Today’s political climate has spiked a big chain of conversations about one’s real identity and what we identify ourselves as when it comes to a person’s race/ethnicity, the gender they identify themselves as, and the pronouns a person can identify themselves with. Each topic of conversation has great importance, as well as a great impact on a person’s life. My biggest conversation when it comes to identity is what I identify myself as when it comes to my race and ethnicity.
As a Dominican native, I grew up with always identifying myself as just Dominican. The topic of race and skin color was never a conversation spoken about around me in my community until recent years, when the political climate pushed the racism that roots in some people to come to light, and the growth of cultural appropriation started to arise. However, those topics will be saved for another time. The political climate today pushed the conversation of where do we really originate from to the Dominican community. I started questioning my identity; in the sense of these new identifications describing Latinos from the Caribbean. This new identity was Afro-Latinx. Afro Latinx stands for a person who is originally form Latin America but has a significant African ancestry in them. Growing up in the Dominican Republic, I was always well aware that my culture, from music to food and traditions, were being well influenced by African culture. I was also well aware of the history of my country and the big role it played during the slave trade.
As I learned more about the identity of Afro-Latina, I related to so much of it. My culture is fully influenced by my past ancestors. I had even asked about my family’s history and saw where they derived from. Now I am beyond happy that I am able to know my history. But, many people have trouble with me identifying as an afro Latina, because of my skin color. Many believe and have this idea that I am not dark enough to identify as such. This has played a big deal in me not being able to identify as such in front of certain people because I feel like I would offend them. However, not identifying as such hurts when I know my ancestry history so well.
So the question I am stuck with is.. am I really afro Latina? And the answer is yes I am. From my curly hair, my beautiful significant face features, to the food I grew up eating, the music I dance to in family functions, to the stories of what my ancestors suffer, I am an afro Latina. My skin complexion plays no part in the reasoning why a person cannot identify as such. My biggest problem with today’s society is people only follow skin color as a way to identify one’s self, and it should not be like that. The Dominican Republic itself is a big pot of different types of people, whose families derived from all over the world. I always try to educate people that my skin color has nothing to do with my identity, but actually my family’s history.
There is so much more to this topic to speak on, but for now I rather just keep it short and simple. If you know your true self and history, do not hold yourself back from identifying yourself as such. I am beyond proud to be Afro- Latina, to carry this fuego inside of me, to carry my ancestors DNA in me and adding to our greatness each and every day.