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Dominican Republic

BSAA Dominican Republic: Annotated Bibliography and Other Resources

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OVERVIEW

This bibliography provides a brief account of some of the available research on the following topics: racial identity formation among Dominicans, Dominican cultural forms and the cultural impact in Washington Heights, Dominican hair, beauty aesthetics, and the politics of hair. You may also find a number of online sources and videos in English and Spanish.  

COLLABORATORS

Faculty Mentors: Professor Jean-Yves Plaisir and Professor Aleah N. Ranjitsingh

Student Researchers: Tyone Campbell, Tyze Davis, Alexis Jacquet (volunteer), Lanue Ngwashi-Hibbert, and Madeline Rey

BMCC Humanities Alliance Fellow: Meagan Hammerbacher

International Collaborators: Michelle Ricardo and Aniova Prandy

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND OTHER RESOURCES

Racial Identity Formation Among Dominicans 

Howard, David. 2001. Coloring the Nation: Race and Ethnicity in the Dominican Republic. Oxford: Signal Books. 

Howard’s text deconstructs race and ethnicity in the Dominican Republic. Employing semi-formal interviews, the author maps how race,  ethnicity, and Blackness are understood and experienced in the Dominican Republic as part of the legacy of colonialism and especially as it relates to understandings of the Dominican state and identity in relation to, or in opposition to, the Haitian state. 

Lamb, V., & Dundes, L. (2017). Not Haitian: Exploring the roots of Dominican identity. Social Sciences, 6(4), 132.

This article is based on interviews conducted in Miami, Florida detailing the complexities of the racial divide between Hatians and Dominicans. The article examines colorism within Dominican culture as centered upon denying African heritage. Utilizing interview data, the researchers examine anti-Haitianismo and the ways some Domincians have come to understand it as it relates to their racial identities. 

Mayes, April J. 2014. The Mulatto Republic: Class, Race, and Dominican National Identity. Gainesville: University Press of Florida

In this text, Mayes interrogates the multiple ways in which Dominican national identity is constructed and defined—one that centers on European ancestry, Catholicism, the Spanish language, and cultural Hispanicness. The author thus questions whether such privileging is rooted in the legacy of the Trujillo regime and maps this through an interrogation of historical events in the Dominican Republic. 

Quiros, & Dawson, B. A. 2013. “The Color Paradigm: The Impact of Colorism on the Racial Identity and Identification of Latinas.” Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 23(3), 287–297.

The article explores the dynamics of colorism and the effects on racial identity among Latinos and how stigmas, as it regards darker skin, affect livelihood in the U.S. The author centers on skin color privilege and stigma and how Latinas negotiate these in the United States. 

Shoaff, Jennifer L. 2017. Borders of Visibility: Haitian Migrant Women and the Dominican Nation-State. The University of Alabama Press.

The author uses a multisited feminist research methodology to shed light on the opportunities and constraints that migrant Haitian women experience in the Dominican Republic. It offers timely insights into Dominican racist ideology and the ill-treatment of Haitians within Dominican society.

Torres-Saillant, Silvio. 1998. “The Tribulations of Blackness: Stages in Dominican Racial Identity.” Latin American Perspectives, 25(3), 126–146.

Here, Torres-Saillant not only maps Dominican racial identity formation as it relates to the constructions and experiences of Blackness and what is described as the rise of the mulatto in Dominican history,  but the author reminds us that it was the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (present-day Dominican Republic) where the first enslaved Africans arrived to the Americas. The author also interrogates Dominican identity as it pertains to Blackness among transnational Dominicans and Dominicans in the United States and how Black liberation movements had influenced some Dominicans’ racial identity in the United States. 

Uzogara, EE. 2018. “Gendered Racism Biases: Associations of Phenotypes with Discrimination and Internalized Oppression Among Latinx American Women and Men.” Race and Social Problems, 11(1), 80–92.

This article explores the impact of colorism on Afro-Latino men and women and the effects of internalized racism. The author discusses the differences in levels of discrimination between different social statuses. An example of this idea is the notion that light-skinned Latina women experienced higher internalized racism and less discrimination. In contrast, darker women experienced the opposite, which shows the difference in skin tone in the treatment of the individual, which affects mental well-being. 

