One of the greatest sources of concern for Alaina Castillo has been the letter R.
Rolling Rs is at the heart of learning Spanish and one of its most challenging trills (颤音), especially for those unaccessible to the language regularly as a young child.
This is a lesson the 21-year-old singer spent years learning in and out of school. And it's one that has paid off for Castillo, particularly on TikTok (抖音), which has made efforts to train its Spanish creators.
The Houston native is part of a flourishing Spanish and Latinx creator community that has attracted huge followings through videos that briefly translate cultural traditions and history for a young and captive TikTok audience.
"TikTok is a window to the world, and we've seen people across the worldwide Latinx and Spanish connect with one another on the platform through shared stories and experiences," Kudzi Chikumbu, TikTok's director of creator community, told CNN over email.
TikTok videos from Spanish creators are also getting consumed more than ever.
TikTok hashtags (主题标签) #Latino, #Latina, #Familia and #Comida, among others, grew in use by more than 185% since last year's Spanish Heritage Month, according to data shared by TikTok spokesperson Cynthia Dew. The hashtags #Latino and #Latina have more than 62 billion views combined to date, Dew added.
Millions of those views belong to Castillo, who joined TikTok roughly a year ago to share original Spanish and English songs, as well as covers.
When she started making music, Castillo thought she'd be singing in English. That changed after her family encouraged her to write records in Spanish after learning the language in high school, Castillo told CNN.
"There's a lot of different opinions when it comes to Latinx or people like me who are learning Spanish, so I made it my job to write records that bridge the gap between Spanish speakers and those who want to learn but were never taught," she said.
