I live in N.Y.C.; Latin queens are sick'ning!
I would say the hardest part in the Latino world is approval from your parents. It's such an intense thing.
In lots of ways, I've been trying to tell stories this way since I started writing plays: a female-centered story with queer, Latinx gaze.
When people see a Spanish last name, they have an image in their head of what the typical Latina looks like. I think it's important on television to have different representations of people. And I'm so proud of being Latina. I love it.
Growing up in Miami, I had all these great, strong influences. You know, being Cuban and the Latin influence, but also the strong hip-hop influence.
I realized how Latina I was, and then also, at the same time, how not Latina enough I was, because I'm born and raised in Los Angeles. I speak Spanish, but I don't speak perfect Spanish, not like a native speaker.
In bachata, you had these guys that used to wear suits and had a really traditional style. We looked different. Baggy jeans. We had the Spanglish going on, and I knew that was going to work to our advantage.
A couple of years after I arrived in Hollywood, everything that was Latino was fashionable, and years after, my thought is that we're not fashionable anymore. We're here to stay.
Am I Latin? Am I American? What the hell am I? I love my culture and I'm very proud of my culture.
Hispanic gives us all one ultimate paternal cultural progenitor: Spain. The diverse cultures already on the American shores when the Europeans arrived, as well as those introduced because of the African slave trade, are completely obliterated by the term. Hispanic is nothing more than a concession made by the U. S. legislature when they saw they couldn't get rid of us. If we won't go away, why not at least Europeanize us, make us presentable guests at the dinner table, take away our feathers and rattles and civilize us once and for all.
I'm proud of my background, so I hope there will be more roles where Hispanics are being portrayed.
I always was missing that female brown queer perspective, and I think in 'Vida' we have that. A lot of things I wanted to touch on and deal with, I get to do here.
'Wonder Woman' was on TV when I was growing up, and I knew Lynda Carter was part Latina. It gave me a great sense of pride.
I wake up every day, and I'm a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx. Every single day.
I never had the opportunity to play a Latino character that is seen in a heroic, smart way.
Many artists in Mexico fight to be the Latina Madonna. I don't want that! Never! Maybe she's the American Gloria Trevi!
I'm Latino, progressive, and I have deep roots in the working class - my father was a bracero, a guest farmworker and cook, and my mom worked as a nursing home laundry attendant.
I was growing up and maturing at a time where we were invisible, man. We were nowhere except negative. Any time you saw a Latin person in Hollywood or on TV, they were some sort of negative character.
When you get a bunch of Latinxs together, we get to handle our stories. A cultural shorthand happens.
My father is Cuban. Spanish was my first language, but I don't speak it that much anymore because I had dyslexia, and in school they work with you only in English. But I'm proud to be Latina, and most people don't know I am.
Latinos are very passionate, and they perform a lot, and look at me, I'm talking with my hands, and this is just my normal self, so it kind of allows me to be who I am and not dumb it down.
I got involved in the underground world known as ballroom culture, and I used to walk a category called 'face,' and it was a very heavily Latino culture - it's black and Latino - and they used to call me 'cara,' which means face in Spanish, so I started putting 'cara' on everything: hats, jackets.
The Latina in me is an ember that blazes forever.
There's a lot of Latinos right now, a lot of filmmakers and writers that are Latin too.
I bring a lot of passion to my life and my politics - I don't mind saying there is a very strong Latin component to it.
