Chapter 4

Representations of Black Women

Beauty and Colombia are two inseparable things. It has higher stakes, a higher

precedence. Similar to that of Venezuela and the beauty queens which have represented

some of the most coveted spots in the global pageant industry, Colombia also has a long

history of beauty pageants and presenting beauty queens as prestigious members in society.

This was evident in El Pals with the heavy precedence of pageant contests and contestants.

For the most part, the women were photographed in their swimsuits and displayed anywhere

from the front page to the Femeninas page of the paper. Even if there was not a pageant

taking place, El Pals’s pages generally had images of half-naked women, typically in the

entertainment industry, published relatively frequently. These women were glorified for

their physical beauty and didn’t typically have any story to accompany the photograph. Just

a caption which told the reader the woman’s name, country of origin or region if she was

Colombian. The stark difference in the paper’s conservative viewpoint and weekly imagery

of the Mother Mary, Jesus Christ and prayers, versus the glorification of women’s sexualized

bodies presented a contrast of values. However, what this duplicity manifests is the heavy

undergirding of a patriarchal and misogynist society which seeps into the paper.

What is most alarming about this finding is how whiteness is presented as the height

of these beauty standards in mostly Afrodescendant spaces. As the Miss Colombia Pageant

was taking shape in October of 1972, several candidates from all over the country were

photographed in their swimsuits and introduced to the public through El Pals. Sifting

through the images of these women, it was clear that there was a particular standard, a mold
if I may, of what a beauty pageant contestant should look like. Most women had light skin,

straight or wavy long hair, with a relatively thin frame. This mold, however, did not waver

in towns or regions with a large Afrodescendant or mixed populations. Such places were

Cartago, Buenaventura, Atlantico, Cartagena, and Valle.106 Even the pageant contestant from

Choco, a region which has over 85% of its inhabitants who identify as Black or being visibly

Afrodescendant had very light skin and pin straight hair. This “senorita Choco” was to

represent the region in the First Folkloric Festival of the Litoral in Buenaventura.107 The

pageant contestants could have possibly represented a higher status in society, perhaps being

the daughters and wives of elite men in the various regions, but this is not certain.

Again, as with the “modem” Eurocentric hairstyles of the “Revolution” article,

Blackness, even where it was expected to be, was completely denied. The few moments that

a visibly Afrodescendant woman was featured in El Pals in an advertisement, she was clearly

identified as “morena” not “negra”: morena, Black acceptability, versus negra, Black

invisibility. The image (next page) is one example of this. The model is clearly identified as

a morena because she is attempting to sell a black sewing machine called La Morenita

Superior. The “Superior” in the product’s name only aids in the assumptions which places

“morena” in line with mestizaje, on the top of social hierarchies, and “negra” at the bottom.

106El Pais, Oct. 2nd-4th, 1972. Buenaventura is the country’s largest port city with an Afrodescendant
demographic of over 85% (DANE, statistical data). Please reference map #s 3-4 from chapter 2 for further
information.
 El Pais, Nov 25,1977

This was also the case with Miss Universe of 1977, Janelle Penny Commissiong of Trinidad

and Tobago, who happened to be the first self-identified Afrodescendant Miss Universe to

ever win the pageant. El Pais described her as “la hermosa morena” (image on following

page).108

108 Please also refer to the image in the Appendix under Figure 1 to see an example of how the black woman
“negra” was depicted in a cartoon when standing next to a “morena”.
filtiJ VmL'erso. Jjniitrlle QxtttTiLviiafig, U&uM m*Um t
p n m e r* fo r * p a n cu iiip h r jwt t l p ro tT a m s dr fu vyu, .
Cah La ftcrnw rportna d o sfilp rt a n te lor. raifflor Hyjtn
pfcflaiirt d r tre* belcindrs vH em actonales.

“Miss Universe, Jannelle Commissiong, will arrive

early tomorrow to fulfill the program of her visit to
Cali. La hermosa morena will parade before the
calenos accompanied by three international beauties.”
 This was no different to the rare image of an Afrodescendant woman from the

Caribbean Coast in El Tiempo. She was the subject of an artist’s photograph entitled,

“Cartagena Morena”.110 On October 1st, 1972, El Tiempo published a tiny excerpt about a

photographer’s latest project in Cartagena. This particular excerpt was describing the

photographer, Heman Diaz’s, artistry and praising the work for rising to the mastery of

“avante-garde,” by transforming the “passive object” to “a work of art”.11112 On first reading,

Arango’s description is an exaggerated artistic reflection which provided colorful praise to

Diaz’s work. What is alarming, however, is when the gaze shifts to the photograph, and that

the “object” in which Arango is describing, is not an inanimate thing, but an Afrodescendant

woman. Arango interprets Diaz’s subject as a “passive object,” stating Diaz’s extraordinary

ability to transform the photo through a “creative process” which stages the subject outside

U0El Tiempo, Oct. 1, 1972, 7

111 El Tiempo, Oct. 1, 1972, 7.
112 Ibid, “Cartagena Morena.”
of what is natural or real. The setting of the photograph is outside of a home or shop. The

woman’s clothes are simple, and do not give the impression that she is living a life with

much luxury. The woman looks away from the camera with a stem yet relaxed face fanning

her son so that he may sleep more peacefully from the heat. The photograph was titled:

“Cartagena Morena.”

The piece is emblematic of an intersection of violences upon a working-class woman

who is also Afrodescendant. Arango is describing an artwork, but when the subject of the

piece is dehumanized to an object, is where the creative authority of his words enact

violence. The woman’s personhood is stripped from this piece, and the perceived misery of

her situation is another pattern that the newspaper is presenting about Afrodescendants who

are not celebrated as an athlete or dancer. There really is no inbetween: An individual of

African descent is either rich and famous, or poor and miserable. Arango is using the elusive

nature of art to veil the racism of his words, though he may have been doing it unknowingly.

The significance of this article is not to decipher whether Arango purposely or unconsciously

wrote in abject discriminatory language, but its very acceptance manifests the normalcy of

verbal prejudice against Afrodescendants, particularly Black women.

Therefore, Blackness was mostly conserved for cases which dealt with ideas of

folklore from the Pacific, connections to a white or mestizo/a imaginary of Africa, and/or the

uninterrupted placemark of Black laboring bodies particularly serving White or mestizo/a

families or land-owners. Vicenta Moreno and Debaye Moman explain in their article,

“^Sucursal del cielo? Mujeres Negras, Domination patriarcal y estrategias espaciales de

resistencia en Cali,” how Black women in Cali serve largely as the emblem of domestic help

and are connected in various ways to the kitchen. The validity of the Black domestic
worker’s existence as a functioning member of society was overshadowed by her laboring

body with the added pressure of performing honor and morality as a woman in the private

and public spheres. The researchers argue the inextricable link between Black women and

laboring in the kitchen as another form of sexual ization of the Black female body providing

that, “the kitchen awakens the senses with smells and flavors, becoming an act related to

sensuality.”113 I will argue in conjunction to the senses being ignited in the kitchen it is also

the stereotype of Black bodies in movement and producing perspiration which has

historically invoked elites’ ideas of carnality and dishonor, gamering the Black female body

even more excusable to oppress. Therefore, the Black female body as domestic help is

stripped from the privilege of practicing full citizenship in society, and is disqualified from

the “modernization” projects in full-force during the 1970s.114 In the following case, Black

women were represented as not only having no place in “modem” Colombian society but

also the antithesis of beauty, prestige, and value.

113 Vicenta Moreno and Debaye Moman. “^Sucursal del cielo? Mujeres Negras, Dominacion patriarcal y
estrategias espaciales de resistencia en Cali”. No 11 (2015) 9.
114 Michael Birenbaum-Quintero similarly discusses the historical and contemporary stigmatization of Black
bodies in movement in his work, Rites, Rights & Rhythms: A Genealogy o f Musical Meaning in Colombia's
Black Pacific (2019).
 “Virgin of chilindrines! This woman is making noise”

Rather than Blackness expressed as an active process and existence in Colombian

societies, the general notion which was accepted was that of mestizaje, a morena or moreno

who in some way was showing that they were fitting in the preset of Colombian

“nationalism” and citizenship. See how in the above image of Nieves, the light-skinned

woman is wearing flashy jewelry, has her hair fixed in place, and is wearing a statement

dress. Nieves’s expression, “esa senora suena” was a way of saying, “look at this woman
who is calling attention to herself’. Nieves was not necessarily envious of her, but was quite

annoyed of her elaborance. Still, the light-skinned woman is the mark of sophistication,

success, leisure, and poise in the image. If the two roles were switched, the light-skinned

woman wearing the apron and Nieves wearing the luxurious outfit, I believe it would have

garnered discontent, confusion, and for some, anger in Galena society. The image is

powerful in the sense that it visually demonstrates the realities of white privilege and the

normativity of a social hierarchy not just divided by class but also by skin color. Visually, the

two women are exact opposites of each other: each having what the other cannot. One’s hair

is fixed, the other wears it loose, one has jewelry the other does not, one wears fancy clothes

the other wears an apron, one’s skin is light and the other is dark, one’s privilege gives no

necessity to see things the way they are, while the other’s reality gives no room to play with

dreams. However, it is only one woman who seems to lose from this comparison: Nieves.

She is the woman who does not have and may never have what the other has. It is a wonder

if the cartoonist, Consuelo Lago, ever considered these societal conditions before sketching

scenarios such as this.

