Latino USA fellows Elisa Baena and Monica Morales-García travel deep into a chismosa’s universe. In this episode, they ask: Why is chisme so addicting? What’s chisme’s relationship to power? And does it do more to build or destabilize communities? To get some answers, they visit professional chismosas from different industries: reality TV, entertainment news and academia. They also take another risk: creating a chisme about their boss, Maria Hinojosa. Will they dare to air it on public radio?
When Elisa and Monica met on their first day as Latino USA fellows, they hopped on a video call after their first team meeting to introduce themselves. Within minutes, they realized they were speaking a shared language — an ancestral tongue. They were chismeando.
Chisme is the Spanish word for gossip. It can be hard to define because it encompasses so many different types of talk, and it can mean different things to different people in different contexts. However, chisme happens when you speak about someone in their absence, sharing information that’s supposed to be private and not necessarily factual — but the tea is too hot not to spill.
Elisa and Monica were mere strangers, but they took the risk to chismear about their colleagues without negotiating the terms. Elisa is Cuban-American and grew up in Miami, and Monica is from Southern California and has Mexican and Salvadorian roots. Elisa had recently graduated from college and her grandma still cooked her dinner every night, and Monica was a fashion scholar who sewed her own clothes. It didn’t matter that they didn’t have much in common — they had bonded.
But then… Elisa started feeling guilty about gossiping. So she told Monica about it. Elisa grew up Catholic and was taught that gossip was harmful, even immoral, from the time she could read the Bible. Monica pushed back and said that what they were doing wasn’t that serious: “We’re not saying anything bad!” If two Latinas from different spaces and places could connect without a hitch because of el chisme, surely that was something good, right?
And so began their months-long investigation of el chisme. But as they dove into the history and performance of chisme, their investigation led them somewhere they didn’t — but should have — seen coming: their identities.
Featured illustration by Jackie Rivera.
Chisme: An Ancestral Language. “Ancestral Language” Ancestral. Isn’t this Spanish culture when broken down? Spanish. Spaniards, the largest colonizers in history and conquerors of the Americas. So your ancestors are the bad guys or are they the victims/opressed? Chisme is Spanish after all, a Romance language from Western Europe. So do you mean those ancestors and their language? Or is it more desirable to play the other side and claim indigenous ancestors? I don’t think those ancestors were speaking Spanish until somewhat recently though… and I don’t think this European word is specifically unique to Latina Americans or it didn’t originate from them so why would Latina Americans be claiming ownership? A cultural staple of the Latina identity that “NON’S” wouldn’t understand, the word essentially being their creation along with the rest of the Spanish language (according to Latin Americans)
Also.. Miami accent? No one is picking up on a “Miami accent” when you talk… and no one is claiming you sound ignorant/uneducated from this imagined accent… don’t victimize yourself, it’s not healthy.
This whole publication is about such a niche identity within an identity. The average Latina does not care about these stories. It just goes to show how lacking this perceived “under represented minority” activist argument is. There’s just not enough that separates you from the rest of America, you are a generic westerner. Someone from Cambodia would not be able to tell the difference between the two and would fail to see a culture that goes against or doesn’t align with American values and identities. Considering every American has a unique cultural background/ancestral history there no such thing as a non-ethnic non-identity or race that doesn’t have rich cultures with unique ancestral traditions.
If you think Latinas are so under represented in America that a media outlet was necessary, tell me what representation Slavic Americans receive and are hogging from you guys? I can assure you most Americans couldn’t even tell you what a Slav is. Let alone what Slavic culture looks like. And there’s no difference between the two groups, Latina/Latin people and Slav/Slavic people are both ethnicities. Both ethnic groups that the US would categorize under the “White race”. Ethnic studies is essentially the histories and cultures of non-white peoples. It even lists who qualifies as an “ethnic”, and it every continent except Europe. But why does Europe have 60+ distinct ethnic groups. Ethnic groups who are native to Europe, just as the Mayans are considered native to the Americas. This publication gives off that same logic and approach to identity and culture. Do people think whites aren’t ethnically diverse and culturally diverse and rich too? Or is it to refuse a space for them out of hate and animosity.