Colorism and Racism in the Hispanic/LatinX Community 

By: Jesiary Henriquez

About Me

Hello, my name is Jesiary Henriquez and I am a seventeen year old, Afro-Latina, High School Senior. My mom was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and my father's parents were born and raised in the Domincan Republic as well. Growing up I always understood my identity in terms of my ethnicity, but outside of that I didn't have much clarity. I remember growing up asking my parents what I was and always hearing your Dominican, which became all I knew. However, through educating myself I've learned more about my culture's history and my identity. I would like to pass this understanding along to people in my community being that we share these experiences.

What and Why

For my Project I wanted to understand why this lack of understanding when it came to Racial identity was so frequent in the Hispanic/Latinx community. I wanted to know the origin of where this started and why it has contiued. I always knew about the Racism and Colorism within Hispanic/Latinx community and this project simply presented a way for me to deep dive into the history and effects of it. 

Process

I began my project by doing research on the history of Racism and Colorism within fourteen different Hispanic/Latinx countries. The countires I researched included: Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Nicargua, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, Haiti, Brazil, Columbia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, and Chile. I continued my research by reading about people's experiences with texturism and other blatant forms of colorism and racism. After completing my research (which is linked below) I selected five people within the Hispanic/Latinx Community to send a survey to (the photo on the right is the survey I sent to the people I interviewed). I then conducted each interview based on their responses to the survey, then I wrote their individual Biographies based off their interviews.

Research

Colorism and Racism within Hispanic and Latinx Communities
Biographies.pdf

Product 

My product (which is linked on the left) is a series of five biographies written about the Racism and Colorism experienced by people within the Hispanic/Latinx community. I chose to write biographies as my Capstone project because I wanted people to pay attention to what there reading. I want people to read each of these different experiences and understand the importance of my topic.

Hopeful Impact

I strongly hope that after people get a chance to look at my project they think more about the effects of Colorism and Racism. I want there to be a larger conversation about how Hispanic/Latinx people talk about racial identity; being that it's a topic that gets ignored within our community. 

Next Steps

My goal for this project was to spark up more conversations around Colorism and Racism in the Hispanic/Latinx community.  As far as a next step goes I want us as a community to learn about our cultural history and backgrounds more, so we can better understand their significance. If I were to continue with this topic I would want to create a course that would teach the history of Hispanic/Latinx countries.

My Experience

My Capstone Project went threw very few changes, but one major change happened with my survey. Orginally I sent the survey to all the Hispanic/Latinx identifying MFS Upper school students, but I only recieved two responses. I solved this problem by simply doing research online to find more examples of Colorism/Racism that people experienced in the Hispanic/Latinx community. I also learned so much about my community throughout doing this project which was great being that I've always wanted to learn more. I learned about the history of fourteen different countries which was extremely fascinating. I would say to those who may chose to do a Capstone Project the best advice I could give is to make sure you thoroughly plan out what your going to do and when your going to do it.  

A big thank you to Ms.Lopez my Capstone Advisor and all five of the wonderful people who allowed me to interview them and write about their experiances. Thank you so much!!!

Sources