Tonya Mosley

Do you see yourself as a musician?

Your mom, you all are extremely close.

And I want to read something that you said about her.

It was at an Essence Black Women in Hollywood luncheon back in 2020.

So you said something pretty poignant about your mother and your grandfather.

And here's the quote.

I want to acknowledge someone who is not black and is not in the room because she couldn't be.

But it's my mother.

Her father, my grandfather, was of Mexican descent.

He was a performer in a time where there was very few of them.

And he was the only very often.

And I think because of this, he had a real pressure to assimilate because he didn't want my mother to speak Spanish.

And I was just really struck by the fact that you wanted to acknowledge her in this room.

You wanted to say the sacrifices that she made allowed you to be in that room and also her understanding of identity in that way.

How did your mother's experience actually help you hold on to the parts of yourself in this world as you navigate trying to pinpoint the storyteller you are?

um and i'm not sure that i would have that i would have known how to do that were it not for my mother you know what i also note based on what you shared about your mother and in particular that speech you gave at that women's luncheon where you said i want to acknowledge this woman who's not in the room i mean oftentimes when we're talking about your identity it is really focused on your blackness yeah but you are biracial and your mother is is white and mexican and so she's

She's really not in the rooms when we talk about black discourse.

But this sounds like she was such a fundamental part in you understanding who you are.

Yay for moms.

Yay for moms.