Speaker 1: That was good was popping at your girl, Ama La Negra.
Speaker 1: And you're listening to exactly a production of My Heart
Speaker 1: Radio being many of me hands that those who said this,
Speaker 1: this is exactly a matter MYNNW Weekly podcast where you
Speaker 1: hear exactly what's the sing me a little sinapo holes,
Speaker 1: no taboo, We're not squirrel over here. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you exactly how it is. And I am your host,
Speaker 1: and here is my co host. And today I'm really
Speaker 1: excited because we're gonna talk about something that really touches
Speaker 1: my heart, which is La, which is talking about the
Speaker 1: Afro Latino community. A lot of people I don't get
Speaker 1: see a lot of people got to know me in
Speaker 1: the American side, UM through love and hip hop, and
Speaker 1: in this platform they heard me talk about, you know,
Speaker 1: feeling like I didn't fit and feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: the after Latino community didn't really have a voice UM
Speaker 1: and a lot of people got to see me on
Speaker 1: that side and got to see my work as an
Speaker 1: activist during the protests that happened through George fo I
Speaker 1: was the first one out there in the front line,
Speaker 1: Bailey and not just poor lacoa Negra, but also put
Speaker 1: La like myself, so it really touches home, and UM,
Speaker 1: I wanted to dedicate this podcast to the people that
Speaker 1: support me, to the people that feel that don't have
Speaker 1: a voice, to all the Latinos out there, even if
Speaker 1: you may not be directly after Latino, but you may
Speaker 1: have that um, that cousin, that girlfriend, that boyfriend, that whatever.
Speaker 1: I feel that overall, as Latinos, we are one community,
Speaker 1: and the Alfro Latino community amongst us sometimes doesn't really
Speaker 1: get represented properly. So there's a lot to talk about
Speaker 1: this inside. Well, my question to you is, yes, this
Speaker 1: is perfect because now we're here. Yes, a couple of
Speaker 1: years later, be in your movement and you know, the
Speaker 1: movement that you've been advocating. Now here's the thing. Do
Speaker 1: you still feel like you need to explain the people
Speaker 1: who you are? Of course, you know it's crazy enough
Speaker 1: because I feel that it's one and I am still
Speaker 1: consistently having to explain to people what being after Latino means.
Speaker 1: I still have had people that don't believe that you
Speaker 1: can be black and also be Latino and speak Spanish.
Speaker 1: I still hear people, you know, speaking a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot from a place of ignorance. Um, and I just
Speaker 1: feel like you have social media, you have the Internet,
Speaker 1: you have YouTube, you have all these other platforms where
Speaker 1: if you don't know, you can just search it up.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been here, we've we've we've been Here's
Speaker 1: just that no one really spoke about it. Is like that,
Speaker 1: you know, speaking of people speaking about you or talking
Speaker 1: about you. Have you ever been to like your local
Speaker 1: supermarket or wherever now you know, events, industry events or
Speaker 1: any and people are are they old talking bad about you?
Speaker 1: Like in Spinish? Probably know this happens all the time.
Speaker 1: Can you give us like one because I think it's
Speaker 1: I I find it like I'm using that when people
Speaker 1: get it twisted and you have that moment after like
Speaker 1: very very right. So it happens to me all the time.
Speaker 1: It used to happen more before. But you know a
Speaker 1: lot of people already know that I'm Latina, but before
Speaker 1: and it still happens. But I'll have people talking about
Speaker 1: me like look at her hair, look at this someone whatever,
Speaker 1: and then I'll just be there just crankia and I
Speaker 1: won't say anything until like me so and then but
Speaker 1: I didn't know you spoke Spanish? Where are you from?
Speaker 1: Does it matter you got exactly, doesn't matter that Latino
Speaker 1: community is so diverse. We all look in so many
Speaker 1: different shades here, styles, body types, features, everything, so see
Speaker 1: and I know that it happens to a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of other after Latinos as well, where they're
Speaker 1: you know, they find themselves being questioned where it's just
Speaker 1: weird or or you get the famous what are you
Speaker 1: mixed with? Who said that you have to be mixed
Speaker 1: with any other race or culture or whatever in order
Speaker 1: to be you know Latino like gas lighting? Totalizing? Oh
Speaker 1: I like your hair? Like, how do you feel when
Speaker 1: people tell you that? But med I think that. First
Speaker 1: of all, I haven't been rocking my afro for a
Speaker 1: while now ever since the pandemic, I just wanted to
Speaker 1: change up. And I went through this you know life
Speaker 1: experience where I've changed a lot, right, I've grown. I
Speaker 1: still rock my afro and I love the texture of
Speaker 1: my hair. And I've had this situation where people being
Speaker 1: just pick your hands, you know, their hands in your
Speaker 1: hair or like, oh my god, your hair is fluffy.
