Are you Proud of Your Latin Heritage? So, Why Aren't You Proud of Your Latin Curves as Well?

Filed in archive Latin Style , Latina Musings on August 10, 2007

Yesterday I wrote about Fitness' inaugural Mind, Body, Spirit Superstar, Daisy Fuentes, and shared with you some excerpts from Daisy's interview.

Daisy Fuentes said about Hispanic women's pressure to be thin: "There's a part of you that really wants to embrace your curves, then there's society saying no one likes curves."

When I was growing up, the famous women who were role models had curves. Of course they weren't exactly "real women", but they were a hell of a lot closer to what a real, healthy women would look like, than the skinny/starving celebrities we have today.

The message this days is "the thinner, the better"; you see women that look like skeletons, being celebrated as the most beautiful and desirable. They are everywhere: in the movies, in magazine covers, in the fashion runway, in TV shows and commercials.

That message is harmful for all women; but it's specially painful for Latin women. Latinas tend to be curvaceous, voluptuous; we have big butts, thick tights, wide hips, full breasts. We have curves. We are naturally built this way; and then we have to live with the "thin model", and we get the "no one likes curves" message every day.

You know what? That's a lie. Yes, there are people who bought the message and don't like curves. But, truth be told, most men like curves. They like butts, and hips, and breasts; they like all those things we have. If you don't believe me, ask your husband, your boyfriend, your male friends. Specially the Latinos. Yes, they like to see those skinny cover models in bathing suits, but when it comes to what they can touch, they often prefer to have something to grab, if you know what I mean.

As Daisy said, if there's something in your body that you don't like, you should change it (I'm not saying that it's easy, but if you really want to change, you can make an effort and change). And that's ok, as long as you keep your goals and expectations realistic, and you don't starve or kill yourself trying to be a walking skeleton.

What it's not ok is to hate yourself because you don't fit in the skinny stereotype. If you're proud of your Latin heritage, your Latin culture and your Latin roots, you should be proud of your Latin curves as well.

Think about this: are you really dissatisfied with your body, or are you just trying to be what magazine covers say you should be?