Actress Franceli Chapman-Varela prioritizes her Afro-Latina Roots

Franceli Chapman-Varela is an Afro-Latina activist, actress, producer, poet, and pastor of Dominican nationality, who has made her way up to Hollywood without letting any barrier get in her way. While pursuing her dream of becoming an artist, she has prioritized making her African, Latina, and Caribbean heritage part of her career.

Franceli was born in the Dominican Republic, the granddaughter of African slaves from the Virgin Islands, and was raised in New York. By the age of seven, she began to teach dance with her father. A year later, she went to her first protest with her father when the KKK was appearing on school grounds close to her then-home. Since then, she has used her voice to speak on different panels and marches on the need for inclusion and diversity in Hollywood, where she has lived for the past 9 years. She also got her official ordination in 2020 and has been working as a pastor ever since.

Franceli has hosted Afterbuzz TV, Black Hollywood Live, and Uno Dos Tres Television, as well as participated in panels for the Hispanicize Conference, National Hispanic Media Coalition, and Vida Afro Latina fundraiser. Franceli has covered and written for Houston Style Magazine, Broadway Black, and Soul Essence Magazine and has been featured in the NY Times, Amsterdam News, CNN, and Telemundo. Her play, A Work in Progress, was produced at the Castillo Theatre for the Young Playwrights Festival, and her short story, A Runner’s Heart, was featured on Audible. Chapman is currently working on publishing her first book with Alegria Publishing.

What is it like to be a woman in a male-dominated industry?

What does it feel like to be mansplained all the time? What does it feel to be told that your voice can’t be the final say? There have been so many places where I go to a room, and the power and authority that I bring into that room makes the man feel intimidated so he has to present himself. So it does two things for me: it lets me know how powerful I am and, secondly, how much work we have to do about why our brothers feel that a woman taking up so much space is something they are uncomfortable with.

What are some personal challenges that you faced by being a woman in these spaces?

There is a woman, there is a black woman and then there is a Latina woman. Each of those come with their own thing. So when we are with our sisters, how do we explain to them that their experiences and struggles are valid and important, while there is another layer added to my experience for being a woman of color, which is multilayered because I am a Latina woman of color?

How does it feel to be told ‘hey, say how you feel and set your boundaries’ but then ‘you are too sensitive, too angry, or black women are too difficult’? So how can I be assertive of how you can talk to me without redefining me in the process?

What is it like being a woman in the pastor world?

It has happened to me that I would come into a space, pray and do what God has told me to do, and a man would come in and say ‘yes, and’, like adding to what I would say. I did not expect to go through that in a spiritual space, but of course the patriarchy is alive, including in the Church. But there is an incredible sergeant of women pastors coming forward which I listen to and I am incredibly grateful for having women paying the way for me. But, still, men are the ones who are known, the ones who dominate the space. So how do we, as women, bring a different touch and a different flare?

What does equity or equality mean to you?

Equity looks like being able to operate the fullness of who you are without having to make explanations of why you need to be in the same field. Equity looks like respect regardless of gender or race. Equity looks like ‘hey, if this is what this job pays, this is what this job pays.’ Equity looks like not being discriminated against because I have children or not being discriminated against because I don’t want children. Just being able to have full autonomy over the choices of what I wanna be and being compensated and respected for what you are and you are capable of.

What do you wish was different or what would you like to see change?

I would like to see love being at the forefront. I would like to see empathy, compassion and grace. I really want to see a shift in the human experience so that we don’t have to wait for a tragedy to happen in order to make people, at their core, make others feel seen and heard. It is just a basic human condition that we all desire to have. If we walk into a space with that in the forefront, I wanna show up and make sure that the other person feels seen and heard. That would shift many atmospheres.

What are three things that women should keep in mind to feel empowered?

God loves you. God created you exactly how you are for a reason and everything that you need is already on the design for you. You don’t need to look for it somewhere else, it is right inside of you. And, lastly, walk with full authority of who you are.

Even though climbing to the top being, not only as a woman, but an Afro-Latina one, hasn’t been easy. However, Franceli has managed to do so without letting her roots and her beliefs get lost in the way.

I’m a “Mujer in Charge” because God has said so.

Check out more stories from LATV’s Women’s History Campaign ‘Mujeres In Charge.’