The struggle of the most Afro-Latino city in the United States to accept itself

"Long before becoming Boston's first Afro-Latina city councilwoman, Julia Mejia was Julia Melania Mejia Pena a five-year-old girl who emigrated from the Dominican Republic to Massachusetts. Over time, she gradually shed two of her names. I didn't want anyone to know who I was, where I came from, she recalls. She just wanted to fit in, even if it meant suppressing her Afro-Latin identity, something she wouldn't recover until decades later."

"With her brown skin and curly hair, Mejia never felt welcomed by the city's Latino community. She remembers that her school was divided between Latinos and African Americans. She always chose to be on the African American side, because it was the one that accepted her. But even though that community embraced her, it came at the cost of denying her identity: she couldn't be Black and speak Spanish at the same time, so she began to hide that part of herself."

"When asked when she first saw herself as Afro-Latina, she says it must have been less than 10 years ago. The other day, I was looking at old photos and found one from 2015 that said Afro-Latina' underneath. I think it was then that I truly understood the term and realized it reflected everything I am, she notes. During her interview with EL PAIS at her City Council office, she speaks mostly in English, although she throws in the occasional word or phrase in Spanish."

Julia Mejia emigrated from the Dominican Republic to Massachusetts as a five-year-old and gradually dropped parts of her name while trying to fit in. She suppressed her Afro-Latin identity and felt unwelcome in the city's Latino community because of her brown skin and curly hair. She aligned with African American peers but concealed her Spanish language to belong. She only began to identify publicly as Afro-Latina less than ten years ago after recognizing the term reflected her whole self. Her City Council office displays Dominican flags and bilingual speech appears in conversation. Boston now has the highest proportion of Afro-Latinos, nearly 88,000, a number that doubled over the last decade. Mejia's pride emerged through long self-acceptance work.

Read at english.elpais.com