The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research \" No tienes que entenderlo \" : Xiomara Fortuna, Racism, Feminism, and Other Forces in the Dominican Republic

The Afro-Dominican singer-songwriter Xiomara Fortuna is an important voice among a generation of artist-activists in the Dominican Republic who came of age under Balaguer. A conversational interview with Fortuna during Semana Santa in 2014 provides a window into how anti-blackness is experienced by individual Dominicans on the island. Fortuna’s words, like her life’s work and her own identity, challenge dominant perceptions of dominicanidad that have emerged out of US scholarly work and transnational popular culture.  The interview suggests an overlooked history of Dominican women’s activism that was galvanized by color-consciousness and claims on African heritage. Here Fortuna identifies North American anthropologist June Rosenberg as having influenced her perceptions of blackness while an undergraduate at La Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo in the 198Os. Claims on a black identity, Fortuna explains, and use of the term “Afro” were also about rejecting mulata as a colonial construction that hypersexualized their bodies. As an ethnographic piece, the interview situated with a brief introduction and followed by concluding remarks. It is crafted in collaboration with Fortuna herself and would be accompanied by interview stills and one or two promotional images of the artist from decades past.