Overlooked by the Media By Natasha S. Alford • Nursing Area

Overlooked by the Media, Women Like Me Took to Instagram – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opinion/sunday/race-black-latina-identity.html 1/6

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Overlooked by the Media, Women Like Me Took to Instagram I rarely see Afro-Latinas on television. Online, it s a different story.

By Natasha S. Alford Ms. Alford is the deputy editor of The Grio.

July 28, 2018

I was about 11 years old when I started to think I wasnt like the other Latina girls.

The summer before sixth grade, my mother put me in a beauty pageant sponsored by a Hispanic community organization in Syracuse, N.Y., where we lived. The stage wasnt fancy it was in a gymnasium on the West Side, one of the poorest areas of the city. But there was a lot at stake. The winner would represent the pride of the community during the Puerto Rican Day Festival parade.

I was mortified at the idea of competing. Aside from being a nerd with thick plastic glasses and a school marching band membership to match, I didnt look Latina. At least not compared with my pageant competitors or the women and girls I saw in the media.

Latinas in movies, TV and magazines were always fair-skinned.

Latinas had long blonde or brown hair that was straight or wavy.

Latinas spoke Spanish, and they spoke it fast and well.

Latinas had small noses and mostly European-looking features.

I, on the other hand was a brown-skinned girl, with big black frizzy hair and a full nose, thanks to a dark-skinned African- American dad and a fairer-skinned Puerto Rican mom. I spoke fluent English, but much less Spanish and was too afraid to risk being laughed at to try.

Did I even count as Latina? Despite my parents insistence and constant reminders that I was they would celebrate El Da de los Reyes (Three Kings Day) in addition to Christmas, buy bilingual books and teach me traditional salsa dances I had serious doubts.

The writer at age 11. Natasha Alford

11/2/2019 Opinion | Overlooked by the Media, Women Like Me Took to Instagram – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opinion/sunday/race-black-latina-identity.html 2/6

Miraculously, my uncertainty didnt show up in my careful walk down the runway. Thanks to the my mom bought for me from a local thrift store, the saxophone routine Id practiced ad nauseam and my ability to keep cool during the (during which I required a translator), I won the pageant.

But instead of relishing the opportunity to ride in a convertible and wave to fans wearing a tiara, I was self-conscious. Would people on the parade route be whispering about whether I was on the wrong float, or questioning how Id managed to take the crown? After all, Id rarely seen anyone who looked like me be recognized as a Latina let alone as a beautiful Latina.

Today, I have. And its thanks in large part to the internet.

I now know that I belong to a much larger community of Afro-Latinas (or Afro-LatinX people) around the globe, who are not only African descendants, but are also proud of it. We exist in places from Brazil to Venezuela, Panama to Puerto Rico, and Colombia to the Dominican Republic.

Learning this as a young adult was important intellectually. But when it comes to my sense of belonging, theres something else thats helped emotionally: Instagram. Sure, a handful of Afro-Latinas in mainstream media do exist women like the lawyer and commentator Sunny Hostin, the actress Gina Torres and VH1s Love & Hip Hop Miami star and singer Amara La Negra, who has campaigned against colorism in the Latino community but theyre few and far between. Filling the gaps are digital communities of Afro-Latina women. We are purposely recognizing one another in ways weve never found in popular media representations and sharing images and stories that redefine the narrow Eurocentric definition of Latinidad many of us have consumed for years.

Instagram accounts like @afrolatinas_ and @AintILatina post photos of Afro-Latinas of all hues, showcasing them wearing thick curls, Afros or locs, with uplifting messages and quotations about self-love.

11/2/2019 Opinion | Overlooked by the Media, Women Like Me Took to Instagram – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opinion/sunday/race-black-latina-identity.html 3/6

Claim your space, one image posted by @afrolatinas_ reads. Belleza sta negrita/Black is beautiful, reads another. Its a necessary reminder for many Afro-Latinas like me who havent always felt that way.

I was really going about life trying to figure out who I was, said Amanda Pericles, the Dominican-American creator of @afrolatinas_.

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Got to chill with some of my favorite queens yesterday at #afrolatinofestnyc ! Were you there? ______________________ #orgullosamenteafrodescendiente #afrodescendientes #blackpride #blackwomen #blatina #afrolatina #afrolatino #afrolatinx #blacklatina #blacklatino #blacklatinx #africandiaspora #knowyourroots #blackgirlmagic #loveyourself #latinx #melanin #youraverageafrolatina #curlyhair #naturalhair #panafrican #blackbeauty #iamlatina #unapologeticallyblack #beautifulineveryshade #morena #negra #50shadesoflatino #50shadesofblack view all 32 comments

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11/2/2019 Opinion | Overlooked by the Media, Women Like Me Took to Instagram – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opinion/sunday/race-black-latina-identity.html 4/6

In 2015, she started finding and posting photos of Afro-Latina women embracing their hair texture. She attracted thousands of followers. Im trying to make it a point to show people we have differences here and there, but were all black, she says.

Im not the only one whos found a sense of belonging on the image-sharing platform.

With social media is when I started to hear the terms LatinX and Afro-Latino and I started to differentiate So Im a black Puerto Rican, Cynthia Branch, an Afro-Puerto Rican who grew up around mostly light-skinned Latinas, said at an April meetup of Afro-Latinas in Harlem promoted through the @Blactina account.

11/2/2019 Opinion | Overlooked by the Media, Women Like Me Took to Instagram – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opinion/sunday/race-black-latina-identity.html 5/6

These womens perspectives reflect what I eventually learned in college years after that beauty pageant: that its O.K. and more than that, something to celebrate to be both black and Latina. While doing research for my senior thesis, I discovered two Afro-Puerto Rican female reggaeton artists, La Sista and La Hill. La Sista wore dreadlocks and African-print clothes and called her album Majestad Negroide (black majesty). La Hill had deep, rich chocolate skin and declared in one song, a dios gracias por darme este color (thanks be to God for giving me this color). I tracked down their contact information and flew from Boston to New York City and Puerto Rico to interview them.

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Thank you @dulcecoco27 for Sharing your Story on What Being a Blactina Means to you! ________________________ What does being a #Blactina means to you? Share in the Comment Below #blactinatheseries #afrolatina #afrolatinx #latina #latinx view all comments

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11/2/2019 Opinion | Overlooked by the Media, Women Like Me Took to Instagram – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opinion/sunday/race-black-latina-identity.html 6/6

Im grateful for that life-changing journey 10 years ago. Im also grateful that, now, access to women who embrace what I called a is only a click rather than a plane ticket away.

Instagram is often criticized for showcasing unrealistic lifestyles that can make users feel insecure. But for me, it plays a different role. Its a place where I can go for much-needed reminders that, despite what mainstream media might suggest, my kind of beauty matters. Its where I can lose myself in photos that prove theres a place where I belong.

A version of this article appears in print on July 29, 2018, Section SR, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Identity in an Instagram Feed

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