An article published by El Pals’s online paper in May 2018 was dedicated to the 50-

year anniversary of La Negra Nieves by Consuelo Lago. Lago was interviewed by a

journalist named Isabel Pelaez, and clearly stated that she intended Nieves to be the epitome

of a Black woman from Cali. According to Lago, she was desperate to create something that

would warrant something long-term for the paper. She was given only one condition by El

Pals’s editor; to have the character be a woman, because she was going to be featured on a

woman’s only page (Femeninas).116 In this rush of trying to create something, Lago stated,

116 “Nieves Perpetua”, Setnana, December 5, 2003.

“Despair makes one invent things. It occurred to me to create Nieves, a character I saw in my

house every day in Cali, young girls, full of life, who did a thousand things, who helped us in

everything. I think I invented it to help me work and it has done very well.. 17 In her

words, Lago had fully intended Nieves to be a young Black service woman, stating, “We are

very different, she is young and I am old; she is Black and I am white; she is happy and I am

not so happy; she dances and I find it hard to work.”11711819 She also put it in her name, La Negra

Nieves (emphasis added).

N e g r a -t N ie v e s
Pot C O l S U F I0 LAG O

(M

- U f m t o (Mm: iquMn m U
119

117 Isabel Pelaez R., “Nieves' cumple 50 anos y nos revelo el secreto de la etema juventud,” El Pais, May 6,
2018, accessed February 16,2019, . English translation by the author.
118 Ibid, English translation by the author.
119 El Espectador, Aug 23, 1977.
 Therefore, it was a perplexing discovery to see how a character such as La Negra

Nieves, created to be a “Black service woman”, racially recognized herself in a cartoon

published in another Colombian newspaper, El Espectador on August 23, 1977. Nieves is

pictured (previous page) looking at herself in a mirror while saying, “Little mirror, tell me:

Who is the most beautiful morena in the midst of all the beautiful woman?” (emphasis

added). Nieves clearly does not identify herself as a Black woman, “negra”, but as a

“morena”. Notice how she is speaking about beauty and linking her identity to that of a

“morena” and not a “negra”. Consuelo Lago, with all her efforts to pay respect to black

woman, in effect made her own character deny herself and disavow the black woman to

claim dignity, beauty, and value while identifying as Black. We as human beings, cannot

objectively create content without the consultation of our experiences, therefore making any

goal of pure objectivity a myth. With this cartoon it is abundantly clear that Lago, with all

her human imperfections, cannot escape transplanting her inner attitudes, ideas, and dreams

unto Nieves. Due to the politicized nature of the term “negra/o” and how some

Afrodescendant individuals for generations have fought to reclaim the word as something

beautiful and dignified, Lago’s choice of Nieves linking her beauty and identity within the

parameters of “morena” and not “negra” does not in any shape or form aid in this cause and

actually perpetuates a cycle of regenerating subordinate positions of Black women in

Colombian society.120

120 Please refer to figure 2 in the appendix for a reference of how a caricaturist depicted a black woman versus a
morena in 1950s Colombia.
 Beauty Standards: Hispanismo y “La moda en Europa”121

Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo argues in his work, Latin America the Lure and Power o f an

Idea, that Hispanismo has been deeply entrenched in the political and intellectual culture of

many Latin American nations. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, Hispanismo hailed from

the idea that the connecting force which situates “Latin” Americans from the US is a fluid

conception of Iberia as the nexus of political culture, language (Castilian), and religion

(Catholicism).122 The idea of Hispanismo was threaded through the pages of El Pais, where

the mention of Spanish anything was written to inspire some sense of pride and prestige.

Commonplace in some regions of Colombia, bull-fighting was a staple in the paper as well as

fashion and films hailing from Spain regarded as some of the top expressions of artistry.

Researchers of the Centro de Estudios Afrocolombianos, Vicenta Moreno and Debaye

Moman, explain how the political and economic progress of Cali is, “still in the hands of

traditional families of Spanish origin” and has historically operated by a process which David

Harvey has called “accumulation by dispossession”.123 The “accumulation by dispossession”

which Harvey speaks of is the economic and social model of Cali which has thrived by the

exploitation of Black bodies through the use of cheap labor and producing clientelist

relations with the workers and business/political elites.124

121 El Pais, Oct. 3, 1972, p 10

122 Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo, Latin America: The Allure and Power o f an Idea (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago
Press, 2017), 78.
123 Vicenta Moreno and Debaye Moman. “(,Sucursal del cielo? Mujeres Negras, Dominacion patriarcal y
estrategias espaciales de resistencia en Cali.” N i l , CIES, 2015, 9.
124 Ibid.
 The precipitation of these economic and social models in Cali reflected how

Hispanismo influenced beauty standards and created the “ideal” woman in Calena society.125

In June 1971, the Femeninas page published a story titled, “La ‘Revolution’ Llego al

Peinado-Sin Discrimination se Usa Cualquier Estilo” (The Revolution arrived at the

hairstyle-Any style is used without discrimination).126 The image is pictured on the

following page. The “revolution” here was referring to new fashionable ways for women to

wear their hair which reverted to Spanish hair fashions, both “traditional” and “modem”.127

The article begins, “The practical hairstyles... that have reached an illusion of total

naturalness! Modem women wear their hair loosely which flows down their back through

the fashions of Hispanic tradition, to the very short geometric style”.128

125
Catena meaning from Cali.
126
El Pais, June 1, 1971, 10.
127
Ibid.
128
Ibid.
 '■ -■■■ -----------------------------iTO-----------------------------------------------

la "Revolution"LtegoolPeinado
S in D is c r im in a tio n se U sa C u a lq u ie r E s tilo

P m a U l l : lo pr&clicci y Is or r a n las te n d e p e la s revalue lutin nCa^Umes esp eein lrs j r.i n.sf en
ftfiiacio et) pr macros que han rias, se h a m c a lp la m elena m o *c h.a Im pueeto el cabello
llcjcado it ursa UtisiJn 3c n a tu - onduU ilp i i n v aries lam os ? recOnido a U rurea, tipo caps*
rjJIJad total I (Hie c a ic a fllrft* (tbftjrt de In* *ol, qtio slem pre usa In Empft
Pucmt art! fie los, iri Oder anLdn on hom brds. en [ lim n dn runm - m lrir. tie I n in , F a ra b o ib a y
r< gso cte Ufa. Las mujeiCa dft de riro* I lo jo s ... o u t Ittflen scunriLS ealnflas. ea
tiioierrui iiijti cl cabello quB rtis U ian ca Lilia M olina de Hoi
jni'inr luz&i a sii tipo do cara, puij).
r) sneH.i (jin' flic a ja Las Juvenal! a* flp u rn i r o n -
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*on u n a p elu ca parclal m uy JWtO -fiel'h* ', tal corns usa*
Si Sc agrarian los cabcllos ia rg a quo da u:i Aire Juvenll y bun r l cabello la r abiir-lne. Fv
' to.:, Ju a n Louis D avid ha *p eoloea on la p a rte superior rie estila romfin'icn y fnvoreerr
v eadu p a ra r:tra tem porada, oe la eab eza con Un p e i n e ... a p e rsu n a a de facclones m uy
r^trlwnei isunifim ente hreses . .t . d e le a d a s .
j ’ f re n lf y arrilju . fiid le s d# O tro e s tlla i t p elim d o e= el
' b a r y que c o n tr a s ts n con )ft que lle ia im 'ftriablernent* Ho-
t e a u la r-a tla de! p e ls ,‘ obre qu el W elch y cu e Ix p lr.n a - i
*■1103 Fir ryrf-cCra esc-ee ja ' - e a n u c s tro m etl'o M ’-riain Re- £ n e m b sry o . m> b a it a ( b f
m t e n ciuiertes q u ie ra n d 4<ii- Ijjcl, Se 1 a » del ciiheJli) fu el ci ilia en lo quo se uks . P a ­
! 1 L u Kuetln (leniasiado Jar re o n rie a n ’ v n a tu r a l. re c c ;;- ra los p eln idcis de cabello lisd,
do U serftinente a los lados. riHis. e iid u lu il0 5 ... Cate h a de
- *- -¥* k iic r lu s tr e n a tu r a l, lift t e a » s
M u c h as se floras p re fie re n podo •oclcoso y debt tener
pT-t tpt dnni*** pi:e ™rr'1r- Is* t m d ’rten u le* o * rs rnre-pifv f*>*^*T>

129
Ibid.
 W « PA,S Cali, Maries 1o de Junio de 1971

Exito de la Campaha . Drama en Viviendas Provisionales

ovilUo
del Rio Cali-

M wjerss
Sonia Agulm -YUi!/WJ lo&prensien, uaa ilfieta Dificii!
Ninguna Mujer Debe ser Juzgada “a Priori'
Condensacidn de LAYLA para "Fcmeninas"
Leonor Sard! dc lloronte

ieJte-
cion del Comite de Ac
cion Social Vallccau-
cano on benoficio de
las fumilins damnifies
das par los recicntcs
desbordamiontos del
Fllo Cali.
Isabel Patino de Castillo En represent)
de la entidad
Bouoti la setv
Comitd Social que trabaja
Earn solucionar un parte el tremendo pro-
lrmn quo nfrontun mas de trescientas fa­
milies de los barrios Chino, Berlin. Fatima,
San Francisco, Buenos Aires y Bulivariano.
A esto ccremonia asistieron las primeras
outoridades municipales. La oportunt ayt-
aa brindada por el Comite de Dnmas va-
liecaiicnnas rvsidenlcs en la Capital de la
Republics, sc dcstinara a la compra de ma-
teriales dc construction y olros implemen­ Columna de Zarla
ted, para entregar vivirndss > Ins -farmlirs
damnificadas en la Urbanbaci6n San Mari-

La "Revo'ucion"Llego alPernio ( Junto a tu»!(iu!er,«

Sin Discriminacion se Usa Cualquier Estilo130 nrrf.tr.tnle .Iguirn
mu mnl carActcr y
Irmble sold.a. No tralemoj
ttt averletiar ju problemn, aim
plrmenle tratlmoat. como si cl
probltma no exlstltra y • In

Frimeros
Auxilios
P i r Xohora Cristina Valencia

130 Ibid (Ml page).

The article continues by stating that if a woman desires a modern look, she should wear her

hair with “cascading loose curls” and keep the hair “smooth” for it to appear “fresh”.

