LaLa: "I'm Latina"
Posted by Media Outrage on January 24th, 2010
LaLa lets you know that she’s Latina folks…
”
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.”
January 24th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Uh, good for her.
Who cares though?
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LowRidaz Reply:
January 24th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Thank you! who exactly cares what she is, geeeeee…lol
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Kanyade Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 1:43 am
ANNOUNCEMENT:
I, Kanyade, am NOT Latina, but BLACK. I get asked all the time if I am Latina. I’m BLACK BLACK BLACK and when I get to Hollyweird I don’t want folk confusing this fact though I know they will. They’ll want me to star in the “Love Boat” remake as Charo, I know it; I know they’ll do it! But I’m a BLACK WOMAN and I wish they’d chill with their assumptions.
The End.
(***insert sarcasm all over this post***)
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January 24th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
a lot of people don’t realize that? I did the first time i saw her
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January 24th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Old News…It’s funny when I’d see people on this site say “Black Love” under a “Carmelo and Lala” post…Lala Vasquez…I guess her last name wasn’t obvious enough lol
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LowRidaz Reply:
January 24th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
LMAOOO i know right!!
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MissTX Reply:
January 24th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
Exactly.
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ucanb2 Reply:
January 25th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
OKAY…LOL
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Emma Reply:
June 6th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Are you stupid?
Yes, she’s Latina… but she’s still Black. The two are NOT mutually exclusive.
Did you even read the article?
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January 24th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Blah Blah Blah…
She wrote something like this already.
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January 25th, 2010 at 1:47 am
But WHO CARES? Don’t she have a wedding to plan? I mean like WHO DOES THAT?
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January 25th, 2010 at 3:58 am
Dear LaLa:
I understand how you feel, although I have not had anyone to display dubiety when I tell them I am Puerto Rican. I guess for me it is because I have embraced my African roots for so long that when I begin speaking Spanish with other Latinas my Black and African American friends think it is cool. Another reason I do not get too much duplicity about my Hispanic background is that I am in South Florida where there are so many Black Hispanics.
Nevertheless, thanks for sharing your story and please help us educate the public that Hispanics are also African descent too! We are made up of three races and those are African, Native American Indians, and Europeans (mostly Spaniards).
Apropos, not all Latinos/Hispanics speak Spanish.
¡Dios Bendice todos nosotros hermanas de Latina Negras!
Gail Da’Vida Verde Becker
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January 25th, 2010 at 5:09 am
Blissful ignorance is what makes people say things like, “I thought you were black”.
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January 25th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
I knew Lala was Latina when one time she was hosting TRL in the early 2000′s and a spanish lady asked her a question in spanish and LaLa responded in FLUENT spanish. Carmelo Anthony is also Puerto Rican but half. I could say one thing though..Latina’s ( black, white, indian or mixed) have the baddest girls on the planet.
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kekelolo Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 2:49 am
Thank you, Dominikingz! I just think we should all be one race who happen to look different, and that is God Fearing Chrisitians, who love and respect one another regardless of the backgrounds.
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January 26th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Some people a very ignorant. It is very offensive to hear such comments, but you should feel very sorry for people who are so limited. Also, try to stay away from them, because stupidity is contageous.
I find it very bad that they think that you are trying to deny your etnicity when you say you are Latina. These uneducated people also think this way because they are racists and because for them this issue is a big deal.
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kekelolo Reply:
January 27th, 2010 at 1:15 am
Moreover, envy and jealousy would be suitable adjectives.
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January 27th, 2010 at 7:12 am
She’s still black. Her nationality is Puerto Rican and ethnic group is black. Her culture is latin. Well I can go in the history and tell you that hispanics aren’t really latin but anyways. She a black or afro-puerto rican.
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kekelolo Reply:
February 17th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
No, her Race is Black, her ethnicity is Hispanic or Latina, her culture is Puerto Rican, and her Nationality is American.
Just as my Race is Black, my ethnicity is Hispanic, my cultures are British, Bahamian, and Puerto Rican, and my Nationality is American.
My mother is Bahamian and Cherokee, and my father is Puerto Rican and British. However, to sum it all up, you are correct, we are still BLACK!
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Random Reply:
February 17th, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Not all Puerto Ricans are BLACK *and I’m not referring to skin color*…found an interesting post on another site..
“Hispanic” (like every other race) is an largely meaningless designation, created so the human mind can categorize and pigeonhole something which is far too diverse to be pigeonholed. I recently found out what Hispanics are and it blew my mind.
I never really thought much about why Mexicans speak Spanish when Spanish originated in a country an ocean away. Or why “Hispanic countries” like Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Brazil, everything in South America, Mexico, etc had all colors of people from ebony to ivory. I guess I just thought these were really a race of people. Wrong.
It began, as it usually does in recent history, with Europe and it’s ever grasping attempts to control, colonize and seek out riches in the Americas. I mean when you think about it, almost every area of the world has the stamp of European imperialism on it. At one time the British empire alone was so large it was said that the sun never set on it.
But I digress, the point is that the Americas and the native people of the Americas (not just USA native Americans) were decimated by European colonialisation. I always thought Africa has had it bad (which it did) but the various native peoples in many islands, and countries in the Americas had it worse. These native people are called Amerindians (American Indians). They are all but gone in many of the countries which were once exclusively theirs. They only comprise a majority in Bolivia and Peru. In most other latin countries they comprise at most 1/10th of the population. Many Latinos/hispanic people have some Amerindian background but pure Amerindians can be hard to find.
European diseases killed them off when slavery did not. The few that were left, in varying degree depending on what Hispanic country you speak off, bred with the Spanish conquistadors and the African slaves that were imported onto the island. Eventually at various times, the majority people (the African and native descendants called Amerindians) broke free and gained control of their own country, throwing off the shackles of Europe.
So when people speak of Latin America and Hispanic countries these people are generally mixtures of the native indians, Spanish whites, and African blacks or purely of those races. This is why you can be hispanic black, hispanic white, hispanic mixed etc, hispanic Native/Ameridian, hispanic Asian. Yes, there are even Asians in South America, in fact Brazil has the largest population of Japanese outside Japan. Most full whites in Latin America are from Spain, Portugal, or Italy.
Latin America and hispanic countries are some of the most diverse (if the THE most diverse) part of the world in culture, religion, race, language etc. Not everyone is mixed (Mestizos, mulattos, Zambos) but a large part are. The person who tries to pigeonhole hispanics is wrong.”
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