Amara La Negra is the ultimate creative multi-hyphenate. Best-known for her star role in the reality TV show Love & Hip Hop: Miami, the 32-year-old has made a name for herself for her outspoken love for her roots and successful ventures into the worlds of singing, acting, performing, and modeling, all while working as a podcast host. Named Diana Danelys De Los Santos, she grew up in a single-mother household in Miami, Florida as the only child. She's credited her upbringing for solidifying her resilience, one that has manifested into a star-studded career.
A hallmark reason for Amara's multi-hyphenate career is her diverse upbringing. The Afro-Latina singer told NPR, "If I say I'm Afro-Latina, you'll automatically, visually in your mind see that I'm dark. And in my family, we all speak Spanish, we're Latinos. This is my culture." That background manifests itself in tracks such as "What A Bam Bam" or "Se Que Soy," which employ distinct dancehall and dembow undertones. In addition, much of Love & Hip Hop: Miami details her struggles surrounding being an Afro-Latina in the entertainment industry.
Amara La Negra Is A Multi-Creative Hyphenate
By pre-school, Amara already knew what she wanted to do. She was an entertainer, and she wouldn't be limited to expressing herself in one form or another. By the age of 4, Amara had landed a role on the blockbuster Spanish-language show Sabado Gigante. However, as the only dark-skinned member of the cast, she recalled instances of colorism at the hands of producers and personnel.
Amara La Negra's mistreatment within the entertainment industry founded an innate desire to change perceptions surrounding skin color and appearance. After years of attempting to mold her appearance for those around her, she ironically achieved the most success by ignoring those voices. That desire would eventually morph into the Exactly Amara podcast, where she discusses topics surrounding social media, body positivity, relationships, and everything in between. In addition, she uses Love & Hip Hop: Miami as a platform to solidify that she isn't overtly different from the average working-class person. She works hard, lives simply, and experiences the very real human emotions of stress or heartbreak.
Amara Addresses Racial Stereotypes In Her Industry
Even more importantly, Amara is looking to change the conversation surrounding racial stereotypes in the music industry. She's proven that these judgments can run far deeper than deriving from white Americans. Amara has been the subject of racism in her home country of the Dominican Republic due to her dark skin and afro, something that she's additionally highlighting on Love & Hip Hop: Miami. The series documents her struggles to enter the mainstream entertainment market, a conflict that would come to a head when Latino producer Young Hollywood criticized her afro in a meeting. It became an inspiring moment that inspired many creatives to push the boundaries and speak out against ignorance and injustice.
There's no doubt that Amara is a busy woman. Outside of her creative entertainment and musical ventures, she also began her own real-estate business, Amara Residences, back in 2021. Based in the Dominican Republic, Amara Residences features 48 apartments and 12 penthouses. Her overarching purpose for the initiative is to build the generational wealth and financial stability that previous generations in her family couldn't provide. In addition, she's looking to further develop infrastructure in the Dominican Republic. From running a successful real-estate business to continuing her run on a highly successful show, she's working around the clock.
She Went From Homelessness To Television Star
That sort of work ethic was distilled into her throughout her childhood. Amara's mother, Ana Maria, supported her entertainment career since she was a toddler. With Maria being a native of the Dominican Republic, she came to Miami as a single mother. She worked multiple jobs, including cleaning houses and cooking, in order to pay for Amara's vocal lessons and dance classes. However, that kind of motivation wasn't just deriving from a struggling childhood that Amara and her mother shared. In the midst of her entertainment career, she found herself temporarily homeless.
In an interview with The Real, Amara got transparent about her struggles to make it to stardom. Even if she was part of a highly successful show as a child, her rise to the top of the entertainment world has been anything but linear. In 2015, Amara was broke after being kicked out of her ex-boyfriend's house. She would spend three months living out of her car. "I lived in my car. I would park in front of supermarkets, where there were cameras and nobody knew I was going through it," she recalled. However, Amara would use the experience as motivation to re-invigorate her career. “You know as an immigrant, the dream is to be able to make it in America. So, I was like ‘you know what mama? I got you. I’m going to work and get you your own house.'”