A University of Southern California researcher and filmmaker said he thinks society should think about what it’s like to be a Mexican member of society at a panel on Afro-Latina/o identity Wednesday.
Campus newsmagazines La Gente and Nommo hosted the event, which featured Walter Thompson-Hernandez, creator of the Instagram account “Blaxicans of Los Angeles” and researcher at the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, at the Straus Stadium clubhouse.
La Gente and Nommo, which represent Latina/o and African-American students and issues respectively, hosted the event to create a space to explore the intersections between both cultures, said Mia Brumfield, Nommo’s editor in chief.
The panel also included four UCLA students who identify as Afro-Latina/o, or are of both African and Latina/o descent.The panelists shared the unique challenges that result from the intersection of African American and Latina/o identities.
Altagracia Alvarado, a panelist and third-year African-American studies and gender studies student, said she tried to fit solely into Latina/o culture while attending predominantly Latina/o elementary and middle schools, but started to accept her black identity when she moved to a mostly African-American high school.
Alvarado, who has Dominican and Puerto Rican ancestry, said her African-American peers often denied their shared history. The Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico have large Afro-Latina/o populations because both countries, like the United States, imported West African slaves.
Alvarado said that because her school’s history classes did not cover slavery in Latin America, she had to constantly explain her African ancestry and black identity to her classmates.
Thompson-Hernandez, whose mother is Mexican and father is African-American, said having family from both groups means he is affected by issues that society usually believes to be separate.
“I have relatives who were killed by police and relatives (who are) being deported,” he said.
Aiko Marcial, a panelist and fourth-year sociology student of Afro-Mexican descent, said her mother’s Mexican family resented and denied her African ancestry.
“I’m not willing to compromise my identity for their comfort,” she said.
Alex Tillman, a panelist and second-year art student, said she grew up in a mostly white area that pressured her to choose one identity, although her father is African-American and her mother is Mexican.
“The way I identify is based on the way people see me, so I defaulted to black,” she said. “A lot of people don’t really want to acknowledge mixed-race people.”
Thompson-Hernandez said his work with “Blaxicans of Los Angeles” aims to accurately represent Latina/o and African-American identity. He added he started the project in 2012 while he was a graduate student at Stanford University, but shared it on Instagram to reach an audience outside of academia. The account has more than 7,000 followers.
Many students who attended the event said the panel was their first experience discussing African-American and Latina/o intersectionality.
“I think it’s really cool that two groups who aren’t usually associated with being mixed came together to offer an intersectional space,” said Gareth Wang, a second-year geography and international development studies student and executive board member of UCLA’s Mixed Student Union.
Kayleigh Wade, a fourth-year Chicana/o studies student, said she does not identify as Blaxican, but grew up in a mixed African-American and Mexican household. Wade said she identified with some of the experiences the panelists shared.
“It was really cool to see things I related to, like having tamales and fried chicken on Thanksgiving is my life,” she said. “It was really important for this particular identity to be represented, because it never is.”
Thompson-Hernandez will speak at Avenue 50 Studio in Los Angeles Saturday night for the opening of “Duality: Blaxicans of L.A.,” an art exhibition based on his Instagram project.