Of Care and Patio Praxis

Abstract

The patio, referring to the space outside the roofed houses but inside the fence wrapping around a property and often holding a handful of homes, is loosely defined in rural Dominican daily life. In the borderlands of the Dominican Republic, the patio serves as both a space for cultivating care between family and friends and a safe haven from the state. Spaces of resistance, as this photo essay illustrates, are not always ones of combat or conflict. Rather, care and resistance take shape through the quotidian, mundane, and mostly uneventful acts of repair, boredom, or conversation between family, friends, and neighbors. This photo essay is an engagement with the small acts of care that fortify social life at the rural margins of the state.