Your Stories!

6/25/2013

Everybody has a story and we want to hear yours. How did you come to affirm your Afro-Latin@ identity? What has been the most difficult aspect of this process? How do you relate to others of the African diaspora?

Leave your story by posting on this blog, where we are keeping track of AfroLatin@ Stories. To post click on the comments or on the title of this blog. If you want to tell us your story but do not want to post it on this blog, feel free to go to our Contact Us page and leave it in a comment. You can also email your story to stories@afrolatinoforum.org. We look forward to hearing your story!

6 Comments

Richard Lopez

8/13/2014 01:40:50 am

I am a retired educator, mental health therapist and law enforcement professional. My mother is African American and father Puerto Rican. My general appearance is that of a dark skinned person with strong African features. As a former professional who often spoke in public forums, my surname Lopez would often be preceded by someone who thought I was a light skinned Hispanic before my actual appearance. When I appeared in person people would often have this look of surprise and make general comments that they thought I was Hispanic because of my name Or they might say without invitation, how did I get the name Lopez. If I was in a certain mood during one of those many moments, I would simply explain what my racial background consisted of or otherwise make comical statements. Nonetheless, at the age of 65 I have grown somewhat tired of the constant need for explanation of my appearance versus the misunderstanding of my racial identity. It brings me comfort knowing that there are a large segment of afro Latino Americans, whom I can share those experiences with and help further support this cultural initiative in positive and uplifting ways.

A. Diaz

1/26/2015 02:13:24 am

Hi all. I now consider myself AfroLatina but didn't before. My mother is African American & my father is Cuban. Growing up my father insisted we speak English although Spanish was spoken in the house. When my parents divorced when I was 12 I didn't realize how it would impact my identity. As I started trying to find out who I was as a preteen I found myself in a world of confusion. My AA friends wanted to know why I spoke Spanish & my Latino friends also. When I tried explaining it to my AA friends they said that I was pretending to be something I wasn't. I heard also things like you're not one of us. From the Puerto Ricans they were also confused with why I spoke Spanish. As I got older I just identified as African American because it was easier. What made me change my thinking about the whole identifying as Afrolatina was my father. He told me that my abuelo came from Cuba to Florida & denied who was to fit in. He even went so far as to change his name. I thank my father for telling the internal struggles that my abuelo went through with me. I now embrace all that I am the ( AA & Latino) cultures. I have the best of both worlds. I get to enjoy everything from Picadill to fried chicken. Lol. I speak Spanish to my children because I want them to know who they are & be proud of their culture & heritage. I will never deny who I am for anyone anymore.

Tony Mungo

12/29/2015 01:08:15 pm

I am a college student in NC double majoring in Sociology and Political Science. I want to say this post is awesome and trans-formative to me because my paternal grandmother dad is of Panamanian, Costa Rican, Jamaican, Indigenous, Barbadian and Virgin Islander ancestry. Growing up as an Afro-Latino in the Southern United Sates was difficult for me because of the lack of resources and support available to help those that identify as both black and hispanic. I am glad now that I can fully able to embrace my Black American, Afro-Latino and Afro-Caribbean background that flows in my veins fully without denying parts of my heritage to make people happy. Muchos gracias por este recurso increidible y apoyo. Me siento orgulloso de ser un afro-latino.

Yocasta Novas link

2/26/2016 08:50:34 am

Part 3 of the series on What It Means to Be Afro-Latino written by a Latina struggling with this Identity