Speaker 1: What do you do to where they pat me? I'm
Speaker 1: like me, get your hands off my hair immediately. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't think that a lot of people understand how
Speaker 1: uncomfortable it is. You know, you're not an animal, you're
Speaker 1: not a pet. Is nothing weird because I hate the terminology.
Speaker 1: And let's talk about this real quick too. I think
Speaker 1: that racism has been normalized so much amongst even the
Speaker 1: Latino community, that you don't even know when you're being racist.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a song Let's talk about my mom,
Speaker 1: but like that was an actual song Mommy don't want
Speaker 1: a black Latino but but I want my black life,
Speaker 1: like and that song was, like, there's been so much
Speaker 1: that was okay, Like, there's been so much racial I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: I don't know what exactly to call it, because I
Speaker 1: just feel that it's been normalized. Come when you're being racist, okay,
Speaker 1: And just because of that, I want this show to
Speaker 1: not just be a way for me to vent and
Speaker 1: express my own experiences, but I also want to be
Speaker 1: able to educate people. But no, Saven, you don't know
Speaker 1: when you're being racist. Let me give you a perfect example.
Speaker 1: If you see a black woman or if you see
Speaker 1: a black men, don't say I for being black. You're
Speaker 1: very pretty Excuse me, what the hell does that mean?
Speaker 1: So you're basically saying black people are ugly, but it
Speaker 1: just so happens to be that I'm that one person
Speaker 1: who looks decent. Don't say that. Here's another perfect example.
Speaker 1: I grew up my whole life saying hearing, oh um,
Speaker 1: but when we Lina no like, you have really nice features,
Speaker 1: don't mess it up. You know, getting married to I world,
Speaker 1: you have to better her. They'll be like, you have
Speaker 1: to better the race. So you're saying that my race
Speaker 1: is not good. Then my race is bad. Then my
Speaker 1: features are not good, my skin color is not good.
Speaker 1: I have to better it by marrying or being with
Speaker 1: someone who is have more European features so that my
Speaker 1: children could be light skin. So if you didn't know
Speaker 1: that saying that makes you racist, let me educate you.
Speaker 1: You don't say that and like that. I've gone through
Speaker 1: so many experiences, like even now, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: after Latinos, there's a lot of black people who were bullied,
Speaker 1: who were made made fun of for having you know,
Speaker 1: big lips or having certain features which now have become
Speaker 1: you know, trendy, and people paid for it. You know,
Speaker 1: before it was all about the big boots and no
Speaker 1: no ask with all due respect for those girls that
Speaker 1: are naturally built like that, and then now women are
Speaker 1: buying their butt because they're looking like us. I'm tell oh,
Speaker 1: but I say when mona, which I've heard that a
Speaker 1: lot of times, joe Ya Mona. They've called me mona
Speaker 1: monkeys so many times in my life that I didn't
Speaker 1: even realize that it was a bad thing. Was just
Speaker 1: more like, you know, there goes another one when and
Speaker 1: I feel too that I want to clarify that a
Speaker 1: lot of people will never understand the experiences a black
Speaker 1: person lives. Whether you're going love how they whether you
Speaker 1: come from Europe, whether you come from Africa, whether you
Speaker 1: come from Latin America, doesn't matter. If you are born
Speaker 1: with this color skin, with this melanin that God gave us,
Speaker 1: you will never understand the experiences that we've been through.
Speaker 1: The way that people look at us, The way that
Speaker 1: when you walk in the store, people are always looking
Speaker 1: at you like you're gonna steal something. The way that
Speaker 1: if you walk by someone, people automatically hold their purse
Speaker 1: because they're scared you're gonna steal from them. The way
Speaker 1: that people talk about two when whenever anybody wants to
Speaker 1: say something negative. The first thing they say. People don't
Speaker 1: understand how humiliating it is and how hurtful it is,
Speaker 1: because we didn't choose to be born this way, nor
Speaker 1: would I have wanted to change because I love being negative.
Speaker 1: I love my skin color, I love who I am.
Speaker 1: But I understood at a very early age that in
Speaker 1: order to live in this world with my skin tone,
Speaker 1: I was gonna have to work twice as hard. People
Speaker 1: were always gonna look at me, you know, with a
Speaker 1: certain you know, they were gonna look at me differently
Speaker 1: just because I'm black, and a lot of people like,
Speaker 1: but we're not racist. We don't understand, we don't see
Speaker 1: if we have evolved a lot, No, we have it. No,
Speaker 1: we have not, especially in the Latino community. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: to say it, and I'm sorry to like pinpoint it,
Speaker 1: but that we haven't been able to progress. We're the
Speaker 1: someone and theos. We're the first ones to humiliate us.
