Here, here and here are three pieces from three perspectives on the contentious issues in the Dominican community around race, color, and Haitian migration. The overall picture I get from the three is that of an upcoming generation of Dominicans, raised in the US and exposed to a different value set around race and ethnicity than their grandparents and uncles on the island. As the views and comments shared show these remain sensitive topics for Dominicans, and one where there are clear generational and perhaps geographic divides. There are also real problems of semantics; what exactly do the words you choose mean to an older Dominican? How are your claims colored by what he or she knows concerning attitudes of white Americans, representations of blackness in American media, etc.? The confusion can be compounded in the case of Dominican Diasporans as even when Spanish was our first language it is not likely to have been the language of our schooling and our academic and intellectual development. This semantic issue is one that needs to be kept in mind as this conversation grows if those of us reared stateside hope to influence those on the island grappling with these issues.
About a year ago I began going onto the forums of an English language Dominican news site. I'll leave my rant on the value of internet forums for another day. In any case I haven't had much choice in the matter regarding this forum. My intellectual curiosity over this period has run to DR and DR history, and this was the only English language forum with participants among whom numbered a few with solid historical knowledge and developed opinions about DR. Unfortunately, my experience there has been largely negative. Instead of celebrating the Dominican there is considerable ferocity on display at this forum regarding the issues of illegal Haitian immigration and Dominican racial complexes. And though many, especially Diasporans, aim to inject a more humanistic perspective to Haitian immigration issue, it runs into a lot of walls. One quickly learns it isn't as simple as increasing the peace; there are not only the usual legitimate economic factors that pit one group against another, not only the layer of colorism which is present throughout the Americas, but there is also the matter of actual Dominican history. If history matters, it does matter that these nations repeatedly battled militarily since their respective births in the age of Atlantic revolutions. These wars are events that our homegrown Dominican cousins will bring up in discussions on the topic. They are not entirely without merit. These events occurred at the foundations of the national psyche, and the fires they started were re-awakened and strengthened by DR's infamous benefactor Trujillo. It may not always be evident how, but the point is these histories are relevant. One problem of the more universal, human-rights based level of values that we Diasporans bring to the table in these conversations is that this level of thought can create blindspots to the positive value of nationalism. Having a more globalist outlook on the world is admirable, and it is on the whole my own viewpoint. Still I have observed that many who operate from this worldview seem to have missed a step on the ladder. They affect to have transcended nation and tribe, but often not in an organic way that would require us to respect, value and embrace the healthy aspects of the older worldview. And it has not been my experience that we Diasporans know, much less embrace, the history of our parents' homeland as well as we could; or if we do, we know it more from a regional paradigm, and might consider DR as just one more example of many in 'post-colonial' history. As with semantics this is another obstacle to understanding between the home-grown and foreign branches of this family that could undermine any positive influence we can have on this discourse. It begs of those in our island Patria the question, who are you to discuss how we identify who do not even know our story?
For now those are my two offerings to the discussion; cautions about potential pitfalls. My feeling is that the kind of violent headlines and uninformed criticism sparking increased discussion of this matter across borders will go on. I think we Dominican-Americans can offer something to this discourse, just as I think the native Dominicans have something to offer us if we really study our story. It is a story that bears the marks of all the hurricanes and vicissitudes that came with the whole of the Atlantic transaction from the age of colonization, through the Industrial Revolution, to the Cold War, through today. Working through these issues together I hope we can one day offer new paradigms to our region, our hemisphere, and maybe even our world.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
more of overflowing (note #3)
More overflow from trudging the world of forums. Once again to be read as a number of connected brainfarts than as statements.
====
leña pal fuego!
A colonized intellectual is a person raised and educated to a high degree in the ways of the metropolis, in the language of the metropolis, and in the politics and culture of the metropolis. in other words MANY of those present here raised as Americans. but also sometimes domestics in the islands highly Westernized in their thinking.
there are three psychological stages that a colonized intellectual goes through. The first is apprenticeship. This is the stage where the colonized intellect enthusiastically believes the way forward for his people is to adopt metropolitan cultures and 'catch up'. this gives way after some disappointment to a phase of searching for 'authentic' identity of their people. this is the stage that concerns us. When they reach this stage of looking for 'real, authentic _____' many make the sad error of reaching for primitive conceptions that he has been taught (by the metropolis) are authentic expressions of his people.
