African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
346 p., Ranging from the time of slavery and indentureship, to national independence in 1962 and the present day, this book shows how gender inequalities have been perpetuated for the benefit of exploitative systems from slavery to the present day. The book explores women's roles and activities both in colonial ideology and in reality.
While Blacks fight for their survival, Colombia's wealthy have other preoccupations. In the highbrow, rarified and polluted air of Santafe de Bogota, the Miss Columbia contest parades its select young women before an expectant nation. The announcers painstakingly describe each aspirant, even to the color of her skin. Save for a few Euro-Indians and a couple of light-skinned Black contestants, all are "white." Miss Santefe de Bogota, the long-legged, white-skinned audience favorite emerges the winner. Barely two hours later and the new Miss Columbia launches her reign by visiting the Black beaches of Cartagena, the port-city through which all enslaved Africans entered Columbia. There, to the delight of the world's photographers, Miss Columbia contrasts her white beauty with the Black skins of heavy-set women from maroon (escaped slaves) communities. The headlines and photos run, front page and center: "Carolina between Maroons," an unabashed reference to the old maxim, "a rise between two thorns." Three years ago the wealthy matron who organizes the Miss Columbia pageant claimed the country was not ready for a Black Miss Columbia.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
223 p, Ileana Rodriguez's House/Garden/Nation: Space, Gender, and Ethnicity in Post-Colonial Latin American Literatures by Women offers an insightful look into the role the feminine has played in the constructions of nation and nationalism in critical moments of Latin American history. Although feminism is at the center of the study, it is always predicated by concerns of ethnicity and social class. (BNET);