Freshness here is implying cleanliness, because further down the article the writer instructs

the reader that hair must be brought to life by using shampoo and rinsed thoroughly to avoid

an oily appearance.

This was also the case with the reoccuring hair bleaching advertisements for women

and children in El Tiempo throughout the 1970s (images below). Countless advertisements

of hair lightening shampoos were printed in the paper and marketed as a way to make the

consumer’s child more beautiful or appealing. Due to the era, many of the advertisements

were hand-drawn and printed in black and white. Flowever, even within these drawings it

NINAS LINDAS
C NCABELL S
0 0

MAS CLAROS
(Q ud Undo* lucen la i nlfias con
c ab allo s c la ro il... U i1« d ,M iIo re,
p u a d e fdcilm anta larvae la a la -
grfa da ver a mi n ln a md* e n -
c a n ta d o ra con al c o b a llo ru b lo
y d o ilu m b ran ta. C oo al rtuavo
C ham po DIPLOMA a la Mania-
ntlla a c la ro a l p a lo d a ou nlna,
y odam d s lo d e la v la o ro io y
ra ip la n d a c la n ta . So n ln a n o Ilo­
n a yo q u a am rldlar lo* c a b a ilo i
rubloi. r u a d a la n a ilo t lo m b iin
a lia , c la ro i y Undos. U lta d a n -
cu an tro a l nuavo C h am p o DI­
PLOMA o lo m a n io n ltla a n lo t
d ro g u a rfc i. En %u a n v o c a v a rd a
y con a l dibuio d a woo coronl-
lo to b r a lo p u la b ra W PtO N A .
|Es aalu p an d o l

131 El Tiempo, June 2, 1973, 10A. Pretty girls with lighter hair. How beautiful are the girls with light hair! ...
You, senora, can easily have the joy of seeing your most charming girl with blond and dazzling hair. With the
new DIPLONA Shampoo with chamomile, it lightens your girl's hair, and leaves it vigorous and resplendent.
Your girl does not have to envy blond hair anymore. You can have them too, clear and beautiful. You can find
the new DIPLONA Shampoo with chamomile in drugstores. In its green packaging and with the drawing of a
crown with the word DIPLONA. It's great!
132 El Tiempo, June 11, 1973, 11A.
was clear that the people were depicted peculiarly Anglican or Dutch looking, with the hair

left unshaded (to make it appear as if the character had light or blonde hair) and dawning

European fashion. “La moda Europea” was consistently marketed in both El Tiempo and El

Pals, but El Pals seemed to be more heavily focused on Spain compared to Europe as a

whole.

There are several photographs of light-skinned women with these hairstyles with the

added attention drawn to the “flowing natural hair” of Raquel Welch as the epitome of this

new style. The constructions of beauty present in both papers were strengthening the idea

that lighter skin tones and European hairstyles were not just the standard call for feminine

aesthetics but the unquestionable ideal which they should strive to attain. By achieving these

Eurocentric looks, a woman is promised to have more prestige in society and a better chance

at securing a male partner. One of the most despairing aspects of these hierarchical and

narrow beliefs is that the patterns of its recreation was still powerfully churning in the era of

supposed racial colorblindness and celebration of various regional folkloric traditions

throughout the country. Therefore, the coloniality of Afrodescendant women’s appearance

as the antithesis to this undying “ideal”, unclean or less-than, was still present in the latter

half of the twentieth century in Colombia, and unfortunately, remains in many aspects to the

present day.133

The “Revolution Llego al Peinado” article in El Pals was not an advertisement for a

particular product: It was a replication of beauty which completely negated the African

133 This topic goes beyond the timeframe of this study, but the affirmation of natural hair textures and styles in
Colombia which has been gaining traction for the past few years, is a testament to the struggles in which some
Afrodescendant men and women face with the stigmas of their natural hair, and the methods in which they seek
to resist them. On instagram, one can search the hashtag #peloafro and #pelobueno as a means to spread natural
hair positivity and reconstruct the stereotypes of “good hair” or “bad hair” by Afrodescendant individuals
posting pictures of themselves with their natural hair with the hashtag #pelobueno.
presence in Calena society. Along with the complete disregard of Black women, the article’s

connection of flowing hair to white modernity more than suggests that the Afrodescendant

woman was backwards by nature, because her hair does not grow downward but upward.134

This is why Eurocentric beauty standards are so dangerous in this context. It is not just about

the standard itself; it is the underlying message which disavows Afrodescendant woman from

being considered worthy. Dignity, honor, value, not just physical appearance are inextricably

linked to beauty standards. Therefore, I argue, when one looks in the mirror, and by default,

their hair or skin tone is not recognized or on the other hand criticized by society’s standards,

it sends the message that the person’s worth does not measure the same as lighter skinned

members of society. It produces feelings of unworthiness and creates an imaginary

consciousness that to be accepted as part of the nation, one must adhere to this standard. In

other words, it defines the parameters of practicing citizenship in that given space and time.

The “freshness” of loose hair is a diplomatic attempt to say that kinky hair, dreadlocks,

braids, or afro hairstyles lack freshness, or in other words, are unclean, even if the writer was

not intentionally creating this dichotomy for the article. It speaks to the normalcy of Black

exclusion around discussions of beauty and adheres to stereotypes of Black people as being

unkempt, unclean, and backwards, through the “natural” discussions of White Eurocentric

beauty standards. It is not so simple to brush off these articles as innocent ways that women

can style their hair, it is a deliberate dismissal of Blackness.

The fact that the article ties anti-discrimination in the title (“Sin Discriminacion se

Usa Cualquier Estilo”) is the deep irony in this discussion. It is so natural to dismiss

134 To be clear, I am not implying that all White women have straight or wavy hair, or that all Black women
have kinky curly hair. My analysis focuses on general patterns and Whiteness as a symbol of status rather than
only the lightness of skin and hair texture.
Blackness in Calena society, that even to think of the hairstyles presented, “geometric”,

“wavy”, “long loose curls”, as the only options available is directly attesting to an illusion

that Blackness does not exist, and the only discrimination present is between white and

mestiza women. Consumerism, rather than full representation of society, was the evident

goal of the article.

Paternalism - La Negra Nieves and Patriarchy

“Que dolor de CAVASA!”135

[Camila] Interviewer: To Roberto,135136 Micolta is child-like.

[Roberto] Comedian: He’s a big kid, a big kid in a gigantic suit...Micolta is very
gentle. He’s naive but, oh is he mischievous!

135 La Negra Nieves, El Pais, March 5, 1977.

136
Roberto was the comedian who played the character, el Soldado Micolta, in blackface. His impersonation
was of an Afro-Pacific male soldier on the hit Colombian television show Sabados Felices.
 [Roberto]: Micolta always likes to loaf around. He likes not doing anything.
[Laughs],

[Camila]: He likes to laugh.

[Roberto]: He likes to bust out laughing all the time. Micolta likes to mispronounce
words.137

There are different forms of racism and prejudice. Blatant, patronizing, always

oppressive, but never nearly as clear as one may think. Racism when operating in this form,

swerves to fit a canon, the canon designed to create difference and hierarchical division.

Paternalism, within this lense, is also an act of racism. La Negra Nieves, and the child-like

composure she was written to have, the personification of this character mirrored through

representations of Black women in El Pals. “Humilde”; a euphemism for being poor. “Una

mujer humilde”; the poor Black woman. It is here, one sees how social class is racialized,

how labor is gendered. In the paternal-patriarchal form of racism in Colombia, the latter is

more visible and runs deep. Self-hatred: thick lips, deep sorrow: kinky hair, deep

stigmatization: dark skin. Yet, it is not just skin deep. It is about region, language,

spirituality and its relation to an enslaved past, but not far gone. Phenotype, a simple excuse

to package the devalued difference of all those things combined. The stigmas which leap off

the page, accompanied with an image, the image, which fixes value, purpose, and the

perceptions of self.

