Amara La Negra: Too Black To Be Latina? Too Latina To Be Black?

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2018

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

People are constantly telling Amara La Negra that she doesn't fit anywhere. Sometimes, she's "too black to be Latina." Other times, she's "too Latina to be black." But Amara says afro-Latinas aren't rare and they're no cause for confusion — they're just in dire need of more representation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I know that nobody wants to talk about it, but we suffer a lot of racism.
0:07.9	We suffer a lot of colorism amongst ourselves.
0:11.0	That's artist and Afro-Latina Amara La Negra, putting Latinx folks on blast for all
0:16.9	the racist comments she's heard over the years.
0:19.8	Somebody needs to say something like, are we just gonna keep hearing it and not do anything
0:24.1	about it?
0:25.1	Diana de Los Santos is a real name.
0:26.9	Amara La Negra, that's her stage name.
0:28.7	It means, love the black woman.
0:30.5	She was the breakout star on VH1's show Love and Hip Hop Miami.
0:34.5	The reality show follows the lives of artists and music industry folks as they break in,
0:39.6	come back and cross over.
0:41.7	And when Amara La Negra is not singing or dancing or acting, she's busy calling out
0:46.4	anti-blackness.
0:54.2	This is Code Switch.
0:55.2	I'm Shreen Marisol Maraji.
0:56.2	I'm Jean Demby.
0:57.2	How you feeling homey?
0:58.2	I'm a little sick this week.
0:59.2	You're gonna be hearing it in my voice.
1:01.4	It's raspy, don't I like it.
1:03.5	I wish I could keep it like this, actually.
	...

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