00:06I have a very complicated identity. I'm half Eastern European. I'm half Guatemalan. I grew
00:12up between Canada and the U.S. like I don't really have like one way of identifying.
00:17Being Brazilian I'm the only country in South America that speaks Portuguese. Moving here my
00:23mom didn't really have other Brazilian friends so the closest thing she had were other Latinos
00:28but they all spoke Spanish. I would feel like I wasn't adequate or I wasn't Latina
00:33enough. And I remember one girl saying to me but you're like you're not really Latina
00:37like you're kind of like white you're a gringa like and I remember being so offended.
00:42Just because I don't speak Spanish I'll never be as good as anybody else who does.
00:47I'm like on a seesaw where it's like do I fit in with these groups of people do I
00:51fit in with these groups of people. I felt like I had to not only be super Brazilian
00:55at home and live within that identity but then when I'm out with my Latino
00:58friends I have to overcompensate for not speaking Spanish.
01:03As a kid I was just freaking confused. I was like I don't know who I am I don't
01:07know what I am I don't know what's going on I don't see myself represented at all
01:12in my community but as I grew older I kind of grew into myself and understood
01:16that it's okay to have this complicated nuance existence. I remember when I was in
01:20high school once this kid called another kid a spick and I was like whoa you
01:26cannot say that it's unacceptable and he responded to me and looked at me he was
01:31like why do you care you're white. When I was in school I joined a dance troupe
01:35called culture shock when I joined the dance troupe they gave me a name and it
01:39was called foreign because I was Puerto Rican West Indian Jewish and German you
01:43know and I was automatically like put in a different like frame. I think there's a
01:49cultural obsession with being traditionally Latina because in the media we see one
01:53image of what a Latino looks like you don't see Afro Latina you don't really
01:57see white blonde blue-eyed Latina you see usually maybe fairer skin dark hair big
02:04breasts like a Sofia Vergara type. Latinx people can be any race you can be black
02:08white brown anything in between. Latinidad or being Latinx is not a
02:13monolith there isn't just one way to exist and I think we can all do a lot
02:19better when it comes to understanding that there are different experiences
02:22other than our own and accepting those experiences. You can make one person happy
02:27if you speak Spanish but then the next person's like but do you know how to
02:31dance and then the next person's like do you know how to cook do you know how to
02:34do this so I think there's always that idea that we're not gonna be enough and
02:39just realizing that we are enough who we are. Being Latina to me means being part of a
02:46super rich history and culture. Seeing other Latinx people makes me so happy
02:51because even though we might not always look the same I know that deep down we
02:54are. I'm proud to be Latina because I'm a part of such a beautiful vibrant large
03:00community of people. I'm proud to be Latina because family is so embedded in my
03:06cultural identity. I'm very proud of my roots because of my mother and what she's
03:11done for me. How I you know see and view the world is because of the perspective
03:15that she gave me. I feel like the modern Latina is just like unstoppable like we
03:20don't stop at just knowing how to dance or knowing how to cook like we keep going
03:24we keep pushing the ceiling. And I think it's really also important for Latinos to
03:27come together and to not say to other Latinos you're not Latino enough. We stand
03:32stronger together. We are Latina and Proud!
