Dear Latin Music USA
Ok, I apologize to y’all for that last post boycotting your show and stuff. I still wont buy it, but I apologize. Im calm now. I was in the anger and shock stages of grief. Now Im feeling like I should guilt you.
See, I dont watch tv. I try but unfortunately I cant blind myself to certain things. And as a nappy headed chick whose last name ends with a Z, life can be brutal. Most of the shit I see on tv offends me. But, I make exceptions. This was an exception. I believed the hype.
I came home from work, snuggled on my sofa. Wow, Latin Hip Hop and Reggaeton on PBS. I’ll record it for my friends, for my kids. One day, my daughter will watch it.
My daughter, yes. The baby. She will look up at the television and see people who look like her brothers and father and grandfathers and they will be on PBS. Folk will be talking about their skillz and talents. Cool.
She will see people who play the music she has heard every day of her life. (Or as the older one would complain “every.single.day.of.her.life” 
)And she will feel connected, she will feel like her family is also a part of that world. And for me, and her father who for some reason bought her a BLACK BABY DOLL for her birthday today, its important that she not feel like she is an anomaly. That people who play this and dance to this and love this look like THAT and um, wtf? And because I suspect she will grow up to look just Latina and not AfroLatina, I want her to see positive happy wonderful representations of AfroLatinos because despite my issues with him, it would break my heart to see her decide that we can just toss Daddy’s pictures in the trash and forget he ever existed. But, Daddy doesnt seem to exist!
PBS folk. If a little girl cant see more than 2 men who look like her afro-rican daddy when she’s watching a documentary thats covering SALSA, Latin Hip Hop and Reggaeton where can she? Baseball? Prison shows? Gang shows? Cops?
You let the baby down.I hate you for it. Feel bad?
But its my fault, just like I said that anyone who gets too bent about the Frog Princess or the new Barbies is trippin.”Oh, so you think its THEIR job??????”.
You’ve inspired me to do better. To go all out on a mission like my parents did to teach us what they felt was important. Im inspired to keep reading this blastnabbit Negritud journal. To keep working toward going back to school. To make my own lil history lessons. To make up my own little coloring pages and activities. To keep digging out old Roena and Cheo and Maelo videos to SHOW her.
hhmph
My fear is that in 30 years, the story will have remained unchallenged for so long that no one remembers that eminem didnt invent rap, that elvis did not create rock and roll and that eric clapton and kenny g didnt invent the blues or jazz. i exaggerate. but for real,i do feel like i read reviews and stuff and only a handful of people ever say “HEY, we keep leaving out a WHOLE lot of folks”
