There are a lot of struggles that minorities go through and for people of color, it’s even more difficult because they get often get overlooked because of the color of their skin. Afro-Latinos are the undercover Black people with beautiful curly locks and brown skin that often get mistaken for African-American until they start speaking in Spanish. Even in Hollywood, Afro-Latinos struggle with identifying as Black or Latino and many challenge directors and people in the industry because just like other Black people they face the challenges of being discriminated because of the color of their skin and not quite fitting the mold.
These are some of their stories, and some that many non-famous Afro-Latinos also face:
is Cuban. Afro-Cuban. My dad is
white and Australian. And I think
because of my job, often a
question like ‘How do you identify?’
is really not about the question. It’s
always ‘What side are you on?’ What
perspective do you bring?'”
-Soledad O’Brien
“A lot of people don’t realize that I’m
Latina, which is fine…I don’t
expect people to know my
cultural background just
by glancing at me. I do,
however, expect that
when I tell people my
family is from Puerto
Rico, that I will be
believed and not
accused of trying
to be something that
I am not.”
-La La Anthony
“She speaks Spanish
but she doesn’t look Latina.’
“‘Oh, she’s exotic.’ They would
say to my agent, ‘So, your
client, you know, the
Latina who looks Black
but speaks Spanish…’I was like,
‘Wait a minute'”
-Selenis Leyva
“I’m a black woman. I am.
Culturally, I would say
African-American culture
is different. I would say I’m
more Afro-Caribbean.
I’m not going to choose.
I’m both.”
-Tatyana Ali
“I’m Cuban, but [people]
didn’t get it because I
was also brown-skinned,
and you usually see a fair-
skinned Latino. Are you
black or white? I didn’t feel
like I had to make a choice.”
-Christina Milian
“I would get really positive
reaction at auditions for
both African-American
and Latino parts. But, I
didn’t look Latino enough
because of the curly hair,
and the freckles, and the
nose and all that stuff.”
-Judy Reyes
“I couldn’t get an audition as a Latina.
People didn’t know what that was, they
just said, ‘Well our vision of a Latina
looks more Mexican, or Central American,
or Spanish.’ And that was an interesting
journey to take and something
that I had to struggle with initially.”
-Lauren Vélez