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"If God Were Black and from Loiza" Managing Identities in a
Puerto Rican Seaside Town
by Samiri Hern?ndez Hiraldo
Translated by Mariana Ortega-Brena
Loiza, a municipality on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico, is
principally known for its majority black population, its strong
African tradition (expressed primarily through the community
celebration of Santiago Ap?stol), and its slow, limited
development. In recent years it has attracted media attention
because of its high crime rate and local efforts to develop tourism
within a
highly competitive tourist industry. The efforts of loice?os to
improve their social and economic condition can be productively
viewed in terms of the for
mation of identity, which involves complex relationships between
local, national, transnational, religious, and cultural identities
and those based on skin color and ethnic background and
relationships of power that drive identity
formation on a daily basis.
Keywords: identity, culture, development, Africanness, Puerto
Rico
Known for its preponderantly black population and its strong
African roots, the Puerto Rican town of Loiza, located on the
northeast coast of the
island, is also notorious for its slow development, which many
Puerto Ricans attribute to the local population's backward and
superstitious mind-set. In fact, many say that the town is full of
brujos (witches). In the past few years, Loiza has attracted media
attention for its high crime rate and the controversy surrounding
the development of local tourism. Rather than focus on the
potential veracity of these standard depictions or their origin, I
intend to look at the management of identity in daily interactions
and the role of identity in efforts to improve the town's
socioeconomic and religious conditions.
Samiri Hern?ndez Hiraldo received her Ph.D. in anthropology from
the University of Michigan in 2000. She is currently a research
fellow of the Program for the Analysis of Religion among
Latinos. This paper is based on material collected in Loiza
during 12 months of fieldwork between 1996 and 2003. The author
thanks the residents of Loiza, her assistants, Eva Villal?n, Zulem
Echevarr?a, and Sundra Arroyo, her family and friends in Puerto
Rico, and her colleagues at the University of Michigan. Mariana
Ortega-Bre?a is a freelance editor and translator based in Ithaca,
NY She specializes in academic writing, particularly in the areas
of humanities and social sciences. LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES,
Issue 146, Vol. 33 No. 1, January 2006 66-82 DOI:
10.1177/0094582X05283516 ? 2006 Latin American Perspectives
66
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Hern?ndez Hiraldo / "IF GOD WERE BLACK AND FROM LO?ZA" 67
Although local experience in Loiza cannot be reduced to a single
topic, I sug gest that identity is a very significant factor and
that its management? whether conscious or not?strategically employs
an intricate net of relations between diverse identities and
competing socioeconomic, political, and reli gious agendas. In this
sense, my approach echoes that of Schilder (1994) in his study of
the Mundang of Cameroon, Kipp (1993) in her study of the Karo in
Indonesia, and Burdick (1998) in his examination of popular
Christianity in Brazil.
My analysis is informed by Connolly's (1993: 64) definition of
identity as a set of socially recognized differences. Butler
(1993:12) has already pointed out, with regard to gender identity,
that direct individual agency is the para doxical result of
following the requirements of social sch?mas. My approach is
similar to that in Lorentzen's Chiapas study (2001: 91) in taking
into con sideration the complexity of internal local dynamics and
Butler's (1993: 2) and Connolly's notions of power relations and
their importance in the fluctu ating process of identity. I am also
influenced by Flores's (2000: 20) recent work on Puerto Rican and
Latino identity in the United States. Flores regards local popular
culture as a system of interactions, a process that transgresses
the limits and spheres of cultural practice, and argues that it is
the researcher's task to capture the interplay between these limits
and spheres. Only then can
we rescue popular local culture from an archaic and residual
role in modern
global society.
THE OFFICIAL CONSTRUCTION OF AFRICAN AND LOICE?O IDENTITY
The importance of such study can be assessed by considering the
existing research on Loiza, particularly on its African and black
traditions, and on the history of Puerto Rican slavery. As D?vila
(1997: 93) points out, popular dis course has officially identified
Loiza as a prime example of African and black traditions at their
most folkloric. Ra?ces (Roots), a 2001 production of the
Banco Popular1 focusing on the Afro-Puerto Rican musical forms
of bomba and plena, pays particular attention to Loiza and
introduces it as the town with the country's largest cimarr?n and
free black populations. The Puerto Rican archaeologist Ricardo
Alegr?a has suggested that Loiza has retained its
traditional character because until recently there was only one
road to the town. When I distributed a questionnaire to my
anthropology students at the
University of Puerto Rico during the 1997 autumn term, they
established a direct connection between being from Loiza and being
a black person of African and slave descent with strong traditional
roots and limited resources.
