Growing up in the Latino community, this represents “progress” to me. As a dark-skin Latino of Dominican parents, you run into racism from people of your own background growing up because of your skin color. I’ve encountered it myself.

I’ve always felt there was a push to put Latinos out there as people who only look like “Mario Lopez” and that was that. I think that’s worked because when I tell people I’m Dominican they can’t believe it. But there are Latinos that come in all shades and even darker than Sessilee Lopez who is the cover girl of last month’s Latina Magazine. The amount of Latinos who come from European ancestry are very slim; the broad majority have Taino Indian and African roots.

I’ve encountered many young women who don’t have the wavy hair or the light skin who feel bad about themselves for no reason. Others are made to feel bad by their own parents, family members, and friends just because of their skin color and told to marry light in many instances to “whiten” the family.

Lopez is of Portugese and Dominican ancestry (80% of Dominicans have African ancestry) and I applaud Mimi Valdes (Editor In Chief) for putting a darker-skinned Latina on the front cover. A cover like this sends a strong message and makes it clear that you can’t pinpoint a Latino/Latina by their skin color because there isn’t one universal tone; we come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors.