“She reminded me of my grandmother so I liked watching her. “The only positive Afro-Latinx representation I had as a child was seeing Celia Cruz on Sesame Street - and she was an adult,” Santana reminisced. My friend Suhayl Santana shared with me that she did not have access to books featuring Afro-Latinx people like her when she was a kid. Afro-Latinx people also don’t see themselves reflected in the media around them nearly enough. Many Afro-Latinx kids face racism in the classroom, as Teach For America reported in April 2022. I felt like they were make-believe and in make-believe land everyone was white. “The problem is that the white supremacist structure of the book publishing world keeps these wonderful stories out of the public eye by instead promoting books with light-skinned characters, thereby denying the audience the ability to discover these stories that more accurately reflect the population of the U.S.” I don’t think I understood why all the book characters were white. “There are more authors with these kinds of characters than we think,” Lucy Flores, co-founder of Luz Media, a digital home “for Latinas, by Latinas,” told me when I went to her in my quest for more books like this to share with my children (and yours). This Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re reading books that center Afro-Latinx characters, and I’m happy to share some of our favorites here with you.īut first, what is glaringly obvious and needs mention is the lack of visibility given to kid’s books featuring Afro-Latinx characters. This is our priority all year round, with extra emphasis during commemorative months. And I love the opportunity to bring into her world perspectives and stories of a wide variety of people, from myriad backgrounds and experiences. She loves the pictures - the imagery comes to life for her. She doesn’t know any of the words, but don’t tell her that. Every night, after her bath, my 3-year-old daughter sits comfortably on a floor cushion next to her bookshelf and reads.
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