As Hispanic Heritage Month forges on, it’s crucial to highlight the purveyors of “negrura (Blackness)” in the Latino community. As a Black woman of the diaspora representing two cultures, it’s imperative that I center the Blackest, brightest and best de mi gente.
As Latinidad continues to erase Black Latinos from its raggedy and racist narrative, we are determined – now more than ever– to be seen and heard.
Marjua Estévez- Dominican Republic
The first-generation Dominican-American writer is a curator of Black stories within the diaspora. Born in Washington Heights and raised in the South Bronx and West Tampa, the 33-year-old has shared her perspective of Black culture within the Americas for BET, Billboard, Vibe, Complex, VICE, etc. And she keeps it a buck.
The petite powerhouse is dead serious when it comes to representing the many facets of Blackness. Estévez is currently working to “secure literary representation for her black woman anthology.”
Calling the project her “life’s work,” Estévez is reclaiming negritude by using her voice to build on the legacies of the Black women who came before her.
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Daymé Arocena- Cuba
The Havana-born beauty is committed to the preservation her West African religious traditions and diasporic sounds and songs. Arocena is a 29-year-old singer with a voice from the Gods. The talented vocalist fuses jazz, gospel, traditional Cuban and African music as a salute to her ancestors and the ancestors who were stolen and brought across the Atlantic Ocean. By the time Arocena was eight-years-old, the prolific artist was performing. By 14, she was the lead singer of Los Primos.
When discussing how music connects her to her roots, Arocena says, “Music has always been the bridge to all my stuff. I fell in love with the drum at 17 but I was crowned at 22. It took me five years to be a practitioner [of the Yoruba religion]. In fact, the coronation was what came last. I fell in love with the folk music before that.”
She continued, “When I discovered the batá drum, it was the clash between my two worlds. Afro-Cuban music and classical music. It is the space where these two things make sense and settle. Jazz brings together these two expressions that can be so different. That’s what my music means.”
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Melissa DuPrey- Puerto Rico
Melissa DuPrey is an actress, dancer, comic and playwright who currently stars as Dr. Sara Ortiz on ABC’s hit drama Grey’s Anatomy. The Chicago native who has built her career on “centering authentic, intersectional identities,as a queer, Black Latina.”
The 36-year-old Chicago native who is hellbent on preserving the Afro-Boricua traditions of bomba y plena also wrote and produced a full-length play about African ancestral religion and healing titled “BRUJAJA”, produced in her hometown.
DuPrey has also starred on The Resident, Empire and The Chi.
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Yvette and Yvonne Rodriguez- Cuba
Las jimaguas (twins), Yvette and Yvonne, are the founders and owners of Tres Lindas Cubanas Cigars – launched in 2014. Based in Miami, the sisters are redefining what bosses look like in a white male-dominated industry.
With their signatures afros, Yvette and Yvonne took a tradition (tobacco plantations) used in colonial Cuba to enslave Black folks on the island and empowered themselves to become a force throughout the United States manufacturing and selling the product that once kept our people in bondage.
Yvonne expressed, “We are a walking monument to our ancestors.”
The two sisters embrace every aspect of what Blackness entails. Although they grew up in a Black Cuban home, the sisters often found themselves at home with Black American friends as well.
“We’re all family.”
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Evelyn Álvarez- Guatemala
The Brooklyn-born gone “uptown” girl embodies Black girl fresh. The 45-year-old Guatemalan-American is a mother and dedicated doula who not only brings healthy Black babies into the world– but she ensures, through a mutual collective, that moms have “diapers, wipes, and Doula support for families in the Bronx.”
She is fully involved in her community, facilitating workshops about parenting, reproductive justice, and restorative practices in schools and the devoted mom is a volunteer instructor and Bronx borough advocate for ShapeUp NYC.
Álvarez is also one of the founders of Radio Caña Negra, a podcast that offers workshops to dismantle anti-Blackness in the Latino community.
When asked what it means to be a Black woman, Álvarez spat bars.
“Being born a Black woman is the greatest gift. I carry so much in my spirit, in my hips, in my hand, in my heart,” she said.
“People often ask, ‘what are you? How do you identify?’ I respond, ‘I’m Black.’ Blackness connects me across the Diaspora.” From a head nod, to a laugh that rocks your whole body to a twerk and whine when Burna Boy, or Beres or drums start playing… I love being Black. I love Blackness. Black people. I honor our spaces, legacy and the fuckery.”
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In a community, where Black women, especially, are silenced– these sisters aren’t lowering their crowns for ANYBODY.
Pa’lante!
