The View ’s co-host Sunny Hostin says she is glad there are Afro-Latine stars out there like Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) who aren’t afraid to represent themselves as “unapologetically Black” in Hollywood and beyond.
“I admire that there are folks, especially in media, as well as film, that are representing their Blackness and embracing it,” Hostin told Peoplemagazine in a recent interview. “That’s something that has just happened [in] my view in the past few years. And what’s nice is I’m tired of being alone in that. I’m no longer alone, and it’s because of young people like Ariana.”
DeBose, who just landed the first Academy Award nomination of her career for West Side Story, is the daughter of a Puerto Rican father and white mother. Hostin was born to a Puerto Rican mother and a Black father. She has written about her experiences as an Afro-Latine woman in her 2020 book I Am These Truths: A Memoir of Identity, Justice, and Living Between Worlds.
“I get, ‘Are you Spanish today or Black today?’” Hostin said. “Every day I’m both, actually. And that’s how I respond because I think it’s important to respond [to comments like], ‘Sunny’s saying it with the Spanish accent.’ Well, no I’m saying it correctly because this is a Spanish word. It’s not an English word. It’s a Spanish word and I speak Spanish.”
DeBose previously told Remezcla that she saw her role in West Side Story as an opportunity to show everyone who she truly was. “This was really exciting to basically say, ‘Hello, we’re here,’” she said. “There’s not one way to be Latina. And we’re all beautiful and we’re all gorgeous and have so much to offer. And we have goals, dreams, and ambitions. And we are smart, and we are joyful. We’re not all gang members.”
Read this article on Remezcla.com.