Rising Spanish Star Mina El Hammani Speaks Out Against Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric

Born to a Moroccan father who immigrated to Spain and worked in construction, and a mother who worked as a cook at the Moroccan embassy in Madrid, Mina worked hard to land her first role as an extra in "El Príncipe" before getting the important role of Nur that made her famous. "I had gone from Mina going down to buy bread in her pajamas to a famous actress. And it’s hard to handle," she explains in an interview with El Mundo.

When asked if she is tired of playing Arab characters, Mina replies that since childhood, she has "never looked at the origin of the characters," because it "conditions where you come from." "It’s important that I say this because it bothers me that people take things from my life for granted. If many people of other origins can opt for Arab texts, why wouldn’t the reverse be possible?" she wonders.

The young actress specifies that she had a hard time making people understand that she is an "actress beyond [her] origins." Mina says she suffers from no longer having a private life. "If you go to a place for the first time and they recognize you, you don’t enjoy going back there as much... I miss going down to buy bread and not getting photographed," she laments.

Mina reassures that she keeps her head on her shoulders because she knows where she comes from and has received a good education from her parents. "I have never thought of myself as more important than someone else. And I’m not just talking about actors, I’m talking about people who believe they have more rights than others because they were born in a rich country and have high incomes, I’ve been living with it since I was little," she emphasizes, denouncing hate speech towards immigrants. "When I appear on television, I’m no longer the Moor, I’m the Arab," she denounces.