About

Mi Gente Latino refers to a quote from American singer Jennifer Lopez at the 2011 American Music Awards when she won the Favorite Latin Music Artist category. In her speech, the singer dedicated the award to her followers and thanked them in Spanish, saying "Mi Gente Latino." The clip became a reaction meme in July 2020 on Twitter, being used to celebrate Latin culture or to mock artists that use Latin American culture to promote themselves.

Origin

On November 20th, 2011, The American Music Awards aired on ABC. The American singer Jennifer Lopez received an award for Favorite Latin Music Artist. The earliest video of the singer's speech available was posted to YouTube^{[1] [2]} by ChristinaLandProductions on November 21st, 2011, receiving 5,500 views and 13 likes in 12 years. A higher-quality video of the speech was posted later on February 8th, 2012 by JLoGreece2, which garnered 363,000 views and 3,000 likes in 11 years (seen below).

Spread

On July 20th, 2020, Twitter^[3] user @bionicdelux posted the end of Jennifer Lopez's speech thanking Latinos, including Taylor Swift's shocked reaction saying "She speaks Spanish?" to Selena Gomez. The post garnered 4.9 million views and 697 likes in three years (seen below).

Lopez's clip and the phrase "mi gente latino" became a reaction meme on Twitter,^[4] being used in Latin American culture posts on the platform. For instance, user @vanniloner posted the clip on March 26th, 2023, as a response to a tweet about a shirtless picture of Shawn Mendes in Mexico. The tweet (seen below) garnered 536 likes and 12 retweets in a week.

MI GENTE LATINO, HE LOVES USpic.twitter.com/V4VyB0iFjy

— franco (@vanniloner) March 27, 2023

Another case of the meme being used as a catchphrase was posted by Twitter^[5] user @fancysnaake on March 19th, 2023. The tweet features an edited video of Taylor Swift singing "Lavander Haze" in a Mariachi style.^[6] The video received 184,500 views and 21,400 likes in three weeks (seen below).

MI GENTE LATINO pic.twitter.com/2CgFHddb1R

— mirrorball CLOSED. (@fancysnaake) March 19, 2023

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References