This summer, I studied abroad in Chile for about five weeks. Through that short amount of time, I have learned to love my Latino/Hispanic beauty and gain a larger sense of self-love that I was missing in my life.
So, I am half Mexican and Italian but I look more Mexicana than anything. I have the dark, thick hair, brushy eye brows and a tan complexion.
While growing up, I went through many phases where I hated the way I look. I wanted to be blonde, paler and just fit in as the “normal” beauty standards of America. Yes, I had strong Latina women to look up to while growing up, like Jennifer Lopez and Eva Longoria. But they were gorgeous and stereotypically perfect looking Latinas that society accepted. They were portrayed by media to have perfect hair and lighter skin complexions while still having delicate Latina features.
Well, when I arrived in Chile, for some reason I was taken back by how many women looked like me. A lot girls had dark, frizzy, curly hair — something I detested as a pre-teen. Tan skin and straight body shapes. They were beautiful and kind women that, for once in my life, I could relate to.
There is something deeper in a friendship when you can share beauty struggles. I was experiencing this for the first time when I was talking to my Chilean sister about the struggles of having thick hair and dark features when the Chilean boys loved my friends with blonde hair and blue eyes. At fitness classes, I was seeing other girls fighting with their frizzy, curly hair trying to keep it out of their face while their puffy ponytails were bouncing all over the place.
Something I have always wanted since I was a kid was to blend in and in Chile I did. I felt more relaxed, confident and I knew that the other women around me had the same problems. So, I didn’t feel alone.
I knew I wasn’t ever alone in my beauty and self-confidence problem, but it took going to another country to figure that out. Now I love that I look Mexican and love when people ask me about my culture because I am more proud of it.
Also, I want more people to know that you shouldn’t be ashamed of being outside of the “media’s beauty standards” for your ethnicity, because you make your culture beautiful so share that with others.