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68 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES
Studies of Loiza's black heritage fall within the scope of the
research on Puerto Rico's African tradition that resulted from the
systematic governmen tal effort during the 1950s to promote an
official idea of Puerto Rican national culture. This concept, which
had been gradually developed over the years (Duany, 2002: 21), was
based on the harmonious coexistence of the Spanish, indigenous, and
African legacies, and today every Puerto Rican child learns it in
school (D?vila, 1997: 4-5). The j?baro, usually characterized as a
light skinned, sun-tanned male from the mountainous interior and
mostly associ ated with the popular Spanish heritage, became
another element in the arche typal construction of
puertorrique?idad. It was around this time that the Instituto de
Cultura Puertorrique?a (Institute of Puerto Rican Culture?ICP)
was established to endorse the official agenda. Ricardo Alegr?a
became the institution's first director, and cultural centers were
built across the nation (D?vila, 1997: 79).
In a sense, this initiative was part of a plan of accelerated
industrial devel opment that started in the 1940s under the aegis
of the Partido Popular Democr?tico (Popular Democratic party?PPD)
and led to the establishment of the Estado Libre Asociado (Free
Associated State?ELA) of Puerto Rico. According to Duany (2002:
281), this cultural agenda was conceived as a response to the
United States's rationale regarding the occupation?that Puerto
Ricans were incapable of self-government and lacked a definite
cultural identity. It reflected concerns with regard to the new
relation of dependency and the purported threat that this posed to
the Puerto Rican essence and self-determination, an argument
supported by the left and the proindependence movement (Scarano,
1993: 724-726).
As elsewhere (Hern?ndez Hiraldo, 2001:108), I suggest that
Afro-Puerto Rican research can be divided into a number of
tendencies. One of these rec
ognizes the island's African and black heritage (Babin, 1973;
Zen?n, 1974; Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Puertorrique?a,
1992). A second suggests that Puerto Rican racism has been mild
(Blanco, 1985 [1942]), while a third seeks to demonstrate the
marginalization of the African tradition (Buitrago, 1982:103-106;
Morris, 1995: 103; D?vila, 1997: 43, 71-73; Guerra, 1998:
233). Some research highlights the African heritage and suggests
that it is more fundamental than the others (Gonz?lez, 1993), and,
finally, there are those who claim that Puerto Ricans are "really,
really black" (Torres, 1998).
Loiza and, in particular, its barrios Median?a Alta and Median?a
Baja have been the subject of linguistic studies (Mauleon Benitez,
1974), research on the fiesta of Santiago Ap?stol, which originated
in Median?a Alta (Alegr?a, 1954; Zaragoza, 1995), and studies of
witchcraft (Vidal, 1989). There have
been attempts to demonstrate that cultural practices in Loiza
are African in origin (Steward et al., 1956) and that the people
are relatively indifferent to
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Hern?ndez Hiraldo / "IF GOD WERE BLACK AND FROM LO?ZA" 69
their heritage because of Protestant influence (LaRuffa, 1966).
Of one thing we can be sure: Loiza's sizable black population is
not exclusively linked to
the sugar industry's use of African slaves. Also, loice?os took
up other occu
pations, while shifting from peasants to proletariat (Giusti,
1994). The official national discourse on Puerto Rican identity has
substantially
shaped academic attitudes toward Loiza. However, there has been
a recent move toward the recognition of alternative narratives of
Puerto Rican experi ence within a national framework that takes
into consideration the island's current political status (Duany,
2002: 23). In this regard, it is impossible to ignore Craig's
(1982) observation that the Caribbean experience has been forced
into a rigid set of sch?mas and Trouillot's (1992: 36) assertion
that these depictions are mostly located within the experience of
the Western
world. For this reason, rather than focus on the notion of
Puerto Rican iden
tity, I want to look at how a particular Puerto Rican group
experiences iden tity. Along with Guerra (1998) and Morris (1995),
I assume that national identity is as competitive a factor as
color, ethnicity, local traditions, commu nitarian loyalty, and
even personal uniqueness, but it is important to bear in
mind D?vila's (1997) and Duany's (2002) view that Puerto Rican
national identity is constructed (for Duany, in a transnational
context).
