Back in 2020, a social media shitstorm emerged when people noticed that Hilaria had been donning a Spanish accent in numerous interviews — even going so far as to forget the English word for “cucumber” in one. The only slight hiccup is that she was born “Hilary” in Boston.
Since then, Hilaria has maintained that she has spent time in both countries and that she simply embodies both cultures. Now that her new reality show with husband Alec, The Baldwins, is out, she’s been doubling down. In the debut episode, she claimed that she was raised bilingual and said, “When I mix the two it doesn’t make me inauthentic, and when I mix the two, that makes me normal. I’d be lying if I said [the controversy] didn’t make me sad, and it didn’t hurt, and it didn’t put me in dark places.”
In the latest episode, she said, “Growing up in a way where you have multiple cultural influences on you means that you’re never going to be able to fit in. You can try. You can chameleon. You know, people who code-switch we’re very good at chameleoning. You don’t even think you’re not even thinking about it. It’s just normal. It’s just natural.”
Hilaria further said “the whole world was mean to” her because of “code-switching.” Of the controversy, she further said, “You never get used to people being mean. But you take a deep breath, and I think you learn to distance yourself from it, and so, you know, you just try turning down the volume in my head a bit. I’m not gonna take it personally.”
So, Hilaria’s tried her best to characterize the backlash as one of people not simply understanding what it means to be raised in a mix of cultures. That it is other people’s fault for mistaking her, someone who has referred to herself as “Spanish,” as a native Spaniard. As a first-generation immigrant who was raised bilingual myself, I find her not being “able to fit in” schtick grating at best. Some immigrants don’t even teach their children their native languages because of xenophobia and code-switching is part of forced assimilation. Speaking with a Spanish accent to American interviewers is…the opposite of code-switching. I don’t see how Hilaria is somehow uniquely a victim here, but, then again, I have never forgotten the English word for cucumber.
Secondly, there’s the important tidbit that Hilaria implied that she was an immigrant herself. Her agency bio used to say she was from Majorca and she herself suggested that she moved from the island to attend NYU. Fun fact: I’m also an immigrant in the US! Which is, to put it mildly, NOT EASY RIGHT NOW. But oh, we must lament over the fact that people were “mean” to Hilary while legal residents are being threatened with deportation and families are being split apart.
In a 2016 Instagram post that’s still live, Hilaria wrote, “With two blonde hair, blue eyed children, people at the park always ask me if I am a nanny. They hear me speaking to my children in Spanish and I have been offered so many jobs.” In 2013, she was included in a piece meant to spotlight Latinx women. It sure feels like Hilaria loves to use the language of immigration and xenophobia for reasons that are unbeknownst to me beyond perhaps feeling the need to carve out an identity as a victim.
The feeling around many immigrant circles right now is one of fear. It is a beautiful thing to be multicultural and an immigrant, which the current administration feels hellbent on stamping out. I feel a sense of duty for us white, financially stable people to help and offer solidarity to those with less privilege. But for Hilary, it is never about that. It is all about Hilaria.
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