We are excited to announce our next reading Our Otherness Is Our Strength: Wisdom from the Boogie Down Bronx by Andrea Navedo.
Actress Andrea Navedo, best known for her role as Xiomara, Jane’s mother, on The CW’s Jane the Virgin shares hard-earned wisdom from the boogie down Bronx.
Andrea didn’t get to see many positive portrayals of Latinas in the media growing up. So when she had the chance to play a starring role on Jane the Virgin, a role that cast her as a complex, flawed, and genuine Latina single mother, she jumped all over the opportunity.
Now, she shares bits of her story of growing up in “da South Bronx–boogie down, burning”–to inspire young people who grew up like she did and who, after being counted out, still strive to succeed. She offers the pithy, ghetto-honest, and at times laugh-out-loud funny lessons she learned from surviving abusive relationships, dealing with repeated rejection, and eventually triumphing in the entertainment industry.