Speaker 1: We're the first ones that if your daughter brings ago
Speaker 1: to the house, you're like, you don't get us, as
Speaker 1: I don't want that, or what are you doing? Let's
Speaker 1: be honest, Like we keep saying all between Latinos, we're
Speaker 1: not I don't like to generalize, but there's a big
Speaker 1: percentage of people that are and you will see it
Speaker 1: to our faces. But behind behind closed doors, people have
Speaker 1: feelings about us. So that has made it hard for
Speaker 1: a lot of us to get jobs. It's made it
Speaker 1: hard for a lot of us to be visibly like
Speaker 1: for example, if they have to pick between someone who
Speaker 1: is dark skin and someone who is light skined, who
Speaker 1: both have let's say, who both can do the job,
Speaker 1: you'll always go for the light skin because black people
Speaker 1: come up as intimidating or scary or be careful or
Speaker 1: da da. It's a lot of pressure that people don't
Speaker 1: know about. No, it's absolutely right, because, um, I went
Speaker 1: from my first job interview with my best friend he's
Speaker 1: that for Latino, and they hired me right away and
Speaker 1: they hire him. So I didn't take the job, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And at that time, there's always like, oh,
Speaker 1: don't think like that. You know, people always say, oh,
Speaker 1: don't think like that, don't think that we knew, Yeah,
Speaker 1: like you know, I don't know. I don't don't know.
Speaker 1: He said that's crazy, and I said, but that's all
Speaker 1: right because they lost that one. But too But look,
Speaker 1: at this culturally that we know the soap operas are
Speaker 1: big things for the Latino community. Novels is something that
Speaker 1: has been with us for years. We used to watch
Speaker 1: it with our grandparents La Mamma after work. It's like
Speaker 1: a moment that you spend with your family. And I
Speaker 1: remember growing up and watching TV and always wondering, why
Speaker 1: doesn't anybody look like me. There was only two novelas
Speaker 1: that I recall. One it was Chica La Silva and
Speaker 1: it's the only reason why they were black people in Nuela.
Speaker 1: It was because it was about slaves and about slaves battle.
Speaker 1: They never at one point sell a Cruise, which I
Speaker 1: love her and we'll talk about her in a second,
Speaker 1: because they for life. She was also no novela and
Speaker 1: she was that even got slapped and and it was
Speaker 1: that was a moment in the history for the Latino
Speaker 1: community that was so damaging and hurtful because the one
Speaker 1: icon and idol that we have that we admire, she
Speaker 1: is ours, the one opportunity that they give us to
Speaker 1: be on TV, and she's there Sea Cruise and the
Speaker 1: Sea Eli Act Sprinci. It was so humiliating until this day,
Speaker 1: how many nobelas or soap operas. There are things that
Speaker 1: we see on big screen Latina. Do you see people
Speaker 1: like us? You don't unless we are the robbers, the rapers,
Speaker 1: the drug addict. Why And it's that stigma, that prototype
Speaker 1: that that it's a forto massume that unconsciously makes people
Speaker 1: be afraid of us. In real life, you'll see so
Speaker 1: much negativity about us and little positive stuff that people
Speaker 1: start to believe it. You know how many great attorneys, doctors, producers,
Speaker 1: great talented Afro Latinos there is that don't get credit
Speaker 1: credit for their work. That is a very tough thing.
Speaker 1: And I think that we need to talk about it,
Speaker 1: like let's stop trying to hide it and let's really
Speaker 1: talk about it. These conversations be to how I've been
Speaker 1: so you did create that awareness on the love and
Speaker 1: hip hop platform? Correct? Um? Since then, yes, have they
Speaker 1: offered you any roles or is it still the same situation? Well,
Speaker 1: I was. I did a movie. Um, I did a
Speaker 1: movie with Chris Stokes. Shoutouts to him. I love him
Speaker 1: so much for supporting me. Fall Girls is actually on
Speaker 1: Netflix and I I was grateful to the fact that
Speaker 1: he allowed me to speak some Spanish, but Honestly, whenever
Speaker 1: I do get offered roles, for the most part, none
Speaker 1: of them are representing the Afro Latino community has never
Speaker 1: been Dominican, Latina, Romanian, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Colombiana, and it's
Speaker 1: never being Latina. And then that continues to bother me.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for the opportunities given, but I would like
Speaker 1: for all these directors, producers, a and ours, executive whatever, whatever,
Speaker 1: let me point the finger at YouTube. All of you
Speaker 1: hypocrites that say that you want to support the Latino Commy,
Speaker 1: that you want to support the after Latino community, that
Speaker 1: you want to see more diversity, that you feel that
Speaker 1: you you know, you were holding our hands and you're
Speaker 1: supporting us. You're a hypocrite because you have the platform
Speaker 1: and you have the possibilities to make a difference. You
Speaker 1: have the possibilities to change the narrative, and you don't.