IDENTITY AND DAILY INTERACTION
Most of the Loiza residents I talked with were proud to be the
focus of touristic and academic attention. This is particularly
true in Las Cuevas, a
community of some 800 persons near the town center. Some
residents
thought I was there to examine "more of the same thing": their
folklore and archaeology. ("Anthropology" is commonly thought of as
synonymous with "archaeology," mainly because of Alegria's
excavations.) To make my research interests clear I had to compare
myself to a social worker, someone
who usually addresses general social and economic conditions,
but this account did not explain my interest in interacting with
the local community.
A good number of residents appeared to have a rather defensive
attitude toward the research, which they hoped would discredit
stereotypes. A very revealing incident took place when I suspended
my research for some
months (from December 1997 to March 1998) in order to look for
funding. A police raid had taken place a few days after I left
Loiza, and it had been rumored that I was a police agent. When the
truth was discovered, there was
embarrassment?"Ah, but here in Las Cuevas we still think we are
better than
others, and then people rightly think less of us"?and I received
a substantial number of collective and individual apologies. People
were interested in
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70 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES
participating in my research in order to provide a positive
image of Las Cuevas and Loiza.
Countless hours of conversation and daily interaction revealed
the varied and complex ways in which people from Loiza managed
identity. In order to test my intentions, residents at first
emphasized negative aspects such as lack of trust, the high crime
rate, and drug abuse. In a practice reminiscent of the strategies
of the Hispanic market in the United States (D?vila, 2001: 41-42),
the people of Las Cuevas critically engaged with these and other
typifications such as conformism, laziness, and dependency.
Generally, they sought to
preserve their self-esteem without becoming directly involved in
conflict. They often pointed to the backward and superstitious
mentality of the people of Median?a Alta, mocked their way of
speaking, and even referred to them as "almost from another world."
This attitude of the people of Median?a Alta
was seen as a big part of the cause of Loiza's slow progress.
They also described the residents of Median?a Alta as "way black"
or
"blacker," employing for themselves a variety of color or racial
classification described for the San Juan barrio of Gandul (Duany,
2002: 236) and for Arembepe, Brazil (Kottak, 1992: 68-69).2
According to Guerra (1998: 233),
the use of these terms reinforces social/racial hierarchies that
serve to negate classification as black. However, more than half of
Loiza's inhabitants (57.9 percent) classified themselves as black
in the 2000 census. Whereas Kottak (1992: 68-69) has argued that
the variety of racial terms used in Brazil indi cates the minimal
importance of racial differences relative to social ones, Duany
(2002: 20, 246) has pointed out for Loiza that a fluid
classification system is not indicative of a lack of prejudice
against blacks or other racialized people. During my stay in Loiza
I witnessed verbal and physical confrontations between gangs,
teenagers, and children over skin color, body features, and place
of origin in schools and even church meetings.
At the same time, I also witnessed affirmations of blackness,
such as the sermons I heard at the local mission, which belongs to
the Iglesia Fuente de Agua Viva, a Protestant church that was
founded in the 1980s and is the fastest-growing and most prosperous
on the island. It has been strongly criti cized by other Protestant
churches for its emphasis on material prosperity and an alleged
similarity with new age ideas. The main church, whose con gregation
is mainly light-skinned, has focused on Afro-Caribbean elements in
recent years, despite criticism that too much emphasis on
Afro-Caribbean traditions is an obstacle to Loiza's prosperity.
As is common in Puerto Rico, residents of Las Cuevas, especially
the elderly, said that the town had become increasingly polluted by
modernity and licentiousness and identified a link between the past
and a healthy life style. The lack of respect, discipline, and
moral values widely ascribed to
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Hern?ndez Hiraldo / "IF GOD WERE BLACK AND FROM LO?ZA" 71
youth were significantly attributed to outside influences. Some
people wished that Loiza could have remained isolated from the rest
of Puerto Rico as it was for many years. Many, however, underscored
the hospitality, communal
ethos, and family life that are still experienced in this town
in contrast to many other parts of the island. The case of the
Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal illustrates the importance of these
factors. As in the case of the rural Sri Lan
kan communities studied by Brow (1996), the congregation
attributed a per ceived reduction in recent years in the
manifestations of the Holy Spirit and an increase in devilish ones
to the lack of unity and family life and an increase in materialism
in the congregation and the town as a whole. The local empha sis on
family life was contrasted with the individualist, consumerist, and
ego tistical mentality in other parts of the island. Some residents
also compared the kind of "natural life" still possible in Loiza
with the polluted environment elsewhere.
