top of page
Search

Calling in my Latine Community!

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, it felt right to call in all of my fellow Latine/Hispanic colleagues, family, and friends to discuss some important topics and intersections that we as a community need to be actively aware of and tackling together.

I hope to spark some important conversations and include resources you might find helpful when your Abuelita says that one thing at the dinner table, so that we may move away from letting it go “cause that’s how they/things are”, and instead lean into the discomfort having hard conversations and providing context to combat bias, stereotypical behavior, and harmful comments.


Stick with me til the end-- we're going in deep!


First, what’s in a name?

Latino/ Latine/ Latinx/ Hispanic / etc.-- what are we?



Let’s first remember that Hispanic/Latine people come from a myriad of countries and cultural backgrounds. A lot of us identify directly with our country of origin, a nationality. The umbrella term “Hispanic” is maybe the most well-known as it highlights a connection to Spain and Spanish ancestry, though many find it outdated due to the role Spain played in the colonization of Latin America and its indigenous people.


The term “Latino/a” refers to anyone from Latin America, and takes into account the traditional linguistic gendering of words in the Spanish language, where the -o and -a endings match that of the masculine and feminine post-fixes respectively. However, this approach excludes those that don’t fit within the gender binary, and as language evolves to reflect the changes in our world, the terms we use must evolve with it.


"Latinx and Latine" are gender-neutral terms with the goal of being inclusive to all genders. Many people in the community feel that “Latinx” does not flow with the Spanish language norms and feel it leans to the anglo-dominance of language. "Latine" serves the same purpose of gender inclusion, but fits within the norms of the Spanish language.


At the end of the day, people can call themselves as they see fit. But it is important that we respect the approach to include as many people as possible.


“Each one of these terms [Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Latine] really does have a kind of historical political, ideological, cultural, personal meaning that really depends on the moment that it’s used and depends on the context within which it’s used.” — Ricardo Ortiz

Resources to continue learning:

*Note: For the purpose of this post, we will be using Latine/Latino interchangeably*

At the Intersections


Latines can be of any race and can also identify with other social identities simultaneously. Social identities include race, ethnicity, gender, sex, socioeconomic status, orientation, religion, disability, and age. The intersection of these social identities may lead folks to encounter compounded levels of discrimination based on those identities, where say being Latino may afford you certain barriers, but being Latino and Black, or being Latino and Gay, may lead to higher levels of discrimination.


1. Latine and Black: Afro-Latines


As some of you know, I graduated from Tufts’ DEI-J Leadership Master’s program this year. My final project zoned in on the experiences of the Afro-Latine intersection of the community, those that identify as Latine and Black. Afro-Latines are members of the African diaspora into Latin-American countries, notably including the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, etc., though they exist within all Latin communities. During the colonial period of Latin history, “about 15 times as many African slaves were taken to Spanish and Portuguese colonies than to the U.S.” and as of 2022, a Pew research study reports that about 6 million US adults identify as Afro-Latino (2% of US adults, and 12% of Latino adults).


PAUSE: Language moment

  • Colorism: coined by Pulitzer Prize-winning Alice Walker in 1982, defining it as “The prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color”, discriminating against darker complexions

  • Mestizaje: racial or cultural mixing; principal theme in cultural identity of Latin Americans (“we’re a melting pot”)

  • Anti-Blackness: beliefs, attitudes, actions, practices, and behaviors that minimize and marginalize Blackness and Black people

Why does it matter?


Though I am not a Black Latina myself, I have been conditioned to believe Blackness as “other” from a young age, and strive to counteract the weight of decades of bias and discrimination through this adventure of me-search and self-reflection and the elevation of those within that intersection of the community to raise group awareness.

I heard the same story in different iterations, where we were meant to better the race, or “mejorar la raza”, always aiming to be lighter, to be more like the Whites. In my culture, kids are taught to stay out of the sun, date lighter people, and to straighten unruly hair. Overtly and covertly, Black Latinos are othered in our communities, the media, and beyond. Just this week, I overheard some family members discuss the new Little Mermaid movie, attributing its lower economic success to the casting of a Black Ariel, “because it’s not the story we know” – regardless of the fictional nature of the character.


“What you have is this stratification of levels of humanities where white Spaniards were deemed as the real humans, as the only humans, and then below that were Indigenous people and then below that were African people who were brought into the country.” – Lorgia Garcia Pena, Associate Professor of Race, Colonialism and Diaspora Studies at Tufts University

Many narratives and practices in our community:

1) idealize whiteness in the Latine identity 2) normalize anti-Blackness attitudes and behaviors, and 3) deny the presence and effects of colorism and anti-Blackness in the community … where Black Latines end up more socioeconomically aligned to Black people than other groups in the United States.


To highlight the experience of this intersection of the community, I would like to share my Capstone project video, "Being Afro-Latino", which includes snippets from interviews with 5 Afro-Latine-identifying respondents sharing their experiences as Black Latines.



Based on this video alone, we can pull some common themes of experiences from the Black Latine community that continue to be perpetuated by harmful narratives and behaviors toward this intersection of the community.

