For myself

Starting this off with a piece I made for myself back in 2019.

El verano candente y revolucionario del 2019. That’s how people on the island call it. Two weeks of streets flooded with Puerto Ricans screaming and yelling the anguish of years. Directly the protests were asking for the resignation of the Governor, but the fire that fueled the intensity was years in the making. In 2017 Hurricane Maria hit, leaving in its aftermath an island destroyed  and an unofficial but well documented number of 4645 dead. The fragility of the island, which was a crucial factor in the devastation, was a product of countless years. El problema es la colonia. Puerto Rico is one of the oldest colonies in the world, having suffered colonialism from 1493 to the present. Since 1898 those years have been under the government of the United States. Years of colonialism and corruption, poverty and lack of resources, crumbling infrastructure and and economic depression due to an unpayable debt that has brought extreme austerity measures were the fuel of the summer protests. A leaked private chat where the Governor and his cronies talked without censure and showed their awful true colors sparked the fuel into a raging fire. Bodies filled the street as millions demanded the resignation of Ricky Rosello (the governor). From marches, to poetry readings, to horseback rides, scuba divers, jet skiers all conceivable forms of protests happened in those two weeks. All filled with music and dancing in an occupation of the streets, a carnival of opposition. Amongst these the Perreo Combativo caused a furor like no other. Perreo, a popular way of dancing much criticized by conservatives in the island and elsewhere, is a sensual and very provocative way of moving perfect for the bodily display of protesting and very attuned to the general atmosphere of these protests in particular. On the night of the 24 of July LBTGQ+ students invited all to go perrear in the streets of Old San Juan. Thousands flooded the streets, and in the sweltering humid Caribbean summer, the perreo combativo began. Of the thousands there a dancer in a Puerto Rican flag bikini became iconic. The dancer was part of a group that had convened in the steps of the Cathedral and that became their stage. Hours later the governor resigned. 

My piece is based on a beautiful photo by Puerto Rican photographer Daniela P. Romero, who documented much of the protests . As a Puerto Rican in the diaspora and based in San Diego, California it has been hard to watch from afar the events in my island these past years, so it is through my making that I connect and participate in its  evolving narrative. My medium is jewelry. Allowing me to use the iconography of this protest in daily everyday life as a talisman and a reminder of the power that collective out of the box strategies can have.