Amara La Negra Reveals How Her Mom Helped Her Embrace Her Blackness

You may not have known the Love and Hip Hop: Miami star before she made headlines as an Afro-Latina who was insulted on the show’s premiere episode earlier this month but Amara La Negra is now making headlines for a whole other reason: As a proud Afro-Latina who embraces her roots. And we couldn’t love her more for standing up for herself.

Although she wasn’t shocked when producer Young Hollywood told her that she couldn’t be “elegant” with an Afro, she is now standing up for her blackness in a big way.

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“Unfortunately, he wasn’t the first person to tell me that,” 27-year-old Amara told Us Weekly. “I’ve had people judge me so many times based off my looks and not off my talent, and I try to be mellow and try to see their points of view and have them understand my point of view. It wasn’t surprising. It wasn’t shocking because unfortunately a lot of the Latin community has that mentality — not even just the Latin community. I would say the music industry, or the entertainment industry in general, sometimes can have that concept that you have to look a certain type of way in order to succeed, which I am completely against.”

Thankfully, people really rallied around her and supported her after the racist comments. Then, when she was accused of “blackface”, the singer and reality star posted a video of herself as a young girl with the same glorious dark skin. And now she is opening up about how her mother helped her embrace who she is.

“My mom is everything,” she told Yahoo Lifestyle. “She built me the way that I am and made sure that I always knew that my color was beautiful. She always would tell me, ‘Because of your color, you’re always going to have to work twice as hard to be recognized for your work.’ I never understood it until years later — and she was right.”

Any mami that helps her daughter embrace what it means to be Afro-Latina in the U.S. is one great mother. Amara also opened up about how the legendary Celia Cruz, a.k.a. the Cuban-American singer better known as the Queen of Salsa, has influenced who she became as an entertainer.

“In the Latin community, she was the only Afro-Latino who made it worldwide, and she was like our Michael Jackson,” Amara said to Yahoo. “Celia Cruz was the only Afro-Latino that looked like myself and made me think, ‘Oh my God. You know, when I grow up, I can be like her.’” 

It’s great to have such a beautiful, incredible role model for Afro-Latinas out there. And it shows:

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