...and some thoughts on Puertorriqueñidad
I first met Puertorriqueño artist Antonio Martorell by chance, when assigned to write an article about a street theatre group working with Rosa Marquez in Boston, and via radio presenter, Luis Melendez, who at the time had the only Spanish language radio program on public radio. It feels like so long ago! Martorell was helping participants make masks, signs and other visual art items for their performances, ones also pitched toward advocacy of the participants’ local issues. Loosely, I described the masks, made with papier maché, various kinds of paint, sequins, almost anything colorful that seemed to fit—they were wonderful and immediately accessible to street audiences. But, as the subsequent portfolio shows, Martorell did—and has done—more than street theatre, wonderful and important as that medium is.
On a subsequent visit to the island, I was privileged to stay at Martorell’s house; and where I slept the walls were festooned with huge masks, carnivalesque but not precisely: dozing off under them was, well…interesting… Another memorable event during that visit was when Martorell took me to the small village he called the “home of the plena“
Not to distract, dear reader, but FYI, the plena was a transmission of local news, stories, and culture “…born of African roots and was transformed into a uniquely Puerto Rican expression by the influences of Jíbaro, native Taino, and European musical traditions, in addition to the contributions of freed slaves from English-speaking Caribbean Islands who travelled to Puerto Rico seeking work.” (https://www.prfdance.org/plena.htm, accessed 25/12/24).[i]
Twelve years ago the Cronkite School of Journalism stated that only 37% of Puerto Ricans wanted their island to become a state.[i] One of the determining issues was language—would the island have to relinquish its Spanish?[ii] As I have said in other contexts, language IS culture. Deprive a people of that and the loss is and would be incalculable. Indeed, seized by the US during the Spanish American War (April 25, 1898 – August 12, 1898) and officially ceded to the US as a territory by the Treaty of Paris, December 10. 1898, the relationship of the island with the US is indeed uneasy. And I mention this, not only as important background, but there are a few pieces in this portfolio which waggishly refer to that relationship.
On 21 March 2023, Martorell was awarded the National Medal of Arts by the president of the United States, Joe Biden. In addition to his work at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, he has exhibited at MoMA El Barrio, as well as other venues in New York City the U.S. One cannot escape the richness, visually, verbally, and musically, that immediately rushes in when talking about a Puerto Rican artist. Martorell was and is, of course, steeped in all of these; and, with his work, such thoughts rush in.
!Bienvenidos! On to the art of Martorell!
—Bronwyn Mills
Co-curated by Bronwyn Mills and Lisa Bordeau
(Note that work is listed under series title; further information is under the visual.)
[i] For a musical rendition, see Pleneros dela Cresta, and for a further explanation of the instruments, etc. en Español, see La La plena Puertorriqueña (One of our co-editors also favours Los Pleneros 21. )
[i] https://cronkite.asu.edu/projects/buffett/puertorico/language.html, accessed 25/12/24.
[ii] Both English and Spanish are its official languages, but Spanish is the official language of instruction (the island currently has a 92.40% literacy rate vs. the continental USA’s 79%) and generally life there is conducted and relished in Spanish.
N.B. Collections de Martorell (webpage)