Bobbito"Kool Bob Love"
García
DJ, Author
There was no such thing as being "Latino" when I was a child. I didn't come to hear about that term until really the last 10 to 15 years, maybe. Besides, as a child I was growing up in New York, where the Latino community was not diverse. I mean, the predominant body of people were from Puerto Rico, and that's where my parents came from in the great migration of the 1950s. So I slowly met some Dominicanos, slowly met some Mexican immigrants in the '70s and '80s – at least in New York, I don't know in other parts of the world.
Even as we, as a people, continue to explore the term and try to define it ourselves, the beauty of it is that it is a word that came from within our community... I like the idea that the term "Latinos" has been one of "estamos unidos," and we're coming together. It's this slow process, but when I was coming up, the older generations of Boricuas in my family did not like Dominicanos. And that was horrible. Whereas me, I grew up and I'm playing ball with my Dominican brothers and I'm wearing DR hats in photo shoots. So those things [and] lines are slowly dissolving.
Christian
Farías
Reporter, Huffington Post
I wasn't raised with an awareness of my latinidad because back home [in Chile] you simply inhabit it. It's taken for granted.
For a young immigrant who faced a few struggles on the road to adulthood – including the deportation of a beloved family member – I got used to the idea early on that I would have to hustle extra hard to get things done. It was exhausting work with a lot of obstacles, but each hurdle and milestone put into clearer perspective what I wanted to do.
Today, I write about legal issues and the workings of the courts for a very broad audience, with the hope of demystifying how justice works or doesn't work in the United States. The law can be brutal – especially for the least powerful people. But with each thing you write, you hope someone will be inspired to get involved and help change it for the better.
Eileen
Rivera
Social Worker
I didn't even know I was Latina until we moved out of the Bronx, and I discovered that not everyone spoke Spanish, ate the same food I did or had been taught proper manners. That's when I learned what being called a "spic" felt like. It meant wearing a huge "Kiss me I'm Puerto Rican" button and having your aunt tell you that you're not. It meant having my grandmother defend me: "Déjala quieta, Flora."
Being Latina influenced the choices I made. I choose not to live where I can't find what I need to cook. I chose to have my kids educated in private schools so they wouldn't experience the discrimination I felt growing up. I chose to work with juveniles involved in the juvenile justice system because they are an underserved population. I chose not to assimilate; I felt that acculturation was a better path for me.
Hector
Zarate
Human Resources Analyst
Being Latino makes me feel like I am part of something bigger than myself. We are growing, we are moving somewhere together and we are also facing challenges together. We have a huge responsibility to educate our Latino children and to look out for each other's well-being. Being Latino means I am excited about the future.
Career-wise, the biggest challenge being Latino has brought is that not every workplace makes you feel comfortable enough to bring your culture to work. Therefore, I am aware that there is a lot of assimilation that is involved in getting and maintaining the jobs I want. However, not every person should and not every person can assimilate – that translates into loss of opportunity to our community. I have a Master of Arts in organizational psychology and a huge interest in making organizations safe for everyone.
Jimaye
Nguyen
Marketing
The household I grew up in followed mostly Vietnamese customs and traditions. I wish I could have had more exposure to the beautiful Latino culture and traditions.
I don't think many people can really tell [I'm part Mexican]. They can tell I am mixed but cannot really tell with what. Being Vietnamese had a lot larger impact on my life and career due to my parents pushing Vietnamese customs and ways of thinking on me.
John
Leguizamo
Actor
Being Latin means living in a duality with the abundance of two cultures, not just one. You're able to navigate two worlds, an English-speaking and a Spanish-speaking one. So you have twice as much to say and twice as much fun.
Growing up Latino meant that your parents had an accent and worked three times as hard as everybody else's parents, and you were supposed to be the great brown hope. It meant parties always ended with everyone moving the dining table and rolling up the carpet and dancing all night. It meant [at] dinners there was going to be a lot of talking and overtalking and no one got offended. It meant hot cooked meals, not cold cuts, for dinner. It meant everyone was invited to the house at all times. It was an open-door policy. It meant coming up with your own games and inventing your aristocratic lineage from your imagination. It meant you could always have something to watch on TV 'cause you'd either watch "All in the Family" or Iris Chacón on Univision. It meant you were going to be hugged and kissed too much at every family event from the aunt with the scary mole or the uncle who hugged you so hard he fixed your back. It meant there would be great evenings with uncles and aunts and cousins who were as good a storytellers [sic] as David Letterman and Conan O'Brien. It meant the same as every other kid in the world, except you had more family and less opportunity.
[In my career, because I'm Latino] I had less chances but more work than my white counterparts. I had less offers but constant work. But all the restrictions and limitations made me want to create my own work and I found a huge, loyal following that was starving to hear and see themselves reflected... aching to hear their own stories and their lives put on stage and represented. And the audience has fueled all my work and writing. And to them I owe my success.
