Recognizing Our Roots

Latin heritage is rich and diverse. I remember when I was an undergrad, I made my speech at a Spanish club and a student expressed her appreciation and inspiration for my passion for the Latino community considering my Middle Eastern origins. However, I had to interrupt her midway in the sentence and let everyone know I’m Puerto Rican! It just so happens that for whatever reason, I have facial features that commonly mistaken me from the Middle East. Many people have made this mistake in my years. My cousin looks African American. I enjoyed watching peoples’ face when he would speak Spanish and catch them off guard, similar to the experiences of Willie described above. The case I am making is that Latinos do not always look “Latino” (whatever that is). Why is that? We have a strong lineage of African blood flowing through our veins.

The more I learn about my culture and that of other countries, I realize that Africans have been a part of its foundation in some form or fashion. It can be seen by our skin tones. It can be tasted in our rice and plantains. It is heard within the pounding percussions of various Latin styles of music. We cannot forget it can also be felt in the struggles we face together even today. Ancient African civilizations created various societal systems that have been the building blocks of countless countries and cultures. Hip hop is just a small example of this. It has dominated our culture surpassing Rock and Roll for some time now. The economic independence of America was due to the African slave. If you think low wages are good for businesses, imagine a time when it was practically free. We owe more than we think we do when we look at this country.The challenge we should have is not to just taste the fruits that we reap from the African culture, but recognize how deep the roots go and how much toiling of the ground it took to get us here. May we never just pay lip service to African American influence in our own history, but truly appreciate what they have added to humanity and manifest this by uniting together as one. Why? Because if you go back long enough, we all came from Africa.