Rosario Dawson is embracing her roots…
The 37-year-old Puerto Rican and Afro-Cuban American actress has joined several Hollywood stars in commemorating Immigrant Heritage Month with a new PSA in partnership with Welcome.us.
Dawson appears in the PSA that also features Bobby Cannavale, Lupita Nyong’o, Wilmer Valderrama, Rosie Perez and Harry Shum, Jr.
The #IAmAnImmigrant clip aims to recognize the multiple and vibrant roles immigrants – whether forced or voluntarily – contributed in the creation of the United States.
“You can trace back from trains being built and cities and industries being developed because of different influxes of people who came in,” said Dawson, the daughter of a Puerto Rican and a Cuban immigrant. “It’s incredible to be a part of a culture that’s just still living. What we expect or think about what America is, it’s fluid.”
It’s this fluidity that most excites Kenyan-Mexican Nyong’o about the country. “What I think is so wonderful about America is the fact that it is a society of immigrants,” she said,
Miami-born Colombian-Venezuelan Valderrama agrees, saying “every time we get a chance to say out loud that we are an immigrant, I think it’s important that we embrace that opportunity.”