Tag Archives: Ethnicity

Ginetta Calendario – Review

Ginetta Candelario is a Dominican-American sociologist who has studied the foundations of feminism in the Dominican Republic for the past seventeen years. The main point that she emphasized was the difference between North American and Dominican feminists. Dominican women were more concerned with autonomy; having rights to divorce, to own property, and to govern their own bodies. Women in the United States were chiefly concerned with suffrage, but this did not matter to the Dominican feministas whose government “elections” consisted of militia-led coup d’états where a vote would not be of much use. North American women would not reach this level of feminism, which is considered Second Wave feminism, until the 1950’s.

After her presentation, we had a question and answer session about both her presentation and her book, Black Behind the Ears (There is more to the name). This book followed transnational Dominican migrants at three key cities and studied their racial self-identification. Those in Washington D.C. more readily identified with their African ancestry, and accepted their blackness. Those in New York held on to anti-black ideologies, in an attempt to separate themselves from African-Americans and how they were treated in America. Those in Santo Domingo also held on to anti-black, but more specifically, anti-Haitian, ideologies due to years of schooling and customs that supported this philosophy. This relates to class in that we studied the roots of anti-blackness/anti-Haitian ideas. We found them to originally be a way to distance the Dominican Republic from the free and black country of Haiti so that international trade would not be deterred.

Concerning the presentation and dinner, Dr. Candelario was eloquent, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic about her work. Her work has already begun to change my perspective and appreciation of my background and identity. However, during the presentation she seemed to be disorganized in how she would flip back-and-forth between slides. Also, she would provide exorbitant amounts of information to answer questions. Besides that, I identify strongly with Dr. Candelario as a Dominican-American woman who is white passing. As a child, I would fill out my race as black and my ethnicity as Hispanic/Latino on standardized tests. As I grew to understand race and ethnicity, I realized I could not identify as black simply because I did not identify as white. Her work has re-opened my own internal conversation of my identity, and I am grateful.

Analysis of Ixcanul

The film Ixcanul, written and directed by Jayro Bustamante is a story about a poor indigenous family that lives on a coffee plantation in Central America. The story’s protagonist María is arranged to be married off to Ignacio, the plantation’s supervisor, when she decides to seduce Pepe, a farm-hand who also picks coffee. Pepe is secretly planning to flee to the United States in hopes of a better life and María is mesmerized by his dream of emigrating. After finding out she’s pregnant, María’s life takes a dramatic turn full of exploitation and mistreatment.

Ixcanul is beautiful. For one, the cinematography is incredible. Especially the shots that include the active volcano, Ixcanul in the film’s background emphasizing the volcano’s crucial role in the life of María and her family. For example, a scene early in the film shows María and her mother worshiping the volcano praying for safety and security. Another positive critique with the cinematography is the key moments where the camera angle shows both María and her mother walking through the coffee plantation trails and an asphalt road parallel to the plantation’s border. Angle’s such as this juxtapose modernism and barbarism or the civilized against the uncivilized. It’s obvious that María’s family is unfairly judged by the government agent and the medical staff in the hospital. The discrimination is entirely based on their ethnicity.

Interestingly, Marie’s lover, Pepe, who flees to the United State even sides against his own culture and ethnicity. In private Pepe says to María, “It’s people like you who keep us stuck here”. Pepe desires worldly pleasures, he dreams of a big house with a garden and a car and does not want to live a coffee farmer his entire life. The only negative critique I have of this film is the hypersexuality stereotype of the indigenous people. This portrayal may have been about a lack of education in the community but certain scenes such as the scene in which María humps a tree in the forest just before seducing Pepe came across in poor taste.

The film could be seen as a question about nationality and how race and ethnicity are tie people to specific identifies. Even though Pepe is from the same community as María he identifies as something beyond his ethnicity, almost as if he resents it. However, María and the modernized people [government workers, hospital staff, public claims office employees, etc.] are citizens of the same country, yet María and her family are exploited because of their indigenous ethnicity. The doctor refusing to communicate to María’s parents or accept the mother’s shawl as a token of gratitude in the hospital displays in-group and out-group mentality. The situation is similar to the treatment of Amabella by Senora Valencia in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones. Amabella is constantly reminded of her Haitian ethnicity and blackness despite living with a Dominican family in the Dominican Republic and is treated differently.