Speaker 1: You continue to get the same actors, the same roles.
Speaker 1: That nothing has changed. When George Floyd and the Black
Speaker 1: Lives Matter movement happened, I tell you, everybody, everybody was there,
Speaker 1: oh support were so everybody has something to stay on
Speaker 1: social media. Now that things have somewhat calmed, down. Who
Speaker 1: do you here talking about it? What has happened? Nothing
Speaker 1: has happened. We're going back to the same ship we
Speaker 1: were doing before. So if you ask me if things
Speaker 1: have changed, no, I believe that the conversation did get
Speaker 1: started a lot. I am grateful to the fact that
Speaker 1: a lot of after Latinos that didn't even know or
Speaker 1: consider themselves after Latino, after the movement and everything that
Speaker 1: has happened, and even after hearing me speak, now I
Speaker 1: feel proud of saying I am Latino, I am after Latino.
Speaker 1: You know, take they they now accept their their ancestors. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I am grateful for that. But do I see
Speaker 1: a big difference. No. When you look at the charts
Speaker 1: of artists, artists Latinos, okay, artists Latinos and Latin gram
Speaker 1: Biana whichever one you can here with one hand, how
Speaker 1: many after Latinos are in there, and they don't even
Speaker 1: look like us. We have such shout out to him,
Speaker 1: admiring food and moment. We can't obviously forget about the Okay,
Speaker 1: little and if you want to go all the way back,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go all the way back to you know,
Speaker 1: and handed I, who's you know that we're part of
Speaker 1: the urban they were part of the urban movement in
Speaker 1: Canadio side that we get those things, but they this
Speaker 1: new generation, it's very little of us there, and it's
Speaker 1: not based off talent. There's a lot of Alfro Latinos
Speaker 1: that are very talented, but if your complexion and your
Speaker 1: looks don't match what social media and popularity will accept,
Speaker 1: you're never gonna make it. Let's let's not get a twisted.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of Latin talent, and let's talk about
Speaker 1: something that bothers me too. When we talk about film,
Speaker 1: when we talk about novella, soapbapers, when we talk about
Speaker 1: the commercials, when you talk about all these other things,
Speaker 1: me there memo, lesta minco molasis in main seeing them
Speaker 1: everything when I see that, when they talk with all
Speaker 1: due respect about Mexicans or whatever, they want to choose
Speaker 1: this prototype, this prototype of the same thing that they
Speaker 1: use in every novel. Lab right, either your blonde, blue
Speaker 1: eyes or labrnet with certain features more European features. No,
Speaker 1: show me what a real name? Not Colombiana. How does
Speaker 1: this want of look show many more diversence? Show me
Speaker 1: the Dominicans when you go to the Dominican Republic and
Speaker 1: you see all of us, we don't look like that movie.
Speaker 1: We don't look like that. Everybody is not cookie cutter pretty. No,
Speaker 1: because that cuts out a lot of opportunities for real
Speaker 1: good actors. So you're not picking just people based off
Speaker 1: how good of actors they are. They have to fit
Speaker 1: this pretty You know. I don't like that because that's
Speaker 1: not true diversity. So of course when I was hit
Speaker 1: up and they were like, oh, we didn't see there
Speaker 1: was a lack of after Latini dad on the film,
Speaker 1: of course I felt some type of way because we
Speaker 1: just finished going through a protest about Black Lives Matter,
Speaker 1: going through a protest talking about diversities. We just finished
Speaker 1: telling you guys, hello, we're here Latino. If I'm lucky
Speaker 1: knows after Latinos, we're here. Please give us opportunities. They
Speaker 1: know whom Champ said. We're talented, we're good, we're educated.
