Arrayanos Portraits - Charo Oquet

ARRAYANOS PORTRAITS

ARRAYANOS PORTRAITS

Enramada: Bringing People Together

By Henry John Drewal

Borders are for governments, not people. Borders divide to control and separate, even if those separated share history and culture. Such divisions have happened all over the world for a very long :me, leaving deep and las:ng enmity wherever they have occurred. Think of the arbitrary 19th century colonial boundaries created in many parts of the world (Africa, La:n American, Asia) that divided families and communi:es, and the more recent par::ons of Pales:ne-Israel, India-Pakistan, and Serbo-Croa:a. Ideally, what we need is a world without borders, sin fronteras. A world where people can strive to aHain the best that is in them, where they have the chance to thrive and to make the best of their brief, transitory :me on earth. What we need are socie:es that are inclusive, based on equality and jus:ce, NOT ones that are exclusive, hierarchical, unequal and oppressive. Governments should strive to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of its ci:zenry. Corrup:on and greed in Hai:, the Dominican Republic, and the United States have fueled the present immigra:on crisis and the best place to forge a just immigra:on plan is the richest among them, the USA.

Arrayanos refers to people of Hai:an or Hai:anDominican descent currently subject to deporta:on, living near the border that divides two countries that share history, culture, and an island. The Arrayanos project, the latest ar:s:c ac:vism of the Dominican ar:st Charo Oquet, seeks to inspire, embody, and encourage society to be inclusive and just. Focusing on the Hai:an/ Dominican border and immigra:on conflict, she uses the Rara/Gaga performance tradi:on to unite through art the deeply divided island of Hispaniola.

Rara/Gaga is a pulsa:ng annual street fes:val of music, dance, supplica:on, and songs (both serious and silly) that builds momentum during the Lenten season and climaxes during Easter Weekend. [1] It has its primary roots in the ritual and musical tradi:ons of Kongo/Bantu peoples of Central Africa, fused with Taino Amerindian instrumenta:on, and a history and culture of resistance embodied in the maroons of the island – Africans who fled and fought slavery to establish free, independent communi:es. The fes:val honors the myriad spiritual forces of Hai:an and Dominican Vodu, ancient African ancestors as well as the recentlydeparted, and, in complex coded songs, comments on the current socio-poli:cal situa:on. Dancing bands of community members playing bamboo (banbou), metal and plas:c tubes called vaksin, a variety of percussion instruments (maracas, guiros), cone-shaped metal trumpets (kone), and typical European trumpets, trombones, and saxophones, move like waves through the streets and neighborhoods, pausing at crossroads to meet and greet, sing and strut, pray and parade. The sounds of hocke:ng flute/tubes and sharp, striking s:ck rhythms fill the air as feet shuffle, batons whirl, sequined costumes flash, and mul:-scarf-shirts fly outward on the breeze as dancers turn, stretch a leg, and let dance catch it. These are moments of trans-form-a:on: When the poorest marginalized souls command the streets and crossroads, singing about what’s on their minds and who is to blame for their oppression. Hats, caps, and crowns cover and cool the heads of these hot, animated performers. Led by kings, queens, colonels and majors, they move through space for long hours, covering ground and filling the air with music and songs that are sacred, poli:cal, and raunchily profane. There is unbounded energy and edgy

