Introduction: Critical Currents in Dominican Gender and Sexuality Studies in the United States

This introduction traces critical concerns in Dominican gender and sexuality studies in the United States. It suggests applying a triangulated lens to the study of gender and sexuality, focusing not only on Dominican-Haitian cross-border and colonial relations but also on the role of US influence—similar to how questions of race and Dominican-Haitian relations have recently been approached by scholars. The essay highlights how the longstanding androcentric focus on Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship (1930–61) and his heterosexual exploits have given way to a recuperation of Dominican women as political actors and not merely passive bystanders or martyrs. It then sketches, in the postdictatorship period, the emergence of new gender-focused organizations, NGOs, academic programs, and political quotas for women, foregrounding how, despite these advances, political and social gains have been uneven and the new constitution of 2010 is a significant setback, especially for women’s reproductive rights. Alongside these developments, the essay describes the emergence and consolidation of a new generation of women writers in the Dominican Republic and the diaspora since the 1980s and the growing visibility and presence of LGBT organizations and representations in the twenty-first century that raise important questions about how Dominican cultural norms interact with broader global strategies of “coming out” and identity politics.