If you don’t know history, it would be hard to see the connection between the racial tensions that exist between Haitians and Dominicans, and the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” uprising in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.
Ferguson, Missouri has been burned into our national consciousness as the place where Michael Brown was gunned down by a white police officer on August 9, 2014 following an altercation at a convenience store. The subsequent unrest which followed the killing sparked a national debate about police officers use of deadly force, as well as the militarization of police in this country.
Racism is central to the debate regarding the use of deadly force in Ferguson Missouri, and in hundreds of other communities around the country. Black and brown people in the United States are often marginalized because of the color of their skin, as well as their language and culture. Racial tensions are also at the root of the cultural divide between Haitians and Dominicans on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea.
Artist Fabio Rodriguez has not only bared witness to the racial tensions in Ferguson, Missouri and to those between Haitians and Dominicans, he has made combatting racism and building bridges to marginalized communities his life work.
“My artwork supports marginalized communities,” Fabio says. “My artmaking is all about raising social consciousness about the treatment of marginalized people. I’ve always been incredibly sensitive to the plight of marginalized communities. Marginalized people are the ones I always looked up to,” Fabio said.
Fabio was born in the United States at a time when his father, who is a doctor, was doing a residency in Richmond, Virginia. The family moved back to Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic, when Fabio was one-years-old, and remained there until Fabio was 15. The family returned to the U.S. in 1992 when his father took a job as a doctor and professor at the University of Missouri, in Columbia, Missouri.
“I couldn’t really speak English when I came back to the U.S., and I didn’t really fit in, but I could make art, and that became the language I communicated with,” Fabio said. “My dad and I share the same name, and he’s also a pretty good artist. I use to claim that my dad’s art was mine, but now I’m much better than him.”
In the Dominican Republic, racial tensions are part of the culture. “I’m pretty light-skinned, so I was never really singled out the way some people I knew were,” Fabio said. “But there are people like Sammy Sosa, one of the greatest baseball players of all time, and he is still discriminated against. It’s like a caste system. You’ve got people who are Blanco, Negro, Indio and Mulatto (mixed heritage), and the differences in skin color are used to divide,” Fabio said.
“There were always racial tensions on the island, which goes back to the Spanish Conquistadors, but we were also governed by a ruthless dictator named Rafael Trujillo, who was responsible for the torturing, imprisoning, and killing a lot of Dominicans. He’s been dead for more than 50 years, but in many ways, Trujillo’s rule is still affecting the country. He’s most responsible for the racial tensions that exist between Dominicans and Haitians. In fact, the Dominican Republic Independence Day celebrates our kicking the Haitians out of the country, not the Spanish, even though the Spanish were responsible for draining the country’s resources. It’s racism. The Haitians are more dark-skinned and are much easier to marginalize.”
“That’s why my artmaking is primarily Afro-centric. It’s a reflection of the experiences I had growing up. So many people in the society were marginalized, but I really wanted to celebrate the Afro-Dominican traditions. The culture was so powerful to me when I was growing up,” Fabio said. One example of this work is the paper mache masks he made for carnival. Other examples can be found in his oil paintings.
All of which helps to explain why Fabio became so active in the Ferguson uprising. “After the Michael Brown killing, I was traveling to Ferguson often after work and on weekends. I met the most amazing people down in Ferguson, people from all over the country and world. We worked together on a lot of art projects that were designed to build bridges. We even did ofrendas for Michael Brown and Kajieme Powell, who was killed by police near Ferguson ten days later. “I believe if you are an artist of color, you have no time for art-sake. There’s just so many social issues that need to be addressed,” Fabio said.
A commitment to social justice is something Fabio tries to pass on to his students at Desoto High School, where he teaches art. Desoto, which is about 40 miles south of St. Louis, is named after the Spanish conquistador, Hernando de Soto. It’s a very rural part of Missouri where there are very few minorities or people of color.
“I teach my kids about other cultures through art. We do things like study artmaking in South Africa, which provides an opportunity to talk about apartheid and then make connections to the Jim Crow laws. Some of these kids don’t think twice about displaying images of the confederate flag, because they think it represents their cultural heritage. They have no understanding why other people might find those images offensive. But these are good kids who really benefit from learning about other cultures and hearing other points of view. Mostly, they can learn from the examples I set. They see I’m a very nice person, and I’m completely honest with them, which I hope makes an impression on them. I know I’ve made a difference in many of their lives, but there’s still work to be done,” Fabio said.
Fabio Rodriguez will be joining Jesus Macarena-Avila’s course Caribbean Art, Literature and Music by Skype on Wednesday, November 28, at 7 p.m. in the Columbia Library, 624 S. Michigan, 2nd floor classroom. Fabio will discuss paintings centered on the complex relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti while making connections to contemporary Caribbean culture. The event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsors include the Library, the Center for Black Music Research and the Humanities, History and Social Sciences Department, Columbia College Chicago. Media sponsors are Contratiempo and Illinois Latino Voice. https://events.colum.edu/event/exploring_afrodominican_traditions#.W-yiny2ZPOR
