Black behind the ears : Dominican racial identity from museums to beauty shops / Ginetta E.B. Candelario.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Candelario, Ginetta E. B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dominicans.

Black people--Race identity--Dominican Republic.

Black people.

Ethnicity--Dominican Republic.

Ethnicity.

National characteristics, Dominican.

Dominicans--United States--Ethnic identity.

Black people--Race identity.

United States.

Dominican Republic.

Physical Description:

xiii, 340 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Black behind the Ears is an innovative historical and ethnographic examination of Dominican identity formation in the Dominican Republic and the United States. For much of the Dominican Republic's history, the national body has been defined as "not black," even as black ancestry has been grudgingly acknowledged. Rejecting simplistic explanations, Ginetta E. B. Candelario suggests that it is not a desire for whiteness that guides Dominican identity discourses and displays. Instead, it is an ideal norm of what it means to be both indigenous to the Republic and "Hispanic." Both indigeneity and Hispanicity have operated as vehicles for asserting Dominican sovereignty in the context of the historically triangulated dynamics of Spanish colonialism, Haitian unification efforts, and U.S. imperialism. Candelario shows how the legacy of that history is manifest in contemporary Dominican identity discourses and displays, whether in the national historiography, the national museum's exhibits, or ideas about women's beauty.

Contents:

Introduction. "We Declare That We Are Indians": Dominican Identity Displays and Discourses in Travel Writing, Museums, Beauty Shops, and Bodies 1

1 "It Is Said That Haiti Is Getting Blacker and Blacker": Traveling Narratives of Dominican Identity 35

2 "The Africans Have No [Public] History": The Museo del Hombre Dominicano and Indigenous Displays of Dominican Identity 83

3 "I Could Go the African American Route": Dominicans in the Black Mosaic of Washington, D.C. 129

4 "They Are Taken into Account for Their Opinions": Making Community and Displaying Identity at a Dominican Beauty Shop in New York City 177

5 "Black Women Are Confusing, but the Hair Lets You Know": Perceiving the Boundaries of Dominicanidad 223

Conclusion. "Black behind the Ears, and Up Front, Too": Ideological Code Switching and Ambiguity in Dominican Identities 256.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [297]-322) and index.

ISBN:

9780822340188

0822340186

9780822340379

0822340372

OCLC:

123818300