Gina Rodriguez in heated exchange over using Latino heritage as a 'marketing tool'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gina Rodriguez attends the 67th Emmy Awards on September 20, 2015 in Los Angeles. (2015 Getty Images)
Gina Rodriguez will confront any online bully in her path.
Last week, the “Jane the Virgin” actress shut down in Twitter a hater who made fun of her Spanish-speaking ability and accused her of using her Latino heritage as a “marketing tool.”
A man named Sergio Garces tweeted Rodriguez, writing: “trying to understand how a person 'proud' of her Hispanic Heritage like @HereIsGina can't even speak spanish... #latinIssuesinUS #lame.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 31-year-old actress, who always takes the time to address her fans on Twitter, responded by calling him out, asking why he would “discriminate against” his people.
“You know what's lame is you are wrong. I can, maybe not as good as you. But why discriminate against ur ppl? Hater,” Rodriguez wrote.
His response: “i don't want to discriminate at all! but it seems from here (spain) that some of you use the 'latino' heritage as marketing...”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rodriguez then corrected the “hater,” making the point that just because she doesn’t speak Spanish as fluently as others doesn’t mean she is not proud of her heritage. She also said that as a woman of color, her heritage is not something she turns off or forgets.
“I walk around Brown, I don't advertise it to get ahead, if that marketing tool worked we would be represented more!” she wrote
The exchange ended with Garces tweeting he "didn't mean to be rude" and hopes Latinos in the U.S. are "represented as they deserve."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I hope spanish (or Latino) community will be represented as they deserve (in the US). Didn't mean to sound rude," he wrote.
Rodriguez continued afterward saying that it's sad that discrimination continues among the community.
“This is a very serious discrimination that exists amongst our community and sadly separates us. Weakens us!” she tweeted.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She then reminded her followers that there is no perfect way to be “a Latina” and that only you can define what that means.
“Girl, you are as Mexican and Latina as you want to be. You define who you are, not someone's silly alienating opinion,” Rodriguez wrote.
This recent exchange highlights the “interracial Latino racism” on Twitter that Rodriguez opened up to Fox News Latino about last August.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It’s not a tool that anyone can use to cause pain,” she said about social media. “It drives me crazy that people would decide to be hateful on social media.”