Representation Matters: 15 Latinxs I Saw on TV While Growing Up

I didn’t care much for having Barbie dolls when I was little. I had her Latinx friend Teresa (I still have to find out who bought this doll for me and thank them). Maybe it’s because Teresa looked more like me, with dark hair and dark eyes. The point is that it’s imperative that little girls and boys see people who look like them, everywhere — and this includes television and film. On the small screen, among the sea of human Barbies, with blonde hair, blue eyes, no accents, and European names, I felt empowered and seen to witness the presence of a doll such as Teresa. Here are those Latinx actors and actresses whom I saw on television, while growing up in the eighties and nineties. Because representation matters.

12Tatyana Ali on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

BeLatina Tatyiana Ali Fresh Prince of Bel Aire
Photo Credit IG@ilovethrowbackz

On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which I watched on a regular basis (and still catch episodes of), Ashley Banks was pretty, rich, opinionated, educated — and played by an Afro-Latina — Afro-Panamanian Tatyana Ali. I wish I would have known she was Latinx in the nineties, when I first watched the show!