Week 3: Race + Representation

Spanish established first European settlements in…

1500s

Creolized culture

• Changes to fir the region

• Cultural bleeding

• Indigenization

Creole

• people born of different descent who came to Caribbean 

• Spanish word ‘criollo’

Briitish plantation owners 

absentee landownership in the British West Indies 

Picturesque

• Idyllic

• bucolic

• perfect view of nature

• landscape as a site of visual pleasure

• highlights nature + animals

Black Caribes

• Between Belize + Honduras

• Chief of Black Caribes

  • authoritative figure

  • overseeing the workers

Robertson 

painting focuses on more reality 

Haitian Revolution

black individuals seen as

• Political individuals

• agency

• humanized

portrait of Governor Ustariz

Who created Portrait of Governor Ustariz

José Campeche

José Campeche

PR, creole artist, created Portrait of Governor Ustariz

Portrait of Governor Ustariz representation

• Authority + wealth + status that the creole elite had over the locals

  • lively streets of San Juan below

    • Governor Ustariz in colonial attire + European decorated room

The Chief of the Black Charaibes in St Vincent with his Five Wives

Who crated The Chief of the Black Charaibes 

Agostino Brunias 

The Chief of the Black Charaibes representation

• Harsh realities of slave labour in the Caribbean instead of focusing on naturalistic, romantic, idyllic, picturesque image of Caribbean nature 

  • Free coloureds

  • St Vincent Kalingo 

Rio Cobre

Who created Rio Cobre

George Robertson

Roberston

English painter

Brunias

Italian Painter; personal painter in Dominica for Sir William Young

Rio cobre representation

• Romantic idyllic, naturlalistic painting of the Caribbean

  • Jamaica 

• was fascinated by Jamacian landscape 

Touissant L’ovuerture

Who created Touissant L’ouverture

Nicolas Eustache Maurin

Touissant L’ouverture representation

• second nation in the Americas to become independent

• Black and coloured rulers in Haiti

  • Social/Racial class change

La Mano Poderosa 

Who created La Mano Poderosa

Cuban Group (Puerto Rico)

La Mano Poderosa Representation

• Genealogy of Christ consisting of a hand 

  • Each member represents Holy Family 

  • Hand symbol=prophet Muhammad 

    • popular religions and occult of the Americas