Thought
Leaders
Anthony
Mendez
Emmy-Nominated Voice Actor,
Jane the Virgin
Being Latino, to me, means being American in the way that I grew up. It means growing up in Washington Heights. It means having friends of all different races and colors. Enjoying American and Dominican food, for example. So that's what being Latino means. It's just being another individual.
It's so funny, because I don't think growing up we used "Latino" as much. I was growing up in a heavily Dominican neighborhood, so we were always "Dominican," even though we were born here. When I moved to Jersey, it was mostly
an African-American community. They used the word "Spanish," even though that's technically for Spaniards. So the word "Latino" wasn't really introduced until I started doing the voice-overs for a show called "American Latino," and that's when I started using and hearing the term "Latino" to describe basically an all-encompassing Hispanic culture.
I think it's important for people not to see it as one homogenized culture or even a race, which it's not. I think it's important for people when they meet somebody – especially if you're coming from a side where you've never had any Latino friends or didn't grow up with Latino cultures – to just open yourself up to what that person has to offer.
Dascha
Polanko
Actress, "Orange is the New Black"
Being Latino to me means a fusion of different origins; uniting different cultures, races, ethnicities into one great race. It's like the perfect combination.
I grew up around blacks, predominantly, so I wasn't thinking of being Latino -- I was just Dominican. I never distinguished race because I came from a country where you see black and you see people with light eyes and you see mestizos. So race didn't come to mind until I moved to Miami. That's when I realized how segregated Miami was and how blacks are blacks, whites are whites, Spanish are Spanish... I never knew that, I never grew up seeing labels.
I think one of the things that I've learned – and luckily I came from a household where that was an emphasis – is that my roots are African, Taíno and European. So that wasn't important. What was important was how I interacted with other beings regardless of where they were from. And not being able to see that in entertainment, to see just diversity in entertainment, was something that growing up made me aware of my physical appearance and made me either feel more insecure or question why I was so different, as opposed to saying: "I'm unique and I'm powerful. And I can obtain as much as I set my mind to."
Denise
Bidot
Actress, "Orange is the New Black"
I grew up in Miami, so being Latino was totally just normal. I remember I used to have to fight to not be called a Cuban or anything else. I'd be like "No, I'm from Puerto Rico," and I'd be super Americanized about it: "Puerto Rico is part of the United States!" I'd try to school everyone on my island's history. But I was just always so proud of it. I felt it was what I related to, it was what I felt in my blood, from the music to the way I looked to the food I ate. It's what made me feel comfortable and happy.
Growing up in a Latina household, it was very easy to love your curves and love your body. Although my mother struggled a lot with her weight, I felt like the quintessential Spanish girl. [Her body image struggles] helped me know that beauty wasn't based on size and that I didn't want to struggle in that sense because I felt perfect just the way I was.
But I also think I come from a household of really powerful Latina woman – my aunt is a doctor who owns her own business, my cousin just finished med school – I come from empowering women who always supported each other and believed in each other and what we could accomplish. And so I was always fearless and knew I could do anything.
Flavia
Casas
Producer, HuffPsot Live
Growing up, being Latino meant just being. I didn't think about it because I didn't really know another way of life. I didn't speak English until I started school and even then, my American hometown (San Diego) was at least 40 percent Hispanic – so being Latino just meant waking up and living my life. It wasn't until I entered high school and especially college (where the Hispanic population fell to below 20 percent) that I actually realized what it meant to be Latino, that it was different from being anything else.
Being Latina has made me realize how skewed the world's perception is of our community and other communities like us. It's made me rail harder against stereotypes and systems of discrimination. And most of all, it's defined my focus and purpose in both my personal and professional career.
Francina
Morel
Social Media Editor
I think there's always a misconception about who Latinos are and what they are like, and I feel the need to debunk their perceptions. For example, I don't look like the women people typically see in telenovelas, so people don't automatically think I'm Latina upon meeting me unless they are Latino themselves. And I don't often have an accent that is obvious enough, so in some ways I can be racially "ambiguous" for some people.
