My name is Gabriela Kay and I am a first-generation Latin woman.

My Dominican culture has been burned inside of me and the pride of my country runs in my blood and pumps through my veins into my heart. Although I do not dominate the language, I find the tongue both romantic and wildly beautiful.

Being a Latina, to me, means being a part of a large loving family and a culture that dates back centuries; a culture that has stayed strong through political and social oppression while maintaining traditions and customs dating back to indigenous times. Latinas are beautiful women who bear the fruit of their families and continue to share the legacies of their mothers and those women who came before her. I see Latin women in this light, with a glowing halo around each of their heads.

I remember that, back in high school, I did a research project on the issue of hyper-sexualization of Latinas. I was so excited to finally study a culture that hadn't been covered yet in class. (I have found in my experience that Latin American culture is often excluded from the historical narrative in world history unless we are talking about Christopher Columbus.)

I wanted to do something different, something that I thought people would be interested in hearing about. I decided to try to find out more information about how Latin women are seen only for their physical appearances.

Every day when I would walk to school, I passed a group of construction workers.

"sssst sssst. Mamí tú eres bonita."

"¿Y todo eso es tuyo?"

"Honey you so thick, voltéate para mí."

This is the part where I either shot them a dirty look or clenched my backpack straps and walked faster, feeling their eyes on my back while I took each step forward. I was tired of being fetishized for my culture and wanted to know why they never harassed the Caucasian girl who would walk right ahead of me, literally anyone else other than me and my Hispanic friends. I wanted to know what other people thought about this.

I asked one of my guy friends in class what it was about Hispanic girls that made us targets for these kinds of comments. He told me it was because latinas were "spicy," "fiery," had "beautiful tan skin," had "attitudes" (which apparently was sexy), and that we had "the best bodies out of all the other races."

I was dumbfounded. I didn't even know what to respond. I asked around, and apparently, the majority of my class had similar comments. My favorite (!) comment was that "Latin women just had the hottest accents."

Except, I, a Latina, had literally been talking to them for the past five minutes. With. No. Accent.

Like, what?

I felt like they all genuinely thought that Latina women were like the character Gloria from the TV show Modern Family. That's when I realized that that was basically the only depiction of Latin women that were ever shown on television and on mainstream media in general.

Here are the facts. Latina women are hypersexualized in the media and by society. This affects multiple groups of people, including (but not limited to) young latinas who have body image issues due to the pressure to look like the latinas that they see on TV and in magazines, as well as groups of people who interact with latin women, as they perpetuate stereotypes and have a skewed image of what an ‘ideal’ Latina woman looks and acts like. This causes there to be a divide in society that not only hinders individualism for Latin women, but also socially stunts any growth that can occur between groups of people when interacting with Latinas.

My best friend Heaven and I are both hispanic. She is from Puerto Rico, and of course as I mentioned, I am Dominican. Again, both Latina, yet *surprise!* she and I look absolutely NOTHING alike. I have more olive skin and very dark features with thick eyebrows, whereas she is very pale with blue eyes and light brown hair. I am curvaceous while she is petite. We are two completely different people, and neither of us necessarily fit into the social construct of the "typical" Latin woman.Should this invalidate our existence and our place in our own Latino communities? Absolutely not. She and I are beautiful Hispanic girls, and also, (newsflash!) we have more than just our looks to offer to the world. We are both in college, pursuing communications degrees.

The thought alone of being isolated from our culture because of a lack of physical similarities to the expectation of what a Latin woman should look like sounds absolutely ridiculous. However, many young girls feel pressured to fit into a mold and become cookie cutter replicas of the Latinas they see on TV and social media.

Within Western culture in particular, Latin women are not respected as individual beings. They are often objectified and sexualized within the media and the public regard. It is difficult to combat an issue that is so prominent within our culture. When people associate Latin women with adjectives like "sexy" and "desirable", they are perpetuating sexualization of Latinas.

This mentality stems from the fact that 37% of Latin women are partially or fully naked when they are on screen (indiewire.com). (The other percentages are likely the other submissive and undeveloped roles that Latinas are pigeonholed into, i.e. 'the maid' or 'the nanny'.)

It seems almost impossible to raise awareness of an issue that is so deeply rooted into people’s subconscious due to misrepresentation by the media. People should care about being more sensitive towards the terms used to describe a Latina, as well as attempt to change their own perception of what an ‘ideal’ Latina looks like because it affects how latinas view themselves.

If the media constantly slanders or doesn't even represent all types of Latin women, they are completely removed from the narrative and feel inadequate because they do not “belong” or don't have the “right look”, which is created completely by the media. This causes identity problems and self-esteem decline, two issues that are completely preventable if there were no expectations to look or act or sound a certain way.

After opening up the topic to my classmates in high school, I did see a change in the attitudes and the general regard for Hispanic girls in the class and in general. I think that this is just the tip of the iceberg, honestly.

As a society, it is important to be constantly aware of the messages that the media is feeding consumers, and be aware enough to not contribute to unfair and inappropriate attitudes and behaviors towards any marginalized group of people, not just Hispanic women specifically.

Latin girls should be growing up with the same pride and self-love that I have, and be concerned with continuing to advance a culture that has been constantly targeted to hinder progression within society. The reinforcement of a general regard that Latin women are only valuable for their looks and their sex appeal is a plague that desperately needs to be eradicated.

To review: Why? So that girls like me can walk to school and not have to worry about creepy construction workers checking me out and calling me mamacita.

Moral of the story? I'm not your spicy Latina. Deal with it.