WAIT.. SO WHAT ARE YOU? | Growing up Afro-latina

[@tedd-ivan]

i love in the heights and it’s one of my favorite musicals. but my main issue with the musical was that there was barely black latinx in the cast. and washington heights is filled with a whole lot of black latinx. the movie also looks beautiful but there is barely black latinx in the lead roles. they could have easily cast amara la negra, jharrel jerome, mack wilds, and christina milian in this movie. what are your thoughts?

[@reinaguerra1446]

I feel you! I was actually a dancer in the film and although the dancers were diverse filled with afro-latinos, african americans, caucasian, asian etc; you're right many of the principal actors were not afro-latino which is the complete opposite of the actual community in washington heights. Washington heights is primarily filled with dominicans who have many afro-latinos, but sadly are the most vocal against accepting their african ancestry-- so having more representation especially in the industry is so important to start the conversation! I will be posting a video about my experience working on the film soon! Subscribe to keep in touch! thank you so much for the comment!!

[@tedd-ivan]

@@reinaguerra1446 i reached out to quiara hudes who wrote the movie and the musical and i spoke to her about the representation in the movie and she said that she intended to have the female lead nina to be afro latina. but why does only one main character have to be afro latino? why couldn’t it be the majority of the main cast? it’s devastating that there’s erasure of black people in a movie about a sector in new york that’s predominantly black. this is a prime example of colorism and anti blackness. there are so many dark skinned latino actors out there and they casted none of them SMH. i still think this movie is a step in the right direction because we have never seen a movie with a latinx cast told in this narrative before and i think that’s beautiful. but at the same time, there is still lots of work to be done when it comes to representation in the media. we need afro latino representation in the forefront, not just the background