Along this journey, I had the chance to give life to a guardian that stands against the eraser and displacement of the people of Borikén. All of the intensity and anger I had following up this point resulted in the summoning of my vejigante warrior. My warrior’s creation was influenced by my love for comic books and high fantasy. The feeling of hopelessness that has been louder than ever has been battled by the rising hope of my warrior. It has helped me cope with the fear of losing my island to the colonizers. There is also the feeling of unsettlement while displaying the anger I have while also existing in the same home as the people I am speaking against. This has caused me to feel insecure about displaying my work, especially in front of the people of Puerto Rico. It has run through my mind that they have all the right to be against my work’s argument since I do not experience the struggles that they are currently going through. I have made my peace with that. Instead I have been focusing on strengthening the fight for the youth and the future that will follow after me. 

Nelson Antonio Denis, who wrote War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony, is someone who fueled a lot of the research for this thesis. His book goes through the untold story of the 1950 revolution in Puerto Rico and the long history of U.S. intervention on the island. The book was traumatizing for me to read due to the intense violence the people depicted had to face. For the people who want to do research about the origins of the struggles in Puerto Rico, I heavily recommend War Against All Puerto Ricans. Keysha Rivera and Elsa Maria Melendez are artists that I have felt guided by with my expression and context. Rivera’s work flowed through my pieces with the use of textile and photographs. Printing out pictures of the people in my life and stitching them to the garment became a healing process for me. The photographs serve to honor the people in my life and have them follow me in the steps I will be taking. I admire Melendez a lot in how she makes herself the idol of the people she is representing in her work. Especially in her piece Milk (2020) where she stated, “In this piece I create representations where I develop an antithesis of the judgements of the body to then document with my work the evolution of the figure of that woman.” To make yourself the vessel for so many people to use to filter out their pain and suffering is inspiring. I hold Elsa and Keysha really close to my practice and motivation and appreciate their work greatly. 

The clash of my mediums has helped me project my warrior successfully. My prints present my warrior in a setting of righteousness and victory. I wanted to show their strength and fearlessness. The frame surrounding the figures turns the image into a capsule that nobody can enter or leave making it feel paralyzed in time. It is decorated with fauna and flora from the lands of Borikén that in many years will perish as a result of global warming and agricultural colonization. The decorative mask made out of soft sculpture and clay gave me the opportunity to think about detail and textures. It’s a different take on the traditional paper mache technique that the masks are made of. Finally, the garment and paper mache mask that it goes along with was my biggest accomplishment. To be able to take the form of my vejigante warrior drives me to conquer the insecurities I feel as an individual living through the Puerto Rican diaspora. I hope that with this thesis I can inspire more warriors to rise and conquer against their oppressors. This is just the start of something that I expect will be part of a movement for justice.