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In the film, set in Mexico City in the 1970s, the actors speak Mexican Spanish and the indigenous Mixtec language. For that Spanish, Netflix added subtitles in Castilian, Spain’s main dialect, for the release in that country. On Wednesday, Netflix removed those Castilian subtitles after Cuarón told El País, a Spanish newspaper, that they were “parochial, ignorant and offensive to Spaniards themselves.”

…

“It’s like if you have an American film showing in the U.K. and the character says he’s going to the washroom, but the subtitles say he’s going to the loo,” [Jordi] Soler [Mexican author living in Barcelona] said in a telephone interview. “It’s ridiculous. They’re treating the people of Spain like they’re idiots.”

(Alex Marshall, “Mama to Madre? ‘Roma’ Subtitles in Spain Anger Alfonso Cuaron,” NYTimes, 1-12-19)

(c) 2019 JMN.