A few blocks off the main plaza in Veracruz, Mexico, there is a small square where pensioners and young people alike dance to live music on a near nightly basis. The Plazuela is an open-air dance floor where the people seeking respite from the drudgery of life double as living evidence of the Gulf Coast port city’s Afro-Caribbean character. This talk is an ethnographic study of the space, the people it attracts, and the arguments made possible through their leisure practice. It is an analysis of how individuals strivings for happiness and release become evidence of what the state calls its “third root,” which is to say its Black heritage and culture. I argue their efforts reaffirm the reputation that Veracruz and its people are happy, fun, Caribbean, and as a result, avatars of Mexican blackness. Yet while their dancing bodies may satisfy the touristic gaze and corroborate the state’s narrative that the third root is both organic and thriving in the city, they ultimately dance for themselves.

Dr. Frierson will also be joining us for a Dangerous Subjects workshop on Friday May 5, from 11:30-1pm in Thomson 317. The title of the paper we will workshop is: : "Cultivating Practice: Workshop Spaces and the Revitalization of Traditions." If you are interested in joining us for that workshop, please RSVP to Monica Rojas (rojasm@uw.edu)  by Friday April 14.

Karma F. Frierson is an assistant professor in the Department of African and African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. An anthropologist by training, her research focuses on the evolving significance of Blackness in identity formation, regionalism, and cultural practice in Mexico. Her current book manuscript is an ethnography of the Afro-Caribbean cultural politics within the port city of Veracruz. With a focus on racialization, music and dance practice, and regional identity, it contributes to the anthropology of Afro-Latin America, specifically as it relates to race, temporality, and place while engaging with conversations on multiculturalism, groupness, and musical traditions. Her ethnographic research has been supported by the COMEXUS Fulbright-García Robles Scholarship, the National Science Foundation, the Tinker Field Research Grant program, and the SSRC-Mellon Mays Graduate Program.