Cultural impacts of Dominican-led Institutions in Washington Heights

On Washington Heights

Snyder, Robert. 2014.  Crossing Broadway : Washington Heights and the promise of New York City. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

In this very important text on the history of Washington Heights and New York City, Synder employs historical research, reporting, and oral histories to give the reader great insight into how Washington Heights was formed into the neighborhood we know it as today. Furthermore, the book elucidates Washington Heights as the largest Dominican community outside the Dominican Republic and maps this transformation. 

L’Official, Peter. 2021. Urban Legends: The South Bronx in Representation and Ruin. Boston: Harvard University Press. 

In this text, L’Official reveals the cultural history of the South Bronx that reaches beyond familiar narratives of urban ruin and renaissance, beyond the “inner city” symbol, to reveal the place and people obscured by its myths. For decades, the South Bronx was America’s “inner city.” Synonymous with civic neglect, crime, and metropolitan decay, the Bronx became the preeminent symbol to proclaim the failings of urban places and the communities of color who lived in them. Images of its ruins and none more infamous than the one broadcast live during the 1977 World Series a building burning near Yankee Stadium proclaimed the failures of urbanism.

On Art and Culture

Guilamo. Daly. 2016. “Gagá Pa’l Pueblo: A Critical Afro Dominican Celebration in New York City.” Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies. 9(10). 31-44

Here, Guilamo introduces the reader to Gagá Pa’l Pueblo, an Afro-Dominican group that hosts a summer religious musical event every Sunday afternoon in Washington Heights. At the event, gagá music is performed in honor of a Dominican Vudú loa or deity. Guilamo thus argues that Gagá Pa’l Pueblo’s celebration of Afro-Dominicanness and Blackness is the antithesis of Dominican national identity. In this way, it is indeed a radical celebration. 

Hutchinson, Sydney.  2006. “Merengue Típico in Santiago and New York: Transnational Regionalism in a Neo-Traditional Dominican Music.” Ethnomusicology, 50(1), 37–72.

This article centers on merengue típico, the oldest merengue style from and still performed in the Dominican Republic. The author argues that merengue típico is a transnational music and remains popular among some Dominicans in New York City. However, it has transformed, and this is a result of the transnational migration of Dominicans to New York City and political shifts in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s. 

Valdez, E. (2017). “Writing the Feminine: The Representation of Women in Contemporary Dominican Visual Art.” Small Axe 21(1), 126-140. 

This essay analyzes the works of visual artists Belkis Ramirez and Raquel Paiewonsk to explore how they challenge traditional models of pictorial and sculptural art. Both artists have revolutionized the Dominican art scene theoretically and technically, and their artworks explore the depreciating effects of patriarchy, such as forced motherhood, the abortion ban, and feminicide in Dominican society.

Online Sources

Dominican Hair,  Beauty Aesthetics and the Politics of Hair 

Badillo, Casandra. 2001. “Only my hairdresser knows for sure”.(public perception of women’s hair in the Dominican Republic). NACLA Report on the Americas (1993), 34(6), 35–.

Through interviews with nine Black Dominican women in the Dominican Republic, Badillo seeks to help the reader understand why straight hair is sought after and naturally curly or kinky hair stigmatized. The idea of hair as social capital in Dominican society is solidified through the interviewees’ voices. 

Candelario.G. 2000. “Hair Race-ing: Dominican Beauty Culture and Identity Production.” Meridians.1(1), 128–156.

In this important study, Candelario examines the importance of hair as a marker of race and beauty and thus intrinsic to Dominican notion of beauty and identity. Engaging in participant observation at a Dominican beauty shop in New York City, Candelario interrogates how Dominican identity as culturally Hispanic has reinforced beauty practices among transnational Dominicans. 

Lyon, J. 2020. “Pajón power: Styling citizenship and Black politics in the Dominican natural hair movement.” Ethnic & Racial Studies, 43(12), 2120-2139. 

This article examines how the natural hair movement is challenging anti-Black racism and the exclusionary ideology of mestizaje in the Dominican Republic. It argues that Afro-descendants are breaking the silence, constructing a new narrative around race, and visualizing blackness in the Dominican Republic.

Online sources

Other Important Resources:

Videos/Documentaries/Films

En español

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