Speaker 1: Please did you did anybody care? No? Because it's still
Speaker 1: not being done. You know what's the words. The worst
Speaker 1: part about who did taking consideration? I heart radio because
Speaker 1: making a difference. They said that. What really got me,
Speaker 1: Kanya was the at least they're saying well, at least
Speaker 1: there's a representation. First of all, sixty years ago West
Speaker 1: Side Story came out, they didn't even let Maria, she
Speaker 1: was supposed to be cast. She tried to be the
Speaker 1: main protaga okay, and the rest of them weren't even like,
Speaker 1: you know, the majority. And it was about how you
Speaker 1: have other people playing Puerto Ricans right in in New
Speaker 1: York where there's uh tons of you know, the lad
Speaker 1: xt community that are trying to break out and acting
Speaker 1: trying to break up, and then they're like so thirsty,
Speaker 1: like everyone, all the Latinos in the world should go
Speaker 1: see it during the pandemic because oh, because we don't
Speaker 1: support each other. No no no, no, no no no no no
Speaker 1: no no no no no no no no. When there's
Speaker 1: movies about Caucasians and there's movies about anybody, we are
Speaker 1: the consumers and we go watch it. So why is
Speaker 1: it just our responsibility to go watch? Okay, so and
Speaker 1: don't said, let's also make ourselves responsible, because yes, we're
Speaker 1: very good at putting the finger to everybody that is
Speaker 1: not supporting us, but Latina amongst ourselves, are we being
Speaker 1: supportive of each other? Are we being supportive of our
Speaker 1: own films. Are we being supportive of our own radio stations?
Speaker 1: Are we being supportive of our own brands? Are we
Speaker 1: being supportive? No, we're consuming as well. And let me
Speaker 1: not say no because I don't like to generalize. But
Speaker 1: we consume from other cultures, We consume from other races.
Speaker 1: But are we Are we being supportive of ourselves and
Speaker 1: we don't support each other? How do we expect other
Speaker 1: people to respect and support us? But think about it,
Speaker 1: A lot of of our LATINOX community don't. I mean,
Speaker 1: they say we are the good the consumers and we
Speaker 1: just streamers. But to be honest, like, how many times
Speaker 1: were did your parents bring you to the movies as
Speaker 1: a kid? Think about it coming from those air urban areas?
Speaker 1: How many times? How many like? And I understand the
Speaker 1: support thing? But is it our responsibility? Yes? It is, Yes,
Speaker 1: it is. You know why because maybe our parents weren't
Speaker 1: educated at that moment back then, but the Latin X
Speaker 1: community we know better about give us better jobs, were
Speaker 1: not better to be able to give our kids money
Speaker 1: to go support these things? Do you got? It's deeper
Speaker 1: than that. It's it's the root of it all is
Speaker 1: that we now for us, we're like the job. We're
Speaker 1: the minority everywhere, and then they want us to spend
Speaker 1: money and support I get, I guess the party. I
Speaker 1: get the part of finances. I get the part of finances.
Speaker 1: I get the part which we definitely to talk about
Speaker 1: finances and in the Latino community because we have a
Speaker 1: lot of education to go through. But I get that
Speaker 1: part to be supportive. Sometimes you know, it's not even
Speaker 1: about the money. You know, it's not even about the money.
Speaker 1: It could be a simple post. It could be a
Speaker 1: simple word of mouth. You know, a word of mouth.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, because if you see flos
Speaker 1: a d J a J, you go automatically go said boo,
Speaker 1: that was good, But you won't try to go support
Speaker 1: your own people. Okay, he needs a bread too, No,
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm saying. We are so good at
Speaker 1: bring the finger everybody for not supporting us. But let's
Speaker 1: also be responsible for ourselves. We have to educate ourselves parents.
Speaker 1: As parents, and you know, I have my children in
Speaker 1: my ovaries better as parents, we also have to be
Speaker 1: make ourselves responsible for educating our children about their own culture,
Speaker 1: about their own culture. Espoliol not for nothing, shout out
Speaker 1: to you if you don't know Spanish and you are Latino,
Speaker 1: or if you do know Spanish or whatever the case
Speaker 1: may be, and or if you have to polish it.
Speaker 1: That's part of our culture, the Latin X community. I
Speaker 1: want to give you guys that advice. Obviously, in this country,
Speaker 1: if you know more than one language, you're obviously already winning.
Speaker 1: But it is so important to not lose our culture,
Speaker 1: even if we're born in the United States. I was
Speaker 1: born here in Miami, Okay. I was born here and
Speaker 1: I didn't even get to go to my parents country,
Speaker 1: Dominican Republican. I was like eighteen spaddle utez don minicana Latina.
Speaker 1: And whether you like it or not, here I know
Speaker 1: you go to school and you learn English and school
Speaker 1: you speak Spanish. It's important to still maintain our culture.
Speaker 1: Our music, lacomida are everything. We don't want to lose
Speaker 1: that magic and that comes from education and our parents.
Speaker 1: Parents need to do their part. Two. I just want
Speaker 1: to find also solutions to the problems, because I know
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of problem making of supporting our people.
