“Are you Black? Are you Jamaican? Are you African? No waitttt, you’re Dominican right?” If I had a dollar for every time I was asked one of these questions, I’d be a millionaire!
Growing up, I was very confused about myself and how I would identify myself to another person. During those times my parents would only identify as Garifunas. Garifuna people were enslaved people who escaped from the island of St. Vincent who are of Carib, Arawak, and African that ended up arriving on the Caribbean coast of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Nicaragua beginning in the early 1600s. Once they arrived, they established and maintained their very own unique culture, dialect, and maintained their way of life even around the mestizo people (native Indians to these coastal regions). Cool right??? Well, little old me was ashamed of this culture and group and did everything to never bring it up for fear of being made of. So I let the people around me question me and be confused as to how and why I knew how to speak Spanish fluently. Eventually I grew tired of it and grew tired of people trying to pinpoint me to something I am not. It wasn’t until college that I discovered the word “Afro-Latina.” I finally came across a way of identifying myself that encompassed my blackness and my Latinidad. I still get upset when people try to guess at what I am instead of flat out asking but the change now is impeccable. I am Afro- Latina by way of Garifuna Hondurans 🙂
The Em Experience 