The Birth of @BeingAfroLatino

There are times in which we all have to make our mark in whatever fashion we choose. I, for one, believe that we all find our passions in the things we love to do. I love to write and it is with that I know I can have my voice heard on a platform that I choose. Of course, I choose to use this blog as my platform for a range of things that I am passionate about. As we all know one of the things that I strive to do is to promote awareness of Afro Latinos.

So it may come to no surprise that I have recently created a Twitter account called: @beingafrolatino. This takes me beyond my normal twitter realm of @latinegro to something that is much larger than me. With this brand new twitter account I can help raise awareness better than with my very own handle. The reason for this is that I have help. In the past, I have teamed up with @BiancaLaureano to start the Latinegr@s Project. This only made sense to have her help and link my newly created twitter account with the Latinegr@s blog. This ensures that Afro Latinos have some voice on some corner of the Internet. Not to say they do not exist, but most of those voices are scattered.

Of course, the question to be raised by some is that other people may feel slighted by this new creation. Being Latino is movement that was started a few years ago by guy named Lance Rios who had a vision to unite Latinos over the Internet. I have seen this vision from the twitter account @beinglatino to the Facebook page and now the blog. There are numerous amounts of people who volunteer to make this movement a force and I think that that is awesome. I would say that there is no reason to feel slighted because @beingafrolatino has a different vision that will not interfere or compete with @beinglatino.

Afro Latinos seems to be the unknown factor these days. There are documentaries this year that will show how difficult is being a black person in a Latin country can be. Black in Latin America has given us all a glimpse of what that looks like, but the upcoming AFROLATINOS: The Untaught Story is rumored to give us unfiltered look we have never seen before. With that being said, we all have so much to learn since history books in the country fail to tell us all we need to know. I am concerned that Latinos in particular feel that denying their African ancestry is acceptable.

With that being said, last week there was an incident that sparked off this whole issue. I wrote about my disgust for Peru and its treat of their Black population. Often times, when I write something that I feel is important for other people to know, I will make the extra effort to promote. One of those things is to post my blog on the Being Latino Facebook page. This is something that I have done before so imagine my surprise when it was deleted. I check about 5 times to make sure that I was not legitimately buggin out.

So, I sat and thought about this. I was not happy about it and decided to take it to Twitter and Facebook and called out Being Latino. I wanted to know why they decided to delete my post. Now, before I continue, let me just say that issue is already resolved. The responses to this notion on Twitter alone were unexpected. I didn't expect people to tell me how they felt about @beinglatino. Apparently, there were many people who felt that this was not a surprise bases on the content of my blog. I got the same type of affirmation on Facebook. There was almost a universal feel that Afro Latinos were not represented.

I started to think that I needed to create a space that would funnel the type of information that would help spread awareness of Afro Latinos. I made it a point not to criticize Being Latino or Lance. But, he responded he told me that it was their policy to not have another blog besides their own on their Facebook page. That is a policy that I totally understand and will adhere to. My point was that this policy was not posted anywhere on their page (and as of this writing...still isn't). People are allowed to post articles and promotional stuff that has to do with Latinos, but not other blogs (even though I saw one when I was just on their page).

I know that I upset him for the controversy but as we all know that Latinos can be very emotional when it comes to things they are passionate about. At the end of the day, he offered me a contributing writer position for Being Latino, in which I accepted. However, I think that creating the @beingafrolatino account will create the type of awareness that I cannot do alone. I will need help as this may become bigger than me.