Seen Elsewhere: Our Big Afro-Descendant Sisterhood

Via Giphy

I remember sitting with a friend who identified as Afro-Latina.  She beamed with joy as she told me about her Afro-Cuban friend from class, her coworker from Guyana, and me, a Black American she met through a mutual friend. The bond that she felt with all of us was special. Despite our ethnic and cultural differences, we were all Black women. We may go by different names, speak contrasting languages and dance to separate music, but we all are apart of an unspoken sisterhood.

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Diasporic Realness Guest Writer’s Month: Yes, Black People Do Dance To ‘Spanish Music’

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Diasporic Realness is a Guest Writer’s Month dedicated to US telling our stories!

By: Tamika Burgess of The Essence of Me

It would be weird to go to one of your family gatherings andsee Black people dancing to Spanish music,” someone said to me. “Why?” I asked. “Because…it would just be weird,” he responded.  

11 Things Black-American Spanish Speakers Encounter

Via Giphy

Let’s be real. Being a Black-American Spanish speaker is fun. You get to dip in on all the chisme like an undercover spy, and flirt with cuties in two languages. However, it can be difficult when people don’t understand your passion for this romance language. Here, I outline 11 things that happen when you speak your second language:

1. You’re asked on more than one occasion, “Where are you from?” And when you answer, the person inquires, “But where is your family from?”

Society is just now getting hip to the notion of an Afro-Latina. So, the fact that your Spanish is causing conversations about that African Diaspora is a plus. You just wish they would be satisfied when you told them your family is from the U.S.

2. If you are in school, your classmates always want to copy off of your paper in Spanish class.

Okay, so your peers didn’t do their conjugation charts? But they think they’re going to get the answers you spent your precious time working on? Ay, no.

3. Latinas often address you in English when they first meet you because well…eres Negra.

Even when you are with your Spanish-speaking amigos, Latinos greet everyone besides you in their native tongue. When you start a conversation in Spanish, they are in utter shock and amazement.

Read more here.