Speaker 1: Still are they embracing this new term latin X. I
Speaker 1: think that a lot of people are embracing the new
Speaker 1: terminology of Latin XI gen um. I think or do
Speaker 1: people say I'm a Latino, I'm a Latina. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Some people like the neutral, you know, the Latin X
Speaker 1: and just keep it as that. I personally like to
Speaker 1: say I'm Latina and that's just what it is. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm part of the Latino community, and I feel proud
Speaker 1: of saying them. But whatever works for you, as long
Speaker 1: as you're proud of where you come from and you
Speaker 1: don't deny your heritage and your ancestors and your culture,
Speaker 1: I'm down for it. What do you consider yourself to be?
Speaker 1: I just learned about the Latin X community and the
Speaker 1: whole terminology, the term and um. I think that you know,
Speaker 1: this is perfect. I think that perfecting stuff you know
Speaker 1: years later, you know we're in a you know, further place. Now.
Speaker 1: My thing is, I would like to know if our
Speaker 1: listeners go to exactly amount of page right now, Instagram
Speaker 1: or any platform and let us know, are you okay
Speaker 1: with the term latin X or do you still consider
Speaker 1: yourself a lot you know or Latina? Well, I know,
Speaker 1: I mean I do understand the line x um, the
Speaker 1: line X terminology too for a lot of those Latinos
Speaker 1: that are born and raised in the United States, where
Speaker 1: you kind of you know your parents are Latinos, right,
Speaker 1: but you feel like I'm American. Sometimes it's hard because
Speaker 1: I remember growing up I didn't necessarily know what to say.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was born in America. I was born
Speaker 1: in the Unit States. I go to school and it's
Speaker 1: in English, but my mom don't no no English. And
Speaker 1: like I said, everything is in Spanish and we hear
Speaker 1: mid ange all day. But what am I? So I
Speaker 1: understand how maybe just giving that terminology of latin X
Speaker 1: it kind of makes you feel more comfortable to say
Speaker 1: that you don't necessarily have to know Spanish, but you
Speaker 1: you understand that your family maybe Latino or whatever. So
Speaker 1: I think in the term works for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: You know, whatever whatever makes you happy, so you know
Speaker 1: real quick and brief. Um, I want to have an
Speaker 1: iconic moment. There's a lot of photos of La Cruz.
Speaker 1: Yes did she embrace you? Yes she did. I had
Speaker 1: the opportunity of performing with her in two occasions or
Speaker 1: three occasions. Um, and that was such an iconic and
Speaker 1: and just such a when in my career and in
Speaker 1: my life as a person like I will always be
Speaker 1: grateful to her, and I don't I wish that she
Speaker 1: would have been able to be here to see how
Speaker 1: much she inspired me. And now thanks to her inspiration,
Speaker 1: I've been able to inspire other after Latinos and other
Speaker 1: little girls, um and other you know girls to feel
Speaker 1: proud of who they are and their color, the texture
Speaker 1: of their of their hair. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: talking about that, part of that inspiration was my children's
Speaker 1: books Way, which by the way, you guys can purchase
Speaker 1: it now at Amazon dot Com or Barnes and Noble
Speaker 1: or just go to exactly Amada and the information is
Speaker 1: right there. My children's book. I did it exactly for that.
Speaker 1: It is available in Spanish, English and in French. To
Speaker 1: make you understand at a very young age you have
Speaker 1: to embrace the color of your skin, the texture of
Speaker 1: your hair, you know, be proud of who you are,
Speaker 1: stay focused and determined. And right now I'm working on
Speaker 1: the second edition about Marita's Way as well. Always inspiring
Speaker 1: the little ones that that's super important. It's I think
Speaker 1: it's great. I mean, you've done. I just want to
Speaker 1: give you your flowers right here on. I don't think
Speaker 1: you've done such a great job, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: just being an advocate, being a voice, you know, really,
Speaker 1: you know, seeing you on love and hip hop and
Speaker 1: and seeing you push the whole Afrilatinos that we're not
Speaker 1: just one color. We're not just you know this Latinos
Speaker 1: coming all different flavors color like, that's incredible. You created
Speaker 1: awareness and awesome and so do you. You you also
Speaker 1: inspired a lot of Latinos as well. But you know,
Speaker 1: I dream of one day being able to see uh
Speaker 1: soap opera, write a movie where they have Afro Latinos
Speaker 1: in there and they can have good roles where you're
Speaker 1: not a drug at it there. You're not a killer,
Speaker 1: you're not a prostitutor, You're not like. I wish that
Speaker 1: I could see this. I wish that I could see
Speaker 1: more magazine covers where they have diversity of the Latino
Speaker 1: community and then they show you know, what we look like,
Speaker 1: who we are as a community overall, See more afflat
Speaker 1: You know, I would love to whind not if no
Speaker 1: one's doing it and we're all spreading, we're all screaming
Speaker 1: for it, they hear us, but no one's doing anything
Speaker 1: about it. I would be willing to do it. The
Speaker 1: story that someone that has lived, I think it would
Speaker 1: be great. And you know what, that's another thing too.