INDIGENOUS AND AFRICAN TRADITIONS
According to historical sources and the archaeological evidence
collected from Alegr?a's excavations, the caves for which Las
Cuevas is named housed an indigenous settlement at the time of
Spanish colonization. Some people of Las Cuevas have embraced this
information with zeal, focusing on Loiza's proud indigenous roots
to the detriment of its African traditions. Many Las Cuevas
residents have a tendency to represent themselves as different from
and even superior to other Loiza neighborhoods, particularly
Median?a Alta. This response is understandable given the privileged
and romantic view of indigenous culture in Puerto Rico (Buitrago,
1982: 103-106; Duany, 2002:
Chap. 11) and is similar to the situation in other Caribbean and
Central Amer ican countries such as Guyana (Moore, 1999),
Nicaragua, and Honduras
(Helms, 1977). Here, however, the emphasis on indigenous
heritage is largely due to local animosity toward Cano vanas, a
neighboring town originally sprung from Loiza.
Because of its rapid (though socially uneven) economic
development, Loiza was officially acknowledged as the island's
seventh-largest town in 1719. In 1910 a group of landowners and
local administrators decided to
move the political and parish headquarters to the barrio of
Can?vanas, 8 kilo meters away and closer to the island's center.
Can?vanas was a prosperous town with a large white population
descended from Spanish and Irish immi grants,3 while Loiza had
become economically stagnant because of its dis tance from the main
market and lack of transportation. The old administrative center
acquired the name "Loiza Aldea," and as the relocation
increased
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72 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES
Can?vanas's prosperity Loiza Aldea continued on a downward
trajectory. By the 1940s any interest in returning the
administrative headquarters to its orig inal site in order to
regain control of the town and ameliorate its general con dition
had been lost. Years later the struggle had turned into an effort
to acquire municipal stability independent of Can?vanas. The
separation of Loiza and Can?vanas, sanctioned by the governor's
Junta de Planificaci?n
(Planning Committee), became official in 1971, although it did
not take place until 1973, after the 1972 elections. The agreement
favored Can?vanas and left Loiza in the worst financial situation
in the country, the island of Culebra excepted. Loiza residents
accepted the separation in exchange for the
promise of state government help and the development of tourism
in the area. A good example of governmental attitudes toward Loiza
can be found in a
document in which, in an attempt to justify the separation and
its conditions (which allotted less land, infrastructure,
resources, services, and employ
ment opportunities to Loiza despite its larger population), the
Junta de Planificaci?n concluded that the two towns were socially
and culturally dif ferent. Their respective residents reportedly
also held this opinion. Can?vanas was described as more
economically developed and close to the metropolitan area and its
inhabitants as self-sufficient, distanced from tradi
tion, independent, practical, more individualistic, and
puritanical (because of the local growth of Protestantism). Loiza
residents were described as subor dinated to the social group
(which was presented as cohesive, integrated, homogeneous, and
isolated) and inclined toward a bohemian lifestyle, alco hol,
carnal pleasures, and free love (Junta de Planificaci?n, 1968:
21-22). In this case there is no doubt that diverse identities
indicate differences and
hierarchies of value and power. During the process of
separation, which was opposed by many Can?vanas
residents because of the great loss of natural resources it
entailed, Loiza had the support of the Partido Nuevo Progresista
(New Progressive party?PNP).
This recently founded party fiercely opposed the ruling populist
PPD and the Partido Independentista Puertorrique?o (Puerto Rican
Independence party?PIP), which sought to emblematize Puerto Rican
autonomy and autochthonous culture. I suggest that in its support
of Loiza the PNP was seeking to go beyond the PPD's populist
discourse by associating itself with one of the most ethnically and
culturally marginalized sectors of society. (Some residents were
encouraged by the PNP's support of permanent associ ation with the
United States, which had recently embarked on a battle against
racism and in favor of civil rights.) Its timely support came
during a time
when the town and its folkloric traditions in particular were
receiving consid erable media attention (El Mundo, July 13, 1968),
and, prompted by this interest, the ICP began to develop a new
folklorist approach to Puerto Rican
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Hern?ndez Hiraldo / "IF GOD WERE BLACK AND FROM LO?ZA" 73
culture (D?vila, 1997: 64-69). The results of the PNP's support
of Loiza became apparent shortly after the separation, when the
town's first mayor, a member of the PNP, launched a series of
charges regarding the PPD's alleged racism (El Mundo, January 28,
1973). PNP's aid won the party the majority of the votes in the
locality, but Loiza's support of it was also significantly related
to the large following the PPD had in Can?vanas?consistent with an
earlier tradition in which Can?vanas backed the Republicans whereas
Loiza supported the Socialists. The differences between the two
localities, which the separation has only exacerbated, lead me to
suggest that Loiza's struggle for municipal independence and
stability reflected its residents' desire to assert its identity as
a basis for the acquisition of resources and services.
