Rita Indiana is one of my favorite artists. Her intellectualism and ferocity are unparallelled. Her lyrics pan stories of immigration, identity, working class melodramas and the usual strum of cultural complexities. She doesn’t mess around with weak contexts or content and piles on the best rhythms. Her music challenges and excites. It plays well with the situations and difficulties that most of Latin America and the Caribbean. Her DIY approach to music and video production stem from her history in the arts and her potency emanates from her career as a professor and published author. We’d expect nothing less than provocation from her videos and her music, but this particular video is something else. Playing off of historic racial and cultural agitations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, just reading through the comments on YouTube comments you get the feeling this is going to be one of those videos that sticks with people. Whether it’s her metaphor as la Virgen, or her possible black face, Rita is cutting edge. Maybe too sharp though? You decide. I’m still just trying to figure out if that’s her in the video or not, can somebody figure it out for me and let me know?
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