Gina Torres, the Black Cuban actress who has built a career portraying Black non-Latina characters, proverbially bit the hands of the people from the culture who fed her in an interview that aired on MSNBC recently.
In a roundtable discussion with prominent Hispanic women, including Janel M. Martinez, that was originally filmed in August, Torres opened up to the panelâ of mostly white and mestiza Latinasâ about feeling like she was âtrapped in a boxâ while portraying only Black American characters throughout her career in Hollywood.
The racially-Black actress told the MSNBC forum, âI feel like I was living in three worlds. There was my world that I grew up in, also Spanish-speaking. Home, Cuban parents, and then you go out into the world, and Iâm speaking English, and Iâm in the Bronx. And then, going into this industry as an actress, then nobody recognizes you as either one.â
For the record, culture, race and ethnicity are not interchangeable. Torres would be racially Black in Cuba. The countryâs Black folks have fought incessantly to be seen, although politics and anti-Blackness erased them for a âun puebloâ philosophy.
âThere was no place for me as a Latina, and then as a Black womanâI didnât identify as a Black woman because, for me, it was cultural. Because, of course, I present Black, I am a Black woman,â Torres continued. âI am also Cuban. When youâre here in the United States, and they ask you to be in a box, and you donât fit into the boxâ culturally, it was different. It was not one that I identified with. But to work, to survive was something that I had to learn. To then learn to be whatever âBlackâ was, and then feel like I was alienating that other part of myself, that Latina self, it just kind of became a Jedi mind trick to keep myself from just being sad all the time about not being able to fully experience and express the entirety of myself.â
While Blackness isnât a monolith, Torresâ negrura is undeniable, so implementing a âJedi mind trickâ to be something that sheâs always been is rich. The 53-year-old Bronx native was married to veteran Black American actor Laurence Fishburne for 15 years. They share a daughter, Delilah, and divorced in 2017. Did she have those feelings then?
Also, the conversation about survival is abhorrent because, in essence, the âSuitsâ actress admitted to using the identity of a culture to eat. The shitting on Black Americans wasnât necessary when she could have easily not taken roles that didnât align with her âLatina selfâ and took her gripe to the white and mestizo Latin communityâ whoâs isolated and ignored her since the inception of her career. With almost 60 acting credits to Torresâ name, sheâs eaten well off the backs of U.S. Blacksâ while being slapped in the face by the folks she pandered to.Â
Throughout her career, Black folks in the United States embraced Torres while her gente embarrassingly questioned her Latinidad.
In 2012, the âI Love My Wifeâ star was insulted on the red carpet during the ALMA Awards, where she was nominated for âFavorite TV Actress â Supporting Roleâ in âSuits.â
The humiliating moment went viral after a white Latina reporter from Telemundo stopped Torres on the red carpet to chat it up in broken English with the star about her nomination. The Cuban actress answered her in English, but the Q&A session worsened after the dim-witted interviewer asked if she spoke âun poquito español?â
Torres responded with a confused look and said that she wondered why the reporter spoke to her in English when it was a Spanish-language network. She then went on to speak fluent Spanish.
âBut, this is Telemundo. Why are they speaking to me in English?â
Torresâs dream of being seen by the Latins, seemingly, came to fruition in 2019. She made television history by becoming the first Black Latina to create, star and produce a network seriesâ USAâs âPearson.â It was a spin-off of âSuitsâ and lasted for only one season. Ironically, the show was also the networkâs lowest-rated series of the season.
The 53-year-old Cubana hasnât addressed her statement, but Black Twitter, specifically Black Americans, had plenty to say about the problematic vitriol.
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Torres has not elaborated on her statement. Sis2Sis reached to the actress for comment, but messages went unanswered.
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