The case of Loiza and Can?vanas recalls the previously mentioned
and
very similar situation of two Sri Lankan communities whose
conflicts and prejudices were based on the consequences of unequal
development (Brow, 1996). The residents of Las Cuevas pointed out
that the people of Can?vanas
had always thought of themselves as blanquitos and better than
their Loiza neighbors. I often heard that in previous decades local
dances had had one dance floor for canovan?nses and another for
loice?os, and there were also
complaints that physicians favored the former, forcing loice?os
to depend on home remedies, healers, and even witches. In the light
of these perceived slights, the people of Las Cuevas had the
feeling that the residents of
Can?vanas had taken possession of the indigenous heritage as if
it belonged to them only. The Can?vanas entrance gate boasts a
large statue of an indige nous couple, and the inhabitants refer to
themselves as "the Indians of Can?vanas." A woman from Las Cuevas
who identified herself as "racially mixed, educated, with a
critical and courageous mind," and the opposite of familiar Loiza
stereotypes explained the situation as follows: "They are so intent
on blackening us that they forget about our indigenous heritage."
At the same time, Loiza's inhabitants resent the fact that many
people think that they still live in boh?os, and there is a general
rejection of the name "Loiza Aldea" because the word aldea
(village) is associated with a primitive lifestyle. Dur ing the
fiesta of Santiago Ap?stol, costumed children dressed up as genuine
aborigines represented indigenous identity, and the use of children
empha sized the tender and spiritual notion of the indigenous
tradition.4
African identity was also represented in the Las Cuevas fiesta
and sought the same affirmative effect, mostly through folkloric,
abstract and symbolic elements. This was consistent with the
refusal of most loice?os to deal with the subject of slavery and
with D?vila's (2001: 121) remark that, in the con text of the
Hispanic market, Latino blacks are not considered representative of
a generic latinidad. Still, according to Zaragoza (1995: 55-56),
there is great social, political, and psychological interpretive
potential in this folkloric
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74 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES
and abstract/symbolic disposition. The vejigante, a batlike
figure with a mask made out of coconut and very colorful clothing,
is an example. Despite the fact that it embodies the evil that the
saint must fight, the vejigante has become the most representative
figure of the fiesta, a national and interna tional success. In the
aforementioned Ra?ces video, the Loiza artist Samuel
Lind suggests that the vejigantes stand for the free spirit of
Loiza's African roots. When I talked to him in his studio, he
pointed out the need for the pro cess that Jensen, in his study of
Brazilian Catholicism ( 1999), has termed "re
Africanization." According to Lind, the African elements should
be high lighted as evidence of the cultural uniqueness of loice?os.
At the same time, he pointed to the importance of maintaining the
visibility of other cultural elements both in the fiesta and in his
own work, since these represented the traditions that Loiza shared
with the rest of Puerto Rican culture and society.
THE MARKETING OF CULTURE
The municipal government's interest in Loiza has related to its
goal of pro moting the town as a "capital of tradition" in the hope
that the development of tourism will rescue it from financial
crisis, unemployment, and even a high crime rate.5 This is possible
because in Puerto Rico, according to D?vila (1997),
culture?especially j?baro culture?sells. Emphasizing the African
component without ignoring the other traditions is considered more
effective than trying to highlight it on its own (D?vila, 1997:
71). The island's cultural
market grew in significance during the general crisis of the
1970s; as Scarano (1993: 815-816) points out, many Puerto Ricans
earned their livelihood through the informal economy, including
pursuits related to popular culture or folklore. Folklorization had
opened the door to the recognition of the Afri can tradition, and
the town's folklore had been portrayed in the media as both a
source of pride and a means of survival (El Mundo, July 13,
1968).
