Un Hijo de Yemayá (A Son of Yemayá), Hopkins, Belize

Label

Yemayá es la orisha (deidad, entidad divina) de la maternidad, el agua y el océano, y tiene raíces en la religión Yoruba. En esta imagen de un hombre transnacional garífuna/garinagu, uno de los numerosos individuos afrodescendientes transnacionales que residen en Belice, Guatemala, Honduras y Nicaragua, Yemayá es aquí una referencia al mar en el que se baña la figura. Las comunidades de la diáspora como los garífunas se imaginan conectados a Yemayá debido a la experiencia del desplazamiento y la servidumbre resultantes de la trata transatlántica de esclavos. Las comunidades negras de América Central, rara vez representadas como parte de la cultura nacional, han conservado, contribuido y transformado las culturas de la región. Hoy, los pueblos garífunas libran una lucha activa contra la expulsión y la violencia dirigida a su raza-etnia que pretenden desalojarlos de sus territorios ancestrales para dar paso al desarrollo capitalista.

Yemayá is the orisha (goddess/deity) of motherhood, water, and the ocean, with roots in Yoruba religion. In this image of a transnational Garifuna/Garinagu man—one of many individuals of African descent in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua—Yemayá refers to the sea in which the figure bathes. Diasporic communities like the Garifuna imagine themselves connected to Yemayá due to the experience of displacement and bondage resulting from the transatlantic slave trade. Black communities in Central America, seldom depicted as part of national culture, have both retained, contributed, and transformed the cultures of the region. Today, Garifunas wage an active struggle against expulsion and targeted violence that aim to dislodge them from ancestral territories to make way for capitalist development.

From the 2022 exhibition Bolas de Fuego: Culture and Conflict in Central America, curated by Jorge E. Cuéllar, Assistant Professor of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies

Course History

LACS 80.02/AAAS 90.01/GOVT 84.06, Identity and Power, Lisa Baldez, Winter 2022

GEOG 72.01/AAAS 67.50/WGSS 66.09, Black Consciousness Black Feminism, Abby Neely, Spring 2022

LACS 8.01, Politics and Culture in Transnational Central America, Jorge Cuellar, Summer 2022

LACS 8.01, Politics and Culture in Transnational Central America, Jorge Cuellar, Summer 2022

LACS 8.01, Politics and Culture in Transnational Central America, Jorge Cuellar, Summer 2022

Spanish 60.04, Caribbean Afrodecendancies, Magdalena Lopez, Spring 2023

Exhibition History

Bolas de Fuego: Culture and Conflict in Central America, Teaching exhibition, Guest curator Jorge E. Cuellar, Class of 1967 Gallery and the LeWitt Wall, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 28-September 25, 2022.

Waterways: Tension and Flow, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 4-August 23, 2015.

Provenance

Nancy and Thomas O'Neil III, Baltimore, Maryland, date uknown; given to present collection, 2014.

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Subjects