Abstract
This paper describes social interactions between La Doña, a septuagenarian female large-scale heroin dealer in Santo Domingo; residents from the drug-ridden Capotillo community; and Dominican law enforcement agencies. Focusing on La Vieja as a case study, the author presents a nuanced, alternative perspective of female narco heroin dealers. In the midst of rampant police corruption, endemic economic crisis resulting from official neoliberal measures, and a conspicuous fear of crime discourse, public characters such as La Vieja actually help to sustain social order in the barrio, while challenging patriarchal expectations about familial and occupational roles. This paper problematizes classical paradigms of hegemonic masculinity in the drug-trafficking business; it presents an alternative view of female narcodealers, one that acknowledges positive personality traits that have been largely ignored in previous scholarship; and it connects Mano Dura policies and the militarization of marginal urban barrios in Santo Domingo to the successful career of individuals such as La Vieja, who fulfill a matriarchal role in the midst of generalized, government-sanctioned repression.
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Notes
See, among others, Adler, Wheeling and Dealing. In her research, Adler noted that women involved with traffickers were very beautiful, arguing that such women were drawn to the traffickers’ opulent lifestyle. The image of the beautiful lover of the drug dealer is celebrated in popular culture; for example, in Brian de Palma’s film Scarface (1983), Michelle Pfeiffer’s character becomes the archetype of the trafficker’s companion.
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Martín, Y.C. The ‘Queen of Heroin’: gender, drug dealing, and zero-tolerance policies in the Dominican Republic. Dialect Anthropol 39, 443–451 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-015-9402-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-015-9402-5