In the last several years the popularity?and even
exoticization?of Loiza's folklore has reached a new high. In 1997
the advertising firm Corpo rate Communications, Inc., hired to
attract new clients to a mall in the affluent
mostly white town of Guaynabo, organized an exhibit featuring
several towns whose fiestas, like that of Santiago Ap?stol,
showcased African tradi tions. The fiesta of Santiago has become
emblematic of loice?o identity and the locality's cultural
tradition. The figure of Santiago has been added to the
municipality's emblem, and a vejigante mask is part of the large
welcoming sign at the entrance to the town. The local government's
interest has sup ported an increase in the length of the fiesta,
which used to last three days and now lasts ten. This requires a
large production team to coordinate the diverse
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Hern?ndez Hiraldo / "IF GOD WERE BLACK AND FROM LO?ZA" 75
attractions and the support of local and international
businesses and the media.
However, the local government has faced challenges regarding its
approach to the development of tourism. Its plans for tourist
facilities in the area of Pi?ones have met with serious opposition
from competitors such as Isla Verde, a tourist area in the town of
Carolina, near San Juan. Local and national environmentalists
constitute another rival faction, and groups favor
ing the development of tourism such as Emancipaci?n de Loiza
(Emancipa tion of Loiza) have called them racist. The Asociaci?n de
Residentes de Pi?ones (Resident Association of Pi?ones) and other
communities perceive the development of tourism in the area as a
threat to their cultural heritage and economic survival (many own
stalls in the market and make their living sell ing local
handicrafts). Emancipaci?n de Loiza has accused the national gov
ernment of subjecting the town, more than any other municipality,
to an in
depth fiscal investigation every time a development project is
submitted (El Nuevo D?a, March 23, 2002).
Las Cuevas residents argued that Loiza suffered from a kind of
govern mental discrimination: it was easier for them to receive
money for cultural
purposes than for basic services such as a medical building. A
Las Cuevas resident who identified himself as a proindependence
community leader had returned after 15 years from New York, where
he had experienced discrimi nation and worked in the construction
business even though he had a degree as a social worker. He
insisted that this municipal administration was culti
vating loice?o culture in order to divert attention from the
discriminatory practices of the ruling party, to which it belongs.
The mayor, sitting under a large photograph of Governor Pedro
Rosell?, indicated that Loiza could not continue to be victimized
and had to move forward, with the support of the PNP. The increase
in the private sector's economic influence due to the PNP
government's privatization efforts since the early nineties and a
surge in the
popularity of issues pertaining to racism have caused the Loiza
government to play the race card to obtain state funding and,
according to many, conceal its corruption.
Many residents of Las Cuevas and other communities I visited
maintained that the construction of high-cost residences and
tourist facilities had been prioritized over housing for the poor
and the locals. At least during my stay in Loiza, five out of six
construction projects were directed toward the develop ment of
high-cost tourism while many Las Cuevas families lived in poor,
sometimes unfinished residences. Problems with the water supply are
added to other tribulations, which include damaged residential
areas and ecosys tems by the extraction of sand for purposes of
development. Residents also suffer because of the disagreeable
odors produced by the stagnant water and
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76 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES
the nearby sewage treatment plant, which treats other
municipalities' sewage and was recently constructed without the
town's prior knowledge and consent. Despite all of this, during my
last visit to Loiza in 2003 some resi dents expressed hope for
Mayor Ferdin's plan to attract high-cost tourism in order to
increase the municipal budget and create jobs and low-cost housing.
Others attributed the recent low-cost housing construction and
restoration efforts to governor Sila M. Calder?n's PPD
administration, whose Special Communities program had financed work
in poor residential areas.
The town's cultural center has offered a complementary or
alternative way of bettering Loiza's situation. Its main goal is to
provide the town's young people and their families with a basic
knowledge of their culture and heritage in order to increase their
self-esteem. The center's view of self-esteem as related to
progress is similar to that of many Latino programs in the United
States (D?vila, 2001: 239) and involves a series of projects and
activities such as history seminars, handicrafts workshops,
vocational guidance, and com
munity service. Its director, Laura Mel?ndez, was grateful for
the center's rel ative freedom to preserve Loiza as a museum of
African heritage. At the same
time, she recognizes that this freedom is a double-edged sword.
