Hispanic Heritage Month 2020: Afro-Latino Heritage: Films and Videos

An Afro-Latino girl celebrates her quinceañera, a Latin American rite of passage. The way her community has modified the ceremony reflects how blacks have shaped the country, and the double heritage of Afro-Latinos

“Am I black or am I white?” New affirmative action quotas for higher education in Brazil—one of the world’s most racially diverse nations—launch a controversial dialogue about race and identity as this Wide Angle report follows five college candidates from diverse backgrounds competing for a spot at the University of Brasília. In addition, lawyers from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund visit Brazilian civil rights leaders to discuss the legal challenges of affirmative action. With nationwide surveys identifying more than 130 different categories of skin color, who will be considered “black enough” to qualify for the new racial quotas?

Astoria, Queens, New York is the melting pot of melting pots, with a range of skin tones, heights, weights, hair types, and eye shapes, to say nothing of their beliefs, cultures, languages, and trades. But just how different are we? At a street fair in the heart of Astoria, on a sweltering July day, geneticist Spencer Wells and his team take DNA samples from this amazingly diverse group. These samples will show how a selection of New Yorkers: a waitress, a teacher, a councilman, a fashion model, and a mother, among many others, with ethnic origins as diverse as Thai, Puerto Rican and African—are all connected; that they, like everyone else on the planet, can trace their ancestry back to the same small group of Homo sapiens who began eking out a living in Africa less than 200,000 years ago.

Cuban America explores the continuing Cuban-American story as a concentrated exile group's impact on transforming the sleepy tourist town of Miami into a major metropolitan community. A detailed look into the complex experience of Cuban-Americans: who they are, how they came to be, where they came from, where they are going, what they did, and, more importantly, how they are portrayed.

Ferrera talks about the racism she encountered in her acting career and how she learned to love who she is and celebrate her Latina roots.

The Blaxicans of Los Angeles project is centered on understanding the limitations and prospects of multiracial identity in Los Angeles through the lens of Blaxicans (Black-Mexicans). Walter seeks to understand the impacts of Blaxicans on black and brown race relations and the prospects for solidarity and racial and political coalitions in, arguably, one the of most divisive political moments in this nation's history. At a time when race and multiracial identification continues to grow throughout the U.S., Walter answers, what is the role of Blaxicans in an increasingly multiracial and multi-ethnic city and country?

Walter Thompson-Hernandez is a Los Angeles-based multimedia journalist, a recent graduate from Stanford University with a degree in Latin American studies, and a current doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a journalist, Walter has covered issues related to race, identity, popular culture, and music in the United States, Cuba, Mexico, and Belgium. His work can be found on NPR, CNN, BBC, Fusion, Los Angeles Times, Remezcla, and Huffington Post, among others.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

In this video, Afro-Latino actors recount what it was like to grow up as multi-racial individuals and how they navigated the world around them, including the difficulties with landing acting roles.

This short video provides insight into why a person might identify as Afro-Latino.

This segment presents a brief look at the terminology and the individuals who identify as Afro-Latino. The segment features brief interviews with Eunice Lewin, an educator, and Markenzy Julius Ceasar, a graffiti artist. The segment also briefly discusses graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat and the professional baseball player, Roberto Clemente.