Vida Guerra (1974- ) is a Cuban American video vixen or hip hop model, best known for her beautiful bottom. She first appeared in 2002, in FHM magazine as an “ordinary babe” in lingerie. She was a nobody then, but readers liked her so much that FHM brought her back. Soon she was appearing in King, Smooth, Black Men and Playboy (July 2006) as well as some music videos, like “Shake Ya Tailfeather” in the summer of 2003.
In 2004 she was FHM magazine’s Model of the Year.
In 2006 she was Black Men magazine’s Sexiest Woman of the Year.
AskMen.com puts her somewhere in the 60s between Fergie and Carrie Underwood.
She is a Latin beauty with white skin, long black hair, high cheekbones and a great figure: her measurements are 34C-25-37 (86-64-94 cm). That gives her a waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) of 0.68. She is 5 foot 3 (1.60 metres) and 115 pounds (52 kg). In person she looks shorter and older than her pictures.
Given her success at both FHM and Black Men magazine it seems she appeals to both black men and white men in America. In fact, her look is right between black and white ideas of female beauty.
For example, her WHR of 0.68 makes her just thick enough for most black men but still thin enough for most white men.
There are plenty of black models with bigger bottoms than her, like Buffie, Bria and Angel, but they seem to be too big for most white men. Vida is just right: not too big, not too small.
Her skin colour too: white. If she looked at all black, like Melyssa Ford or Esther Baxter, she would lose many of her white male fans. On the other hand, if she were Anglo instead of Latin American, she might be “too white” for some black men. That is how it seems. So again, she stands right in the middle.
But if she is white, why did Black Men magazine pick her as their Sexiest Woman of the Year? Over the years they have tried out different sorts of women to see what sort of beauty works in practice among black men in all parts of America and the West Indies. They found that what plays best are light-skinned women with long black hair and big bottoms. Like Melyssa Ford. Or Vida Guerra.
Vida Guerra was born in Havana Cuba. Her family came to America in 1980 when she was six. They lived in Perth Amboy, New Jersey near New York.
She has always loved modelling, but did not get her big break till she was 28, which is old for a model.
She heard that FHM wanted to do pictures of “everyday babes” in lingerie. She sent in her pictures and the rest is history.
She is trying to get into singing and acting, but with little success so far.
In 2005 some naked pictures of her got out on the Internet. She said someone broke into her mobile phone, but her record company at the time said she was behind it and dropped her.
See also:
She’s a pretty girl! In Uk, I see a lot of white men with black wives with very big bottoms, it is what the magazines put out anyway. However those white men tend to come from French, Eastern Europe and Germany, they mostly like African wives.
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So do like German men like black women more than the British? If so, why do you think that is? And is their taste in black women different? And what do they think of Black American women?
If you want to send a guest blog on this I will post it.
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To be honest, European men are more comfortable in dating/marrying Black women than American white men. Because they didn’t carry the baggage of slavery/racism that American white men do.
When they marry Black women, they marry African, particularly West African women. The kids are well integrated in European society moreso than in America.
What say you?
Steph
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So do like German men like black women more than the British? If so, why do you think that is? And is their taste in black women different? And what do they think of Black American women?
Abagond
It really depends on where the White British man come from, if they are from London, they tend not to have black wives or girlfriends, however if they come from the country areas, or from other European countries, also if you go to Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Birmingham, people tend to talk to your more anyway.
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Don’t you think it’s too blanket of a statement to say this kind of person likes that kind of person. I mean, I an 3/4 Jewish 1/4 Italian and my wife is Mongolian – what would that make our kids once we have them?
All of these classes have be drawn for us so as to further distance ourselves from the truth – that we are all just humans and have attractions on our own, no?
Seems like such an old discussion. This woman in the article is FINE no matter where she comes from. She’s the kind of woman that walks into the subway and causes you to get into a 2 hour argument with your wife because you can’t turn away.
And that, THAT argument takes place in every culture and language all over the world.
This blog is awesome because people get all riled up!
Peace.
-Stal
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Vida Guerra is certainly beautiful. The trend today is for Latina models and actresses. I’m glad to see more Latinas in the media but I’m also believe that Americans are more comfortable seeing Latinas than Black women. They seem to have no problem in admiring the backside of JLO than Beyonce’s. In fact, Maxim magazine retouch photos of Beyonce’s backside while leaving JLo’s intact.
What are your thoughts?
S.B.
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I don’t know a man alive who doesn’t enjoy looking at Beyonce’s backside. J Lo? Not even close.
