Gina Rodriguez Celebrates Her Afro-Latina Roots in This Week’s #MovementMondays

As many of us sluggishly got through our Mondays, Gina Rodriguez spread her positivity. First, she highlighted Laz Alonso, an actor of Afro-Cuban descent, as part of her #MovementMondays – a hashtag she is using to lift up Latinos in Hollywood – praising him for furthering the conversation of what it means to be a Latino.

“In this country, there has been an ongoing conversation about encompassing the Latino community in one vision, but that’s impossible because we come in all different shades and sizes, with different traditions, different slang, and different life experiences,” she said. “…If we can highlight what makes our individual Latino culture (Cuban, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Chilean etc) special and yet unite as a whole then we can be empowered as a solid and strong community of 55 million plus. Our Latino community includes Afro-Latinos, my amazing father Gino Rodriguez happens to be an Afro-Latino.”

Then, later in the day, she headed to Conan, where she eagerly offered to throw hands with Conan O’Brien. (Probably because she has already popped James Corden in the face.) They mutually decided that he didn’t want those problems after Gina went on about how her father taught her to box.

And there’s also an adorable story about how excited she was when she got recognized in Macao.