LaLa Vasquez wrote an essay for latina magazine addressing her racial background. She says that while both of her parents are Puerto Rican, that makes her Puerto Rican. But she also says that doesn’t mean she’s not “black” as well.
Here’s what LaLa had to say:
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.
LaLa and Carmelo set wedding date
LaLa & Carmelo go house-hunting in LA
at 1:17 pm
We should request and demand that Africana studies be taught in our elementary, middle school and high schools. all people should take at least 1 African American history course or African history course that will information about not only the history of Africa but the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its ramifications for people of color around the globe. Recommended reading for ALL people should be: African American History: A Journeyof Liberation by Dr. Molefi Kete Asante. It describes the history and plight of ALL Africans of the African Diaspora and their descendants whether they were transported to the Caribbean, South America, Central America, Europe or America.
at 7:42 am
@Moniqtee:The slave trade in America was outlawed before most carribean nations excluding Haiti, which took over the Dominican Republic,DR then gained its freedom from Haiti in the 1840’s (the spainards had no intention of freeing Dominicans). Slavery was legal in Puerto Rico until like the 1890’s as well in Cuba. I don’t know where this myth that slavery was easy in the carribean has come from, the slaves were brutalized just like in America and cutting sugar cane is not a easy task. Yes the slaves were able to retain some of their native language and religious beliefs but they were still treated as human chattle.Before research I too listened to and believed the notion that slavery was different in latin america and the carribean.Now slaves in England were treated much different than in America and it was well respected to have a dark “pure” African slave and this slave would often be taught proper English etiquite and allowed to sit at the dinner table(like a well behaved show piece).
at 1:34 am
Once again NOBODY cares about LaLa!!!! Latina is not a race. It’s amazing how ppl focus on something so unimportant as this. I mean keep it real find one person that isn’t mixed with something other than something else that they don’t show so obviously. Should we all just walk around with our family history in our wallets so we can display it to everyone everytime someone wants to know our race. Focus on something worth something, like a change!!!!
at 11:29 pm
Uhm duh~ how did ya not know? Viva La Borricua!
at 9:48 pm
I always thought she was Latina, anyway…
at 8:19 pm
Lala looks Dominican /black( and so do many of her family who I saw oN Wendy Williams) but if she says she Puerto Rican she is! There is no one certain way for people to look coming from Puerto Rico or that ancestry! I have a godsister as dark as myself and her mom is black (african american) and her dad (rip) ,who I also knew was puerto rican straight up (born and raised his younger life)!She does not look as most people would assume a latina would and she looks more like her mom but has the body shape genetics of her dads side!
at 7:01 pm
cubsfan and moniQTee, I totally agree with you both. Back home where I am from you can not be ignorant on black history like what LaLa said thinking that in South America everybody is of one race when that is not true. The same applied for the West Indies too. I give LaLa props as a black latina for speaking out on this issue.
at 4:40 pm
@moniQTee
It wasn’t that chattel slavery in the United States was worse than anywhere else, Other places such as the Carribean had a social buffer zone that mulattoes inhabhited, being a mulatto was considered being better than a black. This sort of backward thinking still goes on in parts of the Carribean especially in the Dominican Republic where they still subjugate and discriminate against darker skinned Dominicans. In America they had the one drop rule that seperated the races and tried to prevent race mixing, but was used to prevent black men from mixing with white women and not the other way around.
at 4:32 pm
I bet most of these black latinos dont know shyt about Arturo Alfonso Schomburg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A rturo_Alfonso_Schomburg
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, also known as Arthur Schomburg, (January 24,1874 ⿿June 8, 1938), was a Puerto Rican historian, writer and activist in the United States who researched and raised awareness of the great contributions that Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-Americans have made to society. He was an important intellectual figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Over the years he collected literature, art, slave narratives and other materials of African history, which was purchased to become the basis of the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, named in his honor, at the New York Public Library branch in Harlem.
at 12:23 pm
“it amazes me how in the age of barack obama everybody and they mixed heritage azz’s wants to be down w/ my race but if we digress back to the early 90’s or prior to nobody wanted to be BLACK(i.e. Paula Abdul)”
ACTUALLY IT FIND IT TO BE QUITE THE OPPOSITE THESE DAYS. It seems they are saying they are “NOT BLACK” more these days…. Damn……. where you been?
at 12:20 pm
ACTUALLY… this part is NOT TRUE:
” The slave trade was bigger in the West Indies, Carribean, and Spanish territories.”