a dangerous form of this primitivism is what we will call the cosmic cult of Negroism. This vague notion asks us to look back indiscriminately to a mythical, fuzzy conception of the continent Africa, where we were all supposedly in harmony as black men, and whose monolithic culture will offer us unity across borders. this idea is dangerous because of its ultimate aim: to undermine NATIONS. only concrete NATIONS, with BORDERS, LAWS and INSTITUTIONS can effect inter-generational change. The way forward, whatever your politics may be, will not be based on vague, fuzzy global notions of your fellow 'black' or 'Latino' man. the way forward is for NATIONS to crystallize, to embody strong states capable of balancing all the interests and classes composing the state, to form functioning organic political orders between families with shared pasts and shared futures.
so beware this cultural artifact brought to us by THOROUGHLY colonized intellects. pride in the antiquities of the world, including glorious Africa, is a positive thing. celebrating ethnic and racial commonalities is a positive thing. however you are not helping anyone by turning your back on your NATION, how ever that nation may have come to be. the unit of race is too basic and amorphous to build upon or to offer a foundation for your psyche:
ultimately a real tiger does not worry about celebrating his tigritude.
*
I would say however that the case for the Europeans is different. they are well past their national moments, their nations were born, had their glories, and in a few cases are entering old age. so many Europeans are ready to move on to a higher order of organization, perhaps based on race or a larger geography, or something new. in other words they can take the option of a 'cosmic' identification because they already enjoy the bounties of having been crystallized nation-states, so they can afford to undermine nationalism.
the post-colonials that went through the transaction across the Atlantic are still going though this stage. because certain aspects off our heritage were so methodically repressed it is no surprise many of us are eager to shine spotlights on those elements…however per my piece above we need to understand that each island and each nation draws in different ways from huge, diverse Africa as well as from its local melange of European empires that touched the soil and other sometimes surprising migrations from elsewhere on the big planet.
I'd say that is a valid counter-point. I agree I don't think every average Juan España, Pierre France or Hans Austria is at a stage where they are over their nationalism and their nation-states. still the declining demographics and the overall culture there I think points to a weakening of these construct if not exactly imminent demise. I would also say that the elites are not something wholly separate from the people, and in theory in the alleged bastion of democracy that is Europe they are representative of the people.
the important point I'm trying to make is that the European man has the option to identify in that cosmic sense, especially if he chooses to migrate to the Americas. you can either say those nation-states are strong enough to handle this type of subversion, or as I put it that they already reaped the benefits of going through that stage and so opened this optionality. but this option is one with grave consequences when men from New World nations take it, whichever 'cosmic tribe' they choose.
*
to your comment I just would like to add that 150 years ago African diasporans in the USA faced a completely different situation than Dominicans did on our island. the way I see it the African-Ameircans have played their cards as well as they could have been played; a notion of being a 'separate nation' was instilled on them, yet they have gloriously turned this around to become a tool for their betterment. now in 2009 they are arguably the most materially advanced African Diasporans in the world. I also believe we have not seen it all yet from them; their mission and their approach to blackness will continue to be the major global force in deconstructing the effects of the Atlantic transactions.
so we shouldn't disdain their approach to race just as we would not like our emerging approaches written off. we do need to be sharp in selecting from their offerings those ideas that can serve us without dividing us. we also need to be able to communicate to them why our approach is different, and finally we need to learn approaches to 'reprogramming' our cousins who have learned much from that community but fail in advancing their personal psychology when they decide to 'contribute' to Dominican discourse.
That high visibility is a big reason I have high hopes for the continued development of their story and their approach stateside. As you go on to mention the effect of this regime has been that in some ways they are the MOST separated from genuine African cultures or histories. So the reverse implication, which we've touched upon in mentioning that they are the most materially advanced group in the African Diaspora, is that they are also the MOST Westernized. Given that configuration to me within the scheme of Western identity, culture, history they are the most potent weapon, and given their well agitated sense of 'Post colonial inferiority complex' they are also the most motivated, to viciously challenge racist structures in the world the West has created.
The rest of us just have to make sure we are intellectually prepared to defend our own culture and history when they make the error of turning the guns on us instead of on the edifice of the West. Since this is just a forum it is probably not the right place to dissect where the concepts 'black' and 'African Diaspora' part ways but having this convo with misguided racial activists is important.
