I heard the term Afro-Latino used by a friend of mine when describing her identity. Since then, I have been trying to understand exactly what Afro-Latino means. I am from the Dominican Republic and I had never heard of this term within my community. The term, Afro-Dominican falls under the term Afro-Latino, but both terms are still very confusing. At first, I assumed that it meant that you were biracial, half-black, half-latino. Which further lead me to assume that to be Afro-Latino also meant that your skin would be darker. At first glance, if you looked at me you would readily identify me as black. This categorization would be made on how I wear my hair-in twist, its texture-coily. The color of my skin-brown. My facial features-big brown eyes, full lips, high-cheek bones. But black is not how I identify. I am Dominican. Identifying as Afro-Dominican seems redundant to me. But what does that mean necessarily? And why is identifying as black or as Afro-Latino such a problem? What’s the purpose of identifying yourself as Afro-Latino (Dominican)?
Well, firstly, there’s a misunderstanding on the differences between and race identity and ethnic identity in the Latin community. One thing that I have learned recently is that Latin and Hispanic are not racial identifiers but culture/ethnic identifiers. When filling out certain important documents that ask whether or not you are of Hispanic/Latino origin, the question is followed by “with which racial categories(s) do you identify with?” The options usually are, Black, White, Pacific Islander, Asian, etc. But Latino/Hispanic is not an option. This can be very confusing for people of Latin/Hispanic descent because for us, race and ethnicity are one and the same.
Another issue is the deep-seeded racism that exists in the Latin community. It’s no secret that there is a color issue. Latino’s don’t want to be categorized as black. Ancestry is out of the question, forget the mulattos. We are all SPAIN-ish. Like the black community, the Hispanic/Latin community has its issues with color discrimination. And like the black community, the Latin/ Hispanic community has its own version of light-skin vs. dark-skin. There’s this idea of what a Latino/ Hispanic person “looks like” and interestingly so, based on what I noticed, the image is the opposite of what a black person looks like. Darker-skinned Hispanics/Latinos are not seen as such. But what people seemed to forget is that the Hispanic/Latino community is very mixed. There are many faces, races, and cultures that encompass this community.
Lastly, there is not enough awareness of the Afro-Latino community. I hope to learn more about what it means to be Afro-Latino and I look forward to being able to identify myself as such. This is a community that the Latin/Hispanic community needs. We need to accept and own our ancestry, become aware and break away from the old way of thinking. It needs to stop being skin-deep. Understanding our racial culture is a huge step forward. I encourage other Latino’s to take this journey with me to become aware of our origins and what it means to be Afro-Latino.
