Untitled from the series "El Negro detras de la Oreja"

In the particular work presented to you, “El Negro detras de le oreja”, (The Negro behind the Ear) I use hair as a metaphor to address issue of race and identity. Particularly, the relation and tension of this subject in the Dominican culture. These relation extents through our relationships to other immigrants in this country and how whiteness becomes even more important living in the US as an immigrant.
The symbolic meaning of “El Negro detras de la oreja” presents itself in multiple physical attributes: skin, bone structure, body type and hair. For many, accepting a having any of these attributes has many implications. One of the must important admitting a relationship (at least genetically) to African Americans and their own history of Diaspora, physical attributes becomes very important. Accepting any part of “blackness means, among many other things that Beauty doesn’t belong to our race. But the saying is there to remind us that it doesn’t matter how “white” a Latino is, a closer look will reveal his negritude hidden “behind” his ears. It also means that we must find the most efficient way to disguise this heritage.

My negritude is in my hair.