ABOUT

Rafael Gómez is a visual ethnographer working in the Dominican Republic, particularly in the Bateyes and along the border region with Haiti.

WORK/RESEARCH

My research explores the relationship between ritual practices, spaces, the production of memory, and how they lead to a sense of collective identities. I am also a photographer with over ten years of experience conducting fieldwork on various topics, including Rara/Gagá, Vodou/Vudú ceremonies, ritual processions, the décor of religious offerings (in the forms of altares), and spiritual pilgrimages throughout the island, its diasporas, and the broader Caribbean.

I am currently finishing a dissertation at the University at Albany, SUNY, Titled “African-Atlantic Ritual Celebrations in the Dominican Republic: A Historiography of Memory and Performance in the Gagá,” focusing on the proliferation of the Gagá celebrations and the processes of cultural production in the Dominican Republic and its diaspora. My dissertation combines ethnographic observations, visual depictions, and archival research undertaken in various sites, including Santo Domingo, New York City, San Juan (Puerto Rico), and Vancouver, British Columbia. In addition, I have taught courses on Caribbean History, Dominican History, and the emergence of the Latinx population in New York City and throughout the United States.

I’ve recently been concerned with documenting present-day religious and spiritual pilgrimages in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and their diaspora. The research I am undertaking explores acts of public devotion, their value and meaning for individuals and collective. Current sites include Higüey, Bani, Banica, New York City, and Miami. I am also conducting visual explorations of what I am calling the “spiritual urban landscape” and its protagonists (store-front churches, botanicas, RIP murals and sites, and street evangelists) in New York City and Miami.

SITES OF RESEARCH INTEREST

The Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, New York City, Miami