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The first version of this painting was done in 1976 for an art class at the
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It was the middle of my first year of college. I had enrolled in the only painting class in the entire campus. It fulfilled my art requirement for the year. The class was made up of students from mostly business and science majors. The classroom was secluded at the edge of the campus sports field, not fitted as an art room, just a space to do something relaxing... and get
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Recinto Universitario de Humacao, de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. |
Like most art teachers, our instructor was a working artist and he took his job seriously. The class was an affable place to spend a couple of days a week away from the hot Puerto Rican sun. Compared to the people of other countries I've visited, I find Puerto Ricans to be very good with their hands and very comfortable working in groups. Perhaps this is so because most of our activities seem to be communal or family centered.
While formal art training is Puerto Rican schools was (and still is) woefully lacking, students in grade schools packed classes with anything relating to any kind of art -painting, music, poetry, industrial arts, crafts, drafting, sewing, culinary arts, and the theater. Still, come to think of it, we had ten times more art in our schools than children today have in the Cleveland Public School System!
And so, I found myself in a class with students happy to be doing some kind of art project without getting into serious art. But soon I was bored. The assigned exercises consisted of making versions of a still life by reproducing the objects as geometric shapes. An orange became a circle; a bowl became a triangle or a square, and so on. Then each area within a confined outline was painted with a different color, resulting in something that looked like a composition of stained glass -with a modern geometric twist.
At the end of the course the class put on a group exhibit. This would have been my first. But I was not happy with my in-class creations. Instead I did a painting at home and brought if for the show. The first inkling that something was amiss happened during the class of
Dr. Orozco (who we treated with the reverence one gives to a deity) made a pause in his
After the class I had to go and see the painting for myself to see what I had missed. The campus had been in an uproar and I steered clear of the marchers and protesters holding political banners as I made my way. The exhibition had been set at the lobby of the auditorium and there was a crowd around my painting, an experience that was both pleasing and disconcerting.
Then I recognized some of the faces and it dawned on me who most of these people were. From that point on things escalated and that day I became -in everyone's estimation:
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An image of a student demostrator from his exhibition |
The 1970's was a time of political turmoil in Puerto Rico. The political party for independence had gained considerable influence in the island and the universities and colleges were their battle ground. The minuscule Socialist party also garnered a great deal of media attention because of their inflammatory rhetoric. While the fight over civil rights and
Nixon's use of
This was then the political cauldron of strikes, marches, demonstrations and violence (1973-1981 period) that greeted the showing of my painting. I had glaringly used the greatest symbol of Puerto Rican nationhood -the Puerto Rican flag, and placed it on a background of green -the color that represented independence; and then I reinforced these symbols with native musical instruments of he who was the soul of the Puerto Rican people
Without intending to do so, I had done an extremely powerful piece for propaganda. The painting was sold the very next day -it never made it in the show. Several people wanted it. Even my painting instructor expressed an interest. Ultimately, after taking photographs and making a tracing, I sold it to a pro-independence college professor on campus. Over time, I eventually did three more copies and sold many more in print form. But what was my intention in creating the painting? A very simple one: I wanted to make a genuine piece of Puerto Rican traditional art.
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Artist's oils on masonite panel, 1990 version. |
But my motivations were cultural, not political. I firmly believed that the culture of a people -regardess of who they may be, is contained within its music. Consequently, the musical instruments in the composition -the percussion sticks, the
Nowadays it’s very hard for me to separate the two interpretations since my thinking has evolved. What's more, my artistic specialty became propaganda art. The incident of the painting was the catalyst that initiated my search of who I am. Am I a Puerto Rican? Am I an American? And what have been the historical antecedents that brought about those turbulent days of my early youth, which still continue to divide the friendly and hospitable people of my peaceful island?
I wrote an essay which is the third most downloaded page on this website by people from over twenty countries. The title of the essay is