Speaker 1: In order for a film or something like this to
Speaker 1: actually work, you need to give opportunities to after latinos
Speaker 1: to actually produce and be executive producers and be behind
Speaker 1: the project, not just in front of it. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean, because you wouldn't understand. But I think that, um,
Speaker 1: this is just the beginning of many things to change.
Speaker 1: I believe that the conversation needs to continue happening. I
Speaker 1: think that we can't let it die out. We can't
Speaker 1: give up because if so, I think we definitely need
Speaker 1: to continue the conversation and see people that really are
Speaker 1: in power help make a change. I don't want to
Speaker 1: leave this episode without really tapping into the now. Lemon
Speaker 1: while put out an apology on Twitter, you know, apologizing
Speaker 1: for the colorism, Yeah, the lack of the lack of representation.
Speaker 1: Now was that enough? Was that enough? Or do you
Speaker 1: think they're just gonna apologize and do it again? You
Speaker 1: know what? Apologizing? That's how I feel, with all due respect,
Speaker 1: maybe he truly didn't have any you know, ill intentions
Speaker 1: behind it. But I'm so sick of people doing stuff
Speaker 1: and then it just apologizing and moving forward from it
Speaker 1: like nothing happened, Like you should have known better. Don't
Speaker 1: you have like a team? Because the movie wasn't done
Speaker 1: just with you. There's a whole crew and a whole
Speaker 1: team and a whole bunch of executives behind these films.
Speaker 1: You should have known better. And if you didn't know,
Speaker 1: why didn't anybody guide you? What was the what's the
Speaker 1: point of you paying people to help you get a
Speaker 1: job done if they're not gonna help you get the
Speaker 1: job done correctly? And among so many Latinos that were
Speaker 1: on that set, I make them responsible to because even
Speaker 1: if you don't, I know that you're there for your
Speaker 1: check and I get it, you're there to do get
Speaker 1: the job done. But you could have said something too,
Speaker 1: like oh yeah, it would be kind of cool we
Speaker 1: had some morenos in here, because that's things that you'll
Speaker 1: say with Franca and I'm very fresh, and I say,
Speaker 1: if you're a producer women, how come there's no black
Speaker 1: people here and you're talking about they get where Dominicans?
Speaker 1: What's happening? Come? Okay, we don't really look like this
Speaker 1: in my family, let's talk about it. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know about an apology. It's almost like he
Speaker 1: put an African American in there and he was like,
Speaker 1: that's enough. Find That's the problem right there, is that
Speaker 1: they always separate. They always say, oh, we have a
Speaker 1: black actor. That said no, there is a black Latinos
Speaker 1: as well there. I don't want to take no. I
Speaker 1: don't look. I don't take no no apologies. You know why,
Speaker 1: because they get the sea by the apology. If you
Speaker 1: still didn't give us opportunities, they get the seal with
Speaker 1: the apology. If you're still making money, you're still making
Speaker 1: you're still making bread from our people, from us because
Speaker 1: we're still consuming your product. They cannot see today that
Speaker 1: you came and you apologize after your team messed up.
Speaker 1: Your team should have known. If we're doing a Latin
Speaker 1: movie based on the Latino community in New York wid Dominicans,
Speaker 1: why the hell don't we have after Latinos? Why don't
Speaker 1: we have black people in here? Why don't we so?
Speaker 1: And if they do like I said, they'll have them
Speaker 1: and salone doing hair, they'll have them doing nails, they'll
Speaker 1: have them doing a thousand things, but never as a
Speaker 1: main cast. Why not Blanco the better role. Let's give
Speaker 1: them credit to Leslie Grayson was there too, you know
Speaker 1: That's how Yeah, this is not discrediting any of the
Speaker 1: actors that played and did their jobs. This has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with you. This is about production. This is
Speaker 1: about the directors. This is about the team behind closed
Speaker 1: doors that should have known that this film was gonna
Speaker 1: be so important to the Latino community that we were waiting,
Speaker 1: we were anxious, we were excited for this film because
Speaker 1: that was gonna be about us, And when you talked
Speaker 1: about us, you missed you missed us, and you only
Speaker 1: put the people that you saw convenience and attractive for
Speaker 1: the audience that you wanted to cater to. So do
Speaker 1: I want to take the party? I personally don't. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're doing in the movie and you fix what
Speaker 1: you messed up on this one, perhaps I'll pile part
Speaker 1: two right now, because that's exactly what everybody does say.
