CULTURA
HISTORY TIP
D CULTURAL POSTCARDS FROM NICARAGUA
INTERSECTIONS
OF HISTORY HOW CENTRAL AMERICAN AFRO-LATINOS WERE STRIPPED OF THEIR CLOTHES (AND THEIR CULTURE). CÓMO LOS AFROLATINOS CENTROAMERICANOS FUERON DESPOJADOS DE SUS VESTIDOS (Y SU CULTURA) PHOTO: Washing a car in a lake at Grenada, Nicaragua. Photo by Hugh D. Martineau/Fox Photos/Getty Images
FOTO: Lavando un coche en un lago en Granada, Nicaragua.
ENGLISH
escended from an Afro-Caribbean father, Jasmine Chavez Helm recently became interested in her heritage thanks to a podcast the fashion archivist hosts with two other women, historian Joy Davis, and textile curator Dana Goodin. In it, they explore cultural history in an unusual way by looking at the intersections of race, politics, and fashion. “We wanted to have people that fashion isn’t just something for rich white people,” she told Remezcla. “All over the globe in Asia, Africa, Brazil, throughout Latin America, and of course in the United States so many different cultures express themselves through clothing in different ways.” Her curiosity and her father's rejection of his own blackness prompted Chavez Helm to devote three years of her life to researching Nicaragua's black history and the links with the indigenous community known as Miskito, which emerged from the mixing of African, European, and other ethnic groups in the 17th century. Culturally, the progressive Europeanization of their dress was influenced by the arrival of the Moravian church - a branch of German Christianity - to the country's Caribbean coast.
ESPAÑOL
D
escendiente de afronicaragüenses por parte de padre, Jasmina Chávez Helm no hace mucho que empezó a interesarse por su herencia gracias al podcast que esta archivera de moda conduce junto a otras dos mujeres, la historiadora Joy Davis y la conservadora textil Dana Goodin, en el que exploran de un modo inusual la historia cultural buscando las intersecciones entre la raza, la política y la forma de vestir. "Queríamos decirle a la gente que la moda no es sólo algo para blancos ricos", cuenta a Remezcla. "En todo el mundo, en Asia, África, Brasil, en toda América Latina y, por supuesto, en los Estados Unidos, muchas culturas diferentes se expresan a través de la ropa de diferentes maneras”. Su curiosidad y el rechazo que su padre sentía por su propia negritud, impulsó a Chávez Helm ha dedicar tres años de su vida a investigar la historia negra nicaragüense y los vínculos con la comunidad indígena conocida como Miskito, surgida del mestizaje con africanos, europeos y otras etnias en el siglo XVII. Así como la progresiva europeización de su atuendo con la llegada de la iglesia morava -una rama del cristianismo alemán- a la costa caribeña del país.
Foto de Hugh D. Martineau/Fox Photos/Getty Images
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MARCH 4 - 11, 2020
