#DSBC- Borders of DOminicanidad

DOWNLOAD THE TEXT HERE. In The Borders of Dominicanidad Lorgia García-Peña explores the ways official narratives and histories have been projected onto racialized Dominican bodies as a means of sustaining the nation's borders. García-Peña constructs a genealogy of dominicanidad that highlights how Afro-Dominicans, ethnic Haitians, and Dominicans living abroad have contested these dominant narratives and their violent, silencing, and exclusionary effects. Centering the role of U.S. imperialism in drawing racial borders between Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the United States, she analyzes musical, visual, artistic, and literary representations of foundational moments in the history of the Dominican Republic: the murder of three girls and their father in 1822; the criminalization of Afro-religious practice during the U.S. occupation between 1916 and 1924; the massacre of more than 20,000 people on the Dominican-Haitian border in 1937; and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. García-Peña also considers the contemporary emergence of a broader Dominican consciousness among artists and intellectuals that offers alternative perspectives to questions of identity as well as the means to make audible the voices of long-silenced Dominicans. 

About the facilitator:

Remysell was born and raised in New York City specifically in the Borough of the Bronx. He is a professor for the Department of Ethnic and Race Studies, where he lectures courses on Caribbean politics, the Dominican identity, and history. He is also a devoted community activist.

In the past, he was a Co-Author for the “Dictionary of the Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biographies”-W.E.B Dubois Research Institute at Harvard University. He has worked on the Biden and Harris Presidential Campaign as the Regional Voter Activation Director in Florida. Previously, he represented City Hall as the Manhattan Director for the New York City Mayor’s Office, where he managed initiatives and policies for Northern Manhattan and the Dominican community. Also, he has provided in-depth Policy analysis and advanced solutions for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) in the Division of Strategic Planning and Policy. Further, he helped organize various elections in New York City and abroad with the Office of the Prime Minister of Norway. He received a Master of Philosophy degree in Comparative and International Education from the University of Oslo (in Norway), a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University at Albany – SUNY, and completed a graduate political program from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.