This ongoing collection showcases ties to Ivy's Dominican heritage and explores Afro-Latinidad.
Protecting Roots
Tata remembers working at a beauty salon since she was 16 in the Dominican Republic. For almost 20 years, she’s run her own salon in a carport she converted next to her garage behind her house in Bowling Green, Ky., Tata’s tiny salon is a hub for the growing Latino population in Bowling Green to foster community, where Latina women gather to talk in Spanish about topics ranging from work, family-related stresses to religion and politics while getting their hair done, waxed or nails painted. Tata gets to the salon space from her backdoor and her clients, her friends, park in her driveway. Standing in Tata’s kitchen, her voice can be heard from inside the salon. “I’ve been doing this since I was young, since I came from my country,” Tata said. “I do it to work and make money, I don’t need the money to live, but I do it to feel useful and to keep working and make myself a little money because in this country everything has a price.”
