321 p., Locates contemporary articulations of afrofeminismo in manifold modes of cultural production including literature, music, visual displays of the body, and digital media. Examines the development of afrofeminismo in relation to colonial sexual violence in sugar-based economies to explain how colonial dynamics inflect ideologies of blanqueamiento/embranquecimento (racial whitening) and pseudo-scientific racial determinism. In this context, the author addresses representations of the mujer negra (black woman) and the mulata (mulatto woman) in Caribbean and Brazilian cultural discourse.
Argues that racialization of Dominican immigrants in the US and Puerto Rico has largely confined them to the secondary segment of the labor and housing markets. Based on research in Barrio Gandul in Santurce, a central city subdivision of the San Juan, Puerto Rico metropolitan area, and Washington Heights in Manhattan, New York City.