Can You Be Black and Latinx? Here’s What Afro-Latinx Means And Why It Matters

Speaker 1: When I say the words, Afro-Latino or Afro-Latina, what does it make you think of?

Speaker 2: My roots.

Speaker 3: Of our roots.

Speaker 1: Okay.

Speaker 4: Afro-Latino, Latino person with soul.

Speaker 1: Okay. When I say Afro-Latino, is that a fact or is that a myth?

Speaker 5: Fact, I guess. I’ve seen a couple.

Speaker 1: [Laughs] He’s like, “I’m trying to think back.”

Speaker 6: Yeah. That’s a fact, right.

Speaker 1: It’s a fact.

Speaker 6: Yeah.

Speaker 5: If you go to Mexico, you’ll find a couple of African Latinos, I guess.

Speaker 7: I think of music when you tell me something like that. For some reason Celia Cruz just pops into my mind. [A short clip of Celia Cruz singing “Azúcar, Azúcar” plays.] One thing I’m trying to get my parents to understand is that in Dominican Republic, they were slaves, from Africa.

Speaker 8: To be honest, I just started saying I’m Afro-Latina, literally, like a year ago. I say Afro-Latina, it clears up the confusion. People will be like “Hey, but you’re black. How do you speak Spanish?” I’m like, “Dominicans come in all colors.”

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 9: Colorism is just like internalized racism within the quote, unquote “Latino” community. We do anything and everything possible to just make connections however tenuous to European roots and simultaneously just deny our African roots. People use Afro-Latino as just elevating and acknowledging the fact that all of us who grew up in quote, unquote “Latin America” have some African roots.

Speaker 10: Before 1492, there weren’t any Puerto Ricans. I’m Puerto Rican by the way. Puerto Ricans are a mixture of the African slave, the Taino Indian, and the Spanish European or Conquistador to put in that matter. I have that blood running me. When you say and when you mention “Afro,” you’re talking about me. You’re talking about people from the Caribbean. You’re talking about Latinos in general.