1'3
i7
Excerpt from Radio Ambulante’s episode “No Soy Tu Chiste”, Apr 24, 2018. Full recording with English
transcription can be found here: https://radioambulante.org/en/audio-en/im-not-your-joke
 Una Mujer Humilde

“Una mujer humilde” was a phrase given to women who were poor and Black in Cali

as seen throughout El Pals in the 1970s. Several examples of this euphemism were used to

create a paternalistic relationship between the journalist, who represented the hegemony, and

the Black female subject (la negra), la “mujer humilde”. Sonia Aguirre was one such woman

who unfortunately was given this title, due to the fact that she had the audacity to have more

than two children in her economic condition while being Black. Mrs. Aguirre was a dark-

skinned woman with an “afro” hairstyle. In June of 1971, the rio Cali had flooded and

created a devastating emergency throughout parts of Cali.138 Aguirre had given birth the

night the river overflowed and was forced to find a health clinic to accommodate her and her

newly bom son. Her story was part of a series which followed two other women’s battle to

deal with the devastation of the flooding. These women were introduced as mothers, just like

Aguirre, but were given the honor of “senora de Castillo” and “senora Llorente”; never once

referred to as “humilde” even though these women were facing similar tragedies and

probably lived near one another. Both senoras Castillo and Llorente were white/mestiza

women with straight hair. We know this, because El Pals had published photos of the women

next to their corresponding stories in the article. Mrs. Aguirre was never once referred to as

“senora” and was even offered a morality lesson at the end of her interview, where the

journalist put her at fault for her terrible living situation and said that it was “not appropriate

for her current health status”. This health advice was nonetheless withheld from senora

Castillo and senora Llorente.

 It is understandable how journalism geared toward inciting attention to a particular

cause needs language which portrays the honest truth of a negative situation. The language

of the journalist writing about Mrs. Aguirre can also be perceived in this light. However, the

claim that I am making, is that Mrs. Aguirre was treated differently than Senoras Castillo and

Llorente, seen as a child who does not know how to help herself, and therefore, labelled

“humilde” as an outcome of that perception. The journalist’s language is racially

discriminatory because Mrs. Aguirre’s position in society has become “naturally” less than.

Due to the privilege of whiteness which Senoras Castillo and Llorente had, they were

absolved from their circumstances rather than having the content of their character

questioned due to the color of their skin. The connection between the tragic circumstance of

the flood and the content of Mrs. Aguirre’s character, was a relation made due to the racial

stigma attached to her appearance, and how centuries of indoctrination had been

disseminated to give the white individual the benefit-of-the-doubt while blaming the Black

individual to be condemned by the same circumstance. In short, Mrs. Aguirre’s image in the

press had suffered from a case of white privilege. This is a colonial legacy which has

resurfaced in El Pals through the euphemism “una mujer humilde”, where Mrs. Aguirre was

not given the privilege to have her “nature” (that which was impressed upon her by

representation) separate from the circumstance.

Another pattern which surfaces from our example of Mrs. Aguirre, is the moral

judgement cast upon Black women as “bad mothers”. This trope, again linked with the

circumstantial-character bias, reveals the coloniality of blaming a working-class Black

woman for her financial circumstance and labelling her as an unfit mother due to her need to

travel far distances for work. Many working-class Black women in Cali were forced to make
the decision to leave their children and homes to work in the domestic service field in a

typically white or mestiza home. Due to this departure for work, El Pais had written about

some of these women as being negligent mothers. One such case is of Jesusita Garcia, the

Black mother whose son had drowned in attempts to save his friend in a river.139 Both boys

died, but only Clemente’s mother was given the privilege of doing her best to save her son.

The story unfolds, “Clemente Cortes was still a child...white complexion and picturesque

face.” His mother, Dona Flor Forero de Cortes was “hysterically” running down the street,

screaming “save my son!”. “Armando Garcia was the opposite. Demure and of dark

complexion, a very good student...In the house of Armando Garcia... there were only aunts.

His mother, Jesusita Garcia, had gone to work and ignored the fatal fate of her boy,”

(emphasis added). The journalist was claiming that Garcia’s mother was indifferent to her

child’s death, and it was only Cortes’s mother who was behaving as she should towards her

boy. Similar to that of Mrs. Aguirre from the analysis above, it was also only Cortes’s

mother who was given the title “dona”. Garcia was just left to her name: Jesusita.

This was not a one-time case in El Pais but a pattern which manifested the popular attitudes

of white Calenas.

A second example of this paternalism is seen in an article which included interviews

of six Vallecaucana women on their thoughts of then President Carlos Lleras Restrepo140. In

order to understand the difference created within the women, we must start the analysis with

a look into how the journalist introduces each one. The first five paint the picture clearly.

The first, “Desde su residencia campestre de San Antonio, Silvia Cabal de Carvajal, emitio

sus conceptos...” (From her residence in the countryside of San Antonio, Silvia Cabal de

139 El Pais, Nov 25, 1975, pl2.

140 El Pais, August 7, 1970, pl6. Also, see appendix under #3.
Carvajal, issued her concepts...), second, “En la calle doce con quinta, localizamos a

Mercedes Jaramillo de Torres, de 52 anos de edad y natural de Pradera.. (On street twelve

and fifth, we find Mercedes Jaramillo de Torres, 52 years old and a native of Pradera...),

third, “Simpatica negrita de ojos vivaces, es Emestina Bonilla, madre de 3 ninos,”

(,Sympathetic negrita141 with vivacious eyes, is Emestina Bonilla, mother of three children),

fourth, “Nicolasa Quintero, nacida en Popayan hace 57 anos y a quicn entrevistamos cuando

atendia una pequena tienda de su propiedad,” (Nicolasa Quintero, bom in Popayan 57 years

ago and whom we interviewed when she attended a small store owned by her), and fifth,

Margarita Montano, es el nombre de este humilde mujer, quien gana el sustento para sus seis

hijos, lavando, planchando diariamente en las residencias, (Margarita Montano, is the name

of this humble142 woman, who earns her livelihood for her six children, washing, cleaning

daily in the residences). It is only when the journalist introduces Emestina Bonilla,

“simpatica negrita”, and Margarita Montano, “humilde mujer”, where the difference is

created from the three other white/mestiza women. Again, the photos of each woman is

provided in the newspaper, but even without the images the racialized language is clear. Not

only are the women patronized and made inferior by the journalist’s language, they are also

being spotlighted for the number of children they have; a thread of information only

disclosed about them.

