🙋🏽👨🏻👱🏾👩🏾👱🏻‍♀️The Latinx Collective - Issue 35

THIS WEEK'S FIVE:

In this video story, reporter Walter Thompson Hernandez (who is half African-American and half Mexican and grew up with Chicano culture in Los Angeles) brings us on a journey to Japan to explore the question of whether lowrider culture — a community with an affinity for cars that are outfit with intricate designs, multicolored lights and heavily tinted windows that can be traced in Southern California to as far back as the 1940s — had been appropriated by this group of Japanese. Ultimately, he considers it a form of cultural exchange because the people he met pride themselves on appreciating the culture, while also creating something new and adding their own touches through their own cultural experiences. Check out the video (it's about 7 minutes) and let us know what you think.

Here's an incredible writeup of ‘Roma’ star Yalitza Aparicio, who is keenly aware of the ways in which she has become a symbol for Mexico’s indigenous people. Note: it's an article from early February but think worth a read to learn about her journey if you haven't yet!

I want to believe that in the future, they will continue to include more and more people like me,” she says, “so that someone else can look at it and say, ‘Hey, I look like her.’” The Hollywood fairy tale is nice. For this young woman, social change is even better.

For over a decade, Ibero-American electronic music has shown a special interest in folkloric sounds, and this exploration has inevitably led artists to tap into rhythms and music rooted in the African diaspora. But these days, more and more Afro-identifying artists in Latin America are committed to being the protagonists and narrators of their own history, and many of them are turning to their roots to find inspiration and raw material to proudly use in their own body of work.

26-year-old John Henry, born to Dominican parents and raised in Harlem, is part-owner of Harlem Capital, a company designed to invest in businesses created by women and minorities.  Now, he has a new VICELAND show titled Hustle (executive produced by Alicia Keys and Marcus Samuelsson) advising businesses on going from unknown status to mainstream lucrative ubiquity. Hustle airs on Sundays at 9pm EST on VICELAND.

😉Here's a favorite quote of mine from this Q&A with John Henry:

Dominicans make good business people. In New York, many of the corner grocery stores are Dominican or Arab-owned. And Dominicans also own a lot of taxi car companies. Has your cultural background influenced your business sense?

Absolutely, and you’re right Dominican people are good at business. In New York, we tend to be more merchants, but the skills that I learned from our culture are fu**ing invaluable. Even just my mom buying plantains on the corner. She would constantly negotiate. My dad trained me to be really resourceful. We had so little growing up that he would teach me to make the most out of it. All these ingrained lessons from our communities were instilled in me. Now that I’m in the corporate arena I’m a beast because a lot of these kids I’m with grew up in a different life path. Now that we’re in the same rooms I find myself consistently outwitting and outmaneuvering a lot of these people because maybe they don’t have some of that cultural edge. If you can come from a disadvantaged position and make it, you end up having such a massive edge because then you have both; street smarts and book smarts.

A team of mostly women researchers led by Mexico National Polytechnic Institute scientist Eva Ramón Gallegos made what looks to be an incredible advancement in the treatment and cure of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). The Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that Ramón Gallegos eradicated 100% of HPV cells from all of the patients she treated who had the infection without any precancerous lesions. In total, 29 patients were effectively cured.

SPOTLIGHT SERIES:

Es Mi Cultura: a newsletter about Latinx celebrating their African ancestry

Es Mi Cultura is a monthly newsletter that provides readers with positive examples of women who proudly acknowledge their African ancestry while staying true to their Latinx ethnicity and culture. Writer Tamika Burgess launched the newsletter in 2015 and since then, she features at least two women's stories every month and provides links to various articles and essays, penned by or about, Afro-Latinx, along with book features and other resources. Go check out the March 2019 issue, and subscribe on the website here.

Appreciate you reading this week’s issue. Forward this to friends or family so they can join you in celebrating the every day contributions the Latinx community is making. You can also:

• View the archive here

• Don’t forget we built this directory. If you’re a Latinx creator or small business owner, submit your info to be added. If you’re looking to hire or purchase products or services from the Latinx community, check it out.

• Here’s a tweet you should post about us.

• If you share any of the articles from the newsletter on social media, tag us! We’re at @latinxcollectiv on Twitter and on Facebook. You can also just click the ‘share’ button under the article you want to share and it will allow you to post the direct link.