Toma Té: Fifth Harmony made my Latinx identity feel ‘worth it’

I love Fifth Harmony.

Originally comprising Ally Brooke, Lauren Jauregui, Camila Cabello, Normani Kordei and Dinah Jane, the platinum record-selling girl group allowed me to feel comfortable and accepted as a gay Latino man.

To contextualize how much I love the girls: I’ve been to at least 10 of their shows, have interviewed them as a group twice, am followed by three of the members on Twitter and even flew to Orlando, Florida. to see the group’s final performance before each member decided to go her own way.

What makes Fifth Harmony so special to me — aside from their fantastic music, choreography and videos — is the multiculturalism they represent, since all five members are women of color. I got to ask them (as a four-piece following Camila’s departure) about this during an interview after the release of the group’s eponymous album last year. I sat next to my favorite member, Ally, and asked the “Work From Home” songstresses how it felt to represent the future since, after all, the United States will be made up of mostly people of color by 2040.

“We hope that we can leave a positive impact on this world, on this industry so that way people can feel love and acceptance that you may feel from us and we feel from each other,” Ally said.

During its time as a group, Fifth Harmony released multiple songs in Spanish and were featured on tracks with top Latino artists like Maluma, Pitbull and Mexican icon Juan Gabriel. The group even dropped a Spanish version of their song “Worth It” and released an entire Spanish EP titled “Juntos.” The Latinidad in the group shined bright.

I particularly identified with that aspect of the group, specifically with the three Latinas in the group — Ally, Camila and Lauren — and I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to speak with them about an issue as relevant as diversity.

More and more, people like me are able to see themselves represented in the music that we listen to thanks to groups like Fifth Harmony, which put out empowering songs  sung by resilient women of color.

Ally, who was raised in San Antonio, is Mexican American and cites Selena Quintanilla and Jennifer Lopez as some of her biggest influences. She thanks them for paving the way for Latinas like her. Ally is not afraid to show off her Latina heritage and is now taking the torch, to beautifully represent Latinos. She is set to release her first solo single “Vámonos” completely in Spanish, a project I’m very much looking forward to. She also performed last year on “Lip Sync Battle” with a mashup of Selena + J. Lo with Selena’s song “Como La Flor.”

Ally makes me proud to be Latino and to be a first-generation American.

I feel similarly about Camila, who is the daughter of Mexican and Cuban immigrants. She is adamant about sharing her culture with the world and is never afraid to speak Spanish in her songs, on social media and even during interviews with English publications.

Last April, she wrote an essay about her immigrant experience for PopSugar in which she stated that “this country was built on immigrants.”

“How strong we are to leave behind everything we know in hopes of something better,” Camila wrote, referring to her parents. “We are not fearless, we just have dreams bigger than our fears.”

Camila is right. Like her parents, my parents’ fears — and the fears of all immigrants in the United States — were smaller than their dreams. I, too, am proud of the future mis papás forged for me.

Needless to say, being in a girl group limited the girls’ ability to express who they were. They were forced to conform to the personalities and song styles that came with being “one of the five.”

But things changed for Lauren, who is Cuban American, after Donald Trump was elected president. In a letter to Trump’s supporters, she came out as a bisexual woman.

She wrote: “I am proud to be the granddaughter and daughter of immigrants who were brave enough to leave their homes and come to a whole new world with a different language and culture and immerse themselves fearlessly to start a better life for themselves and their families.”

Lauren has adamantly condemned the GOP and Trump administration for its heinous policies surrounding immigration. She has even been seen at rallies calling for the reunification of families separated at the border.

She spoke about her bisexuality on Spirit Day, which celebrates LGBTQ youth, and encouraged her fans to “be secure in who you are and loving yourself.”

“I wish I could have told myself that when I was younger, ‘Just fuck it. Love you. Be you,’” she said. “Stop worrying about whether this person is going to like you or that person’s going to like you because I was very much a people pleaser and I know a lot of us are.”

Now she is completely herself. Her ability to express her identity as a bisexual Cuban American woman encourages me to do the same, as a gay Mexican American man. Lauren isn’t afraid to showcase the multiple layers of who she is and isn’t hesitant to stand up for what she believes in. And I’m so proud of her for that.

Even though Fifth Harmony is no longer a singular unit, I’m going to continue following my girls’ careers as soloists. I’m thankful to them for being voices of resilience and for being the best Latinx representatives I could’ve asked for growing up.

As I sprout into adulthood I will continue looking to the girls as examples of who I am and who I want to be: unafraid to show the world who I am and proud of where I come from.

Tomás Mier is a junior majoring in journalism. He is also the associate managing editor of the Daily Trojan. His column, “Toma Té,” runs every other Friday.