elena njoabuzia onwochei-garcia
'X,
un Mestizo'
Race: A Social Construct without a Biological Foundation
Race is an idea that lacks a biological foundation but is socially and psychologically real. Thus, the idea of race can change as it exists insofar as people use race to identify themselves and others racially. it can be a point of empowerment and discrimination. This project was prompted by my investigation into seventeenth-century Spanish racial ideologies and my own experience of being a mixed-race woman (Spanish, Nigerian and German. Being mixed-race contests most essentialist racial constructs and invites intrusive questions and readings of my body, origin and loyalty. “X, un Mestizo” seeks to demonstrate the historic fluidity and superficiality of the multiraciality discourse, through a series of portraits of actual and presumed mixed-race persons.
*this is a work and idea in progress.
