{"id":1447,"date":"2015-07-23T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T04:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2015-09-18T18:37:09","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T22:37:09","slug":"porfirio-rubirosa-race-masculinity-and-mobility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/2015\/07\/23\/porfirio-rubirosa-race-masculinity-and-mobility\/","title":{"rendered":"Porfirio Rubirosa: Race, Masculinity and Mobility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A post made to Twitter June 8, 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s been over fifty years since \u201cthe glamorous\u201d Porfirio Rubirosa last graced the international night scene with his Dominican charm, yet many are still reminiscing on the life and times of the famous playboy. \u00a0Porfirio Rubirosa Ariza, known by family, friends and close acquaintances as \u201cRubi,\u201d was born January 22nd, 1909 to Pedro Maria Rubirosa (a general) and Ana Ariza Almanzar (the granddaughter of a Spanish general) in San Francisco de Macor\u00eds, Dominican Republic. \u00a0A Dominican by chance and a Parisian by choice, Rubi would become the most infamous playboy of the 20th century. \u00a0Between 1932 and 1965, Rubi married five times and maintained numerous affairs with the world\u2019s wealthiest and most famous women–most notably, Zsa Zsa Gabor. \u00a0Regarded as the great \u201cLatin Lover\u201d of the 20th century, Rubi is best remembered for his charisma, charm and Creole handsomeness. \u00a0But how did Rubi, a non-White Dominican man with no particular skills (acting, business or otherwise), come to enjoy the highlife appreciated by Frank Sinatra, Aly Khan and the like? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prof. Paravisini-Gebert and Prof. Woods-Peiro attempt to answer this question in their forthcoming e-book, Porfirio Rubirosa: Race, Masculinity and Mobility<\/i>. \u00a0In assisting them with this research, I\u2019ve learned that Rubi was an exception to the rule- though most obviously a person of mixed race, Rubi was not understood to be Black. \u00a0During a time when race served as a basis for discrimination and genocide in both the U.S. and Europe (though it still does today), Rubi managed to marry four White, non-Dominican women: Danielle Darrieux, Doris Duke, Barbara Hutton and Odile Rodin. \u00a0The racialization of Rubi as Latin rather than Negro was particularly crucial for his social mobility: it allowed him to pass as non-Black and thus, gave rich, White women the green light. \u00a0Though Rubi was well aware of his own Blackness–he often sported Panama hats and protected his face with honey–his race was hardly noted by the press. \u00a0In fact, Langston Hughes observed: \u201cSo I have not seen in the colorful obituaries of the late Rubirosa in the American press, any reference to race. \u00a0Had he been an American citizen by birth, the headlines probably would have read: NEGRO PLAYBOY DIES.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Zsa Zsa Gabor and Rubi<\/p><\/div>\n

Rubi was not only exoticized because of his race, however. \u00a0He was also rumored to possess an appreciable genital endowment. \u00a0Indeed, his first wife, Flor de Oro Trujillo (El Jefe’s daughter and Rubi’s only Dominican wife), confessed that \u201cIn time, he began to make love to me in different ways, but when it was over my insides hurt a lot\u201d (Levy 2005:48). \u00a0The rumours and whispers of this endowment contributed to Rubi\u2019s hyper-masculinization–if there had been any doubts about Rubi\u2019s masculinity, and in particular his ability to please women, Flor\u2019s and other women\u2019s anecdotes confirmed his t\u00edguerismo<\/i>. \u00a0It also helped that Rubi was sporty and interested in the fast life–he was an avid polo player and a terrible race car driver, but a race car driver nonetheless. Having led a fast, dangerous life [both socially (he was named in several divorce cases and involved in various crimes) and physically], many have deemed Rubi\u2019s 1965 car crash death \u201ca fitting end.\u201d \u00a0Fifty years later, however, Rubi\u2019s charisma and playboy ways have gone unmatched and it seems that many are still asking, where are the glamorous playboys of yesteryear? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

On page 10 of The Last Playboy,\u00a0<\/em>Shawn Levy explains “The Dominican t\u00edguere<\/em> was, like the ideal male in all Latin cultures, profoundly masculine…He was handsome, graceful, strong and well-presented…He could move with sensuality or violence.” \u00a0He goes on to say, “indeed, it was widely understood in Dominican life that an element of t<\/em>\u00ed<\/em>guerismo was essential to most success.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nLevy, Shawn. The Last Playboy: The High Life of Porfirio Rubirosa<\/i>. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. Print.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been over fifty years since \u201cthe glamorous\u201d Porfirio Rubirosa last graced the international night scene with his Dominican charm, yet many are still reminiscing on the life and times of the famous playboy. \u00a0Porfirio Rubirosa Ariza, known by family, friends and close acquaintances as \u201cRubi,\u201d was born January 22nd, 1909 to Pedro Maria Rubirosa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3355,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44122],"tags":[77484,77485],"class_list":["post-1447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-ford-2015","tag-rubirosa","tag-thelastplayboy","post_format-post-format-aside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1792,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions\/1792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/fordscholars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}