"Mostly Black" The Los Angeles Voice Part 2 (Angelina Alvarado)

This interview has been edited for clarity

After my chat with filmmaker Keely Martin, inspiration struck and I decided to meet with another mixed race teen artist: 17 year old singer Angelina (Angie) Alvarado. I was curious to discover the similarities and differences between Angie’s experiences, Keely’s, as well as my own.

Angie’s music can be found at https://soundcloud.com/linavara/all-of-you-vara

Maya Raval: To start off, how do you identify in terms of ethnicity or race?

Angie Alvarado: I usually describe myself as black or Mexican.

MR: Do you feel like one of those two pulls you in a certain direction? Like do you feel like you fit into one ‘category’ more than the other or is it about equal?

AA: I feel like I fit into the ‘category’ of black or African-American more than the Mexican side of my family. I’m only 25% Mexican and I don’t really see that side of the family a lot and we’re Mexican-American, honestly. Like we don’t speak Spanish, and we don’t have family in Mexico so it’s really just kind of like it doesn’t really matter.

Well, it’s not that it doesn’t matter but I just don’t feel part of the Mexican culture because I don’t feel immersed in it.

I usually will just identify as black. You know, when I check off the little boxes I just pick black and if it’s like “Other” then I’ll be like ‘Okay, and Mexican.’ But I identify as mostly black.

MR: Does that identification affect your daily life at school, socially, or anything?

AA: Well, when I first started high school I felt like I had to fit in with the black kids at school and listen to rap music and do stereotypical black activities and just act black. And I kind of just lost myself. Lowkey, when I joined CPY (Culver-Palms Family YMCA delegation in CalYMCA’s Model Legislature & Court Program) I was like okay, I can kinda be myself and I don’t have to fit in with all these people that aren’t really my friends and I can be friends with people who are different. So I started to embrace myself and I recognize that to be black I don’t have to do stereotypical things, like that stuff doesn’t matter.

MR: So you mentioned that CPY played a big role in you finding yourself again. What about music? Has your race ever influenced what you do in music?

AA: My race has definitely influenced my music, especially when I first started to write. I would write songs inspired by Taylor Swift when I was really young, so I would write songs like that. But then, I would think that I can’t be a country singer or a pop singer because I’m black, I have to be in hip-hop or R&B, I have to be like Alicia Keys. So I would start to sing & write songs like Jhene Aiko’s and compare myself to black female artists in the industry and I just fell into this trap.

Not a trap, but like a box where I couldn’t branch out and do like alternative or rock music or anything so then I stopped doing music for a while.

But now I’m back on the hip-hop and R&B scene but that’s my choice and I do want to do that now. I feel like that’s just where I am right now.

MR: Yeah, it’s most important to do something that you like and that you feel comfortable doing. Otherwise, it doesn’t really matter in the end. Well, that’s all I had for you, thank you for chatting with me!

AA: Of course!