Iris Professional Practice Blog

 HIP (GNOSIS)

I had a flashback while reading Melissa Blanco’s “She is Cuba” and her theory of Hip(g)nosis (Blanco Morelli,2015), or, the knowledge of the hip (movement). I had been the recipient of stage introductions in the past and referred to as the mulata with the hip moves. Almost as if any other part of my creative body movement wasn't attached and related to my hips. Firstly however here is a definition of the word I found for those not sure what mulata means.

mu·lat·to

  (mo͝o-lăt′ō, -lä′tō, myo͝o-)

n. pl. mu·lat·tos or mu·lat·toes Often Offensive

A person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially one having one white and one black parent.

---

[Spanish mulato, small mule, person of mixed race, mulatto, from mulo, mule, from Old Spanish, from Latin mūlus.]

These words were created during slavery times and are still utilized widely in Brazil, Portugal, Spain and Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries. I grew up being called mulata or cabrita (this actually means small goat) without anyone batting an eyelid.

When a few years ago I asked a well known Afro-Latin dance company director why he was eating cookies called "negritos" so publicly, his reply was that he preferred them to the mulata biscuits.... This was a Portuguese based dance company that made its name globally on Afro-Latin dance styles. But, this is not a post about derogatory vocabulary on mixed race ancestry, however, it forms part of the subject in her book.

In her book she describes the objectification and dis-empowerment of the lives of mixed race women at the turn of the century in Cuba. I specially loved her mention the story of how so many of these women were hired to dance in dubious dance establishments in Havana merely on the strength of their complexion completely bypassing any talent or lack thereof.

The idea that the mulata embodied sensuality, beauty and sin was layered and posited her in a difficult position. However, the mulata and her sensual hip movement also utilized these gifts, outside perceptions and stereotypes to empower herself and navigate through society, in elites spaces and ultimately could steer her own path.

Observing how participants in this study emphasized and promoted “hip knowledge”  during the delivery of their classes motivated me to question further and understand the belief systems they carried forward.

Her book was a fresh take on the subject and has supported my understanding of yet another integrated stereotype in Afro-Latin dance cultures.