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Over the last three years, Esperanza has taken in more than $100,000 in NEA grants to support events like its Afro-Latinx Festival and projects like its South Central Archive, a multimedia timeline of community stories, photo portraits and other culturally revelatory keepsakes.

LGBTQ+ leaders built up Somos Seattle, which translates to “we are Seattle,” and its events with the goal of fostering spaces that did not neglect celebrating Afro-Latinx people, undocumented immigrants or the various identities that exist within the larger Latinx LGBTQ+ community, Corona said.

Esquivel, who identifies as an Afro-Latinx lesbian, says she’d rather be recognized for her work on the properties of the muon or neutrino physics.

But blockbuster audiences never showed up, and soon after it appeared in theaters, the film faced backlash from those who said the large Latino cast didn’t feature dark-skinned Afro-Latinx performers.

In the wake of the movie adaptation of his musical “In the Heights,” the Puerto Rican playwright, producer and actor apologized in response to claims of Afro-Latinx exclusion.