*
I especially agree with your final statement about the way Africa is taught, or rather isn't taught at all in favor of a jumble of stereotypes . also I agree we need education, and I believe the education must own up to our pasts and ensure we are moving to broader concepts of humanity and not narrower. however I believe getting to that goal requires strong national culture first. I hope as you read my replies above you see that I agree embracing ALL our heritages is necessary to ensure integrity. but ensuring integrity should also mean that the approaches to our heritage that we learn/teach are homegrown and not simply foreign thought translated into the local tongue. my opinion is in a way that the cart should not be put before the horse; we must build a strong community which over time offers solid material benefits to all. as material conditions improve across the spectrum it becomes more difficult to maintain that those of certain backgrounds are less human. as material conditions improve all people will more avenues to express themselves and thus express what they truly are historically, without having to be TOLD by anybody that they are this or that, or that being such means ascribing to the inaccurate, monolithic aspects of the cosmic cult as it is too often preached.
*
I suspect those who do not make it past that apprentice stage are also ones who never really tried to engage their people or get involved in concrete ways. once you roll up your sleeves and get into it, in action, thought or study, you QUICKLY find that the pieces do not fit so simply. So a lot of US Dominicans can think this way in a surface manner, and in their comfortable lives never really put mind, money or brazos to a concrete task that would shatter this mentality.
The other type you mention, who longs for the caudillo…that is a bit more difficult to decipher. I'm not sure if they are of the same 'colonized mind' category or perhaps more homegrown minds. we know that strands of culture run deep on this island that favor the emergence of the Heareaux and Trujillos. so to me that is more of an organic desire of certain Dominicans under the influence of those strands of culture. just a thought.
====
leña pal fuego!
A colonized intellectual is a person raised and educated to a high degree in the ways of the metropolis, in the language of the metropolis, and in the politics and culture of the metropolis. in other words MANY of those present here raised as Americans. but also sometimes domestics in the islands highly Westernized in their thinking.
there are three psychological stages that a colonized intellectual goes through. The first is apprenticeship. This is the stage where the colonized intellect enthusiastically believes the way forward for his people is to adopt metropolitan cultures and 'catch up'. this gives way after some disappointment to a phase of searching for 'authentic' identity of their people. this is the stage that concerns us. When they reach this stage of looking for 'real, authentic _____' many make the sad error of reaching for primitive conceptions that he has been taught (by the metropolis) are authentic expressions of his people.
a dangerous form of this primitivism is what we will call the cosmic cult of Negroism. This vague notion asks us to look back indiscriminately to a mythical, fuzzy conception of the continent Africa, where we were all supposedly in harmony as black men, and whose monolithic culture will offer us unity across borders. this idea is dangerous because of its ultimate aim: to undermine NATIONS. only concrete NATIONS, with BORDERS, LAWS and INSTITUTIONS can effect inter-generational change. The way forward, whatever your politics may be, will not be based on vague, fuzzy global notions of your fellow 'black' or 'Latino' man. the way forward is for NATIONS to crystallize, to embody strong states capable of balancing all the interests and classes composing the state, to form functioning organic political orders between families with shared pasts and shared futures.
so beware this cultural artifact brought to us by THOROUGHLY colonized intellects. pride in the antiquities of the world, including glorious Africa, is a positive thing. celebrating ethnic and racial commonalities is a positive thing. however you are not helping anyone by turning your back on your NATION, how ever that nation may have come to be. the unit of race is too basic and amorphous to build upon or to offer a foundation for your psyche:
ultimately a real tiger does not worry about celebrating his tigritude.
*
I would say however that the case for the Europeans is different. they are well past their national moments, their nations were born, had their glories, and in a few cases are entering old age. so many Europeans are ready to move on to a higher order of organization, perhaps based on race or a larger geography, or something new. in other words they can take the option of a 'cosmic' identification because they already enjoy the bounties of having been crystallized nation-states, so they can afford to undermine nationalism.
the post-colonials that went through the transaction across the Atlantic are still going though this stage. because certain aspects off our heritage were so methodically repressed it is no surprise many of us are eager to shine spotlights on those elements…however per my piece above we need to understand that each island and each nation draws in different ways from huge, diverse Africa as well as from its local melange of European empires that touched the soil and other sometimes surprising migrations from elsewhere on the big planet.
