Diana de los Santos, better known as Amara La Negra, is the breakout star of this season of Love & Hip Hop: Miami. Most importantly, she's an Afro-Latina singer who won't compromise her blackness for her Latinidad. Born in Miami, Fla., Amara La Negra grew up singing, dancing, and acting. "Performing is what I was born to do, but it hasn't always been easy."
"If I say I'm Afro-Latina, you'll automatically, visually in your mind see I'm dark. And my family we all speak Spanish, we're Latinos. This is my culture."
Amara remembers dealing with racism and colorism in entertainment since pre-school. At 4, she won a competition that landed her on the the wildly-successful Hispanic variety show, Sábado Gigante. For the six years she was on the show, Amara says she was the only dark-skinned child in the cast and that producers would always place her either way in the back of the stage or smack in the middle "like a bug in the middle of a cup of milk."
Amara wants people to know that she doesn't live some fancy or glamorous life. More importantly, she wants people to know what she's up against in the music industry. Amara, explains that racism and colorism run rampant in the business, and not just from white Americans, but from other Latinos, too.
credits: NPR, Shereen Marisol Meraji
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