Black latina Archives

My Estranged Dad Was Puerto Rican But I Don’t Feel Latina Enough

Virginia IsaadOctober 31, 2022

by Virginia IsaadOctober 31, 2022045215

I didn’t know I had Latinx roots until I was in my pre-teens. My older sister always told me that my biological father was Puerto Rican, but I thought she was making fun of me because I was light skinned....

News and Entertainment

How I Learned to Embrace My Blackness as a Dominican Woman

HipLatinaJanuary 25, 2019August 17, 2020

by HipLatinaJanuary 25, 2019August 17, 202007746

I have always considered myself a proud Dominican woman. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about the complex history of my people. Many Dominicans can trace their roots back to countries in West or Central Africa,...

News and Entertainment

Why We Need To Stop Referring To Afro-Latinxs as ‘Other Latinxs’

janelmartinezNovember 25, 2018September 8, 2020

by janelmartinezNovember 25, 2018September 8, 202001620

Being Black in a Latinx space is by design an othering experience. Just how melaninated you are, or tight and course your curls are, will determine which questions get funneled your way. As an adult, I now know these attempts...

Culture Family

What It Means To Be a Black Latina in Higher Education

HipLatinaOctober 20, 2018August 28, 2020

by HipLatinaOctober 20, 2018August 28, 20200391

I have been asserting my blackness since I can remember. Growing up in the mountains of Puerto Rico, my curls —“pelo malo,”as friends called it—betrayed my family’s attempts to claim whiteness by invoking our Spanish great grandfather. Why would my...

News and Entertainment

Afro-Latina vs. Negra: 5 Black Women of Latin American Descent Share How They Identify

HipLatinaOctober 2, 2018August 24, 2020

by HipLatinaOctober 2, 2018August 24, 202008258

Identity is layered. With the evolution of terminologies and expansion of definitions, it’s complex and far from static. For our community, it’s no different as we’ve seen terms like Hispanic, Latino and now Latinx originate within the last 50...

News and Entertainment

Azealia Banks, Cardi B and Why Respectability Politics Need to be Retired

Johanna FerreiraMay 14, 2018October 6, 2020

by Johanna FerreiraMay 14, 2018October 6, 202001502

Cardi B is from the Bronx. She’s half Afro-Dominican and half Trinidadian and she’s always been proud to be both black and from the hood, which is why it was especially upsetting when Azealia Banks tried to put her down...