141
Italics added. Sympathetic here is more closely related to being kind.
142 Italics added
 GRACIAS, CARLOS LLERAS
D ic e n la s A fttje r e s V a lle c a tic a n a s
L i m u jfr v«llecau(ana opi t* iu ■d m in istra cib n . relan v a c a l m .
nn ty e r qu« Lleras Reslr«po cQue «a lo q u a m is adm lra t De ]o» P re tid e n t# s que ha
“h» aido el m ajor presidente usted. de i u obra da gnbier* tem do Colombia, cual 1* ha
<1* Colombia *n *st« s-sglo”, no1, gu&tsdo irAf*.
y qu* fraciaa a an exoelente La creadAn del rnslituto Despu^s de que la pax r*i
fahor adiTi nutrahvB "e-ste de HicnwIaT Fam iitr . ne a todo mom enlo. no m ip or
pals ( o n de un p * n erMll'O ta el P res dent* que ses
♦ n el exterior”. *Qu4 otra cost?.
"'Gracias, doctor Llerai"*, La pa tern id ad respnnsnble, "No lo eonojeo . ,
Hijo line hum >Ide mujCT en en cs-ta forma las mu j ere* no
♦rtcuert* re ilirsd a per el per no* aentimoa tan d esp ro tf gi
•on«L femenino d« e*‘.« dia- das.
t Qu^ espera L’d del nuevo M a r g u i l s Mon
rlo. fr tafio, es el nom
jfofcnerno**.
O tra dama dijo quc admj Que continue brin dand n L“! b re de eata hu*
r a b t al President# que hoy r fcz ■ l**» Colombian os y q j« milrle nvujer.
arjtre.ga el mando, porque afloje tin poqukto los lm p u « * quten san a el
"su p s am arrarse los pa'dalo tos s u r te n ta para
nea cuandn rio asitfida la hj iP o r qui^n votb Ud. el Id : s u l sei* H jo s.
tuacl6n del pats” . de ib r ilf . lnvando. anlan
MujerM de iodoa loa niv« 1 eb an do d ia r 'a -
l«s aocialej, fuierori enlrevij. P or P astrana Yo no querfit ” m ente en las
(arias a y r r pnr el personal le que fuera otro el President# resadencias
menm o de esie diario. sobre ;.Wny 7 de Agoslo lrab<.j8 P a r su tar* a,
la labor del President* U e - r» f d . como l©« otro* diw ?. Mar arlta ■l( recib e oago de
t i i Reatrepo. en. el periodo Hoy ** die excepcionkl. & 20 ■ S 2ft. p e­
qua hoy culmina. Me q u e d n rt en rasa H n i r b i n so M tim i q u e r* m uy poco
do la rad o, term jnb dicion- p ara il i m e n t s r a sun h jos.
'•ITna io c ed*<J IjtuaLita-rLa** da Mercedes, a q-jien tedos Z C <5mo le p s rtc io e! cobier
■u* clientes con ocen p or «1 no del doctor L leras Rp.ttre-
Dead* ra r e - m r o m b n de "M erch*".. - po?. Le p re g m ita m o i inicial-
■id e n ris ram- m*nl#
p estr# da San ] Se am am A lo t parital one*
Antonio. Silvia S*mpAtica n« En medio de gran limM re
Gabat da Cnr > jfrila de ojpfl J y ao rp re n d id i por la pregun
vajsX, em itIo \ vivaces. es Er ! ta. x-a m b resu elta resp an de:
ears soitceplos tiestlna Boni­ "Muy bueno A m i n e m o re
'•L leris Rest re j lla, m a d re de j me ha n arecid o un g ra n P re
po. «i un horn | 3- ninos a donte” .
b r# extr*ordi- A1 enter arse ■
nario, y to do* qiue lomoa de ' enal es la obr* por
las eolombia- la prensa, r u n , TPft|]7sda que m as le llam6
nM debemo* , c. fpiilil atenriAn : la xtencion?.
e s ta r etcroa- 1111 oe nos ininta a *er
v irn o j de las "•• Y q creo, que ru a n d o eq lea
m ente Bjrracliecidos can <1. elecrc-ion.es ppsaclss. fue que
por ju a_bra de jjobierno d elcio sa s cocb_ _ Ins colombianoa, no« d im o i
— iCualee c r te f d . que fua dss, que #l]« eErn«slin» “
cu en ta de que ten in mo* un
ron las real Ira clones. m is -m Jahnra para »u typ^ndio dia b urn P rr's'flrnte, p o r q u t o r—
portantes del ^obierno del ri.o, cere* a 1<*§ Almacenes d?na que lo* rev o lto sas fue-
JDr. Llrrss?. Ley.
£1 rep oriaie «s sabre poli­ r-a-n a p a ra r a lo parcel v q u e
R* w ay difJcSI pareializar,. tical- rCo* dace. St #a ast co b tran q u il id ad slg u irra re t-
Sir obr* f uc pol ifacctlca en m pnrare por derirLe q ae nun n a ndf>.
tndo* lo# pampas, En rm con fl voladn No rr.« imagmo "Yo no conosco. persona*-
c*pto. la prparion del Intel con-o sea eso. nnente al lefior L leras -d ire
t tin de B criesUr Fumil *r y Enloncei no conoce Ud el M argarita, que es nacid* en
Social, fa reforms constktu* G o bifrao del doctor Carlos B ij? n iv e n tu ta - pero lo he v *
rinnsl, que le rfa ctCrta auto L leras Reslrrpo?. to en in u r h w Totoa y edema*
nornl* si poder e-ecutivo la El que yo ntinra hay* de- la g ent b hah]* much® de ^-1
cnal b en aplicada. dara ex posilado mi voto. no q-utere pero sirm p re cosas byenas.
r " l e r tp? rreultados. Final* decir qne yo no sepa aleo so Me da mticho n#**r que i u
mente. la reforma trlbutar**. bro el doctor Lloras Reatre gobxerno se ir a b e . pero xrie-
qnp Ucvara i l pais, a yma an pn. ne el ' ‘■Doctor” Csicl P v lT a -
ciedad mbs ipual taria. iE n to n rts? . na. cu e tam bi^n va h a te r mu.
PTnif»K;A a la M ujrr Su gob erno fus b rillan te cho por n osotroi".
Como hombre lo adm iro poe
su inteltgenei* y porque supo “ Pus# en su *:irirt a lo»
F n la calle nmarraLrjue* ]<j® p sntalu nei
«*rvae eon qtiin E studsantes”
cuanno vj<5 agitada la a.tua
ta. localirAmos cion del pais.
■ Mcrrcrte* Ja "El go bie rnc
ram illn d* To /.Qti* le pide Ud. a] nu»vq del doctor Lle-
man data rle>?. h “ o* R estrrpo,
rree. de 52 s
ftns de rdad y . iu* m u y b ut*
natural dp Pra Q j* establozca fuentes d- - no, por que pta-
triibajo y que b n n j e m il so en su sitio
d rj. prnteccibn a la ninez
"Perdf la vi5 a los esli'H h n -
Erncstink d ce tme: “Por les re v o lt a* os.
to h are m.'is. He rtt| que 5iibs al pcider e! que
20 a no? Hr-s.de que en vex He
entrmres rr.e . . _ quiera. P a ia ml el que no nproviffhaT ! ■
trabajM po come, de rii^nor* t> p o r t kjnidad
e n rn tro <irdic^MfrcC{l,“% T que rosa dastlnts al trab ajo
da a la venia H# lateria trs me tiene am cuiriadn". que tien en de
h*>o q ur m# ha dejnrio 9t>ue- Lilian G ht:r*nrt.-r. qua-
nas posibi lidades para vivir. n a n m a n lm e r -
’'Cus Ito afSoa de calm s" ®n huelga. o t r m d o T > le -
M ewoso miarid hare mu- “A ml me
chos srsos Iqual que yo. pr*r ,.... nras’*. expresd Marla T.Ilian
STust* todo lo **'' G o -irile i sol t cm v n a tu ra l
d b an vista en accident*. A que spa r>a x y
*■' s3ffii!«ron la mnerie He de C a la rc i (Q uind(o).
tra nqui lid ad1 "
rr ^ «<*: « Hi ios tr r s varones y por eso siem- "Lo que rrina me guslo d^t
tr*> mti rerr'tn* pre estuve de P residenrs Lleras. fue su de*
Fn Mercedes se nota a l ro Bcruerdo can e tensa a los tra b a ja d o re s m a-
He t m t r f u r e a! recorder 1a» Bobterno riel yores He -M l aru s, v que no fe
m o m t r t r t dificile* q>t# le ha Horror Lleras n*sp carto n de bachi llerato.
Hep are do la virlft. Cfe-qn y n ^ tr e p o . mam d-jo urn* v *t . que, a los -40
Cftfnpldnmpiile Mia s# riedica festo Xicolaaa an os.. urv» persona lodav(e
a la bre^ , d nn* con iu yen Quintero n«r. tenia Cuerxe# y x-italldari. E
t* dc Icleria da en Popnvnn fis# muy In-onltn. Peru es lo
I.e prfr£iintflmo» an etvnrPj) Knee S7 y WUcolas* Q. no haft ro-mprendido los
to sabre rl Cobierno del Tine s qiisen «n»r:via!nmoir euan- industrialf-v qif* exipen que
fur Cat'fls I_1era* Rest repo. Cjo fltendln Una nequena tien s,» person a*. m r - o r d -» 'K>
Ha t ht>jr term inn V reepon- da ae nif propjeiiad n«e Itr.ra n el rarlbri
de ^Que fue lo qtIe mas le gus He her hi Hereto one
A drelr verdsd. fue bueno. tA del jenb-erno deL doctor hoy t'e n e 4CJ ar'nos. pohre v
D:6 » la mujpr buenas c»ran‘ ‘ r r t giiniamo5 s o r 't u r i f l j . #*; rnuv ri-ficil
lias y a npnrtunidafl de rfe- Tcrdo abanlutunenic todo ■CR'e hava term nado estu-
icm p eiiar altos carp oi d»mn porque fucron cu*in> afto* de’ aiqs ~ T erm ino diciendo Ma­
ria Lilian.
F.ST tD IE SC IL
 This information is particularly significant in Margarita Montano’s case, where her

work comprising of domestic duties in local homes is made to look insufficient to support her

six children. Her story continues with the amount she makes a day made to create

connections between the lack of funds to the number of children she has. This gives reason

to infer that Montano was being perceived as hypersexual, as if she had no control over her

body. Therefore, the journalist’s diction normalizes Montano’s position as a domestic worker

and also normalizes Bonilla’s representation as a “child” by the diminutive term “negrita”,

which exposes attitudes of white Calenas. These types of stories leave lasting impressions

upon the reader. As recent psychological studies of comparison as well as Stuart Hall’s

argument reveal, the photo with the text in conjunction create layers of meanings which fix

identity and attitudes.143 In essence, these stories become a part of vicious cycles of re-

racialization of Afrodescendant individuals in Colombian societies.

Beauty Queen

Another example is of the obsession with beauty pageants during this time, and how

images of young light-skinned women typically in swimwear, populated the Femeninas

pages. This is fascinating in two regards. The first, that these beauty queens were designated

for a female audience (physical positioning) and how it compared to La Negra Nieves and

the discussion of the feminist movement. There is an image of La Negra Nieves, slightly

bent over hair out of place visibly fatigued from her daily work. This image alone, without

the text accompaniment is enough to understand that she has been working hard all-day and

is tired. This image diagonal to the peppy, smiling, beauty queens full of energy cements the

143
Stuart Hall. Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices; SAGE Publishing, 6/30/13.
obvious difference. This is normalizing Black domesticity and subjectivity. Normalizing the

image of a Black woman sweating, tired, conducting some kind of physical labor. That the

Black woman is designated to work for the white woman, that she belongs in the home, that

she is in some way silenced to not upset her employer. Where are her dreams, aspirations,

goals for her life? La Negra Nieves in the physical comparative of the beauty queen shows

that she is not the epitome of beauty, that her hair is not straight enough, skin not light

enough, nose not thin enough, not this enough that enough. The Black woman is “not

enough”. She may not even be “woman” enough, since a “woman” in El Pals is defined by

her looks, sex appeal, and manner of dress.

