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Black behind the ears – Review

Black behind the ears is an advanced historical and ethnographic examination of Dominican identity development in the Dominican Republic and the United States. For what seems like an eternity, the whole nationality of Dominican Republic defined themselves as “not black”. Ginette E. B. Candelario uses variety of historical writings as well as statistical data and ethnographic research to study the construction of Dominican identity. This book displays the ways in which Dominicans have negotiated their identity to break the social and symbolic orders.

Candelario derives wide range of sources, from the historical to the institutional and ethnographic. She concentrates her examination within four specific ranges of what she terms “identity displays”: travel narratives, the museum, the beauty shop, and the female body. Furthermore, she also focuses on the cities in the United States that have a high number of Dominicans. According to Candelario these geographic sites are uniquely related to the larger Dominican population, however also reflecting the boarder issues that are displayed by Dominican identity. The travel narratives from the Dominican Republic and Dominican travelers draw on uncertain displays of relationship to blackness to locate Dominicans in local establishments.

In addition theses travel writings have had ethnographic purposes historically similar to those of metropolitan museums. It was meant to offer a foreign perspective to other audience in cities. Candelario similarly uses hair texture as a way to describe racial perception in everyday life in Dominican Republic and argues that hair is the most important aspect that she focused on this book. Since hair was the emphasis on indigeneity as the basis for Dominican identity.

Black behind the ears relates to our course material because it displays diversity of Dominican ethnic and racial identities, particularly the struggle of their social along with national identification developed in response to pressure from the upper class privileged group. Candelario’s method of developing relationship with Dominican women and Dominican salon demonstrates a sense of community that everyone can count on each other. That there is still is strong dislike for “blackness” and Candelario’s focus on hair which is the most powerful symbol of individual and group identity. I enjoyed the book overall because it provided with excellent examples of people’s account and their stories. Especially the authors experience with assimilation into different part of the communities. The part that I did not enjoy as much would be just how dense the book was. The information could have been more short and concise so the reader would not get bored of reading so much material.

Ixcanul

Ixcanul translates to “volcano” in the native indigenous language called Kaqchikel in Guatemala. It is a film about a young Mayan girl Maria who lives and works with her parents on a coffee plantation set at the foot of the volcano. She is supposed to marry Ignacio, the overseer, a match that would secure her family and achieve a higher status. However, Maria is not interested in marrying him, instead she plans to escape with a plantation worker named Pepe. Through the turning of events Maria is faced with a choice to keep a life or give it up. In the end, Maria is still bound by her traditional life but feels the fire within.

The film consisted with a full indigenous cast, where the story focused fully on the lives and misfortunes of indigenous people. It explores the gender and indigenous issues to highlight the strength of Mayan women. That is shown with the day to day chores done by Maria and her mother. Those chores take a great amount of strength, for example carrying heavy things and walking for more than a mile everyday.  Also, the struggle of women not having the freedom to make decisions about their futures like the unconsented marriage of Maria. There is an overlying theme in the film of the strong preying upon the weak. The reason is because of the treatment of the indigenous people, especially the women. Therefore, Maria’s plan to escape symbolized the desire to break from the traditions by taking a step towards modernization and freedom.

Ixcanul relates to course material because, it shows the overall lifestyle and treatment of indigenous people living in a remote area. It displays how the concept of modernization was nonexistent in this small indigenous village. Everything was done manually with the help of family. There was this one example from the movie that showed a lady collecting information for the census. Due to the language difference and bias from the character Ignacio the information was not translated properly and fully. This made me think about the Perla survey and their methods of acquiring information, leading me to believe the authenticity of this technique. Additionally, the treatment of indigenous people in the modern cities was shown in the film. They were treated poorly at the hospital in the city and were deceived by them. This relates to the studies that showed people from small indigenous villages were treated poorly because the people from the cities thought they were dumb and uneducated. Overall, it was a great film with beautiful cinematography and would recommend to anyone interested in lives of indigenous society.