In recent years, the amount of Latinx and Chicanx media being consumed by Americans has skyrocketed significantly. In 2024, the Los Angeles Times reported that Latin Music had seen a 15.1 percent increase since the previous year. As the U.S.’ media, trends, and culture have become more broad, books, movies and tv shows in Spanish have risen in popularity and created some of the most affluent and prominent media of our time. This can be seen in artists like Bad Bunny, TV shows like Money Heist, and Chilean-American author Isabel Allende’s books. Although the diversification of our media is incredibly important, only about 12.5 Percent of the U.S. population speaks Spanish. Consequently, as Netflix and other large streaming platforms begin to produce more Spanish language projects, platforms also need to translate their media to apply to a larger audience. However, it’s important to consider what cultural or nuanced meaning might be lost when media is flipped from one language to another.
In the past, translating Spanish media into English relied solely on a translator, somebody who specialized in languages, and worked to create an accurate portrayal of the media form in the intended language–whether that be translating a book for print, creating English subtitles, or dubbing movies and TV. While that is still true, many streaming websites and even some publishing houses have now turned to AI to translate their media at a lesser cost, with human translators still auditing their work.
Due to the inherent nuance of language, it is simply impossible for translated material to be 100 percent correct. In a more formal type of media, translating might be easier, since there are likely more exact translations for words. But in the majority of books and movies, that is not the only kind of language that is used. Slang, idioms, or cultural and regional jokes and references are things that often don't fully translate to English. In that respect, either the translation is done accurately and doesn’t make sense to the English viewer, or the joke or word is changed and overtly impacts the connotation and true meaning of said phrase.
In the instance of the hit Spanish TV show “Money Heist,” the original Spanish title is“La Casa de Papel.” In English, this directly translates to “The House of Paper.” Likely in an effort to ensure that viewers don't confuse Money Heist with another popular Netflix tv show, “House of Cards,” the original spanish title was changed to what it is known as now. And while the change may not appear to be such a big deal, “La Casa de Papel,” is a much more metaphorical and symbolic title, while “Money Heist” creates extreme clarity on the topic of the show–something that American audiences often want.
Another example is the famous Colombian novel, “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” or, “Cien Años de Soledad.” Written by Gabriel García Márquez originally in Spanish, it is a book that reached global popularity and is often translated and read in English. Being a beautiful and descriptive book in both languages, some people have noted what can be lost when translating intricate books like these. “I’ve read ‘Cien Años de Soledad in Spanish, but reading it again in English made me realize how much of the specific words that Gabriel García Márquez uses and how a lot of the meaning is lost,” Berkeley High School junior Anabel Orozco said, “It sucks that people who can't speak the language won't be able to understand the full greatness of a text.”
Overall, while translations are important, and do allow for more people to have access to a variety of types of media from different countries and places, they are not perfect. Equally in books as in online media, there are going to be references, jokes, and dialectical aspects lost. While it doesn’t necessarily “kill” the quality of the media, and English speakers can still surely enjoy TV shows like Money Heist, translation is not a perfect art. Rather, it's important for viewers to not place all of their attention on subtitles, but instead pay attention to context and evaluate what the actors may be trying to convey.