The following images are of the beauty queens from the regions along the Pacific and

Caribbean coasts featured in El Pals. These images were specifically chosen to demonstrate

the exemplification of female beauty in regions which have a sizeable Afrodescendant

population, and yet, not once chosen to be its representative. The pageant queens from

Choco, Buenaventura, and Cartago have the highest populations of Afrocolombians amongst

the regions selected, with Choco having over 80% of its population who identify now as

either Afrodesendant, Afrocolombian, or Black (negro/a).144

144 Statistics from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) displaying the areas
with the highest populations of self-identified “Afrocolombians” in 2005. Accessed January 12, 2019,
https://www.dane.gov.co.
 ( timlulnltt a “Sviluritu Uldnticn"
C a n r fid a tQ e n C a r ta g e n a R ftufiy -4smy\ una dt* fat m&i
G A K T A G F - K A - R o jp r B U flfc if. HW FrtiniiiJii p n r f l . C i ' u t
rruaigcptrimirdal firuFo dV “ S e n o riia dftanfiro".qy«
u< drfmiffl cl p r i m e s fd&udo . Com pjfrn solo cuatro
C c n n j i f U r t iJ f « ' □ C iu d a d , * i U na d # l o t cu'fcdnii^uiJ i
<~n’r H»idjtaj 4* lo* flufcfi b r a l c i fFido E L JMJif*
con m ay o r fipeian ,QJ i j | ulo d r t o r r ts B o J K - a t qu*
ff d r fin f t i l a JtfmflVHk 145 146

145 El Pais, Oct 3, 1972, front page.

146 El Pais, Oct 4, 1972, front page.
 \'nttnit<i Cm m i’ll
C a n d id a te dp B u e n a v e n tu ra , i t ,j i . u . f t C n l a li a ir t ) i u h i* t i n 1 f f v il p jj t n i h i rn n m
BUENA VENTURA.- S t confirm ^ gue Gloria Taborda .j>'» ■ - m u n r r i l l I n i l u | i i i n f I t Hi i h I i i i^ p iJ r M f il p in r r jf
rrprttentard a Buenaventura rn rl refrwdo depar- . i l l I 4JIIt' *" llffiiir I I fl/rtj I l.|i« I l ttf hi flu 1. 1* I'll
(amenta! de Id belleia En e*te puerto »e conttdera, 11 ' 'ii ■. 'i i| it I mm .'iN lU x u r in i i'J r J r jpb'ii | i r i i i f c l f 'n v h |,.
. ii 1 ,i- I u i , i , . h i ; J. M- i n i i r f t n ii/r liiln ir n ln
que Gloria tient fobrodoj-condtcionea para ha c t t t t
ir ■ m il lii r y n i . i l ijn J y T l i r f l f f l l r ' t l r l V a fr *
ocreednra a la corona Foto EL PA IS-Yulian
P j i J 1 '■ "< r i ' i i r . . fl i J iiO h . ............j

147
Ibid, 6.
148
El Pais, Oct 5, 1972, front page.
 Senarita Choco

U ^ L U i n r r a n i i > r< ’ n p o r l » 4* H r i r n , t . l r p r im e , lir r h iq u lI U

~ D B . . I I , . E m d p l l a n , < ]lib * n m * u e n t t c l e t d t “ S e A n r i l * C h o -
J , | l ( |r j »l P r im n F « lfv q | I rB le lrtric e d al q u a
' iilic ia <n H iim a v o n tu r * . *1 p r fr a im o le e ie v ___________ 1 4 9

“With a Queen's demeanor, this (?) girl is Rosalba Eradellan, who in her character o f ‘Senorita
Choco’ will attend the First Festival Folclorico del Fitoral that starts in Buenaventura, next
Thursday.”
 In December of 1973, a photograph published in El Tiempo displayed the top fifteen

contestants of another beauty pageant in Cali. All the women had light skin, similar body

proportions adorning straight or wavy hair. These women supposedly were the

representations of Calena women at the time. The image also doubled as an advertisement

for a fair in attempts to attract visitors from across the country to come see the capital of

Valle del Cauca with all its attractions. Apparently, the women were a part of this marketing

campaign. The caption under the image boasts, “In Cali, ‘a waterfall of lights, fantasy, and

beauty’”. What is clearly missing is any visible representation of Afrodescendant women.

V IlfiN tS 2a DL OICIEMBRE DE Wl 9 EL Tl£WM> • 1 ■ B

gela Martin** Vkvu.ii

- CrtiM,
— —— da —
An­
CALI. — La* quince a ip lia iu r i <1 i d t o y la com- S m e n . d r Ecuador. Bonnie Conker, de E itadm J J Hose M ane Laprede, d t l o a i j M anriquez. dc Mfiutei. 1 C W in D u an e barrldo,
>i i M 111 K eliudo Pannm ericano (V la Bellexa. Uiddue: OelKia del Valle, dn A wl'IHIiw . EUk-I d«- R rp d b lin Dominie *n*. — iFcnn * M am ictki-
dniaitfe una da mj* fiieieniarWii'e* tn K lotuin, da Chile Jtotehiu CAiirn. dc Coliunlil*; ucrnij Liliud. lie Ei Salvador: M iriaittla
del Pm ii ; Gldd>» V m e a « , de Pueilo RiCOi f h f, ju a a E l TIEMPO).
bikini Soil »lla<. do d e fe d u * Hauler d j Annie N U rcu del Carmen W eeks, dc BqIim c M a rti A n

En Cali
, ‘Catarata de luces fantasia y belleza „ 9
Women of visible mixed ancestry, or who have darker skin were also excluded. What the

pageant world in Colombia had carefully displayed in the 1970s, was the manipulation of

national and international attention to a brand of female beauty which resembled European

aesthetics devoid of visible African ancestry. The fact that many of these beauty pageants

were held in folkloric regional festivals was also an indication of local governments utilizing

the sex appeal of bikini-clad white-passing women as a point of pride and tourist attraction

for their particular area. This process has its obvious down sides which promotes negative

female competitiveness and objectivity, but doubles on its harmfulness by the deliberate

disavowing of any woman outside of the prescribed European model of value and beauty to

be present as a representative of any area in the country at the time.150

150 Please refer to figures 2-3 of contemporary cartoons which show the dynamics of whiteness as the apex of
beauty standards, with a specific reference in figure 3 to how most beauty queens from the region of Valle with
a considerable population of Afrodescendant, Indigenous, and mixed populations are typically very light­
skinned white-passing women, yet most of the athletes are Afrocolombian.
 The Physical Space: La Negra Nieves

"In this caricature we find the charismatic way of life of

our simple, modest, sincere, frank population: with its
extroverted and simple way of seeing things, whatever its
color... It is necessary to insist on the social work of the
caricature and its author, the caricature of Nieves does
more good than harm and, more than to affect the rights
of the blacks, it glorifies their race".151*

1SI This was said by the judge who ruled against allegations which accused the cartoon La Negra Nieves of
being racist. Excerpt from “La ‘negra nieves’ ou le racisme a fleur de peau. Regards croises sur une caricature”,
27, Elisabeth Cuni.
 La Negra Nieves, the cartoon, was steeped in racial stereotypes and aided in the

normalizing of young Black women as domestic help in Calena society. But what the

cartoon elucidates even more, is how the character compares to the surrounding images of

women and content on the rest of the page. La Negra Nieves is generally printed on the

Femeninas section in El Pals. Not only is she positioned (as well as the other women and

related content) in a designated slot, she is inadvertently compared to the other images and

content around her. Most of the images are of light skinned women with straight or wavy

hair and typically of middle or upper class. Because of the time-period I am discussing, the

content density is mostly around the subject of the feminist movement and women’s equality,

while not limited to recipes, gendered advertisements, and articles about relationships and

beauty “tips”.

Each story and image has two stories ingrained within it, because it is always in

contrast to a competing narrative. Poor versus Rich, Attractive versus Unattractive, Educated

versus Uneducated etc. This is what Stuart Hall calls polarizing identities; how a minority

group or a marginalized “community”153 is depicted in the press and media. Therefore, the

physical space which an article or image occupies is just as significant to the analysis of race

as is the actual narrative. In many cases, the physical space is more revealing of racism than

the word choice. It is about unfixing ideas of what racism could “be” and understanding the

phenomenon of how it is created and re-appropriated.

When I say that La Negra Nieves is inadvertently compared to the other women and

content on the page, it is because that is how human brains naturally deduce meaning. When

one looks at a collage of pictures, it compares one image to the next and so forth, and that is

153 Community as defined by Benedict Anderson and also discussed by Stuart Hall, where the participants feel
they are part of a larger communion of individuals without necessarily knowing all members.
how the mind makes sense of these symbols. Ferdinand de Saussure argues this point by

attesting that the meaning of language is determinedly the difference.154 Researchers in

cognitive science have also emphasized the importance of comparison to learn information

and have it stick. Experimental studies on comparison have concluded that two examples

presented together are much more likely to activate parts of the brain in control of retention

and allows the mind to process information better.1551567 Therefore, the same phenomenon

occurs when the viewer absorbs La Negra Nieves and the Femeninas page. When La Negra

Nieves’s image is side-by-side or underneath images of white young women in bikinis

having fun on holiday (see below) it naturally fixes conceptions about both parties without

154
Stuart Hall Ed, Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices 2nd Ed., (London: SAGE
Publications, 2013), 131.
155 Findings by Gick & Holyoak, 1983; Namy & Gentner, 2002 in “Compared with what? The effects of
different comparisons on conceptual knowledge and procedural flexibility for equation solving” Rittle-Johnson,
Bethany; Star, Jon R. Journal o f Educational Psychology Vol. 101, Iss. 3, (Aug 2009).
156 El Pais, May 29, 1975, 11.
157 tk ; a
 D ire jurixlii

