ABSTRACT

As an artistic intervention, the exhibit ¿Suficientemente Negro? (Black Enough?) critically examines ‘whiteness’ and ‘racialization’ in Colombia. With the purpose of analyzing their impact on the figure of President Juan José Nieto Gil (1804–1866), this exhibit and consequently this article reveal the colonial cultural constructions that worked to whiten, conceal, and erase his image and legacy from Colombia’s official history because of his ethno-racial, social, and geographic origins. The artistic approach adopted proved relevant to better understand the weight of the colonial matrix of power in the present and across the various aspects of daily life. I uncover the relationship between race and nation in Colombia as constructed by the Creole elites and intellectuals around the turn of the 20^th century. I center the history of the presidential portrait of Nieto Gil within Colombia’s racial hierarchy and the ideas around whiteness that characterize the colonial period. As racial ideas remain steadfast in the biographical and genealogical trajectories of many families in Colombia, I show how Nieto Gil’s legacy and erasure overlaps with my own family’s history. I describe a collaborative artistic project that interrogates the social constructions of whiteness.

摘要

作为一种艺术干预，展览¿Suficientemente Negro？（够黑吗？) 批判性地审视了哥伦比亚的“白化”和“种族化”。为了分析它们对总统胡安·何塞·涅托·吉尔（Juan José Nieto Gil，1804-1866 年）形象的影响，本次展览和这篇文章揭示了殖民地文化建构，这些建构致力于美白、隐藏和抹去他的形象和哥伦比亚官方历史中的遗产因为他的种族、社会和地理出身。事实证明，所采用的艺术方法有助于更好地理解殖民地权力矩阵在当今和日常生活各个方面的重要性。^{我揭示了 20世纪}初由克里奥尔精英和知识分子构建的哥伦比亚种族与国家之间的关系世纪。我将尼托吉尔总统肖像的历史集中在哥伦比亚的种族等级制度和殖民时期特有的白人观念中。由于种族观念在哥伦比亚许多家庭的传记和家谱轨迹中仍然坚定不移，我展示了尼托吉尔的遗产和抹杀如何与我自己家族的历史重叠。我描述了一个质疑白人社会结构的合作艺术项目。