CHARLOTTE — There are about six million Afro-Latino adults in the United States. And this Charlotte woman has set out to educate and celebrate her Afro-Latina culture through her non-profit La Casa de la Cultura.
Milagros Ugueto de Sanchez arrived in the United States about a decade ago. And she said she did not originally feel accepted as a black woman.
“At the beginning, I didn’t understand why my brothers and sisters, who are African American did not think I was black,” she said.
So she set out to educate others on diversity in Latin America. She started her non-profit, La Casa de la Cultura, to honor her culture and traditions.
“It all started here, when I was planning my lessons and I didn’t have the resources to show my students firsthand, what it was like to dance certain rhythms, in Venezuela, or wear certain masks,” de Sanchez said. “I wanted to tell them that culture is what defines a part of who we are.”
Now, she has been singing, dancing and teaching others for nearly a decade.
“Being an Afro-Latina is talking about my grandma - talking about my people in the countryside playing the drums - on June 24th celebrating St. John the Baptist, and if you go back you can see that celebration took place only once a year because that was the only day the owners of my ancestors allowed them to dance,” de Sanchez said.
The hard work and dedication is making a difference, de Sanchez said, especially in young people.
“Motivating them to be the voice of those who can’t express and keep themselves - learning - not just for a career - but to live in a global environment that requires people to be prepared, and when they open their mouth, they know what they are saying,” she said.
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