Speaker 1: They don't take us in consideration. They put us wherever
Speaker 1: and whenever they want, and then they're like, oh, sorry,
Speaker 1: we'll go do it next time, and then they don't. So, right,
Speaker 1: do we have to conform to this that it's so
Speaker 1: annoying because there is other movies. Oh, but this is
Speaker 1: the first representation in New York and can't booth this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like it, like that. Did anybody watch that one?
Speaker 1: Because that one was really good? When John said that
Speaker 1: was a really good one, and you know they're they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: but this is the first time, and we have to
Speaker 1: deal with it because this is my thing, is that
Speaker 1: as as Latinos. First of all, let me say this
Speaker 1: because I feel it in my experience. I have to
Speaker 1: say it. I don't have the way I the seen
Speaker 1: as as as the Latino community. If we don't say
Speaker 1: anything and we don't speak up about it, it's going
Speaker 1: to continue to happen. And just because you may not
Speaker 1: have my skin complexion and you may not be as
Speaker 1: dark as I am, doesn't mean that I am not
Speaker 1: part of the Latino community. Doesn't mean that you shouldn't
Speaker 1: hurt and suffer with my pain as well. Okay, because
Speaker 1: we're still all minorities at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: they all see us the same. Okay. So even though
Speaker 1: you may have felt identified in the movie because someone
Speaker 1: looked like you specifically, what about the Latino community and
Speaker 1: your sister, you're what about You're not like in a
Speaker 1: Dominican family. It's not like my sister're not just Dominican,
Speaker 1: not just Dominican, Puerto Ricanio. We're not called la familia,
Speaker 1: la familia, familia Colombiana. I need a lot of Colombians
Speaker 1: that are light skinning. But like, what about the rest
Speaker 1: of us? And I'm just so sick of it just
Speaker 1: keeps happening. Like I've felt that the High Street have
Speaker 1: known better, Like this film meant so much to it.
Speaker 1: They didn't put the shut up generation that's over and
Speaker 1: keep it moving. No, open your mouth, people, open your
Speaker 1: mouth right now. Let me tell you this is a
Speaker 1: new world that we're living in days. I feel responsible
Speaker 1: to a certain extent for the half of Latino community
Speaker 1: because I've been the voice for a long time. A
Speaker 1: lot of people look up to me for it, and
Speaker 1: I most definitely am not gonna shut my mouth up
Speaker 1: and not say anything. So therefore, I personally at this moment,
Speaker 1: I'm saying the actors were great, they did a great job, whatever,
Speaker 1: But I'm a producer. You're gonna put out a movie
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter. You're gonna have critics. That is
Speaker 1: a part of the industry. You gotta have thick skin.
Speaker 1: You're gonna put out a project, you do have to
Speaker 1: take the critical Well, we have to be like, oh Puerto,
Speaker 1: how about we have to do better just by helping
Speaker 1: each other. They're out construct criticism and this is not
Speaker 1: and this is not us being damaging or anything in
Speaker 1: any shape, ware or form. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: I want to know your opinion on Exactly a Mata
Speaker 1: on all our social media platforms, Twitter, Instagram, check us
Speaker 1: out on YouTube as well. Let us know how you
Speaker 1: felt about this film The in the Heights. Let us
Speaker 1: know how you feel how you feel about this movie
Speaker 1: to you, you feel that there's a lack of representation
Speaker 1: in this film, where you hurt by it? Are you
Speaker 1: okay with it? What are your thoughts and feelings? Let
Speaker 1: us know. But with that being said, guys, you know what,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening to Exactly a Mata.
Speaker 1: Remember to share and subscribe always. Thank you for showing
Speaker 1: us love and support. You know that will be here.
Speaker 1: We do what no one else is willing to do.
Speaker 1: We tell you the truth. Um you can find us
Speaker 1: on Instagram, Twitter. Like I said, before an and also
Speaker 1: at exactly a Mata and you can find Stev at
Speaker 1: s b e y e w N easy. That's right. Also,
Speaker 1: go follow at Michael Podcast for more information and for
Speaker 1: more programming. This show is super late. You can miss
Speaker 1: our next episode next week. We'll get a deal as
Speaker 1: we go on with these episodes. It just okay. And
Speaker 1: by the way, just in case you didn't know, this
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio and micro Podcast.
Speaker 1: With that being said, we love you guys seyon next