Blas Hugan, and chief of Gaga of San Luis, Dominican Republic, 2017

I love the playfulness and abandon of many of the Rara/Gaga par,cipants, vividly captured in the portraits and films of Charo Oquet. The bright colors and flashy costumes turn the mundane into the fantas,c. Transforma,ons reign: Macho men become seduc,ve women (and vice versa!); humans turn to animals; devils become angels; servants become kings, queens, colonels and majors; and the “silent majority” becomes a very vocal and raucous one, filling the air with loud voices of conscience and serious playfulness. Vibrant shirts of many scarves surround the vibra,ng bodies of the dancers. Breastplates with sequins & bling shine in the sunlight. Elaborate hats and horned headgear crown heads; the vaksin create trace-inducing rhythms and energe,c movements of twists, whirls, pumping hips and arms outstretched create a vast sea of constant mo,on. Whistles blow, mirrors flash, dance staffs and batons twirl as the Rara/Gaga bands cover the ground they have worked for genera,ons. Charo’s portraits evoke the deep and honest engagement of people in celebra,on, portraits like the “Love Pink” macho man and another with a masked donkey – gender bending and blending all along the con,nuum in a cri,que of constructs. These are aggressive, percussive performances that enact the sacred power of ache – vital life force. High above flags and banners fluYer as lovely ladies strut in yellow, queens in their court of colonels and majors in uniform. Bull horns resound as a masker in black opens the way to meet Eleggua at the crossroads – Rara/Gaga is a joyful celebra,on of pathmaking, openness and welcoming to all.

A fundamental image and idea anima,ng this project is the nature and essence of an enramada – a small, hand-made natural shelter, an opensided arbor made with leaves and branches used as a gathering place to provide cool shade for those who labor in the burning heat of the island’s sun. (In Spanish, one defini,on is “cober,zo hecho de ramas de árboles para sombra o abrigo.” (“a small covered place made with the branches of trees to provide shade and shelter”). An enramada embodies and

evokes a series of resona,ng ideas, a0tudes, and emo,ons: It is a humble structure made of natural materials; a modest expression that reflects and respects the natural environment; its open-sideness evokes inclusiveness; it provides a cooling shelter for those who gather in this communal space. Many of these ideas embodied by an enramada are shared with the street celebra,ons of the masses during Rara/Gaga and poe,cally evoked in the Arrayanos project of Charo Oquet who, inspired by her friend Ernesto Oroza, re-creates and celebrates an “Architecture of Necessity” -- a “do-it-yourself” shelter like an enramada.

Hai,, the Dominican Republic, and the USA should remember their histories of genocide and immigra,on, and strive for peace with jus,ce. Indigenous peoples were decimated and others enslaved and brought to labor and fill the coffers of the rich and greedy. Later the Dominican Republic and others in the Americas like Brazil and the USA, encouraged the immigra,on of people to “whiten” society (my own grandparents benefiYed from this policy, and white privilege con,nues to this day). As na,ons of immigrants, these governments must acknowledge and make amends for terrible histories of injus,ce by enac,ng immigra,on policies that are just, and at the same ,me confront one of the root causes of these desperate mass migra,ons of people happening in so many places – the greed, corrup,on, and indifference of those in power. Poor and disenfranchised Hai,ans and Dominicans are brothers and sisters, separated not by choice, but by the self-serving policies of dictators and the rapacious rich. Let the songs and dances of Rara/ Gaga bring out the best in people as they celebrate divine forces, honor the ancestors, and help to shape and transform contemporary society in posi,ve ways with pointed commentary.

[1] For an excellent account of Rara in Hai, and New York City, see McAlister, Elizabeth. Rara! Vodou, Power, and Performance in Hai, and its Diaspora. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

San Luis, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 2012

Mayores and Queen of Gaga San Luis, Haina, Dominican Republic, 2015

Mayores and Queen of Gaga San Luis, Haina, Dominican

Members of the Gaga San Luis, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Tango, San Luis, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 2012

Hai$an Family, Guaimate, La Romana, Dominican Republic, 2015

Flag Carrier, Los Morenos, Villa Mella, Dominican Republic, 2015

Gaga San Luis, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 2013

Gaga La Ceja,,La

Malena, Dominican Republic, 2016

Guaimate, La Romana, Dominican ,Republic 2015

Guaimate, La Romana, Dominican ,Republic

2015 Gaga Los Chicharrones, Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, 2015

Queens and Mayor of Gaga San Luis, Dominican Republic, 2017

Mayor of Gaga La Ceja, La Romana, Dominican Republic, 2015

The Sweeper of Gaga San Luis, Haina, Dominican Republic, 2015

Flag Carriers during Gede Celebra0on, Voodoo Temple of San Luis’s Gaga group, 2016

Julia, San Luis, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 2012

Brujo, San Luis, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 2017

Children of San Luis during Carnival , Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 2017

Youth of San Luis , Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 2012

Charo Oquet (Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), based in Miami Beach, Fl. Inspired by her many travels all over the world, her works span a variety of pracCces: performance, video, painCng, photography, installaCon and sculpture. Oquet, has been challenging stereotypes of African Americans and working with decolonizing narraCves and aestheCcs for the past three decades.

