My Great Grandmother and Me

Maria Rosa Palacios, my great grandmother and me

More about the perceptions of Zamba Motosas

My sister asked me to explore my last blog entry a bit more. Her question? How is the perception of a mixed race woman for ex: La Zamba Motosa different in Latin America than in the United States? And then my question… is it different depending on the Latin American country. In Argentina a mixed race person is a lot rarer to find than in Brazil. So I am pretty clear of the legacy of mixed race women in the USA—think Sally Hemmings—the half-sister of Thomas Jefferson’s wife who lived as a slave until Jefferson died. The mixed-race woman in America is often portrayed as the mistress and/or a tragic figure. And here I am thinking about Hollywood film heroines played by actresses like Lena Horne and Halle Berry. In Brazil she is the symbol of the Motherland. Is this a simple case of Mistress vs. Mama or the redundant Madonna Whore problem? I thought that was a Catholic thing. I meander a bit into territory where my knowledge may be too superficial. Perhaps, I am more interested in exploring why skin color and hair type are such topics of interest. Nora Victoria spends a lot of time explaining that my Great Grandmother was of mixed race and not “pure” black. Why is this information so important? What does it mean? How did voters view Barack Obama, our mixed race president? In the US the one-drop rule governed the way black people were perceived and treated here over this country’s first two centuries. If you have one-drop of black blood (whatever that means) you were considered Black and therefore subjected to slavery and after reconstruction persecution and segregation. So was Obama perceived as mixed, black or white by voters in America? And in Latin America would he be perceived differently. I believe my Great Grandmother Maria Rosa and my Grandmother Lucrecia would be perceived as Black in the US—no question. My mother’s race is somewhat more ambiguous. But in Latin America and specifically in Ecuador, from my Great Grandmother to myself we all fit into the Zamba Motosa category, even though the shade of our skin color whitens after each successive generation. Being perceived as mixed race then must be more common in Ecuador than in the US. A race choice does not have to be made. (No boxes to check off.) And yet clearly there is more desire and more prestige associated with being lighter skinned in Ecuador. Why else focus on it? And what does is signify—higher class/power?? Or in a country where the majority of the population is brown is being white more exotic and unique. Or more likely, standards of beauty are set by the US and Europe and countries like Ecuador are saturated with their images.

The Family Tree

From left: Tia Teresa, Sal, Anexora, Tio Pablo, Lucrecia (Guayaquil, 1989)

Click for the family tree.

Is Zamba Motosa a sexualized term?

When I asked my Ecuadorean friend what Zamba Motosa means he thought I was talking about myself and he said “You are a Zamba Motosa”. A Venezuelan acquaintance (male) said the same thing. And I took the latter’s comment as a form of flirtation. Why is it that “Zamba Motosa” sounds exotic or sexualized? Or does it? I know that Nora Victoria didn’t mean it that way at all. When you listen to her interview she describes her grandfather, Don Juan (no pun intended), as a Zambo Motoso. Maria Rosa, she says, takes after her grandfather and is therefore a Zamba Motosa. In addition to a lighter color of skin, Zamba for her also means—less Negro features. She says (and I’m paraphrasing a bit here.) “Maria Rosa didn’t have a wide nose like most Black people and like me.” So again Zamba refers to someone of mixed-race…but why does it sound sexualized? Why is the idea of the woman of mixed-race sexy and exotic and perhaps loose? Or is this the stereotype that ALL women of color face? And oddly I think the equivalent idioms in English that identify women of color are equally sexualized. Think “ Brown Sugar”… What else? Is high yellow sexualized or just racist ? What about mulatto? When I looked up high yellow, Wikepedia lists some pop cultural references like The Yellow Rose of Texas; and the Urban Dictionary had some interesting definitions with some examples like You look Italian, Brazilian, Native American. What are you? I’ve never seen anyone like you before. Are you “High Yellow”? My favorite thing to say about terminology is has to be connected to context to understand its true meaning. Who is saying it and in what context….specifically. So when Nora Victoria said Zamba Motosa she used the term to physically describe our great-grandmother’s appearance yet it also seems to say so much about how she perceives race and frames her own story.

Rafael learns about his Great Great Grandmother, Rosa María

Rafael learns about his Great-Great-Grandmother from Karina Aguilera on Vimeo.

Anexora talks about her Grandmother, Rosa María

Anexora talks about her Grandmother from Karina Aguilera on Vimeo.

Nora Victoria talks about our Great-Grandmother, Rosa María

Nora Victoria Palacios Sandoval cuenta su cuento from Karina Aguilera on Vimeo.