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22
January

LA LA VAZQUEZ ON PROVING HER “LATINIDAD”: “YO SOY BORICUA!”

LA LA VAZQUEZ ON PROVING HER “LATINIDAD”: “YO SOY BORICUA!”

La La Vazquez, Carmelo Anthony’s fiance, recently wrote a personal essay on Latina.com, on ““Puerto Rican is her nationality, Black is her race”. I spotted this piece on homie Necole Bitchie’s site and though I tried to bypass her reader’s comments like “Why is this newsworthy?”…I couldn’t help but give it the mean side-eye treatment. “Why is this newsworthy?” some of you might ask, well because there are many ignorant folk out there that need schooling on the Latino community. Just like how in the black community, folks come in various different shades of brown…so is the case in the Latino community. Not to mention I constantly have to justify to both my “Latinidad” to my Latino community and the black community b/c I’m either look “black”, some exotic mix of Hawaian and something, or whatever…when in fact I’m Ecuadorian. Sure I’m too tall, too dark, and too dare I say bootylicious, to be the typical Ecuadorian…but believe it or not both my parents are from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Anywhoo the point is it get’s annoying and at times disrespectful when people give me that perplexed look “Wait, you’re not Black! So what are you?” But I’ll let La La explain it best:


A lot of people don’t realize that I’m Latina, which is fine. One thing about being Latina is that there isn’t one look that comes with the territory. I don’t expect people to know my cultural background just by glancing at me. I do, however, expect that when I tell people my family is from Puerto Rico, that I will be believed and not accused of trying to be something that I’m not. It usually goes something like this: a person having a conversation with me discovers one way or another that I’m Puerto Rican and fluent in Spanish. That person then expresses their shock over these realizations for any number of reasons—common responses are, “You don’t look Latina” and “I thought you were black!” I never said I wasn’t black. And since when does being black and being Latina have to be mutually exclusive?

In my experience, people tend to have an uninformed and rather narrow view of what it means to be Puerto Rican. For me, not looking like some people’s idea of a typical Latina has been challenging and often painful. I constantly find myself trying to justify who I am, and why should I? I’m proud of my heritage and my family. Both of my parents are from Puerto Rico. They raised two kids in Brooklyn and later in New Jersey, where we ate arroz con gandules and pasteles and listened to salsa music. I feel just as at home in Puerto Rico, where I still have tons of family, including aunts, uncles and cousins. Puerto Rico is in my blood. And that has nothing to do with the color of my skin.

I’m not angry with anyone who doesn’t understand the complexities of race and culture. And I’m also not interested in having long, drawn out conversations about how it’s possible for me to look like this and speak Spanish. In fact, sometimes I make it a point not to mention my parents’ birthplace because I don’t always feel like having the inevitable discussion that follows. Instead, I let people look at me and come to their own conclusions. As I start to get my feet wet in Hollywood, I already know that there are certain parts I won’t even be considered for. The character can be Puerto Rican and speak Spanish just like me, but Hollywood defines Latina as Jennifer Lopez and Sofia Vergara. As beautiful as they are, we’re not all one race in Latin America. But I don’t go to auditions so that I can give history lessons to film executives. I’d rather skip the entire process.

I’m raising my son to understand who he is, and it’s my hope that he’ll never let others define him. It reflects poorly on us when we don’t educate ourselves about the rest of the world and what it looks like. I encourage people who are interested to learn more, do research and ask informed questions. If you’re lucky enough to visit various countries in Latin America, you’ll be baffled to see the blackest of the black and the lightest of the light living together. And I dare you to ask one of them to prove their latinidad.


LALA3

I’m so happy LaLa took the time to point out & distinguish Race vs Ethnicity vs Nationality…great conversation starter.

THOUGHTS?!

Shout outs to Celia Cruz, Gina Torres, Zoe Saldana, Rosario Dawson, Rosie Perez, Christina Milian, Lauren Velez, Tatyana Ali, Kelis, La La Vazquez, Sessilee Lopez, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Dania Ramirez, all my other fellow morena Latinas.

This post was written by

LexAve – who has written 4269 posts on STR8NYC.COM.

Corporate Misses by day...Blogger extraordinaire by night!

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11 Responses


  • LaLa hit the nail on the head with that one!!! Isn’t Phylicia Rashad Dominicana?

    by: Silence, Jan 25th at 2:55 pm

  • Nah, Phylicia is str8 up African-American but she lived in Mexico for a while which is why she’s fluent en espanol. But, LaLa is soooo right. People act like Latina’s can’t be dark skin and they’re only light skin. Latina’s come in all colors!

    by: J'More, Jan 25th at 3:05 pm

  • Tatyana Ali isn’t of Latin desent

    by: Natalie, Sep 20th at 2:14 am

  • I applaud Ms. Vasquez for using her status as a young Latina public figure to enlighten her fans and the general public about the diversity of Latinos. I am especially proud of her pointing out that J.Lo & Vergara are not the representatives faces of Latina women. I thank her for writing this article.

    by: N. Iris, Apr 18th at 4:34 pm

  • Tatayana Ali is Indian-Trinidadian by the way. I love Lala. Lala talks about her new reality show in a recent interview. Read more about it here. http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/interview-lala-vazquez-04-19-2011

    by: Tanya, Apr 23rd at 8:49 pm

  • Tatalyana ali parents are from Panama and they speak spanish.

    by: CHEE CHEE, Aug 16th at 6:25 pm

  • If it’s Latino community then its Black community…respect me the same, I am Black not black

    by: LaJoy, Aug 29th at 11:20 pm

  • Beyonce is 32 and i am glad lala told the truth about her
    nationality makes us puertorricans happy

    by: los 25, Sep 4th at 4:40 pm

  • No race comes in allhades of colors except black, if you look like your black, act like your black, go on bet awards and on bet shows to host all the time either your black or wanna be black?

    by: Rene, Sep 9th at 7:40 pm

  • To Rene…
    That is the most ignorant statement I have seen in a long time! You have obviously been living under a rock. Please get out and see the world before you miss it! Such a tragedy…I didn’t think people like you still exist. My 4 years old nephew is smarter than you…

    by: Daniela Morales, Sep 19th at 8:38 pm

  • Tatyana is half trini….her mother is half panamanian and half AF-American sooo she is more trini than anything else because her father is a half trini who happened to take me to school. her grandma is latina and she is all of a sudden latina.? gtfoh….proud trini1

    by: Triniting, Sep 22nd at 5:34 pm

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