She has studied visual art in many parts of the world including the Dominican Republic, New Zealand and Miami, FL where she received a BFA from Florida InternaConal University in 2000, and has been researching and documenCng Afro-Dominican rituals and pracCces since 1997. She is a recipient of a Map Funds 2014 award; Florida State ArCsts Fellowship Award; State of Florida ArCsts Enhancement Grant; South Florida Cultural ConsorCum 2015 and ’05 Visual and Media ArCsts Fellowship Award; the Grand Prize of the Museum of Modern Art of Santo Domingo Visual Arts Biennial (2011); CreaCve Capital Grant; South Florida Cultural ArCsts Access Grant; New Forms Florida Grant; and QE II Arts Council of N.Z. ArCst Fellowship 84, 85 and 86.

Oquet’s ’s current works combines performance, video and installaCon addressing issues of the displacement, idenCty, migraCon, gender, or sociopoliCcal and cultural issues. Charo Oquet’s works have been wri_en about extensively in various publicaCons including Art in America, The Miami Herald, AtlanCca Art Journal, African Arts, Art Nexus and Art New Zealand, among others. The late renowned Spanish curator Antonio Zaya published a book of her work, Charo Oquet – Lo Que Ve La Sirena (2002). Her work is also included in such books and catalogs as About Change in LaCn American and the Caribbean, The World Bank (2011); New Hoodoo - Art of a Forgo_en Faith (2008), Mami Wata –Henry John Drewal (2008) Files by Octavio Zaya(2004), Miami Contemporary ArCsts; New Zealand's NaConal Museum’s Te Papa Calendar (2009), Dominican Contemporary ArCsts (2002) and Supermix (2007).

Oquet’s work has been exhibited in more than 10 countries. Museum of Art, Frost Art Museum, Florida InternaConal University, Miami, FL; The World Bank, Washington, D.C; CAAM, Centro AtlánCco de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas Spain; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; New Zealand NaConal Museum, N.Z.; Dowse Art Museum, New Zealand; Gove_-Brewter Art Gallery, New Zealand; Foresight CollecCon, Auckland, New Zealand; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New Zealand, New York; Museo de las Casas Reales, Dominican Republic and Museo del Arte Moderno, Dominican Republic.

Acknowledgement and Clarifica*on

These portraits are not meant to be a portrait of all HaiCans or of all Dominican HaiCans but rather a way of highlighCng a community of people who are the descendants of HaiCans who were brought to the Dominican Republic by the sugarcane industry to work in the sugarcane harvest since 1890. Most of these images were taken in the municipal district of San Luis, Santo Domingo where the Ozama sugarcane mill was situated unCl 10 years ago when it was dismantled, leaving most in the community jobless and in a dire situaCon without ciCzenship, and many without pensions aler years of work in the industry. This community also has the most colorful and beauCful of the Gaga/Rara whose owner is Blas. I have been documenCng and researching the Gaga tradiCon since 1997 and concentraCng on this parCcular group since 2012 where I have seen the growth and development of this parCcular Gaga as the Rara is called in the Dominican Republic due to the way the HaiCan pronounced the le_er “r”.

Gaga is the same thing as Rara - a voodoo ritual that mostly takes place in Easter, the Day of the Dead, and Christmas day. There are certain tradiCons in the Gaga that only happened amongst the HaiCan minority in the Dominican Republic.

I want to thank the different Gaga communiCes I have been able to document throughout the years and specially I want to thank my friend Tango and his family who have opened the doors of their homes to me so generously.