15 Latinx Music Journalists You Should Be Reading

If you’re Latinx and live in the U.S., you are used to other people telling your stories. Whether it’s reporters parachuting into border towns, or just plain-old whitewashed roles in films and television, Latinxs have always had a voice and something to say, but have long struggled to be heard. When it comes to media, it starts in the makeup of the newsroom: when everyone comes from the same place, an outlet’s perspective becomes homogenous, and you get writers tasked with assignments they are ill-equipped to handle. Newsroom diversity — or the overwhelming lack thereof — is one of modern media’s greatest failures, and addressing it is a stepping stone to solving some of its other problems.

When Latinx cultural phenomena become too big for mainstream media outlets to ignore — like “Despacito” or, say, Lido Pimienta’s Polaris Prize win — homogenous newsrooms get exposed for the holes in the knowledge base of their staffs, and are sent scrambling to find someone – anyone – who can make sense of cultures that have been growing and thriving right under their noses. And it’s often embarrassing (at best) or offensive (at worst) to see major outlets publish work by writers clearly out of their element when discussing the nuance of art in the diaspora. More disheartening is the erasure of indigenous groups and Afro-Latinxs in criticism of Latinx art, whether through laziness, sheer ignorance, or both.

As a former editor, I can attest to the difficulty of assembling a diverse staff of contributors, people who you can trust to write authoritatively and deliver the goods quickly. It takes lots of effort, hard work, and patience to develop new talent; editors tend to build out their networks organically, relying on people they trust to recommend new collaborators. But when your network is homogenous (as they often are in the upper echelons of journalism and criticism), it’s a recipe that sustains the status quo, and keeps people on the margins from having a voice in the mainstream.

Now, there’s no excuse. We’ve done the work for you.

This is a list of writers who cover music that you should already be following — consider this a letter of recommendation. Their specialties run the gamut from reggaeton and bachata to the most ubiquitous pop stars and obscure indie musicians. They each bring their own skillsets to their work, with a wide variety of perspectives on Latinx identity.

Latinxs are far from monolithic; it’s unfair to expect the one Latinx writer on your staff or in your stable of freelancers to speak for every member of the community. In curating this list, we set out to be as inclusive as possible, attempting to reflect a range of specialities. It’s worth thinking about the ways structural issues in the media industry play out here, whether it’s the colorism that benefits white or light-skinned Latinxs with access to more prestigious platforms, or whether it’s the inability to take on unpaid internships that will help writers build careers in the long run. For this reason, it remains as important as ever to support independent creators and writers when you can.

So don’t just wait for the next “Despacito:” include these voices in your newsroom now, and watch it get smarter, more nimble, and empathetic.

Editor’s note: This list intends to highlight the larger community of Latinx music critics and writers outside of Remezcla’s own contributor base. If you’re a faithful Remezcla reader, consider following all our Latinx contributors through their author pages.