I'd say that is a valid counter-point. I agree I don't think every average Juan España, Pierre France or Hans Austria is at a stage where they are over their nationalism and their nation-states. still the declining demographics and the overall culture there I think points to a weakening of these construct if not exactly imminent demise. I would also say that the elites are not something wholly separate from the people, and in theory in the alleged bastion of democracy that is Europe they are representative of the people.
the important point I'm trying to make is that the European man has the option to identify in that cosmic sense, especially if he chooses to migrate to the Americas. you can either say those nation-states are strong enough to handle this type of subversion, or as I put it that they already reaped the benefits of going through that stage and so opened this optionality. but this option is one with grave consequences when men from New World nations take it, whichever 'cosmic tribe' they choose.
*
to your comment I just would like to add that 150 years ago African diasporans in the USA faced a completely different situation than Dominicans did on our island. the way I see it the African-Ameircans have played their cards as well as they could have been played; a notion of being a 'separate nation' was instilled on them, yet they have gloriously turned this around to become a tool for their betterment. now in 2009 they are arguably the most materially advanced African Diasporans in the world. I also believe we have not seen it all yet from them; their mission and their approach to blackness will continue to be the major global force in deconstructing the effects of the Atlantic transactions.
so we shouldn't disdain their approach to race just as we would not like our emerging approaches written off. we do need to be sharp in selecting from their offerings those ideas that can serve us without dividing us. we also need to be able to communicate to them why our approach is different, and finally we need to learn approaches to 'reprogramming' our cousins who have learned much from that community but fail in advancing their personal psychology when they decide to 'contribute' to Dominican discourse.
That high visibility is a big reason I have high hopes for the continued development of their story and their approach stateside. As you go on to mention the effect of this regime has been that in some ways they are the MOST separated from genuine African cultures or histories. So the reverse implication, which we've touched upon in mentioning that they are the most materially advanced group in the African Diaspora, is that they are also the MOST Westernized. Given that configuration to me within the scheme of Western identity, culture, history they are the most potent weapon, and given their well agitated sense of 'Post colonial inferiority complex' they are also the most motivated, to viciously challenge racist structures in the world the West has created.
The rest of us just have to make sure we are intellectually prepared to defend our own culture and history when they make the error of turning the guns on us instead of on the edifice of the West. Since this is just a forum it is probably not the right place to dissect where the concepts 'black' and 'African Diaspora' part ways but having this convo with misguided racial activists is important.
*
I especially agree with your final statement about the way Africa is taught, or rather isn't taught at all in favor of a jumble of stereotypes . also I agree we need education, and I believe the education must own up to our pasts and ensure we are moving to broader concepts of humanity and not narrower. however I believe getting to that goal requires strong national culture first. I hope as you read my replies above you see that I agree embracing ALL our heritages is necessary to ensure integrity. but ensuring integrity should also mean that the approaches to our heritage that we learn/teach are homegrown and not simply foreign thought translated into the local tongue. my opinion is in a way that the cart should not be put before the horse; we must build a strong community which over time offers solid material benefits to all. as material conditions improve across the spectrum it becomes more difficult to maintain that those of certain backgrounds are less human. as material conditions improve all people will more avenues to express themselves and thus express what they truly are historically, without having to be TOLD by anybody that they are this or that, or that being such means ascribing to the inaccurate, monolithic aspects of the cosmic cult as it is too often preached.
*
I suspect those who do not make it past that apprentice stage are also ones who never really tried to engage their people or get involved in concrete ways. once you roll up your sleeves and get into it, in action, thought or study, you QUICKLY find that the pieces do not fit so simply. So a lot of US Dominicans can think this way in a surface manner, and in their comfortable lives never really put mind, money or brazos to a concrete task that would shatter this mentality.
The other type you mention, who longs for the caudillo…that is a bit more difficult to decipher. I'm not sure if they are of the same 'colonized mind' category or perhaps more homegrown minds. we know that strands of culture run deep on this island that favor the emergence of the Heareaux and Trujillos. so to me that is more of an organic desire of certain Dominicans under the influence of those strands of culture. just a thought.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
overflow from forum conversations (note #2)
For some weeks I was doing great work denting many texts , but I've been sidetracked lately diddling around on a forum. This particular one is for an English language Dominican news site.
As usual it is more brainstorm/brainfart than statement.
