He only likes white girls. Meaning that even though the white guys in D. Tourist season brings a steady stream of European backpackers and gringos with few reservations. They wanted to sleep with black men as an act devoid of sentiment, but ripe with historical significance. They woo the white women, fucked them, and turn some blonde's 3 week vacation into their visa to Europe, Canada, or the U. If a mixed baby comes out of that union, his chances for being taken care of as well improve tremendously.
This exoticism and exploitation manifests itself on the dance floors and in the bedrooms of Bocas. It's a cycle that plays out over and over, leaving less-lucrative relationships with black women for when the tourist season drys up.
And, while some of the black men in Bocas are looking to be "saved", some of the white male expats and tourists are looking to do the "saving". Mistaken for a local, I see firsthand how the perceptions of black women as sexual and erotic objects manifests.
The painting "The Redemption of Ham" by Modesto Brocos features a black grandmother, mixed-race mother, white father and white baby. The grandmother stands to the left with her hands raised in prayer, praising God for this "white savior". After a while, I've learned to avoid the spaces where the gringos will have access to me, not only as a way to avoid their advances, but so as not to have to see the hardened stares of the young black women vying to participate in patriarchy and prostitution.
The club was so hot that the party spilled out onto the street. A few Afro-Costa Rican men stood to the side, laughing and drinking beers. Her hair spiraled up into an afro that framed her caramel face like peacock feathers. She had turned heads, mine included, when she walked by and stopped with her group a few feet from where I was sitting. Finally, a guy broke out from the group- tall and handsome, flashing a smile that lit up his dark complexion.
