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In The Heights?’ Nah. And That’s On El Mayimbe | Opinion
So many feelings, so many feelings. I was invited to a screening of In the Heights by my good friend Blactina. She held it at a black-owned Dominican Cinema for the Afro Latinx community in New York City. I was excited, but at the same time I dreaded that what I expected from the film would become a stark reality based on what I had already seen with my own two eyes in the trailer.
When I first saw the trailer, I put this post out on my reel asking where are the Black Latinos? Because I love this musical so much, I was hoping and praying that I would see more of them in the film…even though I had already looked on IMDb, and I knew that the cast looked more like the Upper East Side than the Upper West Side.
My feelings sit in a very dichotomous place. While watching the film, there were so many things about it that I absolutely loved. I did feel seen to a certain degree. I saw so many parts of my culture highlighted on the big screen, and I felt an immense sense of pride. I also know how important it is to support a film of this magnitude, and how its success could help open more doors for Latinx stories.
At the same time, I couldn’t help but notice that the dark skin Latinos that I was hoping to see in the film were relegated to the background. The first glimpse of dark skin and textured hair got me so excited! And at the same time, it made me realize how iniquitous the erasure of Black Latinx people in TV and film is – that just the mere glimpse of a little texture and color in the background could get me hyped. I was selling us short by being excited just for the HINT of it.
Being a Latina of Puerto Rican descent and also an Afro Latina who is lighter complexioned, I can’t help but check my own bias in that I felt seen and took pride in a film that fell short in highlighting and putting my darker complexioned people front and center. The film ESPECIALLY fell short in highlighting Dominican culture (although I think that was done in attempt to make it a more pan-Latinx film). No Bachata? no Merengue? No perico ripiao? No dembow? No mangu con los tres golpe? Piragua instead of frío frío? Not one “que lo que?”
And even with all that being said – I don’t think my opinion really matters right now.
As much as I’ve been arguing down the cognitive dissonance and the appalling gaslighting that I have seen by other Mestizo and lighter skin Latino folk on social media, and fighting the disgusting invalidation of the experience of our darker skinned Latinos – who really just want to be seen – I realized that this frustration I feel over needing to call out colorism is but a fraction of how much dark skinned Latinx people experience every damn day. Them ALWAYS needing to defend and constantly validate their experience to other Latinx folk who will never understand. People who gaslight them with the idea that we are “all one people,” and we need to take PRIDE in anything Latino. Nah B. We don’t. Not if you not tryna hear me though. If you not tryna see me.
For that reason, I’m going to continue and end this piece with the opinions of my darker skinned folk. Their voice matters more than anyone else’s in this conversation and deserve to be seen and heard.
Darker Complexioned Latinx Opinions on social media:
https://m.facebook.com/story.
https://m.facebook.com/story.
https://www.instagram.com/p/
https://www.instagram.com/p/
A thread that sums it all up:
https://www.instagram.com/p/
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