Some of the support for the fiesta of Santiago Ap?stol comes from
the
nonresident or absentee loice?os who are honored on one of the
days of the fiesta. There is also a group called the Friends of
Loiza that includes people who have never lived in the town, some
of whom participate fully in the fiesta while others' contributions
are marginal. This last group includes parents who get involved in
response to their children's interest and are seeking to provide
them with healthier entertainment options than drug selling. There
are those who criticize the fiesta but still enjoy the general
rejoicing from their balconies and receive visits from friends and
family, some of whom travel from the United States expressly for
the occasion. Others oppose the celebrations because of the
opportunities they provide for criminal activity. The municipal
government and the state police have adopted strict security
measures, and some of these, such as the stopping of vehicles at
the town's
entrance, have become routine in Loiza given the increased crime
rates of the
past few years. This, in turn, has created controversy of its
own. Some people support these measures, while others are concerned
that so much police pres ence will give an exaggerated impression
of the amount of crime in the local ity. Some Baptist and
Pentecostal congregations engage in fasting and prayer
during the celebrations in an effort to prevent crime and
protect themselves from the forces of evil that are associated with
the fiesta's African elements.
A largely Catholic group has expressed a desire for the fiesta
to focus on "decent" and "serious" aspects, but the fact that the
fiesta is not necessarily linked with Catholic ritual allows them
to participate freely.
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Hern?ndez Hiraldo / "IF GOD WERE BLACK AND FROM LO?ZA" 77
RELIGION AND TRADITION
Padre Antonio, a light-skinned Trinitarian priest who served the
Esp?ritu Santo y San Patricio parish from 1973 to 1997, attempted
to revive local Catholicism by having the church "cleansed" of
witchcraft, spirits, and santer?a, and Santiago is associated with
the Yoruba deities Shango and
Ogun. As part of his cleansing campaign, he has reminded his
congregation that St. Patrick has been the real patron of Loiza
since the seventeenth cen tury. Recalling the efforts of Catholic
leaders in Miami to distinguish between the Virgin of Charity and
the Yoruba santer?a goddess Ochun (Tweed, 1999: 142), he has
described the fiesta of St. Patrick as "religious" (or "spiritual")
and that of Santiago as "traditional." At the same time, he clearly
considered Catholicism Puerto Rico's "national" and
"traditional"
religion. Loiza began celebrating the feast of St. Patrick in
1980, and it has become an annual event that emphasizes the Spanish
and j?baro cultural ele ments. It receives the support of
governmental institutions and the local administration, who see it
as an opportunity to please the town and attract tourism. In an
attempt to legitimize St. Patrick without ignoring the town's
identity, he commissioned the artist Samuel Lind to paint the saint
with dark skin. The painting, which can still be seen in the
parish, contrasts with depictions of Santiago, who is always
portrayed as white.
It is impossible to overlook the fact that the founding of the
Median?a Alta parish of Santiago Ap?stol took place in the same
year (1971) that the parish of Comerio was abandoned because of
charges that the mass was being used to spread subversive leftist
propaganda through j?baro music (Diaz-Stevens, 1993). Considering
the accelerated growth of the Baptist and Pentecostal churches at
the time, I suggest that Catholic support for the establishment of
the parish of Santiago Ap?stol was a response to the critical need
to earn local sympathy that could then be channeled toward a
religious revival. Given that the Median?a Alta residents
considered themselves extremely marginalized and discriminated
against by the urban downtown Catholic community, there is no
question but that the church sought to go beyond the PNP's
initiatives.
According to some members of the Santiago Ap?stol parish and
other Median?a Alta residents, favoritism was apparent during the
restoration of
the Esp?ritu Santo y San Patricio parish in the 1940s and 1950s,
which even tually allowed the parish to regain administrative
powers at the beginning of the 1970s.
The founding of the Santiago Ap?stol parish situated the
residents of Median?a Alta on a par with the rest of the local and
national urban Catholic community, but it also entailed the
silencing of some local traditions. Emi grants from Loiza have
established themselves in New Haven, Connecticut,
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78 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES
where the fiesta of Santiago Ap?stol is now a resounding success
with both Latinos (including Puerto Ricans who travel to
participate in the celebra tions) and others. The New Haven fiesta
highlights the tradition's African elements and has become a great
incentive for sociopolitical activity, far
more than in Loiza. Members of its organizing committee (Fiestas
de Loiza en Connecticut en Honor al Ap?stol Santiago?FLECHAS) have
undertaken community projects and supported agendas and political
candidates. This has generated conflict with racial and ethnic
overtones, particularly between Catholics who support the
organization and Pentecostals.