  • Rejection from their own community and identity; having to “always [explain their] Blackness” or Latin-ness

  • Discrimination around skin color, hair texture, and fitting into the Latine standards (preference for lighter skin both within family units and in social spaces)

  • Sidelined or fully omitted in discussions around Latinidad, race, and ethnicity; considered "other"

  • Speaking Spanish being a factor of legitimacy of identity

  • Representation erasure where the media leans white-presenting as seen in the lack of Black Latinos in mainstream media and novelas

  • Socio-economic ramifications of all of these factors

    • Bias at school and the workplace

    • Far right white-nationalism within the Latine community and effects on politics

    • Inter-group discrimination/ caste like system based on skin color

And still, many in our community continue to deny the existence of these issues, find the topic “taboo”, and continue to perpetuate these harmful narratives and behavior toward the community. Even when I was enlisting participants into the project, I had family members questioning why I was doing it, if it paid at all, and to leave these people to figure it out themselves. “These people” are part of our community. We are all Latines and deserve that respect and visibility. Black and Latine are not mutually exclusive.


Tips to tackle:

  • Talk to your family and friends about race and ethnicity openly, do not brush it under the rug

  • Elevate the Black experience and representation in the Latine community

  • Ask clarifying questions to people making blanket / biased statements

  • Act as a resource where you can be, act as an ally where you can be

  • Understand not everyone will understand, but we can try to help them get there

  • It’s okay to distance yourself from people who make it a point not to understand

Resources to continue:


2. Latine and Queer

I feel called to also explore the intersection of queerness and Latinidad as it stands today, though I have not yet personally done a deep dive in. Similar to Blackness in Latinidad, Queerness (or any degree of LGBTQIA+ identification) has a complicated history of widespread discrimination rooted in religious ideals within the Latine community. Today, there is a trend in right-wing political ideals and homophobia that connect to the community as well. While views on same-sex marriage have changed dramatically over time, there are still strong beliefs against any degree of queerness (in identity and in action).

Personally, I know of one family member that is (openly) gay and it has always been a very “hush hush, don’t ask, don’t tell” approach of addressing the situation within the family. I remember growing up hearing that cutting your hair in certain styles, or boys playing with dolls, was “gay” and by effect bad or negative. Still today, I find it hard to have conversations about the spectrum of gender and sexuality and the misconceptions of the community at large with even those in my close family unit.

PAUSE: Language moment

  • Gender binary: system in which gender is constructed into 2 strict categories of male/female

  • Gender-expansive: explores a more flexible range of gender identity than typically associated within the binary system

  • Queer: a term often used to express a spectrum of identities and orientations counter to the mainstream

  • LGBTQIA+: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, and the + holds space for the expanding and new understanding of different parts of the very diverse gender and sexual identities (as a spectrum)

  • Cisgender: gender now is the same as presumed at birth

  • Transgender: umbrella term for people whose gender identity/expression is different from the cultural expectations based on the sex assigned at birth

  • Nonbinary: adj describing someone who does not identify as a man or a woman/ outside of these categories

*For more terms, visit the first link in the resources listed below.


Why does it matter?


Reports of discrimination affecting the ability to obtain accurate identification documents, being turned away from businesses (spanning from restaurants and hotels to wedding venues and adoption agencies), and other barriers of access to educational, economic, housing and health services plague this community on a consistent basis. Not to mention, Latine LGTBQ+ people may also experience rejection from their own families and friends.

“Recent data from the Center for American Progress* shows that Hispanic LGBTQ individuals report experiencing discrimination at a rate 15 percentage points higher than their white LGBTQ counterparts, 46 percent to 31 percent, respectively.” [Source]
“11 percent of Hispanic LGBTQ people had a doctor refuse to see them because of their sexual orientation, and 22 percent had a doctor who was visibly uncomfortable due to their sexual orientation; 4 percent and 11 percent of white LGBTQ respondents, respectively, reported the same” [Source]

In some states today, openly anti-LGBTQ+ measures are being taken socially and politically to continue to oppress this community.

  • Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity

  • Texas’s order of investigations of parents if they seek gender-affirming care for their children as abuse

  • Almost 500 bills targeting and attacking LGBTQ+ rights, especially for transgender youth, are being deployed nationwide [Source]

Again, the way in which we treat the people in this or any community has an effect on their mental and physical health, economic, and socio-cultural access and experiences. These challenges have contributed to higher risks of mental health and suicide rates among young LGBTQ+ people.

The Trevor Project’s latest national survey found that 43% of LGBTQ Latino youths seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, and 18% attempted suicide.

Though we are learning and evolving as a community, these issues persist and continue to affect our youth. Acceptance and support not only improves lives, it can save a life.


Tips to tackle:

  • Emphasize the importance of accepting family members and friends who may be queer

  • Encourage open dialogue and remove stigma from queerness

  • “I don’t care what they do behind closed doors” mindset continues to other queerness

  • Learn the terms and share the knowledge

  • Be a safe space for younger people in your family and friend circles to be themselves

Resources to continue:

Our Collective Responsibility

As part of the underserved and underrepresented groups in the United States, we have a responsibility to not only stand up for ourselves, but also for one another. Our community-based ideals and biases can play a big role in how we perpetuate harmful narratives and the way we address these issues. These are only two intersections in a pool of identity complexity which we must take the time to understand; it's not just an identity, it is a lifetime of experiences.


Instead of leaning into the comfort of “that’s how things are”, challenge that narrative. Take a look into yourself and your community and identify spaces to interrupt discrimination. Stand up for those who continue to be targeted rather than uplifted, especially by those in our communities.


Spread knowledge, awareness, and acceptance. We are stronger together.



 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page