Cabello wrote the album during the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2021 with producers such as Mike Sabath, Ricky Reed, Edgar Barrera, and Cheche Alara.

The album was inspired by the "manifest collective joy" Cabello felt with her family during the pandemic and is about connecting with the singer's Latin American roots.

Drawing from my childhood.During a YouTube series Released the singer revealed that a track, titled "Celia", features vocals from her cousin, Caro.

[6] During an exclusive interview with Enrique Santos, Camila teased a track called "Lola" that features Cuban singer Yotuel.

[7] During a July 2021 interview with Los 40, the singer revealed there are songs on this record "that are only in Spanish and that have a completely different sound" than her previous work.

It was influenced by the "manifest collective joy" she felt during the COVID-19 pandemic, stemming from the "similar experiences of connecting" she has with her family.

They travelled to Los Angeles, where they met Mike Sabath and Ricky Reed, both who ended up producing the album with Cheche Alara.

[6] The making of the album has been referenced by Cabello as "definitely the most honest and unfiltered that I've been", presenting the singer's experiences in the past years that she "hasn't really experienced or said any of these things before".

"Celia", the second track, is sung in Spanish, and features Cabello's cousin on background vocals and a dusky, minor-key groove.

[18][19] The song is about a boy falling in love with both a Cuban girl and her Latin culture, and it's titled after Cuban-American singer Celia Cruz.

In "Boys Don't Cry", a slow R&B ballad, Cabello comforts her lover while helping him reconcile with his own masculinity.

[citation needed] "Hasta los Dientes" ("Even the Teeth"), the eighth track, is a nu-disco and reggaeton-disco song that features María Becerra and focuses on an all-consuming, obsessive love.

[25][26][27] The song is accompanied by a Latin influenced production consisting of strings, maracas, drums, trumpets, flamenco guitar and handclapping overlapping as beats.

[22] While celebrating her 25th birthday on March 3, 2022, Cabello confirmed that the album would be released on April 8, and posted its cover artwork on the same day.

[32] She appeared on the magazine cover of Bustle in August 2021 and talked about the album,[33] and embraced the Mexico version of Vogue in March 2022 as well.

[35] On March 11, the singer posted handwritten notes and photos fashioned in a scrapbook-style booklet from the journal that is included on the deluxe version of Familia.

[37] The cover artwork of Familia depicts barefoot Cabello against a room with green door, while wearing a sequined black dress with a multicolored ruffled skirt and hugging a smiling young girl in her arms.

[50] "Hasta los Dientes" featuring Maria Becerra was teased prior to Familia's release on TikTok.

[54] On September 7, 2021, Cabello performed the song on BBC Radio One in the Live Lounge, accompanied with Cheche Alara playing the accordion.

[65] The online performance was described as an "immersive and inventive music experience" and utilized XR, which helped create a virtual world for each song to "complement the event's choreography, changing sets and costumes".

[19] In a similar review, Rolling Stone critic Tomás Mier wrote that the album is "an imperfect yet revealing mosaic of Cabello's Cuban-Mexican heritage".

While noting the multiple changes in style as quite disorienting, Mier complimented the album's raw and honest lyrics, comparing it to reading Cabello's diary.

[22] In a review for The Guardian, Alim Kheraj praised the album's vibrant Latin motifs—"honest and humming with artistic intent"—and noted the recurring theme of "self-sabotage and paranoia".

[72] Clash Magazine reviewed positively, saying "Familia is Cabello revitalised, marking a shift in sound much closer to home.

This album truly feels like a love letter to Cabello's Cuban roots, luxuriating in the vibrancy of Latin pop and allowing it's bright, joyous flow to melt away the heartbreak.

"[77] Writing for Pitchfork, Olivia Horn commended Cabello for embarking on a "more immersive exploration of her musical heritage" on Familia and "abandoning the revolving-door approach" of her two previous albums in favor of working with a smaller group of "Latin pop veterans".

On Cabello's vocals Horn wrote that "even when she's mad, Camila sounds like she's having fun", producing an album that "swings big and often hits".

At times, the stylistic shifts can give the record a bit of a mod-podge feel, but the artist holds it together by keeping us engaged with her story".