My Latina identity is in my blood, it's a part of my spirit and soul. My parents are from an island of happy and energetic people and I've always carried that with me. Whether I'm with fellow Latinos or with people of other cultures, I never deny or denounce that Latina is who I am because it just is.
Francis
Hernandez
Test Engineer, Huffington Post
Being Latino means rice, beans and chuletas... Obvious joke aside, it simply means not being the stereotype of what Latinos are made to be, or the "minority" we somehow are... in political talk.
Identifying as Latino has made me aware of where we stand and where we should stand in the world, through various lenses – the economic, social, political, etc. It has made me aware of how politics play within the Latino community and other communities. Who knew it takes understanding of one culture to begin to understand another.
Gabi
Rivera-Morales
Blog Editor, Huffington Post
After moving to the U.S. at the age of 2 [from Puerto Rico], there was constant pressure for me to assimilate to American culture. There was a lot of shame every time someone struggled to pronounce my name in school or made fun of my parents' accents at a restaurant. As I grew older, I could finally understand the nuanced ways that "othering" keeps minority communities oppressed, and it really made me cling to my identity as a Latina woman more fervently and celebrate it.
People constantly try to discount my heritage because I'm a light-skinned Latina woman. They don't seem comfortable with accepting the nuance that comes with different Latino identities, particularly when Latinos don't conform to their stereotypes or preconceived notions. My adult life has been a lot about finding a way to reconcile my own privilege with my strong alliance to being a Latina woman.
Gloria
Malone
Writer and Speaker
Leilani: Being Latina means you can be awesome. You are a part of something other people are not. Latinos have their own unique culture.
Gloria: My identity has shaped me very much because of the discrimination I received from fellow latinxs who refused to view me as a latinx too. I felt like I had to choose between being black or Latina. When I realized I didn't have to and that my identity wasn't the problem – xenophobia and anti-black racism was – I felt more free. I felt like I no longer had to try "to prove" I was Latina.
I bring my Afro-Latina identity into every organizing, speaking, writing, personal and professional space I enter. It's difficult at times but I do it for my Afro-Latino brothers and sisters and myself. Afro latinxs will not be erased on my watch.
Latinos Break The Mold
Thought
Leaders
Leilani
Age 9
Hoiyan
Leung
Student, New York University
Being Puerto Rican feels natural because I was born there, I was raised there. Even though I might not look Puerto Rican... If you had to ask me, I'd call myself a Chinese-Puerto Rican, because both cultures have shaped me equally. I've learned to look at culture and race in a more fluid light. You don't have to be one or the other.
Being Latino is not only an ethnicity. It's more than that. It's a way of life. And you don't need to have Latino blood in you to call yourself Latino. For me it's how you feel, like if you feel Latino because you've been in that culture for that long and you share similar values, similar customs and just a similar way of life -- I think that you don't need anyone else to validate your Latino- or Latina-ness.
Janel
Martinez
Journalist and Social Media Strategist
I'm Honduran-American. But that identity wasn't always recognized outside of my home. I was black to many who encountered me. That's true, but I'm a black Latina. Even now, many can't wrap their heads around it, so imagine trying to explain that to your peers in elementary school.
My parents have always made it a point to make sure we knew where we came from. As I've grown up, it's become my job to remain connected and, truthfully, define what that means for myself. My Latina identity, my Afro-Latina identity, is very important to my life and my career.
J.W.
Cortes
Actor, "Gotham", Singer and Activist
I would say that as an actor I've had my share of questions as to why we (actors who identify as Latino) continue to play certain roles and why some roles will probably never be played by us.
Take me, for example: I am a Latino actor playing a DC Comics character who is also Latino (Detective Carlos Alvarez) on a major network series. But will I ever be afforded an opportunity to play THE superhero? The ones that my children rush to see on movie theater screens?
The other end of that spectrum is that there is a tremendous opportunity to help bridge this gap and fill the need that exists for a community who wants to see themselves as SUPER. And that translates to something equally as powerful!