The Too Often Forgotten, Afro-Latine

As an afro latina myself, I find that the erasure of afro latine people is a huge and relevant issue, as there hasn't been much improvement in the matter. Because this matter is so close to me I chose to include self portraits, along with portraits of other members of my community.  Representation of afro latine people is almost nonexistent. I remember when I was younger people questioned me when I said I was latine, in a way questioning my existence. Even I thought that I was an anomaly as a child. It wasn't until I went back to Cuba- where 62 percent, the majority, of the population is black- that I discovered there is actually a huge part of the latin community the rest of the world is almost completely unaware of. In fact, when people picture a Cuban, or a latine in general, it hardly ever includes black latine. Many latine people themselves often don’t acknowledge the existence of the black latine community. An example is portrayed in the sitcom “One Day at a Time”, a sitcom which tells the story of a Cuban- american family. In one episode the grandmother says that “all Cubans are white”. The daughter corrects her by essentially saying that while most are, a lot are not. Though I have an issue with the show still misinforming its viewers on the race ratio in Cuba, it aimed to highlight an issue within the Latine community. This is true of countries in the Caribbean, Central America and South America. Even in the United States almost a quarter of Latine identifies as Afro-latine. This is despite Afro-latine facing more discrimination and lack of resources in their own countries, that make it harder for them to emigrate. Colorism and racism is prevalent in both the U.S and many, if not all,Latin countries. Such an issue has resulted in little to no representation and a lack of interest in correcting said issue.