Check out Parts 1 and 2 here: https://theodysseyonline.com/author/yocastanovas

Thank you and don't forget to share

Jacqueline Alicia Finch

2/27/2017 01:52:25 pm

Buenas Tardes a todos! Muy alegre de tener un lugar donde expresar algunas palabras.
I was born in NY with both parents descending from the Dominican Republic. Our quilt history is quite dynamic. My father's family are deep rooted in more than 3 generations of Natives. However, my maternal side is quite an adventure. My great grandmother (maternal) is from Tortola and great grandfather is from Antigua, whose father is from England. In addition, my mother's paternal grandfather was born in Haiti and his wife was from Dominca (not DR). Who knows what else can be discovered through history. In saying all this, I bring you to an all-girls high school where I was ranking 2nd, President of my class, top Athlete as the Volleyball Captain, Editor of the yearbook, and the list goes on. One day, I was about to walk into my homeroom and overheard two classmates converse, "Who does she think she is?" "Yeah, is she Black or is she Dominican?" As simple as these questions are, they destroyed my life at that time. I had NEVER thought I was anything other than a happy, creative, smart young tomboy. For the first time in my life, someone had burst my happy bubble and there was no patch for it. It turned out to be an Irish and Puerto Rican classmate who were confused about me and I had just emotionally joined them in the wrong boat. I became very depressed, not doing my work, not attending some classes, going home right after school. I literally disappeared from my circle of friend's lives, including my own. My teacher's noticed and one shook me and told me to press forward and I am beautiful and I am smart, and "blah, blah, blah" is all I heard because I didn't believe it myself. I have since been LOST so to speak, not making decisions about important aspects of my life career and school wise equally. I still hurt from it because I allowed those words to pierce a delicate part of me and have not recovered from it. As a young woman, I was distanced from the Blacks "in the hood" because I did not use the dialects, slang, and curses they would employ. My hips were wider and although I have "bad hair", I still didn't fit because my ghetto was not ghetto enough. I was ostracized from Hispanic men because I was taller than the average dancer so I ended up watching more than dancing. At the end of the parties, one brave Southern American, who had a few too many, would approach me. I would respectfully decline to receive bashing in exchange. "You are really tall (I'm 5'8") for a girl. Are you Black?" "You are really tall, are you Panamanian?" "You are too Black to be Dominican..." I was not short enough for my own male Dominicans. My Hispanic sisters did no better, talking Spanish in my face about me while they tugged on my hair. When they were done with the rollers and the fancy style I'd say, "Muchas gracias por dejar mi pelo mas bello de lo que estaba. Que tengan muy buenos dias." The look on their faces when they were so embarrassed was priceless. I was constantly told throughout my upbringing, "How can you be Dominican and Black?" I would say black is a race and DR is a culture. It's that simple! "How can you speak Spanish and you are black?" I would say, ANYONE from any country can learn a language, it's called going to school. But for your edification, both my parents were born in DR and I grew up on a sugarcane plantation, suburbs, and the city. I became defensive at times. In 2017, a male Latino in a Domincan vodega overheard me speak Spanish. He said, "I didn't know you spoke Spanish!" I said, "How would you know unless you heard me speak? By the way, you don't even know me and furthermore, people go to school and can learn any language they want regardless of their color. And even more, you can pick up anything on you tube these days. But by the way, it is my first language. You know what, what if I called you Mexican because of who you appear to be and it turned out you were from another Southern American country? It would surely bother you, right?" He put his head down, others in the store were so silent, and then we all heard the radio station, "Demos gracias a Dios..." That calmed me down, I smiled and left.
In conclusion, this is my life, I seldom explain my identity to anyone, not because I don't know if I am AfroHispanic, AfroLatin, AfroSpanish, AfroCaribbean, etc. I know that I am Jackie, I love to dance, cook, engage people, help, volunteer, fall in love, share theories of the world, donate, and care for my family. That counts for identity in my book...a woman...a human...love.

Olivia Mayorga-Overtone

8/17/2017 04:36:40 pm

Hello :)
My name is Olivia and my biological mother is from Nicaragua and my biological father is from Puerto Rico. My background is a little different because I was adopted as a baby by a white and black couple. I didn't grow up speaking Spanish, I'm brown - not tan - with curly hair, and I've always had trouble being able to identify with any culture. I've never been "black enough" to be black and I've never been "latina enough" to be latina. It's been kind of tough growing up with so many people questioning my heritage and questioning my culture. It's especially been difficult growing up without having any representation. I'm so happy that Afro-Latinas are coming up and out in the entertainment business right now. It helps me to feel like I'm not so alone. I was doing some digging on the internet and was able to find this wonderful blog and website. I thought I'd at least give a small excerpt of myself. It's nice to have a place where I can identify. Thanks for reading :)

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