ABSTRACT
In “Otra maldad de Pateco,” 1 a remarkable short story by the Puerto Rican writer Ana Lydia Vega, the protagonist, José Clemente, is born with a black head and a white body. His body is divided, quite literally, into two clearly different pigmentations, which represent in their turn—in highly dichotomous fashion—the two major social poles on this island and—as it happens—in the remainder of the Caribbean: Blacks, who purportedly identify with an African ancestry and cultural traditions, and Whites, who identify with people and things European.