Natalie
Vie
Fencer, Team USA
I grew up in Arizona, where being Latina was very politicized. I often heard negative connotations on the news, media and television related to being Hispanic, and racist laws that allowed for racial profiling (like SB 1070) were being enacted left and right. Politicians would often use inflammatory language targeting the Hispanic community and there was a tangible increase in racial tension. I witnessed our Latino community come together in protest and articulate why this legislation and this behavior were wrong. My amazing mother was one of the people who spearheaded an initiative to undo SB 1070, and I had a picture of myself in my fencing uniform and a "no to SB 1070" patch on my arm. I was denied a sponsorship because of my public political stance, but I felt that this only made me stronger. Being Latina meant standing strong and standing together.
As a fencer, people often think I must fight with anger when I compete, but it's actually the opposite. I fight with love. I love my family, my mom, my sister, my two brothers, my nephew. I love the community that I come from and my friends and the amazing people around me and this all motivates me to train hard, to compete and to fight with my heart. In many ways I've been fighting my whole life. Being Latina has taught me to fight in this beautiful way. Fighting not from hate but for love.
Nina
Garcia
Reality TV Judge, "Project Runway"
and Fashion Director, Marie Claire
Being Latino means that I have a different background that has given me a different perspective, with a different voice. Being Latino means that I was born in Colombia, that part of my family and friends still live in my hometown, Barranquilla, that my two children speak Spanish perfectly and that they feel at home when they travel with me to Colombia. Being Latino also means that I bring with me a cultural heritage that I try to explain to my kids as they grow older.
Being Latino always directed me to my roots. It transported me to Barranquilla, Colombia. [Antoine de] Saint-Exupery once said that our country is our childhood. So yes: My childhood is engraved with so many memories, from the sunsets against the Atlantic Ocean to the first time I read a book by [Gabriel] García Márquez to the magic of Cartagena.
Having a Latino background has given me a unique perspective in a world that sometimes can be seen as very homogenous.
Sarah
Cruz
Media Planner, Universal McCann
I feel like my Latino identity has also been shaped by my Filipino heritage, in that Spanish culture and traditions are deeply ingrained into my upbringing. I was very disciplined, on one hand because of my very strict Filipino mother who demanded that my brothers and I work hard, get good grades and respect our elders. On the other, my Puerto Rican grandma, who had seen too many from our immediate family end up with babies too young or in jail, demanded the same in the hopes that we'd break the cycle that plagues inner-city minorities. I didn't realize it then, that these nuances made all the difference for me as I became an adult, and I wouldn't change it for anything.
Sonia
Manzano
Actress, "Sesame Street"
When I was a kid I didn't see any Latinas on television — not just television but in magazines, in books, in anything. The only people in the media that were Latin were in movies from Mexico — I would see Sarita Montiel and María Félix. There were no Latin people who existed in the world that I grew up in, and I wondered how I was going to contribute to a society that didn't see me. I was invisible. And I hated the way I looked, I hated being Latin, I hated the bad press that we had when I was a teenager; not only do you hate the fact that your feet are big and you're getting pimples, you also hate the fact that your hair is so curly.
In the United States, being Latina means being bicultural sometimes, because you have to sort of walk the tightrope of being Latin in this environment. It's influenced every moment in my career. You can't separate being Latina from your career. Because I am Latina is why I got on "Sesame Street" and why they needed someone to be a representational person for the children watching it. I have my career because I'm Latina.
Victor
Cruz
Actor and Filmaker
Being Latino has influenced my work as a writer and director. As an actor, sometimes the work can be limited, so what are you going to do? I decided to create roles and begin executing projects myself. Creating opportunities for other LATINO actors.
Latinos Break The Mold
Game
Changers
Gina
Rodriguez
Golden Globe-Winning Actress,
"Jane the Virgin"
It's very interesting, because when I was growing up, I didn't see myself as anything different. I was born in Chicago, and for me, being Latina was not even a thought: It was ingrained in my soul, it was ingrained in the color skin that I carry around with me, ingrained in the fact that my grandmother spoke to me in Spanish and I responded in English. There was not a second thought as to why we ate arroz con gandules and somebody else ate pasta or they had curry or they had whatever it was that was significant to their culture. I was no different, and I still am not. The exception is that I have this added bonus of this beautiful culture that I get to wear on my brown skin every day, and I love it.
Being Latina has shaped my career because I have a culture I get to speak about [and] I get to be proud about... I get to educate others about what my culture and my community have endured and our history, to have pride in who we are, in our music, in our food. And so it allows me to [add] one more conversation about what makes me me.