Latina feminist moments of recognition: Contesting the boundaries of gendered US Colombianidad in Bomba Estéreo’s “Soy yo”

Abstract

Interwoven with a textual analysis of Colombian electronica band Bomba Estereo’s viral music video “Soy yo” (2016), here I offer an autoethnographic perspective on the experience of Latina feminist media identification for a US Colombiana/Latina viewer unaccustomed to encountering herself in popular media. I trace the numerous moments of what I term “Latina feminist recognition” in “Soy yo,” with an eye toward how the video, often described as an “ode to little brown girls everywhere,” implies a universality of Latina experience, yet may simultaneously be read as a uniquely Colombian diasporic text. In centering the Latina contemplative eye, I assert that the power ascribed to “Soy yo” is in significant part anchored in the Latina female gaze. This gesture ultimately offers a potent alternative paradigm for reimagining gendered US Colombianidad and Latinidad in popular media generated within the Global North as well as by the Colombian state.