Participant-Led Photographs and Repositioning el Mujeriego or “the Hustler” in Costa Rica’s Caribbean Littoral

Abstract

By using participant-led photography, we examine the complexity in which Black and mixed-race masculinities are imagined and negotiated vis-à-vis interactions and intimate relations with foreign women, in the context of global tourism and transnational intimacies in the South Caribbean littoral of Costa Rica. Photographs were used to reposition local young men, who are often racialized in the tourist imagery, as “takers” of images of their daily lives. We argue that their photographs serve to situate and critically to challenge some of the most common local tourist narratives that portray local men as mujeriegos or “hustlers” who “sponge” off tourist women.

NOTES

Notes

1 We use the names Puerto Viejo, Puerto, and Wolaba interchangeably, as these are the ways in which people refer to the town. Puerto Viejo means Old Harbor, and often in daily usage is shortened to Puerto. The official name of Puerto Viejo de Talamanca is rarely used. Local people also use Wolaba, the equivalent of Old Harbour in creole (or patua). Creole is an English-mixed slang commonly used by Afro-Costa Ricans. It was developed and adapted by Black populations during slavery times and the colonial period (Senior 2007).

2 The “we” in this article is Carolina, a graduate student and research assistant, and Susan, a university professor and researcher who supervised the project. When “I” is used, this refers to Carolina while she was in the field, as she carried out the fieldwork with these men.

3 We use the category “youth” very loosely to indicate young adults, rather than as a demographic term that delineates specific ages.

4 Even though Culí or Coolie is a term used to define the racial identity of immigrants from India, China and other Asian countries who worked in European colonies and in America, in this article we used one of the term’s local understandings: a mix of Indigenous and Black ancestry.

5 In order to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information that might represent any potential conflict for the participants or affect the privacy of third parties, some topics such as infidelities are not directly associated through this article with any real names.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carolina Meneses

Carolina Meneses is a Costa Rican researcher who holds a MA in Anthropology from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. She currently works as a research assistant with Susan Frohlick at the University of British Columbia in a research project called “Afro-Costa Rican Young People and Global Tourism: Transforming Youth and Imagining Life Projects through Intimate Exchange Relations with Tourists.”

Susan Frohlick

Susan Frohlick is a Professor of Anthropology and Gender and Women’s Studies, and the Department Head of Community, Culture, and Global Studies at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan.