Esa negrita que va caminando,
Esa negrita tiene su tumbao,
Y cuando la gente la va mirando,
Ella baila de lao, tambien apretao, apretao, apretao,
Celia Cruz | La Negra Tiene Tumbao
Okay fine, I’ll admit it. I didn’t know who Celia Cruz was until I started dating my Afro-Latina girlfriend 4 years ago. I mean...I knew Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Shakira, and I knew Selena! (I mean we could count Selena Gomez, too, pero…) When I used to think of a Latina, these were the men and women I was used to picturing. I remember being slightly dumbfounded that my Panamanian friend in middle school (who was just a tiny bit more light-skinned than me) spoke fluent Spanish with all of our Mexican classmates. But...how could one be Hispanic/Latina(o) and...dare I say it… be BLACK!?
Growing up in places like Texas and New Mexico, my view of the Latin American world was a bit small. I had plenty of Mexican friends and a few choice friends with mixed Mexican, Panamanian, or Costa Rican ancestry. Yet, some things used to really bother me.
At one of my second high schools, I was the only person with African American ancestry and my mother was the only teacher with the same ancestry (Yes, there was school on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and I’ll always regret having to go). One spring day, the principal was conducting a sort of census on the demographics of each student and their ethnic background. Naturally, most of my classmates proclaimed their ethnic backgrounds with loud chants of “¡Viva Mexico!” but there was one student she eyed, in particular.
We’ll call him Rafael. Rafael was close to my complexion, but he didn’t share as many of my features. His hair was curly, but a bit spiky. He didn’t have my bigger nose or lips (I’m proud of both in case there was any doubt). He also didn’t share in my culture or even understand much of it...yet he had some of my features.
“Rafael, would you like for me to go ahead and bubble in African American for you?” our principal asked, absent-mindedly.
“Whoa! No way! You can’t do that!” I couldn’t stop myself. It was extremely obvious to me, but apparently not to anyone else. I couldn’t even find the words to explain it all yet. “I’m the only African American in this school! He’s Mexican and Costa Rican!”
“Ah, but Phillip, that’s impossible,” my principal said dismissively. “Rafael’s skin is almost as dark as yours!” She proceeded to bubble in his circle as African American. I was floored. Rafael could do nothing but shrug and walk away. He was used to being the “Black” Latino and that always meant never having a voice amongst his fairer-skinned Latino community.
I was scratching my head, though. I obviously knew he didn’t share in my culture, but I just couldn’t articulate it all. Some years later, I had my chance.
----
Earlier this month, my girlfriend Natalia sent me a really exciting text: “Spotify put Celia Cruz on the Black History Celebration of Culture! Yes!!!! My queen!!! PHILLIP! This is my SONG. And to see it celebrated here! Wow! Just wooooww! LOOK AT THIS!!!! YES SPOTIFY. YES. I am so emotional about this. I FEEL SEEN!”
Natalia was extremely excited because she finally felt seen, but I’m sure there were many who were confused. Celia Cruz? Her music isn’t even in English. Why would Spotify put a Latina like her in February? Doesn’t she belong in Latin American/Hispanic Heritage Month between September and October?
Who belongs?
As Natalia has said a few times on her own blog, she lives a bit of an in-between life. Not “Black” enough for African Americans and not “Latina” enough for her more European-featured Latin American community. Yet, as America celebrates heroes like Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King, Spotify chose to also acknowledge Latin Americans with African roots: Celia Cruz.
Celia Cruz: Queen of Salsa, an Afro-Cuban
“Feeling like I’m actually a part of something, especially now, is healing for me. And seeing her (Celia Cruz) RECOGNIZED on a platform as a BLACK LATINA!! I’m actually crying right now!”
Natalia belongs to a growing community of people called “Third Culture Kids” (TCKs). What are those? TCKs are simply children who grew up in places that are not their parents’ homeland. In my girlfriend’s case, her mother is Puerto Rican and her father is Dominican. Growing up in Massachusetts, Natalia grew up around people who could easily tell by her Spanish dialect that she was Puerto Rican, but when she arrived in the South, she was forced to think differently.
Rosario Dawson
Living in the South, I like to say that most people can only identify three things about different cultures. Are they White, Black, or Mexican? It’s as if many people have not heard of various Latin American and Caribbean countries, so they assume that Mexicans are the only Spanish speakers. What happens, however, when you have a mixture of different cultures? Natalia’s roots are from enslaved Africans...who were brought to her island by European Spaniards and Portuguese...who then intermingled with the natives. You can imagine how exhausting it is to explain this point every single time.
