I found it most interesting that Dr. Lara points out the inability for US-readers to fully ‘immerse’ ourselves into the contents of the ofrenda, even if the reader is also queer and Black. Outside of the text itself, I guess it partially makes me question how much an author’s location of life and education matters in their research work: with Dr. Lara’s style of writing and investigation, does being a native of the DR inherently make her better suited to analyze Black sovereignty and queer freedom in the body-lands of Afrolatine existence.
A quote I thought particularly poignant (and why) was:
“To have a body-land means that colonization transits differently among us. Crossing different racial imaginaries disciplines our body-lands differently” (page 64) I think this connects back to what Dr. Lara says in the introduction: the queer : Black experience of the USian will never be the same as that of a queer : Black Dominican raised in the DR which will never be the same as the queer : native/indigenous in Mexico, for example. Because even though all of these lands and bodies experienced colonization and racialization, each country/space experienced it and experiences its aftermaths in very different ways depending on the geopolitical status of the country as a US/western/Global North ally or as a firm member of the Global South.
In ending my thoughts on Dr. Lara’s writing, I found it to be incredibly dense and at times confusing. However, the thought and care of the writing was lyrical and flowing: even if I could not understand fully a point she was making, the evocation of themes allowed for me to connect pieces together of her overall argument.
Regarding your first paragraph, I had the same questions regarding Dr. Lara’s own experiences and how they relate to how she structured and created this ethnography. Furthermore, I feel like the lyricism and flow of her choice of language is also a very intentional choice informed by her own identity and background. She is building the bridge and connection in her ethnography to the experience of queer, Black, and other intersectional identities to the experience of these identities in a different country. Ultimately, to answer your question, I do think that her identity plays a big role in how she’s written and engaged with this ethnography. However, to her point, many individuals, particularly Americans feel disconnected or unfamiliar with these stories because they are so different from their own experiences. I believe that Dr. Lara personally places a lot of importance on her identity in being able to tell these stories.
I’m glad that we read this for class. Because of how different it is from our other readings, it really stood out to me.
I also think it is interesting the way that Dr. Lara emphasizes the inability for US readers to immerse themselves in the world being described. I think a main point of ethnographies is that you can kind of situate yourself in the researcher’s shoes and put yourself at the scene. That is one of the ways that ethnography differs from other kinds of research. I think Dr. Lara’s point stands for other ethnographies, too because as an observer from an American university you can never fully immerse yourself in content unless it pertains to you. I can think about what “body-land” means for a person in the Dominican Republic, but I can never understand how it connects to indigineity on a personal level. Is my place just to sit on the sidelines and absorb the commentary, especially in a case like this which is an ofrenda written for the people it studies?
I too found this quote from page 64 to be a critical takeaway from Dr. Lara’s work. She really emphasizes the importance of context in each of these situations, aiming to display how similar situations are experienced in different ways based on body-land relations. I also really like how you explained your approach to navigating this dense ethnography. I too found the work challenging to understand at times, but you bring up a good point that the flowing lyricism tied together aspects of the argument. Even if these aspects were unclear individually, the way that Dr. Lara linked them together made them a cohesive argument collectively.