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I agree that white American men have way more hang-ups about dating and marrying black women than their counterparts in Europe. It goes back to their history of keeping blacks as slaves, as Steph says. But I am surprised that white men in London are that bad!
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Of J.Lo’s backside:
I remember when she first came out in the 1990s they made a big deal about it. I looked and looked at her pictures and could not see what the big deal was. Sure, she has a nice backside, but it certainly was not the best one or anything. Plenty of black women have as good or better.
But then that is just it: in the minds of white people, black women are not even in the running for the most part. If they were, no one would make such a big deal about J.Lo’s body.
The same goes for Angelina Jolie and her famous lips: beautiful, yes, but many black women have far more beautiful lips than she does! Why is it I see that but most Americans do not?
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I don’t think the blame only goes for white people. After all, how many hours do black women spend at the beauty shop straightening out their hair. We must spread the blame around if we are ever to get at the real problem – and thus the real criminals.
-Stal
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They found that what plays best are light-skinned women with long black hair and big bottoms.
——
How did they determine that? And most of the well-known black video/swimsuit models tend to be CLEARLY black. Not “light brown” so that conclusion doesn’t make much sense.
About Guerra, black dudes like her BODY, not her face. She’d be described as a “tip drill”! LOL
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Also,
Guerra is Cuban. She undoubtebly has substantial African blood. That explains part of her acceptability for many African American male fans, ditto with J.Lo. I think it explains why they both scored well with white Anglo men as well. The white men get two African-descented bodies/faces but thanks to their Spanish/Euro admixture and location of their parents’ origins (in Carribean islands that were colonized by the Spanish), they can think of them as “Latin”, not black.
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Right, black men and white men are not looking at the same thing, but they both see something they like.
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mynameismyname:
Buy yourself a copy of Black Men magazine and you will see what I mean. That is the sort of beauty they push: light-skinned women. They did not come to it all in a day. They started with Tyra types: thin, big breasts, supermodel types. But that did not play well. So over several years they tried out different sorts of women to see what works – not just in New York, but from coast to coast.
More on Black Men magazine here:
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Most white Americans have little idea of how much Latin women from the Caribbean are mixed with black. J.Lo’s body did not come from Spain, for those who were wondering.
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Not only Carribean Latinos, but Central and South Americans as well. I study Latin America and unless you’re from Argentina, Chile, Uraguay or Paraguay or El Salvador, some African is in your family tree.
The vast majority of blacks in the African Diaspora live in Latin America.
Sad, that most white (and black) America do not know this.
The whole “Latino/Hispanic” tag is deceiving.
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About Black Men Magazine …
although it influences tastes and attitudes towards the attractive to some degree, it is not truly indicitive of what black men across the diaspora are into. That’s too diverse and broad of a population one can never determine what every black man or even the majority like and don’t like in a woman.
Of course, they’ll (mainstream media) push a more Eurocentric idea of beauty because that form of attractiveness is presented as the ideal in a white supremacist society.
Intrestingly enough, when researching all of these black video/swimsuit models and looking at various covers of the mainstream “black male” magazines, there were STILL a strong presence of non-light skinned black women (pick a shade) of all different shapes (usually buxom, as you described). A “racially ambigious” or non-black one will pop up frequently but she still seems balanced or slightly outnumbered by a sista.
Maybe I need to pick up a copy of one of these magazines but I don’t let some filmsy magazine dictate what I find beauty. Any guy who does needs his head checked.
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Well, Black Men magazine is not selling to the whole Diaspora, just to the American part and maybe a bit of the Caribbean.
No one look in a woman, no matter what it is, is going to appeal to all men, of course. They were looking for something that would appeal to the greatest number.
Personally I wish they would use more dark-skinned women.
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I agree with Felicity in regards to white men in London not having Black wives and girlfriends. I’ve live in London all my life and it’s quite rare to see a BW/WM couple walking down the street or out and about. However, I see lots of BM/WW couples and quite a few White Men and East Asian females couples. I don’t know the reason for this? It would be interesting to see this topic explore in more depth.