***
OK here are my suggestions that I promised to put up in interest of fairness. I want to say I believe no man can fully escape the material conditions he was raised in, the culture and education he came out of, etc ... so in short I own up that my views are shaped by the biases of growing in the diaspora, to poor parents, and rarely exposed to any 'upper crust' Dominicans. That said there is a conviction that drives my sentiments that may make me a snobbish, aloof city-dweller. I'm not afraid to put it out there for cristiscism and thoughts though, and the conviction is nested in this question:
How many people in DR are functionally illiterate peasantry & urban proles, or at best one generation removed from that condition?
This material condition to me is something that cannot be overlooked in deciding how you craft a message and framework for progress. When expressed openly the human rights values underlying Baldo's proposals often have difficulty finding an audience even in thoroughly middle-class & literate republics like the US and EU nations! How much more alien, impractical and in some ways even undesirable must these principles sound to the Dominican mass barely a generation away from illiteracy, raised in families barely 2 or 3 generations away from a free, sparsely populated, over-fertile countryside? Or conversely when they find an audience among urbanized Dominicans does that mean the values receive honest participative application by this segment, or that the values just get more lip service from the educated, pilfering intelligentsia?
TO ME here is a framework that would buy the consent of these groups, be specific enough that the participative aspects are clear to all, have demonstrable outcomes that don't require high literacy to believe in, and still serve the underpinning human rights values we share:
1- modernization of electric grids and domestic transportation, perhaps with a focus on enabling agricultural entrepreneurialism … this does not require foreign engineering firms or even as much capital as we might imagine. Policies could include drafting manpower to build infrastructure, & applying the bulk of government resources and brains to resolving the electricity issue.
2- rationalization and professionalization of bureaucracies … less political appointments and more qualified career technocrats. If you were the right man to run the communications ministry yesterday, a new president today should not have the power to replace you under any circumstances. PUNTO.
3- preservation/development of a unique Dominican culture to combat materialism … because Dominicans need to focus on getting in place the basics, on not being fatalist pessimists, and also not have false illusions that the island will ever look like Smalltown, USA. I think there is no shortage of pride amongst Dominicans in their island, and their UNIQUE hybrid Hispanic & African culture…this needs to continue to be promoted but the overwhelming pessimism must go, and ditto the gold chains, Escalades and Land Rovers.
4- restrictive control of immigration …sorry this I've come to realize is a necessary focus to ensure consensus and unity in any policy package or platform for progress. For there to be a Dominican project it must be clear to all the potential citizen stakeholders that they will be the sole beneficiaries. Concerns for our neighbors in the West are worthy and necessary, but also necessarily dead last in terms of priority. Juan Campesino and Jose del Barrio must believe, despite even the most limited grasp of politics, that the leaders of his government and culture have him as their main concern. If progressive cultural & political forces don't choose to own this issue by manipulating a sort of anti-Haitianism-lite then their opposition will use this as leverage, and they will aim to apply a much scarier trujillista anti-Haitianism.
Well that's my piece hope you find it worthwhile and I look forward to your thoughts.
I'll make a daring statement that DR is the one true mulatto nation. Our cousins in Cuba & PR are allegedly >75% European descended, so along with much of Latin-America they are creole republics. Many of our other neighbors in this sea are self professed Black republics. Latin-America has considerable populations of people with African heritage, but as we know it isn't as evident in their rostros and so it isn't as central to their societies. In DR absent the worst excesses of the plantation & slavery, absent the racializing influence of a strong imperial presence, witnesses to the outcome of cruel oppression next door, amidst plentiful sun and land, and under constant assault by outsiders the European & African came together in a unique way....the Dominican.
Whether because of ODR in the case of North-America, or because of a stronger connection to indigenous heritage in South America, nowhere else is there this comfort to the same degree. Their different history almost blinds them to the outcome they would see before their eyes if they bothered to learn our history. PERO as members here have put out there on other threads here on DT.com, we of course aren't some harmonious racial utopia completely innocent of the sins of discrimination. No nation is. However for Dominicans being something original and tough to decipher all we get from fleeting observers is superficial scrutiny and baseless condemnation.
Soon when we are a bit mightier and more developed, when Haiti is not the humanitarian cause of the minute, when our diaspora's voice abroad gains volume, and when Cuba's own issues are no longer hidden from view ... maybe then the stage will be set and they will see. The Americas...
As usual it is more brainstorm/brainfart than statement.
