The Loud Minority in Art and Anthropology By Abigail N. Vasquez

Abstract

It is hard to navigate through life being an Afro-Latina; it is even harder to be in a field that finds a way to continually keep the minority out. For this senior project, I seek to find out how does identifying as an Afro-Latina Woman affect our place in the art world. The artworld is notoriously famous for gatekeeping what is considered acceptable art. The canon only fits a small identity of cis, white, men. The canon excludes many different races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. Museums are supposed to be microcosms and reflect what is going on in the world. The world does not only involve the contributions of the canon. It is important to note that people outside of it are just as talented and deserve recognition. The results of the research come to no surprise at how the minority is kept at a distance, Latino/a’s that identify as white also have a hand at keeping the black Latina women low on the totem pole. Nonetheless, Afro- Latinas are taking it in stride and showing the world just how talented they are. In this paper, I highlight just a few gifted Afro-Latinas making waves in the art world. While there are still so many questions and progress to be made, I hope that this paper will give a glimpse of what it is like to be Afro-Latina and the experiences we go through. Overall, I want to bring awareness to a culture that fights to be seen.