uses catchy beats and talks about sex from the male perspective. Anything else—and there is little else—is peripheral. Despite its great potential to promote social justice—having emerged from working-class Puerto Ricans—Reggaeton has gone in the complete opposite direction. Undeterred by modern efforts to grow and revolutionize the genre by a select few, one thing that remains stubbornly constant is Reggaeton’s rampant objectification of women. Consider Maluma’s lyrics in his song Cuatro Babys (Four Babies): “I’m in love with 4 babys. They always give me what I want. They f*** when I tell them to. None of them give me a ‘but’.” Throughout the song, Maluma describes women as interchangeable bodies; readily available at the service of the unlimited, unrestrainable, and uncontrollable sexual desires of men. In Cuatro Babys, Maluma emphasizes the ever-present theme of Reggaeton: women are only vessels helping men achieve pleasure.
Ozuna’s Me Dijeron (They Told Me) has an even more apparent attitude of assumed dominance over women. In this song, Ozuna tells an unnamed woman “They told me that you wanted to see me… Just like me, you want to eat me. They told me you aren’t happy with him. There’s nothing wrong with that, come have a good time with me.” With absolutely no respect or regard for this woman’s relationship, Ozuna spends the entire song begging the woman to let him “feel her.” Reggaeton songs often treat women as objects to conquer—generally to have sex—instead of as three-dimensional figures that should be treated with respect and viewed as more than sex objects. It could be refuted that—although problematic—these types of Reggaeton songs are not necessarily “sexist,” but Reggaeton also crosses the line from machista values into clear sexism. Arcangel’s Bellaquera (Horniness) has zingers such as “I’m going to pound you in the Kitchen. You want to, I want to, let’s stop talking.” For Reggaeton aficionados, it seems impossible to find a song that doesn’t objectify women, promote machismo, or sprinkle sexist lyrics throughout.
[pullquote]Although chivalry generally has positive connotations, this behavior inherently requires male dominance over women and demands eternal gratitude from women for basic acts of politeness.[/pullquote]
To be clear, however, grotesque sexism in Latin America is not uniquely in Reggaeton. Mariachi, sometimes referred to as “Latin country music,” also overflows with sexism and machismo. Because Mariachi originated in Mexico, a country with a poor record on women’s rights where women didn’t have the right to vote until 1953, it’s not entirely surprising that Mariachi music is deeply interwoven with machismo. Mariachi was originally meant to symbolize machismo and Latin concepts of masculinity through tales of love and heartbreak. Machista themes in Mariachi or Ranchera music (a variation of Mariachi that is recognized by the incorporation of the guitar) are so common that Ranchera legend, Vicente Fernandez, even sports a full Mariachi outfit along with a gun strapped on his waist in his most of his music videos.
Although Vicente Fernandez’s songs generally talk about his experiences in love and heartbreak, he did have the occasional hit taking ownership of his macho energy. In El Rey (The King), Fernandez’s machismo is on full display as he sings “With money or without money, I always do what I want and my word is the law. I don’t have a throne or a queen, or anyone who understands me. But I’m still the King.” Unfortunately, for avid Mariachi fans (such as myself) this sort of machismo throughout the genre is something that listeners simply have to accept if they want to keep listening.
However, Mariachi music is culpable of more than just machismo. Pedro Fernandez’s Yo Soy El Aventurero (I am the Adventurer), also takes an extra step by filling the song with outright sexist phrases. Yo Soy El Aventurero begins with “Abused mamacitas your adventurer is here.” Throughout the rest of the song Fernandez sings about what types of women he likes—which unsurprisingly means every type of woman: “I Like tall ones, short ones, skinny ones, fat and small ones, single and widowed and divorced ones… I also want them to have brothers that aren’t jealous and boyfriends that are ugly.” Fernandez also includes instructions as to how he wants to meet these women: “I am the adventurer and I say to my mothers-in-law, If you bring your daughters make sure they are well taken care of or I won’t respond.” Clearly, Fernandez has no restrictions or reservations when it comes to expressing his desires and exacting instructions on how he wants them met; behavior that is found throughout the entire genre of Mariachi or Ranchera music.
Skeptics might say that Vicente and Pedro Fernandez represent the older generation of mariachi, and not the new “diverse and inclusive” wave currently hitting the genre, but younger Mariachi and Rancheras singers still uphold machista values in their music. In Christian Nodal’s No Te Contaron Mal (They Didn’t Tell You Wrong), Nodal tells his girlfriend of his infidelity by saying “Yes I was with someone else. What’s it to you, it’s not like it was in your bathroom. What do you have to say about it? It wasn’t a lot. It was just one. And if I was drunk it was your fault anyways. And at the end of the day, one is the same as none.” Throughout the song, Christian blames his girlfriend for him cheating on her and repeatedly asks what the big deal is. Despite his musical genius, Nodal is proof of the sexism’s legacy even in modern Mariachi music.
Unfortunately, machismo exists mariachi music despite monumental efforts of minority groups to break through the challenges they face in this male-dominated arena. In 2014, the all-female “Mariachi Divas” went on to become the first mariachi ever (men or women) to win a second Grammy. In 2015, an L.A-based group called “Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Ángeles” broke barriers by featuring the world’s first trans Mariachi. However, these efforts have not been enough to change the machista associations with mariachi. Even Google lists nine out of the ten first results under “famous mariachi singers” as men. Unfortunately, this conception of Mariachi needing to be male dominated is reflective of the Latin machista culture of its listeners. Since Latino listeners prefer to hear the historically male-dominated version of Mariachi, it makes it harder for singers who deviate from this standard to break into Mariachi and produce songs that wouldn’t regurgitate back the same machista ideals that listeners now commonly possess.
Although these songs only provide a miniscule glimpse at sexism embedded in Latin genres, most Latin music will fit into some sort framework either objectifying women or putting women down in order to project machismo. To be clear, however, the problem with machismo and sexism within Latin America is more than just the protective and chivalrous aspect of it; it’s the way that men are expected to be strong and aggressive, which inevitably brings out disrespectful behavior towards women. The thin line between the good and bad of chivalry—and more specifically machismo within Latin America—can be confusing and make it difficult for family, friends, and the culture in general to correct this behavior. If Latin America continues to inject such corrupted machismo and continues to romanticize chivalrous ideals into its society and culture (like through music)—to the point where sexist ideals in the region are the norm—sexism and gender inequality in the region will never be defeated. Although I never expect or want my dad to get out of the habit of opening the door for my mom, I do hope that one day the negative behavior tied to machismo and chivalry will stop.