America surpassed this because it took them MUCH LONGER to outlaw slavery… ALSO… the methods used here in the states, the practice of making generation after generation after generation….That was MAINLY practiced here in this country.
Black people from America really need to understand the difference of slavery as opposed to other places..American slaves were treated the absolute worst. The inhumanity thrust upon the American slave is unsurpassed by ANY.
at 12:12 pm
that was an amazing essay. go lala!
at 11:46 am
Unique Opportunity – Just $10 To Get Started – EVERYBODY WINS!
Enjoy immediate cash REWARDS today
and a passive income for your future!
A small one-time gift and a little effort pays
you every day, And this is very simple!
No Experience Required!
Very Affordable… Start Today for only $10
Visit the website link below for full details:
http://lnk.ms/1lJqF
at 9:24 am
i think that it’s way cute i almost did that with my hair
at 10:05 am
This is for all the stupid people out there. The Latin race is a race of all nationalities from the whitest of white to the blackest of black.
The slave trade did not start here in the US. The slave trade was bigger in the West Indies, Carribean, and Spanish territories.
Most people don’t even know that the only country or in this case continent (Africa) with the most people of African Ancestory — and guess what, it is not even in the US — not by a long shot!!! Brazil has the most people of African ancestory other then the motherland of Africa, which surpasses the US by a long shot and in most of those countries, they have more connection to Africa than we do in the United States!!! Basically there are more people with more pure African blood than we do here in the States!!!
So to all the stupid people who do not learn about history and geography — get a book and read and learn.
LaLa, do your thing, the people who make the negative comments are the ones who did not learn in school and stay ignorant. Black people think that we are the only ones here other than Africa, but on the real, here in the US we only make up 13% of the population!!!
NOW THAT IS REAL TALK AND A REAL HISTORY LESSON!!!
at 1:08 am
1st of all its retarded that people are categorized in different “races” because of the color of his or her skin. People can be a black LATINO!!
@livingoxymoron… a lot of Puerto Ricans have African in them & so do Dominicans as well as other latinos… Like LALAA said DO SOME RESEARCH.
at 11:22 pm
This really let’s me know how stupid people still are…..smh. When will the stupidity end?
at 10:30 pm
So now black means Ghetto?? Wow! Some of you really need to pick up a book.
at 9:42 pm
Living in New York, I always knew LaLa was Latin, but she is madd Ghetto, which is why people probably thinks she is Black.
LaLa? No one cares
at 2:10 pm
Angela Bassett is BLACK, Gabrielle Union is BLACK, Vanessa Williams(Soul Food not Rick Fox’s ex-wife) is BLACK…..it amazes me how in the age of barack obama everybody and they mixed heritage azz’s wants to be down w/ my race but if we digress back to the early 90’s or prior to nobody wanted to be BLACK(i.e. Paula Abdul)…..I’m from the deep south and don’t abide by or play into America’s definition of “one drop of African blood” makes you black, BULLSHYT…..I’m sorry if you’re light skinned, curly or straight hair you are biracial, half-breed or mulatto, your azz is not BLACK…..LaLa what idiots are you talking to on the daily basis that think you’re black….???….duuuhhh last name Vasquez tells me you’re of Latin descent all day, I never saw you as black!
at 1:41 pm
She’s spot on with the fact that being Latina/Latino is not a race, but an ethnicity. I always ask people the question that if you saw David Ortiz and Cameron Diaz walking on the street, what would you think they are? Both would be considered to be latino, but like LaLa mentioned, people come from various racial and ethnic backgrounds in Latin America. Really, the only difference between the US and Latin America is the European cultural basis, which is English for the US and Canada and much of the Caribbean, while it’s Spanish, as well as French, Portuguese and Italian(in Argentina) in Latin America. There’s also Dutch influence in Surinam, Curacao, the Netherland Antilles and parts of Saint Maarten.
at 1:26 pm
I feel what Lala is saying. I live it everyday here in Dallas, TX. “How did a black guy learn how to speak Spanish so fluently?” If I want to speak to my pops (Dominican) that’s what I’m going to have to do. I also throw in that if I want to speak to my moms side of the family (Haitian) I have to speak French. We don’t classify ourselves as not being black or anything. But we get questioned why are you fronting like you’re Hispanic. Best of both worlds, that’s what I tell’em. And it’s not that we don’t want to be associated with Black America, but when you hear from your in-laws after 15 years of being part of the family that you’re not “really black”, you’re like WTF. I know when I get pulled over they classify me as African-American. They don’t think it’s to funny when I tell them that I’m an Afratino-American. It is what it is.