laura c. suárez rodríguez

ABSTRACT: Que Bonita Barriada – Political, Contemporary Art in Puerto Rican Communities

Since 2002, Chemi Rosado-Seijo has painted a mountainside community green.  It is no ordinary community.  Before Rosado-Seijo’s project, the barriada was known as a place for destitution, drug abuse, and degradation, and now it has become an international example of community engagement, inspiring growth and development.  Chemi’s “El Cerro” project does not stand alone.  All across the island, contemporary Puerto Rican artists are engaging directly with different communities to create beautiful, historically aware, site-specific works of art that exist to empower and activate the community. Through collective muralism, Alexis Diaz has beautified neglected urban communities in Santurce, and most recently in Ponce. By collaborating with local city governments, arts institutions, and muralists who work with community members, he and other artists are transforming walls of abandoned projects in barrios, barriadas, and caserios  into socio/politically engaged art works covered with uniquely modern Puerto Rican themes.  

A site of current political and artistic innovation is the barriada of La Perla, the poorest, most hotly contested neighborhood in the island.  La Perla has become known by the island’s bourgeoisie as a hopelessly dilapidated cancer to the city of San Juan and its tourism industry.  Its coveted, oceanside location next to the most visited tourist site on the island, El Castillo San Felipe del Morro, and its notoriety for drug trafficking and crime, have made it perhaps the most vilified community on the island. Juni Figueroa, Chemi Rosado and Alexis Diaz have all created art works in La Perla, as a way of bringing attention to the community, but they should also be thought of as art works formally. Rosado sees his work in the tradition of abstract art, while Figueroa associates his practice with sculpture and installation, and Diaz with muralism.  These artists are thinking through their activist practices in art historical terms and contexts. 

Art Historical analysis of Puerto Rican art production is limited and under-researched.  In this essay, I hope to use contemporary art practices by the aforementioned artists to contribute to the analysis of art production from Puerto Rico.  I intend to briefly demonstrate how the artistic production of these contemporary artists has an art historical legacy tied to Puerto Rico and New York City, as well as demonstrating an understanding of the canon of art history, while creating something well suited to the unique political situation of Puerto Rico in the 21st century. As the oldest colony in Latin America, Puerto Rico suffers from a state of true territorial dependency.  These artists are using their art and activism to advocate, if not directly for independence, for the practice of self-determination, self-governance, and self-care. Whether Puerto Rico’s status changes or remains the same, change can still come from within, from its community, and as they are demonstrating, from its artists.

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