Constructing and promoting African Diaspora identity in the Dominican Republic: the emergence of Casa de la Identidad de las Mujeres Afro

Abstract

Casa por la Identidad de las Mujeres Afro, locally known as Identidad (Identity), began as a Black women's movement in the Dominican Republic in 1989 and later became an organization that challenged prevalent ideas of race and racial identity. This article examines the process by which women in Identidad came to define themselves as Afro-Dominican, mulata, and/or negra in a society that has privileged racial and color categories, such as indio, without reference to an African past and being of African descent. Importantly, this article not only shows how Identidad recreated new individual and collective identities for themselves but also how they promoted this identity in Dominican society through workshops and publications while working to form a network and community of consciousness with other women in the African Diaspora.