Milli mála - 01.06.2016, Blaðsíða 132

CENTRAL AMERICAN COASTAL IDENTITY
132 Milli mála 8/2016
we are not Limonene. We are Africans”.43 Years have passed and
Laura has to learn new terminology, the appropriate identification
of the ‘I’ and the ‘other’. “Surprised she discovers that not only does
she not know what to call them, she doesn’t know how to have deal-
ings with them, she doesn’t have the courage to talk to them”.44
National identity, she discovers, continues to be dominated by the
European-mestizo idea of ‘the whiter, the better’.
4. Transculturation and identity
In order to gain a better understanding of the racial complexities
represented in Rossi’s narrative, where the multiethnic origin of the
Costa Rican people is exalted, leading to the formation of a hybrid,
collective identity, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw’s formulations regard-
ing ‘intersections’ or axes in identity research become important. In
her theorizing she challenges supposed neutrality and demonstrates
blindness to the importance of gender, race and class, calling for a
study of how different power structures interact in the lives of
minorities, and specifically colored women. Crenshaw also calls for
a thorough revision of previously established and more traditional
theories in social sciences regarding the formation of identity. She
emphasizes that the first step needed is the willingness to question
power and the multiplicity of underlying assumptions regarding
race and gender.45 Consequently, Summer Woo does just that,
arguing that people of multiracial backgrounds “continually face
ambiguities and contradictions when defining their social and per-
sonal identity” (2), and goes on to discuss how important it is for
multiracial individuals to have positive racial role-models.46 Janet
43 Rossi, same text, “No somos negros, somos afrodescendientes” [...] “Nosotros no somos limonen-
ses. Somos africanos”, p. 196– 197.
44 Rossi, same text, “Y se da cuenta, sorprendida, de que no solo no sabe cómo nombrarlos, tampoco
sabe tratarlos ni se atreve a hablar con ellos”, p. 196.
45 In her book Critical Race Theory. The Key Writings that Formed the Movement, New York: New Press,
1995, Kimberlé Crenshaw first introduces her criticism of standardized understandings of the
social subject, arguing that multiple and prevailing complexities due to origins, race and gender
could not be ignored in modern society. For further information see also Crenshaw´s:
„Introduction“, in Canon of American Legal Thought, Kennedy, David and William W. Fisher III
(Eds.), Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006.
46 Woo, Summer. “The Radical Identity of Asian American/White Children and Experiences of
Race”. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association Annual
Meeting, Boston, MA, July 31, 2008. http://www.allacademic.com/ [Accessed August 2016].