{"id":39147,"date":"2014-12-31T00:54:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T00:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=39147"},"modified":"2016-03-21T00:40:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T00:40:10","slug":"i-am-a-blacktina-reflections-on-being-an-afro-cuban-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=39147","title":{"rendered":"I Am a Blacktina: Reflections on Being an Afro-Cuban in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forharriet.com\/2014\/12\/i-am-blacktina-reflections-on-being.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>I Am a Blacktina: Reflections on Being an Afro-Cuban in the U.S.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.forharriet.com\" target=\"_blank\">For Harriet<\/a><br \/>\n2014-12-28<\/p>\n<p><strong>Felice Le\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am a Blacktina. Get it: Black [La]tina?<\/p>\n<p>A friend gave me this nickname years ago, and it has stuck. My father is Afro-Cuban, and my mother Afro-American. I identify with both cultures and have tried to balance both, but I\u2019ve found that I associate more so with my blackness, particularly while living in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barack_Obama\" target=\"_blank\">President Obama<\/a> announced the restoration of diplomatic ties with <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cuba\" target=\"_blank\">Cuba<\/a>. There is said to be a U.S. Embassy opening in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Havana\" target=\"_blank\">Havana<\/a>. This is a big deal. It has been decades since the U.S. has had relations with Cuba, and Obama\u2019s announcement marks a pivotal point in American history. Politically, there is both optimism and skepticism. Amongst my peers, the announcement seemed to have gone over well. Facebook was flooded with posts about Cuba: plans to travel to Cuba, requests for Cuban cigars, and other foolish insights that people tend to share on social media. I was also delighted to hear of the news. I\u2019ve visited Cuba once, but it wasn\u2019t enough. Still, during my trip I had a deep connection with my Black and Brown relatives. I was accepted as being Cuban, and for those few weeks there was no question about my identity&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I have found that being a Black woman of Cuban descent comes as a surprise to many in this country. In a class discussion last year I spoke of why I choose to refer to myself as Black (I didn\u2019t mention the Blacktina nickname in this conversation): \u201cThe ship made many stops before it arrived on these shores. I feel like the term \u2018Black\u2019 more so encompasses the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/African_diaspora\" target=\"_blank\">African Diaspora<\/a>.\u201d African slaves made significant contributions in Latin America. There is a complex racial history. African blood runs deep in the veins of many Latinos, which is why I choose to identify as Black. But for others, there is a level of denial when it comes to their African roots&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forharriet.com\/2014\/12\/i-am-blacktina-reflections-on-being.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I Am a Blacktina: Reflections on Being an Afro-Cuban in the U.S. For Harriet 2014-12-28 Felice Le\u00f3n I am a Blacktina. Get it: Black [La]tina? A friend gave me this nickname years ago, and it has stuck. My father is Afro-Cuban, and my mother Afro-American. I identify with both cultures and have tried to balance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21,125,14646,8,20],"tags":[673,18934,18377],"class_list":["post-39147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-latincarib","category-identitydevelopment","category-latino","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-cuba","tag-felice-leon","tag-for-harriet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46141,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39147\/revisions\/46141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}