Final Intervention Project: A Puerto Rican Resistance Art piece
For my final intervention, I decided to create a mixed media, a collaged art piece to display symbolism throughout Puerto Rican history on the fight for equality. Much of the media I have gained inspiration from is from past historical events and people that fought through discrimination and fought for equality.
The main subject that influenced much of the college itself is “The Young Lords.” The Young Lords were a Chicago-based “gang” that actually turned into civil and human rights. The group itself was an activist to fight for empowerment and determination for Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and colonized people. Before research, I had never heard of them and I'm Puerto Rican myself. From all of my projects up until now I thought this group really resonated with what I wanted to do. I also took into consideration how to change history we have to acknowledge what has already been done within the account.
For me, I decided to start with where it all started and make an art piece that gives people a visual of what Puerto Rico has gone through back then and up until now. To reach people and make them feel what they get out of it. Sometimes it’s not all about the facts but the feeling behind it. Puerto Ricans have a lot of facts to tell but the pride, pain, and passion we feel is real. Therefore, I have chosen to collage black and white photos of The Young Lord Party, Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican Resistance, Taino symbols, suffering, immigration newspapers, etc. I have a compilation of images because “Pictures help give a form to abstract theories, causes, and grievances,”(Duncombe, Lambert.99) which is exactly what I attend to do with my intervention. I want these images to not just be images but be seen as history in a beautiful and new way. It needs to be displayed for people to know and to understand the fight that Puerto Ricans, latinos, and colored people have been facing for years.
The art piece itself is layered with tropical colors to enhance the collage itself. Another activist that inspired the foundation of the art piece was the man that was called Chino Perez. On November 5th in 1977 he was part of the people who wanted to make known that Puerto Rico’s government was detrimental, and needed independence. For him to learn about independence he had become influenced by The Young Lords. He realized rallies weren’t enough and didn’t cause the attention Puerto Rico needed. Therefore he and other Puerto Rican activists went to the Statue of Liberty and at the height of the crown they dropped the Puerto Rican Flag. The flag has always been a symbol of pride for Puerto Ricans and continues to be to this day. The reason for the black and white background as the foundation for the piece was to show how recently the black and white flag was used to represent resistance. This type of activism can be compared to a silent surprise. He was discrete with what he was doing and it was silent but did something out of the ordinary to attract attention and capture that aspect of surprise. “When you surprise someone, you’re earning a moment because you’re opening up space”(Duncombe, Lambert 200). According to Vice’s video on Chino Perez, he claims that he was in fact arrested for the Flag takeover on the Statue of Liberty. Although he was arrested it brought the attention it deserved and needed. It made it to the news and papers.
Bianca Gaulua is another Puerto Rican Activist who has influenced me as far as my social media Presence. She is a Puerto Rican independent journalist. She speaks heavily on Puerto Rico and its politics. She has become so widely followed on Tik Tok, Instagram, and Twitter. She uses her platform to talk about the Colonialism Puerto Rico has faced and traces back to our history as well. The story is just as important in telling the story. It inspired me to pay homage to my own history and start at the root of the problem. To learn how my people have fought this resistance and how we continue to.
Within the documentary “Takeover: How We Occupied a Hospital and Changed Public Health,” shown by New York Times, You were really able to see the different tactics The Young Lords Party was able to use to help get Lincoln Hospital's inhumane conditions for their community. In History, you will see how Latinos and colored people are always disregarded and never taken seriously. But within this film you are able to see the emotion and passion behind this organization and people were shown how fearless they were to get to the root of the problem. When someone’s needs are disregarded and treated as inhumane, emotion and anger are definitely going to take place. Sometimes the emotion is the only thing needed to start a revolution.
I feel as though it’s never enough to just reach information but to make people feel or be moved. Information can do so much and simply just researching and telling people about it would not be enough for me as well. Visuals are needed to move people so that their emotions are attached to it and so they want to know more about it.
People within Piece
Rita Moreno
Cha Cha Jimenez
Roberto Clemente
Puerto Rican Families
Felipe Luciano
Marquita Rivera
Work Cited and Informative videos
Duncombe, Steve. Lambert, Steve. The Art of Activism. OR Books, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK_ALMA1NMk&t=1548s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veASXAsuXtw&t=274s
https://www.instagram.com/biancagraulau/?hl=en
Work Cited and Informative Videos
Duncombe, Steve. Lambert, Steve. The Art of Activism. OR Books, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK_ALMA1NMk&t=1548s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veASXAsuXtw&t=274s
https://www.instagram.com/biancagraulau/?hl=en
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