Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the duchess of Sussex, have arrived in Morocco for an official trip scheduled to be their last international journey before she gives birth to their first child. Meghan is nearly seven months pregnant and is expected to have their child in
April. The royal couple’s schedule begins today in the town of Asni in the Atlas Mountains to hear about the education of girls in rural communities. They will then travel to Rabat to meet with diplomats, influential women, young entrepreneurs and disabled athletes. The visit will also include a trip to the Moroccan Royal Federation of Equestrian Sports to observe horses that provide support to children with special needs.
■ Yalitza Aparicio, the Oscar-nominated, first-time actress in Roma, is finding strong support among Mexican-American women who identify with her indigenous roots despite backlash she is receiving in Mexico. Some Mexican-American women say they are glad Aparicio’s high-profile role is challenging typical images of lightskinned Hispanics in Spanish-language films and TV shows, and they are expressing pride that she’s the first indigenous woman to be nominated for best actress at the Oscars. U.S. Hispanic Aparicio fans are holding Oscar watch parties, commenting to one another online with excitement and sharing on social media every move Aparicio makes. “She’s brown girl magic,” said Jennie Luna, a Chicana/o Studies professor at California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, Calif. The praise north of the U.S.-Mexico border among fans of Mexican descent comes as Aparicio, who is from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, faces attacks online in her homeland and scorn from some Mexican actors. More recently, Mexican actor Sergio Goyri was caught on video criticizing Aparicio’s nomination and using a racial slur to describe her. He later apologized. After she appeared on the cover of Vogue Mexico last year, Aparicio was hit with a tirade of online comments that criticize her physical appearance. “I am proud to be an Oaxacan indigenous woman and it saddens me that there are people who do not know the correct meaning of words,” Aparicio, who is of Mixtec descent, said in a statement earlier this month. In Roma, Aparicio plays Cleo, a domestic worker for a Mexico City middle-class family in the turbulent early 1970s. She speaks in an indigenous dialect and in Spanish and works to navigate the different worlds for her own survival. Aparicio is nominated alongside Glenn Close, Lady Gaga, Olivia Colman and Melissa McCarthy at the Oscars, which air today.