***
OK here are my suggestions that I promised to put up in interest of fairness. I want to say I believe no man can fully escape the material conditions he was raised in, the culture and education he came out of, etc ... so in short I own up that my views are shaped by the biases of growing in the diaspora, to poor parents, and rarely exposed to any 'upper crust' Dominicans. That said there is a conviction that drives my sentiments that may make me a snobbish, aloof city-dweller. I'm not afraid to put it out there for cristiscism and thoughts though, and the conviction is nested in this question:
How many people in DR are functionally illiterate peasantry & urban proles, or at best one generation removed from that condition?
This material condition to me is something that cannot be overlooked in deciding how you craft a message and framework for progress. When expressed openly the human rights values underlying Baldo's proposals often have difficulty finding an audience even in thoroughly middle-class & literate republics like the US and EU nations! How much more alien, impractical and in some ways even undesirable must these principles sound to the Dominican mass barely a generation away from illiteracy, raised in families barely 2 or 3 generations away from a free, sparsely populated, over-fertile countryside? Or conversely when they find an audience among urbanized Dominicans does that mean the values receive honest participative application by this segment, or that the values just get more lip service from the educated, pilfering intelligentsia?
TO ME here is a framework that would buy the consent of these groups, be specific enough that the participative aspects are clear to all, have demonstrable outcomes that don't require high literacy to believe in, and still serve the underpinning human rights values we share:
1- modernization of electric grids and domestic transportation, perhaps with a focus on enabling agricultural entrepreneurialism … this does not require foreign engineering firms or even as much capital as we might imagine. Policies could include drafting manpower to build infrastructure, & applying the bulk of government resources and brains to resolving the electricity issue.
2- rationalization and professionalization of bureaucracies … less political appointments and more qualified career technocrats. If you were the right man to run the communications ministry yesterday, a new president today should not have the power to replace you under any circumstances. PUNTO.
3- preservation/development of a unique Dominican culture to combat materialism … because Dominicans need to focus on getting in place the basics, on not being fatalist pessimists, and also not have false illusions that the island will ever look like Smalltown, USA. I think there is no shortage of pride amongst Dominicans in their island, and their UNIQUE hybrid Hispanic & African culture…this needs to continue to be promoted but the overwhelming pessimism must go, and ditto the gold chains, Escalades and Land Rovers.
4- restrictive control of immigration …sorry this I've come to realize is a necessary focus to ensure consensus and unity in any policy package or platform for progress. For there to be a Dominican project it must be clear to all the potential citizen stakeholders that they will be the sole beneficiaries. Concerns for our neighbors in the West are worthy and necessary, but also necessarily dead last in terms of priority. Juan Campesino and Jose del Barrio must believe, despite even the most limited grasp of politics, that the leaders of his government and culture have him as their main concern. If progressive cultural & political forces don't choose to own this issue by manipulating a sort of anti-Haitianism-lite then their opposition will use this as leverage, and they will aim to apply a much scarier trujillista anti-Haitianism.
Well that's my piece hope you find it worthwhile and I look forward to your thoughts.
I'll make a daring statement that DR is the one true mulatto nation. Our cousins in Cuba & PR are allegedly >75% European descended, so along with much of Latin-America they are creole republics. Many of our other neighbors in this sea are self professed Black republics. Latin-America has considerable populations of people with African heritage, but as we know it isn't as evident in their rostros and so it isn't as central to their societies. In DR absent the worst excesses of the plantation & slavery, absent the racializing influence of a strong imperial presence, witnesses to the outcome of cruel oppression next door, amidst plentiful sun and land, and under constant assault by outsiders the European & African came together in a unique way....the Dominican.
Whether because of ODR in the case of North-America, or because of a stronger connection to indigenous heritage in South America, nowhere else is there this comfort to the same degree. Their different history almost blinds them to the outcome they would see before their eyes if they bothered to learn our history. PERO as members here have put out there on other threads here on DT.com, we of course aren't some harmonious racial utopia completely innocent of the sins of discrimination. No nation is. However for Dominicans being something original and tough to decipher all we get from fleeting observers is superficial scrutiny and baseless condemnation.
Soon when we are a bit mightier and more developed, when Haiti is not the humanitarian cause of the minute, when our diaspora's voice abroad gains volume, and when Cuba's own issues are no longer hidden from view ... maybe then the stage will be set and they will see. The Americas...
'...should begin to think seriously about the destiny reserved by Providence for the Negroes and mulattoes of America. From now on, this destiny is manifest, given the present number of this [mulatto] race; and I believe the island of Santo Domingo is called to be the nucleus, the model of its glorification and individuality in this hemisphere.'-"from an homage to Gregorio Luperon, 1888".
