Jill (Duggar) Dillard is facing some serious backlash after using a Spanglish hashtag on her most recent Instagram post. In a post congratulating her sister Joy-Anna and her husband Austin Forsyth on the birth of their baby boy, Gideon Martyn Forsyth, she used the Spanish word “tía,” which means “aunt” in English.
“Congrats @austinandjoyforsyth on baby Gideon!! We are so happy for y’all,” she wrote in the caption. She added the hashtag #favoritetia, implying that she is Gideon’s favorite aunt (even though some fans pointed out that #tíafavorita would have been grammatically correct).
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One fired-up Instagram follower accused Dillard of cultural appropriation by using the word to describe herself.
“Tia? Really? You spend a few months in ‘scary danger America’ and feel confident enough to culturally appropriate? You never even learned to speak the language. Gtfoh with that,” the person wrote.
Some people on Reddit agreed with the cultural appropriation argument.
“I’m Hispanic and it feels like she is using Spanish to seem cool, hip, whatever. Sounds like cultural appropriation to me,” one person said.
Someone else wrote, “At this point, it feels like cultural appropriation. You’re not in [Central America] anymore, Jill. Derick is not papa, you are not tia.”
Not everyone was offended by Dillard’s use of the word, however. Several of her Instagram followers cheered its usage.
“Haha love the hashtag favoritetia and congrats! He is adorable,” someone wrote.
“Love that she said Tia!” another said.
Duggar family fans know that Dillard and her husband, Derick Dillard, spent time as missionaries in Central America where they said they were learning Spanish. However, the couple came back to the U.S. before the birth of their second child, Samuel Scott Dillard, and have not mentioned going back.
In a post before their return, the couple wrote on the Dillard family blog, “We will only be here a little while longer, before we return to the States to prepare for the birth of our second little one, so please also continue to pray for God’s strength and grace to carry on with responsibilities and make the most of the short time left here before our return.” Fans may be frustrated with Jill’s use of Spanish because it appears as though the couple is back for good.
Joy-Anna (Duggar) and Austin Forsyth welcomed Gideon, their first child, on Feb. 23 and took to Instagram on Monday to share a slideshow of snaps of their son. In the photos, baby Gideon is cradled by his parents before appearing in a shot of his own making an adorably awkward face.
“We are so blessed by the arrival of our son, Gideon Martyn Forsyth!” the pair captioned the images. “He was born on 02/23/18 @ 3:39pm, weighing 10lbs. 3oz. and was 22 inches long!”
In a statement to PEOPLE, the couple gushed over their new arrival.
“We are blessed beyond measure with the arrival of our son, Gideon Martyn Forsyth,” they said. “Looking at our child for the first time was such an incredible moment! God is so good, and we are so thankful.”
