The Curl and the Braid: Black Women ́s Hair in Puerto Rican Art and its Connection with the Caribbean

Abstract

Through images associated with Afro-Caribbean women‘s hair, Puerto Rican artists Nitzayra Leonor, Zuania Minier, and Yolanda Velázquez articulate a discourse of resistance against the control of Black bodies, especially Black women‘s bodies, by white men. The works of these artists seek to liberate their own histories and the histories of African diasporic women in the Caribbean and the Americas and establish ties between them and their ancestors on the African continent. The artwork is examined within the context of recent Caribbean art history and a dialogue is established between works that also use hair as a starting point for racial and gender critical analysis around the Caribbean.