Dr. Sonia Manjon is one among many in the Bay Area Afro-Latino community who are learning to navigate their connections to both ethnicities.
"Usually people look at me and assume I'm African American until they meet my family and come to my home and begin to understand the cultural nuances that I have, which is a Latino experience," Manjon told KPIX."There is a lot of anti-Blackness in our community that has to be talked about."
A recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that six million people identify as Afro-Latino in the U.S. -- about 12 percent of Latino adults in the country.With loved ones who gathered in her backyard on a Saturday earlier this month, she recalled the teachings of her elders.Her grandmother came to the U.S. in the 1950s and experienced segregation. Manjon's mother did not know English after moving here and grew up in Des Moines, Iowa.
San Francisco mayor London Breed had to apologize a few weeks later for an unrelated incident where some of her comments were viewed as anti-immigrant. "The energy out here made me want to educate myself more and seeing it in the food," he said."Bridging both cultures, it's why I opened Sobre Mesa, it's to really showcase how beautiful and broad the African diaspora is."
While Spanish is her second language and she is not fluent, she heard it at home all the time."They would speak Spanish to each other and they would speak English to the kids but we knew what they were talking about." Back at her home, Manjon said that people from different perspectives in the Latino community can learn from each other and the challenges they've faced living in the U.S.