Black-Latino artist tackles Dominican racial issues in exhibit

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A new exhibit by Dominican artist Manuel Tony Peralta aims to explore the issues of skin color, hair texture, self-esteem and what it means to be Latino and Black. The exhibit, titled “Complejo,” which means complex in Spanish, features the face of Dominican former MLB superstar Sammy Sosa, who over a year ago began a startling transformation when he started bleaching his skin for a lighter look. The look shocked many in his community including Peralta, who grew up with his own skin-color issues in the predominantly Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York City.