Ohio State nav bar

Contesting the Color Line: The Payo / Gitano Racial Boundary in Spain

Dr. Martin Repinecz
September 23, 2022
2:20PM - 3:40PM
Zoom

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2022-09-23 14:20:00 2022-09-23 15:40:00 Contesting the Color Line: The Payo / Gitano Racial Boundary in Spain The Department of Spanish and Portuguese will be hosting Dr. Martin Repinecz of the University of San Diego for his talk on "Contesting the Color Line: The Payo / Gitano Racial Boundary in Spain." The event will be hosted via Zoom on September 23, from 2:20-3:40pm. Zoom Link  This talk will examine the contradictory social functions of the racial boundary that marks the difference between Spanish gitanos—known in English as Roma, Romani, or, more problematically, as “Gypsies”—and payos, Spain’s hegemonic majority population. After considering cinematic and anthropological evidence that highlights the ambivalent role of skin color and other phenotypical markers in shaping this racial boundary, we will consider how the payo / gitano border simultaneously upholds and subverts Spain’s claims of belonging in racial whiteness. To this end, we will use theories of racial performativity and whiteness as a wage to examine the construction of the payo / gitano boundary in a wide range of film genres, including folkloric musicals, macho ibérico comedies, and quinqui cinema. About Dr. Repinecz: Dr. Repinecz's research focuses on questions of race and colonial memory in Francoist and contemporary Spain and the global Hispanophone world. His book manuscript, titled: Volatile Whiteness: Cinema, Race, and Europeanization in Spain, is currently under review. His work has been published in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Hispanic Studies Review, Transmodernity, International Journal of Ibieran Studies, and others. Zoom Spanish & Portuguese spanport@osu.edu America/New_York public

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese will be hosting Dr. Martin Repinecz of the University of San Diego for his talk on "Contesting the Color Line: The Payo / Gitano Racial Boundary in Spain."

The event will be hosted via Zoom on September 23, from 2:20-3:40pm.

Zoom Link 


This talk will examine the contradictory social functions of the racial boundary that marks the difference between Spanish gitanos—known in English as Roma, Romani, or, more problematically, as “Gypsies”—and payos, Spain’s hegemonic majority population. After considering cinematic and anthropological evidence that highlights the ambivalent role of skin color and other phenotypical markers in shaping this racial boundary, we will consider how the payo / gitano border simultaneously upholds and subverts Spain’s claims of belonging in racial whiteness. To this end, we will use theories of racial performativity and whiteness as a wage to examine the construction of the payo / gitano boundary in a wide range of film genres, including folkloric musicals, macho ibérico comedies, and quinqui cinema.


About Dr. Repinecz:

Dr. Repinecz's research focuses on questions of race and colonial memory in Francoist and contemporary Spain and the global Hispanophone world. His book manuscript, titled: Volatile Whiteness: Cinema, Race, and Europeanization in Spain, is currently under review. His work has been published in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Hispanic Studies Review, Transmodernity, International Journal of Ibieran Studies, and others.

File