“Aqm no hay Uderes

sindicales femeninas ”

Laura O. de Ardlla
por nccesidad. no por lalla de
eapaeidad, aparecc sub-paga
da osub-empleada. Hay explo-
tacihn del Iraliajo de la mujer
en los centres urbanos, y

ondecoraciones el Dia de la Mujer

encauzada a Iravds del Insli-
Cecilia de Cucalon, Rosa E. de Fernandez y Matilde Gonzalez tuto Colombiano de BienesUr
Knmiliar. no es nada nuevo. ya
que la "obligaciOn de man-
ftts vallecaucanas serdn ciiiidccoradas cl cion del gouicrno, por su labor social en beneftemde loner salas-cunas es do vleja
untijdejunio.dia nacionaldela mujer, cnaclo su Ciudad natal. data". Tampoco es una meat-
to-religioao. presidido per el gobernador y el Fuc concejul suplenle de Palmira, por el partido dn snciahzanle, anadiO. lo que
i!dt liberal, einiciAsu vidapollttca desde los tieinpuu del Iraia es de prolife- a I I
eciha AranAn de C'uculdn. de Palmira recibird prcsidenlo Olaya Herrera
'Mfdalla C'ivit a ntorgndn por la GobcrnaciOn Vice-prenldenlc de la Junta de la Casa de la Finalmenlc. pidtO a las
Valle. Rosa Elena Bonilla do Fernandez, Viuda desesprrada. miembrode la pnmera junta mujcres no desperdiciar
jalla Civica. de la Alcaldia y la educadora
prideGnnralezRamos, medulla de la Sociedad de bo-anon, dando la sensacidn de
igualdad hasla en el asDcdo
flsico. sino "conservando
nucstra leminidad y responsa-
bilidad conm mujcres, lograr
esa igualdad de derechos en
Mujer o esclava
l)n poco mils bcligerante que
Sub-cntplcada sus compancros de fore, la
La duclora Ochoa de Ardlla. sindicalisln Edith Taguado, di-
por su parte, analizO el pro­ a la mujer — ’* *"
blems de la mujer ante la
legislacibn laborsl Nucslras
leyes protegen por igual al Ira-
bajo del hornbre y la mujer.
pero esa protccciOn es
burlada en muchas ocasioncs.
"La mujer . dtjii la aliogada,

2a. Seccion
Cali,Jucves29deMayode 1.975

\Adi6s al
mcessaire
ror nAos y aftos Ins mujcres
•Isron con pequeilos o
umlis "nccessofrcs" de
■n» u de |>la.slice, compa­ en el Colom bo
ny de viaje y de muletas. la
l)«u de las veces. Hoy la
M r^je coruemO con lie.
*u rs no usar ya los pequt
■ maleiems. sino los sacos
*tcdos ais aspcelos y formas,
*'»•">. plasllco o lela. ozul
anro. violets o cafe, cuando En cl M unicipal
a'Cncamblable beige.
^errfii, la misma forma, ya
► bs rnulores, por razones
pstieav. no vuvlven a la case
Ballet de Ana Pavlova

Columna de Zarla SI tii eres una chlca que vive el verano en el

mar, nadando y reloza ndo en las ol as,
entonces probablemente conoces los tam-
,,X’ pones Tampax Son la proteccibn sanitaria
que llevas internamente, lo que signifies que
te dejan libre para disfrutar los deportes
acubticos mientras le protegen. Sonseguros.
cbmodos, invisibles. Desde el primer dla de
....... ... revista Boen-Hogar.
Es corresponsal de El tu perlodo mensual. La natacibn—otra buena
Kspcclador en los Eslados razbn mbs para confiar en los
Unldiw tlestle it»58 y escrib
lambtdn para El Canbe d. tamponesTampax.
Snnlo Domingo. La Opinion de

i.lt'ia'l'dilhi de"l,'«la»“l.ta
fcttswjs: McCnll) en 11X14por prornover
la integracaln do los habitan­
ts* de habla cspafwla de Nar
the viewer consciously making the distinction. The young Black woman in an apron as

domestic help versus the young light-skinned women in bikinis having the time and ease to

frolic in the water. These images fix stereotypes of one’s character. When repeated, it fixes

that perceived character onto a group. What this process enables and perpetuates is the

media’s orchestration of not just an individual’s, but a groups’ value and position in

society.159

As discussed earlier about the “revolution” of Spanish hairstyles in Cali, the most

ironic factor of the entire story was how the caricature of La Negra Nieves was situated in the

center of the page, the viewer’s gaze panning across her image as they read about

“modernity” and “feminism” in the stories to her right and to her left. Her presence is there,

the positionality of her place in society so normalized, that the very cartoon amidst this

discussion of Eurocentric beauty standards did not conjure any question of discrimination.

Nieves’s hair did not “loosely fall down her back”, did not have “smoothness”, or resemble a

“Spanish style”. Nieves was created with the intent to embody the “Black pacific”: and

inadvertently, repeatedly cast the Afrodescendant woman in opposition to modernity, nation,

and worth all from the simple strokes of her hair. Nieves, in the 1970s, became the cartoon

affirmation of long-held stigmas of

Afrocolombian coastal inhabitants.

1SQPlease reference the Appendix under Figures 4-8 for further examples of this comparative model of La
Negra Nieves and the Femeninas page.
 La Negra Nieves and Feminism

160
“Todo es posible cuando la pajara pinta se siente en un verde limon...160
”

160El Pais, June 20, 1975, 12. Emphasis added by author.

 12 EL P A I S Cali, l-'&rnn 20 de Junto de 1.915

Aiio Intemacional de la Mu
Una lucha de sexes? La conferencia de Mex
MEXICO. r> p .

■Z S S fi

Situation de la mujer en America

Lu cuhana, rlespues de 16 anos de revolution SE, ^ TV T ~ t .e t. .j j
Results evidenlc que cuando volucicnario peeda dieter o n4. biUdades que se ofreecn a la aficios que anterior- . f _ Jr a ra B B at ' 11 \
1 muchas cases so hahla dr el pa pel de las inujerrs mujer de la Ciudad- wente tralitaban los * 5 _/ I* .* V J l \

gorta que la mujer puede

canzar oue en la par-
sresss?rrG 5r"^’“-*'■
eoneesionesque puedaesperar
de las levre o de los bombres.
U mujer urbana time a su
disposition
disposiciinellnieaa,
ellnicas,Inlor-
inter- „
™
. i u u a ..
■ Url { , r , (£-;?{ ■
I
JW t j f •
'l 4
V — ? I t y s C 11 V
- » 111 / AC- Ar'7- 1 ■ 1
nacidn y nidtodos anlicanctp-
t.vos y los usa ya en c*n-
irpam drica can alguna
ger.eralidad. La plancfu-aciPf)

“Situacion de la
mujer es inhumana,
injusta y ofensiva”
Per PeggySltnpnon da{J y f| han,(,re- qJV ar«eU> i
MEXICO. D K laiA IUE) iimtws por Iguul
j< L'nirias' Hurt Wal* c! gimnusiu ullinpleu neon
H-'in, dijo Imr qua lu dm- dltloiudo pnru alnjar a time
inunacidn de la mujer tn un 5 owi dirigcnte* tie movlmicn
"iWoluclAJl de la mujer es
unn revuluciAn denlrn de la re-
maintain". y Magdalena II
Reyna conclude que en liogprcs invon u
iiquulliis p,uses "en li» que cl Muniiii.iliiiircdtli,
E eccsu revolutionnrin no list
gadu min. In mujer con­
En eunlqtiier
tinuant en un sistmna quo la

iurcimdinico* altos un
cientii de Inn mujeres i
Un Colombia

Deformation cultural
de la mujer para
cultivai* su frivolidad
pruleiiiiinaldiJi>t|iieno
mbl n. y que In* Inlenliw i mujer es pasiva y suntiss-
incapat de cufllquter accinn 11»
dependlendo cci>nPmlc.itnrrte‘
'Igualilnil" nu es reul
Iwuilnr sc le educa c Ulscrlmlna
Coiitinua la Drn. Ariiatu1,
"En las empress*. lesejJJ

declsorie. Cl
la Culpable tener ca riclc
riiubaletn da Carrta.
jaldad dc ogmrtunida

161 El Pais, June 20, 1975, 12. Full page.

 The expression in the cartoon comes from the 1975 novel, Estaba la Pdjara Pinta

Sentada en el Verde Limon, by Colombian author Albalucia Angel. The novel was based

around the assassination of Colombian Liberal political leader, Jorge Eliccer Gaitan in 1948,

who was also known by some of his opponents and their sympathizers as “el negro Gaitan”.

He acquired this name as a form of insult, based around his ideas of racial and ethnic equality

of all sectors of Colombian society. However, Angel focuses the novel around women’s

struggles during this volatile time (known as La Violencia) and how they were essentially

invisibilized in society. The title is referring to the idea that women must be given value and

not ignored or mistreated. La Negra Nieves is referring to this central theme by her

statement, which essentially means that everything is possible when a woman is given value.

Notice how La Negra Nieves’s content is directly connected to the theme on the

Femeninas page about feminism and gender inequalities in the Americas. In fact, Nieves’s

imagery or text relating to the whole page was a pattern throughout El Pals. Whether it was

explicitly or implicitly linked, the cartoon conversed with the images and content around it.

