Rethinking Race, Gender and Citizenship: Black West Indian Women in Costa Rica, c. 1920–1940

Abstract

This article brings Afro-Caribbean women to the fore of a discussion of Costa Rican citizenship. It explores the relationship between ideologies of gender, imageries of black womanhood, and the dialectic of citizenship and exclusion. It examines how the efforts of the black elite to achieve citizenship through assimilation generated inter-class tension which centred on ideas of female morality. It explores the absence of political platforms for poor black women excluded by such strategies and argues that while Costa Rican feminists succeeded in challenging the ideological system of gender they failed to challenge issues of race and class.

Ciudadanía sexual en Costa Rica: los actos, las identidades y las relaciones en perspectiva histórica

“…La mayor parte del debate regional en torno a la ciudadanía tiene su origen en las contribuciones del feminismo latinoamericano y su análisis sobre las limitaciones que han sufrido las mujeres para poder participar plenamente en el ejercicio de sus derechos como ciudadanas; al respecto, en Costa Rica hay una amplia producción académica (Alvarenga, 2012;Rodríguez, 2003;Herrera, 1999;Foote, 2004;Aránzazu, 2012).…”

Challenging Mestizaje

“…2 In the 1920s and 1930s, the black lower class, and particularly women, were repudiated: as women who worked and female heads of households, they did not conform to middle-class norms of femininity, domesticity and sexual purity (Foote, 2004). Similar to the black-led male movements of today, the Garveyists of the 1920s continued to privilege men and marginalize women.…”

“…Afro-Creoles in Costa Rica did not obtain citizenship until 1949, after a long struggle by the black elite to achieve recognition, primarily through assimilation to dominant Hispanic norms of respectability. 2 In the 1920s and 1930s, the black lower class, and particularly women, were repudiated: as women who worked and female heads of households, they did not conform to middle-class norms of femininity, domesticity and sexual purity (Foote, 2004). Similar to the black-led male movements of today, the Garveyists of the 1920s continued to privilege men and marginalize women.…”

Black Motherhood Politics in Costa Rica: Diasporic Genealogies and Links to the State

“… 19 Black women’s agency in elevating their communities (Leeds 2013) and defending their personal fame traverses the everyday life of the plantations (Putnam 2002). At the turn of the twenties, in the midst of a community disarticulated by the economic crisis caused by the fall of the banana market and the consequent migrations, Black women appealed to the same moral responsibility for silencing racist accusations (Foote 2004). Leeds (2013) recovers the figure of Philomena, a woman who published regularly in the Limón Search Light , as an example of the complex relationship between discourses of respectability and Garveyism.…”