STRATEGIC SELF-IDENTIFICATION
The management of identity undertaken by Loiza inhabitants both
in daily interaction and as part of the general effort to develop
the town clearly points to what Scherer (2001:153), writing about
Chinese-Cuban cultural revital ization, calls "strategic
Orientalism": a dialectical framework situated between the
Orientalist view provided by official discourse and the appropri
ation and alteration of that view by recent generations of
Chinese-Cubans. Scherer uses this perspective to criticize Edward
Said's (1979) Orientalism, which adopts an essentialist view of
East and West, posits that Orientalism is a purely Western product
and ignores the participation of Orientals them selves (which
Morris [1995] considers crucial). Here I have also drawn atten tion
to internal power dynamics and the multilineal management of
identity, given the presence of various types of identity (e.g.
color, ethno-cultural
background, local, communal, national, religious, and
traditional) and the various interactions between identities and
competing social, political, and religious agendas. I have
attempted to address the kind of complexity that Burdick (1998:
viii) has found in Brazil, where, while some claim color-based
discrimination, others use this as an incentive or tool to succeed.
Such com
plexity is clearly encountered in processes in which identities
(such as color and ethnicity, on the one hand, and religion and
tradition, on the other) are strategically disassembled and
reassembled. Such processes are intrinsically contradictory. One
example is the increasing popularity of Afro-Caribbean or
Afro-Rican elements (both folkloric and modern) in contemporary
Puerto Rican culture alongside the fact that, in the 2000 census,
almost 81 percent of the island's population classified themselves
as white and only 8 percent as
black. Kinsbruner (1996:4) has commented on the lack of academic
and popular
attention to issues of race, prejudice, and African heritage in
Puerto Rico.
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Hern?ndez Hiraldo / "IF GOD WERE BLACK AND FROM LO?ZA" 79
The experience of the Loiza population described here highlights
the fact that its identity problem is of long standing but certain
particulars have contrib uted to increased interest in making
identity management more open and direct, among them the recent
national interest in African heritage, the possi bility of
promoting the town as a "capital of tradition," and the past and
cur rent local, national, and transnational struggles for
recognition and resources. Perhaps the best critical way to
describe this process is with the
words of a young loice?o: "If God were black and from Loiza the
story would be different."6
NOTES
1. The populist Banco Popular was founded in 1893. 2. The four
most common classifications among 703 census participants were
trigue?o (col
ored), negro (black), blanquita (little white female), and jabao
(brownish white). 3. This information can be found in the material
distributed by the municipality and was con
firmed by primary sources. 4. A classic example of this view is
the commercial for Maz?la oil, which was very popular
during the 1970s and 1980s. In it natives raise the product
skyward while radiant light and harmo nious music accompany the
words "Maz?la corn, gold from God." This contrasts with the also
famous Yaucono coffee ad in which the protagonist is a fat,
backside-wriggling, black woman in
maid's garb. 5. According to municipal records, 68 percent of
Loiza's population lived in poverty?9 per
cent more than in the country as a whole. The unemployment rate
had increased from 19 percent in 1980 to 33 percent in 1990, the
highest in all of Puerto Rico. About two-thirds of local house
holds depended partly or entirely on federal aid. Seventy-one
percent of Las Cuevas households reported a monthly income of $900
or less.
6. The song "Si Dios Fuera Negro" (If God Were Black), written
by the black Puerto Rican musician Roberto Angler?, was inspired by
the discrimination he experienced in the air force during the
Korean War.
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Article Contentsp. 66p. 67p. 68p. 69p. 70p. 71p. 72p. 73p. 74p.
75p. 76p. 77p. 78p. 79p. 80p. 81p. 82
Issue Table of ContentsLatin American Perspectives, Vol. 33, No.
1, Struggle and Change in Puerto Rico: Expecting Democracy (Jan.,
2006), pp. 1-115Front MatterCommentaryThe World Tribunal and Its
Recommendations [pp. 3-8]
Introduction: Struggle and Change in Puerto Rico: Expecting
Democracy [pp. 9-22]The Making of a Colonial Welfare State: U.S.
Social Insurance and Public Assistance in Puerto Rico [pp.
23-41]Buscando ambiente: Hegemony and Subaltern Tactics of Survival
in Puerto Rico's Land Distribution Program [pp. 42-65]"If God Were
Black and from Loza": Managing Identities in a Puerto Rican Seaside
Town [pp. 66-82]Social Struggle against the U.S. Navy in Vieques,
Puerto Rico: Two Movements in History [pp. 83-101]"Peace Is More
than the End of Bombing": The Second Stage of the Vieques Struggle
[pp. 102-115]Back Matter