(pensive music) - [Keyanna] The perception of Latinos in the United States is, a light brown person with a perfect combination of Indigenous and white genes.

But very rarely will people also consider that over 90% of the slave trade went to the Caribbean and Latin America.

So I don't think that the Afro-Latino vote is frequently considered when we're talking about like the Latino vote in the United States.

- [D'Angela] I love these pictures though.

- [Keyanna] Because my dad was so young, he would have to be like my age at that point.

I am African American, Native American and Puerto Rican.

And I was born in Berkeley, California, but my dad was in the military.

And so when I was very young, I moved to a small town in Texas, just outside of Corpus Christi.

Like growing up in South Texas, there were not a lot of other Afro-Latino folks.

And so people's perception of what it meant to be Latino was very isolated within the Mexican and Chicano experience.

And so I connected to my Latinidad through Chicano culture and I've definitely eaten more tortillas than plantains over the course of my life.

And so I was on the ballet folklorico team in high school and in the Spanish club, and then suddenly there's this immigration from Cuba.

And so the ballet folklorico team slowly evolved into a salsa team.

And that community was really what connected me for the first time meaningfully to a sense of Latino identity that felt authentic to me.

But you know, all throughout Latin America, we have deep, deep issues with like class and race.

And the people will tell you like, race doesn't exist in Latin America.

Like we're all Dominicans, we're all Puerto Ricans, we're all Cubans.

You know, like we're all Mexicans.

Like if you were to go to the spaces where people are from and, and look at who was experiencing the most acute violence, political oppression, and marginalization, those people are usually darker.

And that's not by accident, it's by design.

Hey, Dad.

- [Johnny] Hello!

Me, growing up, I thought I was a Black man, you know?

And so, you kind of dropped your culture, you know, you kind of gravitated towards the Hip Hop culture, you know?

- [Keyanna] You like, even though both of your parents are from the island, like speak Spanish exclusively, like your cultural identity is still difficult because people put you in a box.

- [Johnny] Yes, yes.

So look at the vice president, with her with her whole identity, right?

Is she Black or is she Indian?

Why do we have to prove who we are?

You gotta prove you're American?

You know what I mean?

- [Keyanna] When I think about Kamala Harris as like an Afro-Latino, I think it comes really naturally to accept that she's both Indian and Black.

Two things can exist at the same time.

I think some people were very excited about having a Black woman in the Oval Office, but Kamala Harris in my opinion, represents more of a middle of the road like establishment politician.

And so while I, I will be voting for Kamala Harris, it seems like we've taken for granted the votes of people who are more left-leaning.

I started thinking about displacement, racial justice and housing really early on because my dad was a veteran and experienced like chronic homelessness at a certain point of life.

There's a very large population of folks experiencing homelessness in Berkeley who are seniors.

I'm a commissioner for District seven for Berkeley's Housing Advisory Commission.

Since looking at housing and resilience issues in my community, I've been advocating against the criminalization of homelessness and involved in housing policy.

So, I am very politically active.

I have been for a very long time.

(reflective music) - [Keyanna] Don't you look cute!

When we talk about the Latino vote and we don't think expansively about the breadth of Latino experiences in the United States, we miss an opportunity to capture how diverse Latinos' interests are politically.