Quote cited in Undoing Empire by Prof. Buscaglia-Salgado.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
priests from above & below (note #1)
Three more titles I'm working through will have direct bearing on this personal project. Introductions and the initial chapters of these are telling similar stories about the early 20th C. history of the Dominican Republic. The history concerns how a rural nation of stubborn, unorganized, runaway peasants would slowly be brought under control of a state and into modernity, from above. This wouldn't come about without the bloody, despotic application of order. Before the despot, though, there were intellectuals. Powerless priests suffering a Platonic complex? Possibly, but certainly a handful of men from the city, educated abroad in Europe in the latest thinking. Their project was to apply their metropolitan formation and liberal ideals to cultural improvement of the peasants in the name of progress. From above. I think I'd enjoy seeing a strand of my project develop into a sort of jiu-jitsu reversal of theirs. Those untamed peasants were my grandparents, and my parents the migrants to the modern metropolis. Now, from below, can I apply 'new' thinking of my own amongst my fellow untamed proles? The turn of the century, the pre-war period, has other significance I'll develop later alongside an explanation of what an old German philologist have to do with it. Oh these are the titles:
A Tale of Two Cities: Santo Domingo and New York after 1950 by Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof
Nation and Citizen in the Dominican Republic, 1880-1916 by Teresita Martínez-Vergne
Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History by Richard Lee Turits
A Tale of Two Cities: Santo Domingo and New York after 1950 by Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof
Nation and Citizen in the Dominican Republic, 1880-1916 by Teresita Martínez-Vergne
Foundations of Despotism: Peasants, the Trujillo Regime, and Modernity in Dominican History by Richard Lee Turits
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Introduction
This blog will be a journal of a personal project embedded within my larger intellectual projects. In short here I will house reflections on more technical and academic readings around identities. Entries on these readings will be interspersed with entries in the same vein which are personal interpretations, readings of and exegetics on novels and mystical material. The identities being grappled with are in particular my positions as a Dominican-American in New York City, a Latino, an individual of tri-racial heritage, and a Catholic. I feel this is all captured in the blog title, Hellenized Post-Antillean. Post-antillean is a reference to being a product of the Caribbean, source of my Latino and tri-racial heritage. Along with hellenized it is a reference to having been raised in the heart of the modern empire, exposed to a (post?) modern education, well assimilated to the ways of the core. Hellenized also makes explicit the thread connecting anyone with a philosophical bent back to Athens, along with all the associated implications there. However the word hellenized is also a thread back to Jerusalem; to the diasporic Jews who first spread Christianity from the peripheral province of Judea to Rome.
I do not have much in the way of high level education on textual interpretation or cultural criticism. I have a fair background in Latin-American/Caribbean history. My main background and professional experience is in economics and finance. The entries will be very rough and not heavily edited, consisting of initial reactions and only occasionally deeper re-readings. Despite being rough and very personal I'm not making this a private journal, however neither will I publicize it for mass viewing by my friends or family. If you do find your way here commentary is of course welcome. Finally to give the best sense of where I hope to take this here are the titles I'm currently reading which will most directly inform my expressions here:
The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective by Antonio Benítez-Rojo
Undoing Empire: Race and Nation in the Mulatto Caribbean by José F. Buscaglia-Salgado
An Intellectual History of the Caribbean: New Directions in Latino-American Culture by Silvio Torres-Saillant
Prophets of Extremity: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida by Alan Megill
I do not have much in the way of high level education on textual interpretation or cultural criticism. I have a fair background in Latin-American/Caribbean history. My main background and professional experience is in economics and finance. The entries will be very rough and not heavily edited, consisting of initial reactions and only occasionally deeper re-readings. Despite being rough and very personal I'm not making this a private journal, however neither will I publicize it for mass viewing by my friends or family. If you do find your way here commentary is of course welcome. Finally to give the best sense of where I hope to take this here are the titles I'm currently reading which will most directly inform my expressions here:
The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective by Antonio Benítez-Rojo
Undoing Empire: Race and Nation in the Mulatto Caribbean by José F. Buscaglia-Salgado
An Intellectual History of the Caribbean: New Directions in Latino-American Culture by Silvio Torres-Saillant
Prophets of Extremity: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida by Alan Megill
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