Of course, this was not evident in every publication, but was common enough as in this case

and a few others that I will explain further, to be missed or brushed aside as merely

coincidental. Therefore, it is now more complicated to decipher whether Nieves was

intentionally created to make dialogue with the particular theme of the Femeninas page, or if

it was left up to the creator, Consuelo Lago's choosing. Either way, La Negra Nieves is

clearly putting in her opinion of women’s deserved position in society, but with a twist.

Recall how Nieves had misquoted Angel’s title by stating, “Todo es posible cuando la pajara

pinta se siente en un verde limon” (emphasis added). Nieves mistakenly said “siente” which

means to feel, rather than “sienta” which means to sit. This error could have been
unintentional by Lago or a misprint but judging by the cartoonist’s track record of

intentionally scripting INieves to mispronounce things and mix-up common Colombian

sayings, it may be that Lago meant for INicves to misquote this famous phrase.162

Consuelo Lago had intentionally created Nieves as a “naive” woman who

mispronounced words, a sentiment found in an interview in El Tiempo on November 12,

2000. How did Lago envision Nieves’s stance on feminism? A struggle too complex for

Nieves to understand. Lago stated, “she defends women, without being a feminist because

she does not even know that word...” She follows this statement with a reassurance that

Nieves is “...flirtatious and sensitive [and] is above all a faithful representation of black

cultures.”163 Knowing Lago’s intentions with the depth of Nieves’s character, it is safe to

argue that if she was a “faithful representation of black cultures” she was then a faithful

representation of how Afrodescendant women had no real place in the Feminist Movement in

Colombia nor the capacity to understand the cause. The Femeninas page was the reflection

of the Feminist Movement in the country and how it faced some of the same issues with the

United States: the invisibility of indigenous, Afrodescendant and working class women.164

Nieves’s cartoon adds more salt to the wound by not only being placed physically at the

bottom comer of the page, but Lago further excluding her from the topic by choosing to have

Nieves mispronounce a word while making a significant affirmation about gender equality.

If this was her intention, Lago humorized this cartoon to have the reader laugh at Nieves

rather than laugh with her.

162 Note the first image under the title of this section, where Nieves is complaining about a pain in her “cavasa”
rather than her “cabeza”.
163 El Tiempo, Nov 12, 2000, “Nieves Coqueta y Filosofia”.
164 Aurora Vergara-Figueroa, Luis Ramirez Vidal and anth. “Memoria y Reparacion. (',Y de Ser Mujeres Negras
Que?” in Descolonizados Mundo: Aportes de Intelectuales Negras y Negros al Pensamiento Social
Colombiano. Buenos Aires: CLACSO. 2017.
 In this sense, it doesn’t matter what La Negra Nieves says. It doesn’t matter if she

wants to go to some art gallery or makes a comment about a politician or whatever it may be

that may take her out of the viewer’s mind as only domestic help. Her image, as it compares

to the rest of the page, is enough to fix her subjectivity in Catena society and normalize that

position. I say normalize because within all the discussions on the Femeninas page about

women’s equality, I had not seen one article challenging the caricature of La Negra Nieves,

the monumental coverage of women in swimwear, or the necessity of having a Femeninas

page altogether. That these stories are invalid to be included in different sections of the

paper, that it must be designated only for the female audience, that gender equality is only a

woman’s issue not a societal issue. This is the real problem. La Negra Nieves was not

questioned. The beauty standards were not questioned.165 The hierarchy of “Whiteness” on

top and “Blackness” below was not questioned. Nieves’s invisibility grew because she fit

into the order of things. Therefore, what La Negra Nieves manifests more than just the

trajectory of her character, is the very normal everyday attitudes of racism present in Cali.

Just five days after the cartoon of La Negra Nieves asking the little mirror, “Who is

the most beautiful morena of all the beautiful women?”, a poem was published in the same

paper, El Espectador, on August 28, 1977. The poem was written by who was perceived to

be a Black woman, but the reader is not entirely sure; they went by the name, Morocho. The

following is their poem, “Tema para una Pelicula en Blanco y Negro” (Theme for a Black

and White Movie) an exerpt from their larger work, “Dicen que el Destino Es Negro” (They

say it’s Destiny is Black).

165
Or, it may have been that the cartoon and beauty standards were concerning to some of the writers or
feminist activists interviewed in El Pais, but were left out of the paper altogether.
Negra, harto negra.
Corro a cubrirme con polvo bianco, harto bianco. Tamblen civilizar mi cabellera
de tanto empunar el cepillo me arden las manos. Espejito, dilo de una vez, he logrado algun

progreso? Dejenla que llore, dcjenla llorar. Negra mi vida y negro mi cutis. Sueno con
la blancura absoluta de la palma de mis manos y de la planta
de mis pies, sube por las manos, sube por los pies, se apodera
del rostro. No esa capita precaria de "ponds". Telefono me seguiran gritando. Entonces,

negra con todas las ganas, negra que revienta. No se inventaron esas palabras para los labios
finos, no juegan esas palabras con las facciones delicadas. Mi bocota irremediable, por
fortuna ahi detras guarda una dentadura maravillosa, de esas que lucen las mas blancas, las
gringas que salen en las propagandas de "pepsodent", mi crema favorita. Muestro mi risa?
Ayer graciosa, negrita a punto de sucumbir, barriguita inflada sobresaliente ombligo. Ahora
aplacado claro esta decora mi cintura de avispa. Un paso y otro paso y se desorbitan los ojos
de los machos.

La alegria de mis caderas no es mi alegria. Hoy triste, negra que gime.

Frente al espejo, definitiva negrura. Las cremas, nada de sol, refinamiento, una peluca de
bucles comprada en un "sanandresito". Que rueden mis lagrimas, bella materia transparente.
Mira mis ojos: una nina negra, toda negra, asociada por una gran blancura; ninguna serial?

Habla el horoscopo la ceniza del cigarrillo. Tal vez un hijo. Igual a una o mas negro, el
hundimiento. Menos, comienza la redencion. Todo por un bianco, caderas
inquietas, soslayos, parpadeos. Negra provocativa en un jean cenido busca el cara palida de
sus suenos para entablar un romance y concebir no blanquito. Espejito, enmudecer. Mira

como se agita mi pecho: estos pezones no los mordera un negro. Todo para un
bianco. Mi tipo de la fotonovela, de la radionovela, de la telenovela. Mientras tanto, las

otras en su rumba de negros. Santo Dios, callen los tambores, dizque Africa madre patria.
Tambien "Vanidades". Negra pero ilustrada. Tambien "Nivea". Negra pero pulcra. Una
sirvienta, no importa que sea una sirvienta. La ilusion sobre todo. Un chofer, no importa que
sea un chofer. La inquietud de sus manos primero que todo. Negro provocativa, primero el

jean cebido, aca las caderas, all! los pezones. Deliciosa negrera. Yo la. DcilCUVC dc
ebano, tu el Delon de los conductores. Fueron felices y comieron perdices.
Despues un film tragi co.

Santo Dios Africa persevera.

Dejenla que llore, dejenla llorar.

Black, very black.

I run to cover myself with white powder, very white. Also to civilize my hair, my

hands bum from grasping my brush for so long. Little mirror, say it now, have I made some

progress? Leave her to cry, let her cry. My black life and my black skin. I dream of
the absolute whiteness of the palm of my hands and of the
sole of my feet, it rises to the hands, it ascends to the feet, it
seizes the face. Not that precarious capital of "Ponds". Telephone, they continue to
scream at me. Then, black with all the desire, black that bursts. Those words were not
invented for thin lips, they do not play those words with delicate features. My big
irrepressible mouth, fortunately there behind keeps a wonderful denture, those that the
whitest women display, the gringas that come out in the propaganda of "pepsodent", my
favorite paste. I show my laugh? Yesterday funny, negrita almost about to succumb, belly
inflated, belly button protruding. Now synched, of course, is decorating my waspy waist. One

step and another step and the eyes of the males are thrown out of orbit. Th.Cjoy of my
hips is not my joy. Sadness today, black that moans. In front of the mirror,

definitive blackness. The creams, no sun, refinement, a wig of loops bought in a

"sanandresito". Let my tears roll, beautiful transparent matter. Look at my eyes: a black girl,
all black, besieged by great whiteness; Any signal? Speak the horoscope, the ash of the

cigarette. Maybe a son. Equal to me or more black, the sinking. Lest, the redemption
begins. All for a white one. Restless hips, oblique, blinks. Black provocative in a
girded jean looking for the pale-face of her dreams to engage in a romance and conceive a
small white one. Little mirror, become mute. Look how my chest is shaken: these nipples

will not be bitten by a black man. Everything for a white man. My guy of the
fotonovela, of the radionovela, of the telenovela. Meanwhile, the others in their black parties.
Holy God, shut up the drums, supposedly Africa mother country. Also "Vanidades". Black
but educated. Also "Nivea". Black but neat. A servant, it does not matter if she is a servant.
The hope is everything. A driver, it does not matter if he is a driver. The restlessness of his
hands first of all. Provocative black, first the girded jean, here the hips, there the nipples.

Delicious negrura. I the Deneuve of ebony, you the Delon of the

d r i v e r s . They were happily ever after. After a tragic film.

Holy God Africa perseveres.

Let her cry, leave her to cry.166

166
English translation by author and David Galindo Diaz.