Nitza Tufiño: Asserting Presence

Born in Mexico, Tufiño is the daughter of the Puerto Rican artist Rafael Tufiño and the Mexican dancer and model Luz Maria Aquirre. She considers herself bi-cultural, being from multiple backgrounds, Puerto Rican and Mexican or Mexi-Rican. She was spiritually raised as a Catholic but was influenced by the Caribbean Orishas of Santeria in her art. She celebrates the diversity of her children’s ancestry, with a half-Jewish daughter and a half-Japanese son. She is now a practicing Nichiren Buddhist and a proud member of the SGI (Soka Gakaai International), a Japanese-based organization dedicated to happiness and world peace. 

Her childhood in Puerto Rico surrounded her with artists, dancers, musicians, filmmakers, intellectuals, and activists.  Upon arriving in New York in 1969, Tufiño became involved in the founding of el Museo del Barrio, for which she created the original façade artwork. At this time, she also was a consultant on Puerto Rican and Caribbean art at the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, making her voice and the voice of Latino artists a part of the mainstream conversation. These activities led her to the installation of public works around New York City, which visually celebrate Puerto Rican, South American, and Caribbean cultural and artistic heritage. Tufiño was also a founding member of El Taller Boricua and is the master printmaker and director of the Rafael Tufiño Printmaking Workshop. As a “Friends of Puerto Rico” board member, she opened the Cayman Gallery in SoHO exhibition space, later known as the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art (MOCHA).  (In 1990, MoCHA shut its doors, and its archives were donated to Hostos Community College of the City University of New York, in the South Bronx, New York). In her artwork, pedagogy, and civil activism, Tufiño has been a tireless champion of diverse representation and Latino/x agency.