Love Island USA’s Amaya and Bryan Represent the Latine Love Story We Really Needed

On Sunday, July 13, I perched on the edge of my stool at a Brooklyn bar, facing a huge screen normally reserved for sports. Now, it displayed the neon lights of the Love Island USA villa in Fiji, host Ariana Madix moments away from revealing this year’s winning couple. Surrounded by dozens of fellow viewers, a scream rose in my throat as Madix announced the winners of Season 7: Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales, the first Latine couple ever to take home the title.     

To some, Amaya and Bryan’s victory is a simple pop culture newsbite. But to others, it’s the healthy Latine representation we desperately need right now. 

Love Island USA viewers met 25-year-old Amaya in episode 4, when the Dominican-American arrived as a “bombshell” meant to shake up existing couples. At first, she paired up with Islander Ace, but that connection ended when he complained about Amaya calling him “babe” (yes, you read that correctly). She then tried her luck with contestants Austin and Zak, neither of whom reciprocated her feelings. Inside the villa, she might have felt helpless, but back home, Amaya captured the hearts of the entire country with her Shakespearean wordplay, her open displays of emotion, and her refusal to change for any man.     

Later in the season, Bryan, a 28-year-old of Puerto Rican and Guatemalan descent, flew under the radar when he joined Casa Amor, a getaway spot where female Islanders met new connections. But in episode 26, he flipped the script. As Ace, Austin, and Zak criticized Amaya for being too verbally affectionate, leaving her in tears, Bryan spoke out. “Coming from a Hispanic household, calling someone ‘babe,’ ‘mi amor,’ ‘mi vida,’ that’s just how we talk,” he said. “You’re telling her to meet you halfway? You’ve got to meet her halfway, too.”

The way we move through life is informed by the culture we grew up in. Bryan acknowledged this in front of the other Islanders, and in doing so, he created space for a real connection with Amaya, whose worldview is shaped by similar influences to his own. 

By the Season 7 finale, Amaya and Bryan were a couple, with plans to test their relationship in the outside world. In the finale’s Declarations of Love segment, they stood unapologetically in their admiration for each other, and they did it con sazón — Bryan even referenced a Bad Bunny lyric in his heartfelt speech to Amaya.

This season of Love Island USA was plagued by scandals centering Yulissa Escobar and Cierra Ortega, two other Latinas in the cast. Both were rightfully removed from the villa for using racial slurs in previous interviews and social media posts. Their actions are symptomatic of the pervasive racism and ignorance within the Latine diaspora. Yet when juxtaposed with the actions of Amaya and Bryan, who are best known for singing in the mirror and getting freaky in the Hideaway, we’re reminded that Latines are not a monolith. As members of this community, it’s our job to combat the racism and prejudice within it. In order to do so, we must uplift those whose values we do align with. Amaya and Bryan’s win was exactly the ending we needed.

Last summer, Season 6 of Love Island USA pushed the “spicy Latina” trope with its few Latina contestants, who were portrayed as fiery and hypersexualized by their male counterparts. This year, Amaya and Bryan turned that narrative on its head. When Amaya went from crying over rejections to running around with the “zoomies,” viewers got to see her as the layered individual she is. When Bryan, unprompted, defended Amaya’s self-expression, it became clear that his respect for her ran more than skin deep. Some viewers feel Bryan may have pursued Amaya because he knew she was the fan favorite, but he stood up for her before the cast participated in the now-infamous ranking challenge, which revealed Amaya Papaya’s status as America’s sweetheart. His actions prior to that challenge set the stage for their budding romance. 

Bryan also challenged machista stereotypes just by being himself. Machismo discourages Latino men from displaying sensitive emotions, but Bryan’s tears flowed freely when he received a surprise video message from his mother. In his first one-on-one chat with Amaya, he spoke about his choice to defend her like it was a no-brainer, even though it meant arguing against three of his friends. “I don’t want anybody to feel alone,” he said. 

As I write this article, Latines all over the country are being kidnapped by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A new detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” recently opened in South Florida. According to Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-FL), its inmates are being caged in groups of 32 people, with only three toilets per group. A culture of fear now permeates Latine communities nationwide, with many afraid to speak their native language publicly or even leave their homes for fear of being detained, regardless of their immigration status.

Meanwhile, two Latine twenty-somethings just shamelessly expressed themselves on summer’s hottest TV show, and it won them the grand prize. On Love Island USA, Amaya and Bryan forged a bond built on cultural competency and outspokenness, two values that stand in direct opposition to Donald Trump’s government-sanctioned ethnic cleansing of the United States.  

This season of Love Island USA was stressful to watch. So is the news. So is the current state of the world. Amaya and Bryan’s compassion, giggles, and hair-brained schemes gave us a breath of fresh air, if only temporarily. It’s no wonder Latine fans are as proud of them as we would be of our own family members. Even if they decide they’re better off as friends someday, Brymaya is still a win for Latines. Maybe it’s not that deep to you, but to some of us, it is.