Hilaria Baldwin responds to accusations that she's pretending to be Spanish: 'I'm being attacked for being who I am'
Hilaria Baldwin is responding to claims that she cultivated a false persona as a Spanish woman.
The Living Clearly Method author, 36, took to Instagram on Sunday morning to discuss the viral allegations surfacing on social media claiming that the former yoga instructor is a white American woman named Hillary who was born in Boston.
Dressed in holiday pajamas and sporting a bare face, the wife of actor Alec Baldwin shared a nearly 7-and-a-half-minute video of herself attempting to explain her background.
“I’ve seen chatter online questioning my identity and culture. This is something I take very seriously, and for those who are asking — I’ll reiterate my story, as I’ve done many times before,” said Baldwin. “I was born in Boston and grew up spending time with my family between Massachusetts and Spain. My parents and sibling live in Spain and I chose to live here, in the USA.”
In regards to her five children with Baldwin, who were given Spanish names, she explained that she and her husband “celebrate both cultures in our home.”
She added, “Alec and I are raising our children bilingual, just as I was raised. This is very important to me. I understand that my story is a little different, but it is mine, and I’m very proud of it.”
The claims of Baldwin’s misrepresented heritage surfaced on Twitter last week, and quickly went viral.
You have to admire Hilaria Baldwin’s commitment to her decade long grift where she impersonates a Spanish person
— elena ilana alana alina elana (not) (@lenibriscoe) December 21, 2020
Soon, archived videos of Baldwin slipping in and out of a Spanish accent surfaced, including one of her not knowing how to say the word “cucumber,” despite her childhood in Massachusetts.
Here she is pretending not to know how to say cucumber in English 😭 pic.twitter.com/g8xYNktsNY
— elena ilana alana alina elana (not) (@lenibriscoe) December 21, 2020
In the Instagram video, Baldwin claimed that she frequently attempted to dispel any misunderstandings about her heritage, but said reporters frequently misconstrued it.
“I’ve tried in the past to be clear, but people don’t always report and say what you say,” she told her followers. “In this country I would use the name Hillary. In Spain, I would use the name Hilaria. I identify more as Hilaria because that’s what my family calls me.”
Saying she “consolidated” the two identities, Baldwin explained that she grew up between both cultures and speaking both languages. However, she admitted she’s not sure she always bridged the two identities well.
“Yes, I am a white girl ... Europe has a lot of white people in there. My family is white. Ethnically, I am a mix of many many many things,” she said. “Culturally, I grew up with two cultures. So it’s really as simple as that.”
Baldwin went on to say that in the past, she grew very frustrated when reporters would report different things about her, and attempt to label her heritage as one thing or the other. “I’m a different kind of Bostonian, but that’s who I am, and you kind of can’t change your background. Nor would I want to. I’m really, really proud of who I am, and all my different experiences.”
Adding that navigating both cultures has certainly made her “insecure” throughout the years, Baldwin claimed to have found value in her individuality. Closing out her statements, Baldwin reaffirmed her previous thoughts.
“For all of those of you who are confused about where I’m from, and why I speak two languages, I grew up speaking two languages. And again, my family lives in Spain,” she said, adding that as she gets older, she is getting more comfortable with her identity.
“You just want to be open about it, and that’s what I’m trying to do here,” she said. “I’m learning what makes me unique is also a value to myself. This is who I am and my life story. It may not fit into your cookie cutter and it might not fit into a label, but it’s a weird mix of who I am.”
In a follow-up Instagram Story posted later on Sunday, Baldwin posted a series of photos of herself growing up, as well as a screenshot of text messages from her brother written in Spanish.
“When I’m said, I always have my big brother. Te quiero mucho, hermano,” Baldwin wrote on the screenshot.
Next, she shared that she’s done addressing the criticism, and asked people to leave her alone.
“I’ve said my piece, I’m so tired. I’m going to go back to my family because I’ve been not a very good mommy, spending a lot of time focusing on this, and I just want to be left alone,” said Baldwin. “So I’m going to sign off for a long time.”
And in a follow-up video that has since been deleted, she told followers, “I don’t really understand why it’s turning into such a big thing.”
“I’m getting attacked for being who I am … people wanting to label me Spanish or American, can’t it be both?”
Soon, Baldwin’s husband Alec posted his own video, in which he didn’t mention his wife’s situation directly. Instead, he touched on a variety of topics ranging from Facebook and Twitter to Pizzagate and Jeffrey Epstein, criticizing the vast arena of voices on social media.
“Twitter to me is something where you really gotta dig through the garbage. It’s like a big swap meet,” he said. “It’s just a vast orchard of crap ... I just want to say to people, you’ve got to consider the source. We live in a world now where we’re hidden behind the anonymity of social media. People can say anything. There have been things said about people I love, that I care about deeply, that are ridiculous.”
“Some of it’s so spectacularly false. And they’ve said it about people I love. False things. Untrue things,” said Baldwin, who concluded his speech by whispering, “When you love somebody, you want to defend them.”
Hilaria is not one stay to mum on controversies. Last week, she shared a video defending herself after a postpartum lingerie photo of her holding her 3-month-old son, Eduardo, went wild on the Internet. Actress and comedian Amy Schumer reposted the shot as a joke, pretending it was a photo of herself. While Schumer soon apologized, Baldwin claimed it wasn’t the joke that upset her, but people’s claims that Baldwin’s picture-perfect physique didn’t represent what “real moms” look like after pregnancy.
“If you're doing body inclusivity, that's body inclusivity for all,” Baldwin said."There's a whole thing like, 'Oh, moms don't look like that.’ Some moms do. This mom does. And I am included in the inclusivity."
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