I personally think one of the reason for the low dating numbers between WM/BW in the UK and in particular London is the lack of social mix. There is big problem in the UK with class and most middle-class WM mix exclusively with WW so the level of contact with black people is minimal or non-existence
Another reason is be beauty standards, just like America Britain has it ideal of beauty and the problem is far WORST. It’s very rare to see black women display as beautiful in the UK media it is always the Blonde hair, blue-eyed and pale skin women who is seen as the ideal beauty. ‘The English Rose’ look is still the image that newspapers, magazines and television promote on a daily basis. When you do see a black woman in the press in particular the newspapers she is always sexualised or see as the ‘exotic’
Also white men and black men believe that black women with typical ‘African features’ and dark skin are not beautiful or unattractive. I recently read a post on yahoo UK Answers by a white man stating that mixed race women are better than full black women because they don’t have ‘wide flat noses’ ,‘big full lips’ and are ‘less ghetto’.. So the perception of a white beauty standard affect how white men see black women as less desirable than their white female counterparts. It would be great to see a post discussing this issue in more depth because Black women in the UK endure the same racist stereotypes that American Black women suffer from but there has not been any research done on how we are treated in a majority white society and how this effects us.
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Those are good topics. I will probably write something about it this week. Thanks.
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people tend to forget tht slavery was started by europeans so i dont know wht tht one person is talking about europeans not being involved with slavery when they were. b4 they were americans they were british portuguese etc. george washington was american but he was still a british man so europeans should have the same hangups to an extent. also jew is not a race4 whoever put there 3/4 jewish it is a religion there r black jews n ethiopia whicj is the country of the first man.
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I’ve lived in the UK for five years, live in a very Middle class suburb of Wimbledon where I must be the only black woman here. I’m Canadian/African and have my share of white male advances. My boyfriend is very middle class form lily white county of West Sussex.White Englishmen tend to go for the more educated spectrum of black women in the UK. Exposure to black women in neighbourhoods and the workplace is also a hindrance to relations between black women and white men. I’ve been told I’m light and ‘safer’ to approach than my darker skinned sisters, nonsense as i see white men with darker skinned women all the time. Blacks and whites aren’t intergrated in the UK,i was raised African and Canadian so had no racial hang ups when i moved into all white Wimbledon. At the famous tennis tournament, again, i could count on one hand how many black faces i saw there.
My hobbies ie tennis, cycling, sailing and swimming don’t bring me into contact with black people. There are little unwritten rules in the black community that limits that intergration with whites. If you do play sports deemed too ‘white’ then of course you must be a sellout. So sad to hear, so limiting, and god forbid you date white men!
And may I add that in the time I’ve been here I’ve found the English to be most welcoming. : ) The UK isn’t a bad place to be. The english tend to like happy go lucky people that aren’t too hung up on race and bring up race on every darned occasion. I feel the same way.
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vida guerra is a beautiful woman that is skinny but have curves as well. with the whole hollywood liking lighter women than darker women, they look at light skin women as beautiful because they don’t have wide nose, big lips, dark skin and whatnot. pretty much the european features. agabond i agree with what you said about hollywood appreciating other races that has full lips, curves, and a big butt when most black women have that but we’re called fat and ugly. i’ve seen black women have better bodies and lips than j.lo and angeline put together. it seems that hollywood likes to put down darker women and men, mostly black men, get brainwash into thinking that lighter women are more attractive and that’s what they go for. jessica white is a dark skin model and she’s beautiful but they’re would be brainwashed people thinking she’s ugly because she’s dark. the only dark skin woman i see in hollywood is gabrielle union and she’s beautiful too and far more attractive than halle and beyonce but hollywood will always praise them as ideal black beauty than gabrielle and it’s sad.
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You got that right. That is just how I see it too.
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Gabrielle Union is more medium brown than dark brown, no?
Do you think dark skinned black men are excluded in Hollywood?
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As a dark skinned, “Black looking” Latina, I am proud of my African/Spanish/Native background but I GREATLY RESENT the ANTI-BW RACISM I’ve faced from many American WM/non-BM in my IRR’S with them. This type of WM/non-BM has initially been attracted to me (and other dark skinned, “Black looking” Latinas like me) enough to START a relationship but has REFUSED to SERIOUSLY DATE and/or consider me for MARRIAGE STRICTLY BECAUSE OF MY “BLACK LOOK”. I have seen this same type of WM/non-BM enthusiastically date and/or marry other Latina women WITH THE SAME AFRICAN/SPANISH and/or NATIVE/OTHER MIX AS ME but who were LIGHTER/WHITER LOOKING (eg.like J.Lo, Vida Guerra, Eva Mendes, etc.). I would love to see this BRAND OF ANTI-BW RACISM END in American culture but Hollywood, other major media and some WM/non-BM CONTINUE TO PERPETUATE IT.
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You would hope Hollywood would know better.
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mynameismyname:
I think Gabrielle Union is medium, but I took lil’vina to mean dark as opposed to light.
I think it is much easier for men to be dark and still be considered good-looking by whites – as in “tall, dark and handsome”.
