Colorism in the Spanish Caribbean: Legacies of Race and Racism in Dominican and Puerto Rican Literature

University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2011 Colorism in the Spanish Caribbean: Legacies of Race and Racism in Dominican and Puerto Rican Literature Malinda Marie Williams University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Latina/o Studies Commons Recommended Citation Williams, Malinda Marie, "Colorism in the Spanish Caribbean: Legacies of Race and Racism in Dominican and Puerto Rican Literature" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 709. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/709 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. COLORISM IN THE SPANISH CARIBBEAN: LEGACIES OF RACE AND RACISM IN DOMINICAN AND PUERTO RICAN LITERATURE __________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Denver __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________ by Malinda M. Williams June 2011 Advisor: Barbara J. Wilcots ©Copyright by Malinda M. Williams 2011 All Rights Reserved Author: Malinda M. Williams Title: COLORISM IN THE SPANISH CARIBBEAN: LEGACIES OF RACE AND RACISM IN DOMINICAN AND PUERTO RICAN LITERATURE Advisor: Barbara J. Wilcots Degree Date: June 2011 Abstract This dissertation explores the impact of colorism on Spanish Caribbean literature—more specifically, works of fiction and memoir by both island and diaspora writers from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Colorism, or discrimination based on the shading of skin, manifests itself in Spanish Caribbean literature in a variety of ways. It is often used as a marker of class and/or class difference; it may reflect and/or play a part in shaping cultural standards of beauty or attractiveness; and it signifies the entrenched complexities of the Spanish Caribbean‟s history of conquest and colonization. Colorism appears in these texts as both a carryover from Latin America‟s problematic histories with race (in terms of slavery and racial mixing) and as an indicator of the problematic constructions of race existing (in the past and present) both on these islands and in the United States. Race, constructions of race, and racism have all played a complex role in the histories of these island nations, and it seems only fitting to address as many of these histories as is possible. This project is divided into two major sections, one on the Dominican Republic and one on Puerto Rico, with a general and theoretical introduction that frames the work within Critical Race Theory and both Caribbean and Latino/a literary studies. The history of Spanish colonialism and a general denial and/or denigration of the African component to the ethnic heritage of these communities results in a construction of race based on a ii color-continuum model, rather than a binary model; this racial schema, along with Dominican and Puerto Rican concerns with whiteness, skin tone, and “European” phenotypic features, and their denial/denigration of an African heritage, shapes and influences the works of Dominican writers Julia Alvarez, Junot Díaz, Nelly Rosario, Angie Cruz, Loida Maritza Pérez, and Annecy Báez, and Puerto Rican writers Rosario Ferré, Ana Lydia Vega, Mayra Santos-Febres, Esmeralda Santiago, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Piri Thomas, and Edgardo Vega Yunqué. The project concludes by drawing connections between Dominican and Puerto Rican experiences and supposing possible impacts of the growing Latino/a population on the racial and cultural makeup of the United States. iii Acknowledgments I am especially thankful to my advisor Barbara Wilcots, not only for sticking with me over these long six years, but also for providing the inspiration for this project in the first place. It was in her graduate class on Whiteness that my interest in colorism was first piqued, and it was in her tutorial on Caribbean literature that I was first introduced to a field I now feel comfortable calling my own. Although you are an excellent administrator, I‟m sure your presence is missed in the classroom, Dr. Wilcots! I would also like to thank my other committee members—Maik Nwosu, Eric Gould, and Javier Torre—for joining in on a project at what seemed like the last minute. I really appreciate your feedback and your willingness to serve. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their support and guidance throughout this process. A special thank you goes out to my colleagues and “editors” Rodney and Brad who provided invaluable comments and suggestions. To my mother Pam Reed, my brothers Tim and Matt, and my stepmom Bonny Barr—thank you for your presence in my life and for your love and encouragement. And finally, to both my real father Jerry Williams and my surrogate fathers Lynn Griffith, Pete Portoulas, Bob Barr, and William Koon. You have all given me much needed support and/or nagging, when appropriate. I hope I make you as proud of me as I am of all of you. iv Table of Contents Introduction: Race as a Social Construction, In the Spanish Caribbean and Beyond ........ 1 Theories of Race and Whiteness ............................................................................. 9 Race, Color, and Postcoloniality in the Caribbean ............................................... 20 Colorism in the Spanish Caribbean....................................................................... 26 Part One: The Dominican Republic .................................................................................. 33 History and the Development of a National Character ......................................... 47 The Immigrant Experience ................................................................................... 62 Caught Between Two Cultures: The Problem of Transnationality ....................... 74 The Dominican-American Experience ................................................................. 87 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 96 Part Two: Puerto Rico ..................................................................................................... 102 Writing From the Island: History Both Past and Present .................................... 116 Writing From the Mainland: Race and Color in the Puerto Rican Diaspora ...... 142 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 169 Conclusion: Race and Color at the Crossroads ............................................................... 172 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 180 v Introduction: Race as a Social Construction, in the Spanish Caribbean and Beyond “…I have returned to the circular origins of my nothingness, knowing that I am a social construct, a mulatto and a Caribbean woman.” —Chiqui Vicioso1 W.E.B. Du Bois famously declared in his 1903 work The Souls of Black Folk that “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line” (10). Indeed, racial conflicts plagued the human race throughout the twentieth century, from the United States to Germany, from Rwanda to Bosnia, and across the globe. Racial conflicts did not cease with the end of the twentieth century, however, but have continued into the twenty- first century, not only in places like the Sudan and the U.S.-Mexico border, but on a global scale through the nebulous “War on Terror” waged between the West and Islam. It seems, then, that Du Bois‟s “color-line” will continue to play an important role well into this century, and perhaps beyond. It is significant to note, also, that Du Bois did not articulate this problem as merely a conflict between black and white, but rather defined the color line as “the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea” (10). Du Bois‟s prescient use of the words “darker” and “lighter” 1 In “Dominicanyorkness: A Metropolitan Discovery of the Triangle,” p. 66. 1 forecasts the now widely held belief that race cannot be defined biologically or by hard- and-fast categories. Indeed, there is general consensus today in the sciences, in sociology, in the humanities, and in law that race is a socially constructed entity and must be examined not through some mystery of blood lines and genetics (or eugenics, as it were), but rather through historical and sociological means. In many instances, racial difference is determined arbitrarily through constructed ethnic categories, perceived phenotypic distinctions, and gradations of skin shade and color that are thought to carry with them significant determinations of difference. It is this idea of difference that contributes greatly to the lived experiences of racial discrimination throughout the world, across cultures and national boundaries. Within the field of Critical Race Theory2 lies the understudied phenomenon of “colorism,” or discrimination based on actual skin color and the shading of skin. This dissertation explores the manifestations of colorism in the context of Spanish Caribbean literature—more specifically, works of fiction and memoir by both island and diaspora writers from the Dominican

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