VALENCIA, Calif. — At only 10 years old, Josefina Heredia has already experienced racism twice: the first time in kindergarten and the second in third grade.

“These guys were both talking about something, and then one of the guys, he’s like, ‘oh, he said you’re so black and he doesn’t like people of your color,’ and then I started crying," Heredia said about one of the incidents.

For David Heredia, Josefina's father, it was an incident that forced him to have a conversation with his children about racism sooner than he expected. 

“I found myself in a position to have to explain to her and my other children that unfortunately this is because of the way you look and, because of the town that we live in, this is going to be something that’s going to continue to happen," said David. "You can not allow yourself to be or to feel like a victim. You absolutely must speak out against these things when it happens."

Heredia is an artist and author whose children inspired him to create “Heroes of Color,” a web series that highlights heroes who are rarely talked about in history books and schools. He also wrote a book based on the web series, titled “Little Heroes of Color."

The Valencia resident is Afro-Latino from the Dominican Republic, and his wife is Mexican, so teaching their children about their different cultures is important to them. Heredia believes it's just as imperative to talk to them about racism and colorism within the Latino community. 

“People can not just get over their heads that Latinos look differently, because of the novelas that we watch, because of who’s on the magazine covers," said Heredia. "You don’t see a lot of dark skinned Latinos on there."

Which is why Heredia taught his children to speak out. For example, when Josefina was given an assignment in the third grade to give a speech about a historical figure, she decided not to choose someone on the list given to her by her teacher.

“I didn’t see any people of color so I decided to do Sacagawea because she was a person of color and wasn’t included in the things that we learned," she said

Heredia is proud knowing his young daughter is speaking out and inspiring others. 

"She says 'be yourself, don’t be afraid to speak out, and if something hurts you, don’t let it stop you,” said Heredia.