Abstract

LARA, Antonia. Configuration of identities in migratory contexts: investigation of daily practices in Dominican hairdressing salons in Santiago de Chile. Estud. front [online]. 2020, vol.21, e049.  Epub Jan 15, 2021. ISSN 2395-9134.  https://doi.org/10.21670/ref.2007049.

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the field of study on identity configuration in migratory contexts, by investigating daily practices carried out in hairdressing salons in Santiago de Chile. The above was carried out through ethnographic research for 18 months (2015 and 2016). It was obtained that the hairdressing space is organized around the practice of Afro hair straightening and the so-called Dominican brushing, which together with ways of using the hairdressing salons, generate belonging and, at the same time, differences and hierarchies between women, produced in the intersectionality between nationality, gender and “race”. From the hairdressing salon as an attempt at their own place, disputes, resistance and transactions are generated with the local context. A limitation of this article is not to account for the male perspective, its practices and conceptions regarding the beauty work of the body.

Keywords : Dominican migration; gender; ethnography; daily practices; identity; intersectionality.