🇪🇸 Since Spain won the World Cup, I’ve been obsessing over a thesis that I call “Latino Rising”, or the “Shakira Moment.” Hear me out.
There was a great article in the @nytimes about everything that’s going well in Spain, in addition to winning the World Cup. One of the points it made was that Spain is also experiencing a cultural renaissance, with Spanish cinema gaining international recognition and artists like Rosalía helping drive a shift away from English language songs on Spotify.
It immediately made me think about Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl and all the conversations it inspired about Latino culture slowly replacing Black culture as the mainstream avant-garde of American culture.
Hip hop has arguably been the biggest cultural force to emerge in the music industry over the past forty years. It reshaped music, fashion and youth culture around the world. But now, slowly and unmistakably, Latino artists and Spanish language music seem to be starting to occupy that same space.
And then here’s a third data point. On a recent episode of the "Geopolitical Cousins" podcast, geopolitical analyst Marko Papic made the point that although every European country, like most of the rest of the world, faces demographic decline, Spain is much better positioned because it has access to a vast pool of immigration: Spanish-speaking Latin America. These immigrants arrive with a shared language, cultural familiarity and historical ties, giving Spain a unique advantage in integrating new arrivals.
And so you see, there’s this triangle:
1️⃣ Spain as the Old World anchor, winner of the World Cup and going through an energy and manufacturing renaissance.
(Not even mentioning its PM Pedro @sanchezcastejon standing up to Trump and Trump declaring Spain a “lost cause”, which might be the best endorsement ever.)
2️⃣ Latin America as the deep demographic pool, providing sheer scale and cultural diversity across so many different countries, from Chile to Argentina to Colombia to El Salvador to Mexico.
3️⃣ The US as the financial and soft power amplifier, with the world’s largest entertainment industry, the dominant global media platforms, and a rapidly growing Hispanic population that acts as a cultural bridge between Latin America and the wider world.
Once those three get in sync, Spain’s economic and geopolitical resurgence, Latin America’s demographic and cultural depth, and America’s financial and media power could combine to make Latino culture, and Spanish as a language, even more dominant globally, offering a Western cultural and soft power alternative to the Anglosphere.
Who symbolizes this new world better than @shakira? Born in Colombia, obviously popular in Spain as well as in the US, she has been a global icon since at least the 2010 World Cup. Everyone knows her and knows her songs, just like with Madonna in the 1980s.
Latino Rising: what we’re witnessing is a power shift in the West from the Anglosphere towards the Latinosphere, symbolized by the passing of the baton between Madonna and Shakira.
The Latinosphere, being distributed across three powerful nodes, and then splitting down further in a fractal manner across South America and within Spain itself, is also much more representative of a multipolar world than the US dominated Anglosphere.
As for me, as suggested by my wife, I’ll start taking Spanish lessons on Duolingo. Being French, it should be easy, or at least easier than Mandarin.
What do you think?
Que el autor del gol de España presuma como campeón una gorra con el slogan del fascismo anti migrante del siglo XXI, cuando quien le dio el pase es hijo de migrantes de Ghana, dándole un ícono a ese racismo es más trumpista que todo lo hecho por la selección argentina junta 🤷🏽♂️
Jayden says his favorite female artist is Céline Dion because Britney made him listen to her music, and that “The Power of Love” is the most beautiful song he’s ever listened to. 🥹
@Maaarinee_ Bonjour ! C'est l'un de mes rêves: la voir et découvrir Paris! Si tu as encore un code et que tu pouvais me le donner, je t'en serais très reconnaissant! 💞
This is Celine Dion’s greatest live performance ever and don’t try to change my mind 🙂↔️
Everything is perfection…. Her voice, her drama, her act, her hair, skin, dress, facial expression…. Plus her connection with the legendary Luciano Pavarotti😭😍 this is the greatest
@celinedion Si algún alma caritativa tiene correo y no necesita comprar 6 podía coger las entradas... Otra vez no hemos sido agraciados con el correo 😭 😪 #celine
Nouvelles dates ajoutées, rendez-vous à Paris en 2027! Plus d’informations sur : https://t.co/H7qpjqEUz2.
• 8 mai
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• 19 mai
• 21 mai
• 22 mai
• 26 mai
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• 29 mai
New dates just added, get ready for Paris 2027! Visit https://t.co/H7qpjqEUz2 for more information.
• May 8th
• May 12th
• May 14th
• May 15th
• May 19th
• May 21st
• May 22nd
• May 26th
• May 28th
• May 29th
Nouvelles dates ajoutées, rendez-vous à Paris en 2027! Plus d’informations sur : https://t.co/H7qpjqEUz2.
• 8 mai
• 12 mai
• 14 mai
• 15 mai
• 19 mai
• 21 mai
• 22 mai
• 26 mai
• 28 mai
• 29 mai
New dates just added, get ready for Paris 2027! Visit https://t.co/H7qpjqEUz2 for more information.
• May 8th
• May 12th
• May 14th
• May 15th
• May 19th
• May 21st
• May 22nd
• May 26th
• May 28th
• May 29th
Faut vraiment qu’on fasse quelque chose pour démanteler cette entreprise maléfique! Genre si t’es pas inscrit à la prévente de la dernière fois tu pourras pas acheter de places??? THAT’S CRAZY!!!
Yo al PSOE quiero ganarle políticamente, porque creo que una izquierda que sorpase al PSOE afrontaría los grandes retos de este país, pero lo que estamos viendo estos días es brutal, es un intento de golpe (ya no tan blando) desde lo más profundo del Estado (sigo)
Hay mucho que aclarar en torno a miembros del psoe, sin duda.
Pero al final ni era un registro, ni era por financiación ilegal.
La forma en que se está manipulando a la opinión pública para tumbar un gobierno es en sí misma una amenaza la democracia.
En menos de 1h se ha pasado de registro a requerimiento de información y de trama de financiación ilegal del PSOE a que sea parte de la trama de Leire Diaz.
Un buen ejemplo de como se crea desinformación supongo.
Blanco y en botella. Quien piense que EEUU no está detrás de la persecución a Zapatero tampoco entenderá la destrucción de Gaza, el bombardeo de Irán, el secuestro de Maduro, la amenaza a Cuba y a Groenlandia, el viaje de Trump a China o los aranceles.