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Yes, Aba, black men are granted a sense of physical desirability that society robs black women of. Yet, I know for a fact that the entertainment industry, particulary Hollywood, does not particularly care for light-colored black men. One of the reasons why I tend to rebut your claims of Hollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole favoring “light skinned” black folks is because I’ve heard WAYYY too many stories (and even witnessed some take place) of people (male and female alike) in the industry getting told that they weren’t “black enough” or “didn’t have the right look” all because they weren’t as brown as your typical black person.
For instance, I didn’t know that Halle Berry was perceived as “light skinned” until I read an interview that she did and she talked about how she got fired from a role or two in the ’90s and was replaced with a “blacker”-looking actress because they felt she was too “light” and “not black enough”. One of these films was “Strictly Business”. With perservance she won the role back. But she got the ax, all thanks to the shade of her skin.
Salli Richardson, Persia White, Rashida Jones, Jasmine Guy and several others all have similar stories. They lost a lot of work thanks to their (lack of) color and their “ambiguity”.
Lena Horne, Lonette McKee, and Fredi Washington never had the careers that they deserved. A large reason for that was that they were too “light” for black roles, too “black” for white roles.
So, it’s not so cut and dry when it comes to how skin color influences images of black Hollywood.
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Maybe white colourism is different than black colourism.
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Light skin isn’t always favored by blacks either though. In fact, as we’ve discussed before, in the black American variation of color prejudice: one is just as prone to encounter negative attitudes and discrimination by those who practice colorism, whether you fall on the light or dark end of the shade spectrum.
Now, East Asians, South Asians, and mixed-race Latin Americans …they may be a different story. I don’t know if their greater brand of colorism is as multi-directional.
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I’m not quite sure if german men prefer women of colour to white british men. I have had both show interest in me at some point & i’m mixed race. But what i have noticed is that white british men that come from cities such as birmingham & london tend to be more open to it. Whereas those from small towns are on average more racist & have rigid dating preferance.
But in Germany, white men from very white towns are stll normally open to going with women of colour. that is the only contrast i have noticed.
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vida guerra does not look white to me.
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Sounds about right. I know that’s pretty close to what my dream woman is.
That whole thing about Vida being just white enough to appeal to white guys yet just “ethnic” enough to appeal to black guys is why Eva Mendez was caste as Will Smith’s girlfriend in the movie Hitch. They were afraid if she were black, it would make Hitch a “black movie” and they’d lose the white audience, and if they made her white, now it would draw too much attention to interracial romance and would turn some people off. A light skinned Latin woman was the solution. This may be a trend going forward.
Btw, I wouldn’t say Vida is white, more like a light skinned mestiza. Her nose is kind of rounded which gives her a more “ethnic” look, but she’ll probably eventually get it narrowed like Mariah Carey did in order to look more caucasian.
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Vida has a to-die-for figure. However, I must be the only who thinks she’s a butterface.
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@ Leigh
Agreed
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tulio says,
Btw, I wouldn’t say Vida is white, more like a light skinned mestiza. Her nose is kind of rounded which gives her a more “ethnic” look, but she’ll probably eventually get it narrowed like Mariah Carey did in order to look more caucasian.
laromana says,
Vida Guerra is more like a light skinned mulatta not mestiza.
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Nice body, but her face is kinda basic *shrugs*
Lol I love these types of arguments about race. To me she is not Mullato(a). This right here is what I call damn near white or off-white. Basically a part black white woman.
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Vida Guerra is BROWN in skin color, NOT “white”.
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I went to a Dub magazine car show back in 2007 with some friends. At was at the LA Convention center. The place was jam packed. Beautiful models were everywhere! While a buddy of mine and I were walking around we heard a man’s voice tell us to move out of the way. When we turned around it was a huge bodyguard standing next to Vida. Vida had on these dark sunglasses and a skin tight dress. She was probably eight feet away from me and two other bodyguards were on both sides of her. I said ” Whats up Vida? You look beautiful!” She said “Thanks babe. I appreciate that.” Then the bodyguard sorted pushed me and my friend aside. And folks started screaming and taking pictures of Vida. Seeing her in person I must say photos don’t do get justice. I saw her up close and she’s very beautiful. And her body is amazing!
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It’s interesting that we as a people don’t berate a latina like Vida the way we do on Abagond’s Buffie Carruth page, or his Melyssa Ford page. Very telling. As I’ve said, I think we’ll have to start checking ourselves as a community, even our own in the so called conscious community, before we begin trying to take on institutional White supremacy. Lol. Very interesting.
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