Zoë Saldana
When I was a student leader on my campus, some Latin American students had a hard time understanding why I decided to use strange names they’d never heard of to describe them and their culture. I’ll drop two big ones: Afro-Latino/a and Latinx. (I’ll save Latinx for another conversation).
Who’s Afro-Latina? There’s Rosario Dawson, Zoë Saldana, and perhaps “less obvious”...Mariah Carey (her father was Afro-Venezuelan and African American). Point is, Afro-Latinos come equipped with an assortment of different features, but the majority percentage of their heritage is from African roots.
In 2017, my girlfriend decided to see what her roots looked like--her hair. I’ll let her tell her own story, but there’s a few moments that really bothered me after her big chop.
Mariah Carey
“You know, I would have loved to shoot with you if you would’ve just kept your hair,” said one of our photographer friends.
I was irate, but Natalia had to learn to push through these kinds of comments.
“Hello there, fellas,” said a portly old gentleman as we waited to be seated at the neighborhood Cracker Barrel. “Oh! I’m so sorry--you’re a GIRL!” The man muttered and stumbled out of our way. I held Natalia’s hand tightly. I knew that one stung.
It’s up to all of us to be inclusive on an individual level. In the case of my Latin Americans with majority-Black roots, I want to invite you to take part in Black History Month, too. You may feel like you’re awkwardly stumbling around as you interact with African Americans who feel that you don’t belong or maybe you might feel ostracized by your family who only wants you to identify with being your nationality (Puerto Rican, Dominican, Brazilian, etc.). I want to encourage you to join in the celebration of our ancestors, together. Let your hair grow out and show off those curls (it’s perfectly okay if you’d like to wear your hair straight too, though...don’t feel like we think you have “colonized mentality” if you do)!
“But Phil, why does everyone have to be ‘Afro-this’ and ‘Afro-that?’ Soy Dominicano!”
More power to you! Celebrate your island and where you’re from. Such things are important. At the end of the day, these are all just social constructs and while one might feel that these confines are designed to separate people, I like to look at it another way. In the prefixes we might use, we are acknowledging our shared culture and history. In a country where it is often preferred that you forget where you come from and proclaim your American-ness, I feel it’s a lot of fun to talk about our past. Because who/what makes someone American, anyway?
Is your brain destroyed yet? It can be a little exhausting to understand what appear to be random terms, but just think--you may be acknowledging a specific aspect of someone’s culture and helping them feel seen! At the end of the day, however, it’s important to note that these are just social constructs. I didn’t make these up and neither did you, but if they help us love and understand each other just a little better, why not?
When I was in college, I had a chance to meet Laiza Fuhrmann. At first glance, you may stumble trying to identify her roots. Go on, give it a go!
Laiza Fuhrmann
“Black History Month is a celebration of all the accomplishments of Black people and the abundance and variety of Black culture. I am Afro-Brazilian and have never truly been able to claim it until recently. Growing up, being Black was not something that was accepted or even claimed. There was and still is a lot of ingrained prejudice and denial in AfroLatinidad. It’s a beautiful thing to see an uprise of self-acceptance in the Afro-Latinx world.”
There you have it. Laiza is Afro-Brazilian and has had her own struggle in straddling the line. In her community, you didn’t hear, “Say it loud! I’m Black and I’m proud!” Today, that’s not the case. Instead of demonizing each other for who is Black or Latina enough, can we accept those who are a beautiful mixture of both and everything in-between?
“Personally, Black History Month is a celebration of acceptance and recognition of my own privilege. Unfortunately, colorism is still a thing and still affects many. Mixed and AfroLatinx individuals do have many struggles of their own, however it is important to understand that it also comes with a certain amount of privilege. For example, I didn’t and don’t have to go through many of the things that my family and friends unfortunately dealt with and still deal with, merely because of the color of their skin. Therefore, it is important for me and others to be strong allies for those who don’t have the same privileges.”
Celebrating Afro-Latinas is very important for me to recognize as an African American man who wants to marry an Afro-Latina. Our child will have very unique features and their hair pattern will be something to behold and wonder! Our child will be bilingual, speaking English and Spanish. Telling my girlfriend that she can only celebrate her heritage in September and October defeats the purpose of acknowledging her heritage. As someone with obvious mixed heritage, Natalia has a right to enjoy, remember, and acknowledge her background and that includes February, too.
She’ll always be the right mixture of everything for me.
La negra mia tiene tumbao.
