Identities in Transit: Reframing the Caribbean from Spain through the Work by Gertrudis Rivalta and Brenda Cruz.

Abstract

This article analyzes the works I am Cuba and Summer by Cuban artist Gertrudis Rivalta and I am: a Tattooed Body and Borders by Puerto Rican artist Brenda Cruz. In these works, both creators, who migrated to Spain almost two decades ago, problematize issues around migratory movements, race, cultural identity and citizenship in the Hispanic Caribbean, delving into notions such as “mulata”, “transculturation” and “the Other” from a gendered, decolonial and autobiographical perspective. Taking into account their identities as women, mulatas, Caribbean, migrant and artists, they use their creative projects as a speaker from which to reclaim visibility and equality for Afro-descendants subjects, inside as well as outside the Caribbean, especially for women. They recognize the mulata as a symbol of hybridity in their nations, where the African heritage is as important as the Spanish/ European one. At the same time, they criticize the stereotypical and biased image that Caribbean women (and Caribbean citizens in general and even the Caribbean as a whole) have in the Western world, which is especially salient for Caribbean people living in the diaspora, like them. Additionally, in two of the works studied here, they question the effectiveness of governments in dealing with the problem of immigration, and they criticize the insensitivity of the host society towards the drama the immigrants are living as well as the abuses and precariousness to which they are subjected in order to obtain a better future and the status of “citizen”.