In the 1980s and ’90s, the term “Lati­no” gained trac­tion amid new migra­tions from Latin Amer­i­ca, lead­ing to a surge in the pop­u­lar­i­ty of Lati­no cul­ture among youth. One promi­nent sym­bol of this cul­ture is Fri­da Kahlo, a Mex­i­can artist whose self-por­traits became ubiq­ui­tous in salons and homes. Kahlo, of mixed Ger­man-Jew­ish and Indige­nous descent, rep­re­sents a com­plex nar­ra­tive of iden­ti­ty that res­onates with many Lat­inx indi­vid­u­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly as they seek to embrace their her­itage with­out assim­i­lat­ing into Anglo-Sax­on cul­ture. Her por­tray­al of pain and cul­tur­al her­itage in works like “My Grand­par­ents, My Par­ents, and I” exem­pli­fies the blend­ing of cross-racial and cross-eth­nic iden­ti­ties.

Kahlo’s acknowl­edg­ment of her Indige­nous roots, despite not explic­it­ly iden­ti­fy­ing as Indige­nous, show­cas­es a promi­nent acknowl­edg­ment of indi­gene­ity as a cor­ner­stone of her Mex­i­can iden­ti­ty. Her art­works, rich with Indige­nous sym­bols and cloth­ing, invite intro­spec­tion about iden­ti­ty and her­itage, although mod­ern crit­ics some­times frame this as cul­tur­al appro­pri­a­tion. The com­plex­i­ty of her ances­try is mir­rored in the Lati­no expe­ri­ence today, reflect­ing both pride and the hid­den lega­cies of racial mix­ing often shroud­ed in secre­cy.

The nar­ra­tor shares per­son­al fam­i­ly his­to­ry, reveal­ing hid­den nar­ra­tives with­in the “Lati­no” iden­ti­ty. A tale unfolds about Ramón, a rel­a­tive raised by an afflu­ent fam­i­ly but born from an extra­mar­i­tal rela­tion­ship, illu­mi­nat­ing the under­ly­ing com­plex­i­ties of racial mix­ing in Latin Amer­i­ca. This nar­ra­tive of mixed her­itage and hid­den iden­ti­ties reflects broad­er themes of shame and secre­cy often encoun­tered in Lati­no fam­i­lies.

The term “Lati­no” itself, much like “His­pan­ic,” exists along­side con­cepts of race and eth­nic­i­ty, cre­at­ing con­fu­sion due to their roots in a his­to­ry of vio­lence, col­o­niza­tion, and cul­tur­al con­flicts in Spain and across Latin Amer­i­ca. The com­plex­i­ty of con­struct­ing eth­nic iden­ti­ties rests in the recog­ni­tion of a muta­ble, flu­id her­itage shaped by count­less encoun­ters, strug­gles, and rein­ven­tions across gen­er­a­tions. Ulti­mate­ly, the expe­ri­ences of indi­vid­u­als like Kahlo and Glo­ria Arel­lanes illus­trate the ten­sion and beau­ty of hail­ing from mixed-race lin­eages, where under­stand­ing of her­itage unfolds through famil­ial ties and per­son­al rev­e­la­tions, reveal­ing the many lay­ers of iden­ti­ty with­in the Lati­no expe­ri­ence.