(upbeat salsa music)
- Stop! What you heard about Afro-Latinidad
may be wrong.
It is very controversial,
it gets people going,
it gets people arguing on the internet,
but you must be informed and understand that
not only are we here,
we are valid,
we are valuable,
and we have something to say.
And yes, we exist.
(upbeat salsa music)
I'm Puerto Rican,
I was raised by a Cuban stepfather,
- I'm Panamanian-Colombian,
on my mom, and my dad is Iranian.
- I was born in Maryland but my parents
are from Dominican Republic.
- I was born in New York City,
my parents are Puerto Rican.
- I'm from Los Angeles, California,
my dad is Mexican-American and my mom is African-American.
- Oddly enough, white people and Latinos
have the same reaction sometimes when you say,
like Afro-Latin, like, no you're Latin,
what are you talking about?
- A lotta times it's not necessarily positive or negative,
it's just like being forced to, like, pick a side.
- I get a lot of me being forced to denounce
that I'm Latino.
- It's the worst being told by Latinos
that you're not black,
you're Latino and then by black people,
like, you're not black, or you are black.
- Or you're Latina, which means you're not black,
'cause some people don't know the difference
between ethnicity and race.
And then the people who you are supposed to be a part of,
categorizing you according to your blackness.
- I'm telling you the debates I have had with people
about me saying black.
- It's just, it's kind of confusing for your own,
like, identity.
- That just puts you in a place where you start
breeding resentment if you don't know who you are
and you start feeling left out and feeling alone 'cause
there's no group for you.
- It's hard to find a place where you feel right,
or you feel like you belong you're not forcing your way
without imposing on someone else's culture.
- So no I'm not African-American,
and I respect that because the African- American
journey is a valid journey,
but that doesn't dispute that I too am a descendant
of a slave and I come from the continent of Africa,
and that does not invalidate my connection
to my Afro-Latinidad.
- The idea that we were a melting pot,
the philosophy of like,
us being a melting pot and us just being brown,
it was beautiful in the sense
of, like, we all were coming together,
but it took away a lot of, like, our blackness,
and our Indigenous roots 'cause we just focused of course
on what we knew,
and it was what was given to us by the Spanish;
by the people who conquered us.
- My family always preferred to identify
as more European,
well not necessarily my parents,
but my grandparents,
they grew up in a time where being black
was really negative and there were real serious
repercussions for being black in society,
and moving in the world as a black person.
They definitely handed down that negative ideology of like,
no you're not black,
you're Spanish,
or you're mixed with European.
And definitely wanted to elevate the European aspect
of our bloodline.
- My Dominican side,
you hear a lot of Dominicans saying
'oh I'm not black, I'm Dominican.'
You can be Dominican and be black,
and it's okay 'cause there's nothing wrong with being black.
- It's so beautiful,
black people are the most proud,
they pioneer their own culture,
their own subculture,
their own, like, way of saying this and that,
going about it and feeling beautiful for themselves
because they're not getting it from the environment
we are in, in America.
- I love being Afro-Latino.
I feel like we have the best of both worlds.
- Where do I start?
And where do I finish?
- I can enjoy,
I can identify my Africanness and be very proud of it.
- You're just,
you have a little extra je ne sais quoi,
you know what I mean?
You have a little extra something.
- You know we got the rhythm,
- I love salsa,
I know where it comes from,
it comes from the motherland,
- We got the good food,
from everywhere,
we got some nice melanin poppin',
- This melanin in my skin is,
when I get some sun on it,
it's lookin' like really poppin',
- Knowing and learning about my heritage,
and learning about what my true religion was,
and learning about where I come from,
and the music that I listen to,
and the food that I eat is something that is real,
and it made me a full person;
a whole person.
I can be Afro-Latino,
I can have my Africanness and be proud of it,
be proud of my Latin heritage,
and be proud of my Indigenous heritage,
which all combined make me who I am.
Learn really, really, really, who you are,
you will walk around in the strength and in the power
in knowing that that blood that runs through you
is a beautiful blood that you should
be proud of and feel empowered.
(upbeat salsa music)