By now you’ve seen Black Panther, right? How amazing was the representation of our people? Our family loved it and if it wasn’t for the little one we would have gone back to see it again. Bailey and Cecilia are at the age where they are noticing and verbally talking about people that look like me, their dad, and our family. It won’t be long until they ask about people that look like them but it’s important for us to point out who is like them, Mixed Heritage! This is a big topic among my mom friends and our home. Representation after all matters as we saw with Black Panther. This is why whenever a film, a singer, a book, a character, or any other significant notable person is a representation of our kids or family, we make sure to show our kids. Most importantly, we continue to have these conversations with them.
Black and Latino Representation discussion with kids
Consider starting these conversations with the people you already admire or things your kids may be into. For us it came naturally to discuss The Spiderman and Singer Miguel. We used videos and comic books as aids to help us with the conversation, especially with smaller school-aged kids.
Miles Morales- The New Spiderman
Since Bailey was little we made sure to expose him to the things he could relate to. Spiderman was his jam and in 2011 Miles Morales was announced as the Black Latino character. While he wasn’t reading yet we made sure to pick up the comic book with Miles. We went thru the pictures and pointed out that he was Black and Latino like him. It was an important conversation, one we still have till this day. What is even more amazing is that the comic book is finally a movie, come December 2018!
Miguel- The Singer
This documentary was so amazing. My kids already listen to Miguel’s music because of me but I’m not sure that before showing them youtube videos they knew who I was talking about. I watched this two-part documentary with both my kids. Cecilia was the one that had the most questions and linked it to “oh his dad is like papuchoni mom.” She understood the differences but this felt normal to her. It was exciting for me as a parent to know that simple things like watching a video with my kids about someone else’s story can help them understand their own. I can’t wait to be able to take them to parts of Mexico my grandparents called home.
How important is representation to you?
Who are some Mixed Heritage notable people you admire and can discuss representation with your kids? Share with us how you bring up discussions about representation with your kids. We’d love to learn more!
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