Photographer: Mariano Hernandez

Faces, joy and colors are expressions of the diversity of women as a whole under the Dominican context. Each one of them is a world of identity, with sense of pride and ownership, in a Caribbean island filled with many epic stories and heroes, with a particular culture and a destination of hope and peace.

Diversity is the Caribbean’s identity. Colors express the dimensions of life, the essence of everyday life and the symbolization of the supernatural. In popular religiosity, for example, the color red represents “Candelo”; yellow represents “Ana Isa”; purple represents “Martha the Dominatrix”; pink represents Metré Silí; blue represents Ongú Balenyó; and red with green represents Balié Belkan.

Diversity is the carnival’s identity. Each community has its own carnival and its own characters, although the creolized limping devil, of European heritage, is dominant all over the country.

In Cotuí, in the land of the Cibao, “The Platanú” is one of its identity characters, which, because of how easy it is to obtain the materials to make it (dry plantain leaves) transforms it into the country’s most democratic carnival.