00:00Hi, I'm Jazza Ramos, supervising producer at Essence, and I'm here to break down
00:04why the film In The Heights received so much backlash for their lack of representation
00:09of the Latinx community. Let's get into it.
00:17Starting with number one, where are the black and brown people at?
00:22Okay, first of all, my parents are from Honduras, so that makes me an Afro-Latina.
00:28I was born and raised in the Bronx, but I currently reside in The Heights.
00:32I walk the streets of Washington Heights every single day, and I always encounter
00:37with Hispanics that look just like me, beautiful brown and chocolate skin.
00:42I mean, if you don't know, then now you know we come in all shades.
00:46But when I was watching In The Heights, I had to look very closely to see anyone that looked like me.
00:53And that is a problem that we should not be having in 2021.
00:57Number two, stop putting the Latinx community in the background.
01:02We deserve to be up close and personal. And most importantly, we deserve lead roles.
01:08Now, let me say that again for those in the back. We deserve lead roles.
01:13The director of the film In The Heights, John M. Chu, was hit with major criticism.
01:18But his response to the criticism was,
01:21he is now being educated about the Latinx community.
01:24Well, you know what? Better late than never.
01:27But I have to say something here.
01:29I would have preferred for him to cast amazing people like Amada La Negla.
01:35How about Zoe Zaldana? How about Juju? How about Laz Alonso?
01:41And in fact, if they were unavailable, we still have an amazing group of aspiring actors and actresses
01:48here in The Heights that could have taken on the role.
01:51And finally, my last problematic issue is number three, white passing.
01:56Let's normalize putting the spotlight on Afro-Latinos and Afro-Latinas so we can stop perpetrating the European standards.
02:03You do not have to be light-skinned to be Hispanic.
02:06You do not have to be white passing to be Hispanic.
02:09Once again, we come in so many beautiful different shades.
02:12And it is time for the Latinx community to be represented the right way.
02:15So people like me are not being treated differently at some Borregas.
02:20If you know, you know.
02:22I remember when I was younger, my mother would walk into a Borrega,
02:26and she would overhear somebody talking about her in Spanish,
02:29and she would have to hit them with the,
02:31¿Qué tú dices?
02:32Yeah, that changed their mood real quick.
02:36Thank you so much.
02:37I'm Jasmine Ramos.
02:38I appreciate you for watching.
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