Alanis Ruiz Guevara was 8 years old when she was sent home from her private school in Ponce, Puerto Rico, for wearing cornrow braids.
“I was so scared and I felt so bad,” Ruiz Guevara said, who identifies as Afro-descendant. “I felt like there was something wrong with my hair.”
Now 25 years old, her experience is the driving force behind a new bill in Puerto Rico that prohibits discrimination against natural hair and protective hairstyles in both private and public institutions.
“Puerto Rico needs legislation that protects people who wish to wear their hair naturally or in African styles, which is a personal decision that has nothing to do with our creative, intellectual, or professional performance,” said Ruiz Guevara in a statement following the measure’s approval last Wednesday.
