Saved by the Bell's Alycia Pascual-Peña on the Importance of Afro-Latinx Representation on TV

Pascual-Peña is a proud Dominicana from the Bronx. Her parents met on the island, (her father was born there while her mom was born in the U.S.), and she spent her early years in a monolingual Spanish home thanks to her parents and grandparents. "They sent me to pre-K without knowing English. In the moment, I was livid because I was like, ¡no entiendo nadie! But thank God, I had a wonderful nun in my pre-K in the Bronx that really helped guide me," she told POPSUGAR.

When she was 6, Pascual-Peña's mom moved her out of the Bronx to Dallas, TX. There she looked around and realized, "I'm everything these people hate. I'm Black. I'm Latina. I'm outspoken." But that didn't stop her. By the age of 13, she was back in the Bronx. Similar to her character Aisha, who gets bused to the affluent Bayside, Pascual-Peña went to high school in Westchester, which she noted is "one of the most affluent counties in the country… I learned very quickly, these are not my people."

Pascual-Peña always knew she wanted to be an artist and is grateful to her mom for supporting her, even when the rest of her family didn't always understand. She says she "has a lot of grace" for them, knowing how hard it is for immigrants to take the types of risks inherent to an artistic career. For example, she was raised to always put education first so it was a big deal when she decided to take a break from college and "give 110% to acting." But it paid off with her booking the role of Lucy in Amy Poehler's Moxie, a Netflix film that came out earlier this year.

Neither Moxie's Lucy nor Saved by the Bell's Aisha were originally written as Afro-Latinas. The writers changed them when Pascual-Peña was cast. She credits her talent and "divine timing" for that success but is frustrated that the entertainment industry still hasn't figured out that Black Latinas exist: "I'm proud to play Black roles. But I think it's sad that I live in a world where I will not be seen for Latina roles… So what I do is I focus on my purpose on staying true to myself, and engaging with material that I think is authentic to me." And that strategy is paying dividends with Pascual-Peña honored to be a part of re-imagining the Saved by the Bell legacy.

"There's not enough roles for all marginalized communities that fully respect us," Pascual-Peña notes. That's why she's particularly proud of Aisha who's outspoken and powerful but also vulnerable and truly human. "It would be really easy for a character like Aisha to fit into stereotypes of being the angry black woman. [That's why I'm] super intentional and deliberate about those moments of softness, to root her and ground her," she adds. It's that type of wholeness that Pascual-Peña looks for when playing a character. In fact, she says her best experiences as an actress have been Latinas and Black women telling her they see themselves represented for the first time in her characters.

"Everything that I do is truly for my community," Pascual-Peña tells POPSUGAR and she clearly means it. Her wildest dreams are yes, to be a successful multi-hyphenate in Hollywood but also to give back, supporting immigrants, Latinas, and the arts. She loves the Latinx community and that love inspires her to use her platform to push us to do better: "A lot of people tried to tell me 'we're all family, somos Latinos'. And I'm like, 'Yeah, we are. But you guys continue to negate and erase our experiences, and the fact that we deal with racism.'" That's why it's so important for her to play Afro-Latina parts. She hopes her roles help other Black Latinos "know that they're valid in their beauty and in their truth and in their experiences. These are conversations that started in my house, and now I'm having them on greater platforms." And with that, she's changing the world.