Art is the Solution

Mural la Plena Source: Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico Today I want to chat about a monumental piece of art that I recently had the pleasure of seeing at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. As the name suggests, Mural La Plena is a massive mural, fifteen by thirty feet in size, that was created by Puerto Rican artist Rafael Tufiño to commemorate la plena, a wildly popular genre of music that was born in the city of Ponce around 1900. The mural, which might appear abstract or incomprehensible to a viewer unfamiliar with the subject matter, illustrates the lyrics of popular plena songs. For example, the blue-green figure that dominates the upper half of the mural represents the hurricane from the plena “Temporal,” which mourns the destruction caused by a storm. Plena, as a genre, tells stories. According to my research , the lyrics come from current events, re-telling the stories that affected the lives of the people of Ponce. It began as a way for people of low socio-economic sta...

Exploitation of Mexico by Spanish Conquistadors Photo Credit: Wolfgang Sauber Today, I want to chat about a piece of art created by the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Rivera’s work often celebrates the culture and history of Mexico, as well as the lives of “salt of the earth,” ordinary people. Both of these themes are exemplified in Rivera’s series of murals located in the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City, a building that houses governmental offices. The murals depict the history of Mexico, dating from the pre-Columbian period to the twentieth century. I read a great essay about the murals , which explains that the government commissioned them because “The Mexican government craved a change in their style of leadership. Leadership pushed for a mural and art movement throughout the country. The government shifted from the ideologist of the nineteenth century into a modern political and social model.” Like Rafael Rivera García’s Batéy murals, which I talked about yester...

Murals del Batéy Photo Credit:  José Oliver-Didier  One genre of art that I haven’t discussed much on this blog is the mural. Murals are particularly interesting because they are usually public art and, thus, say a lot about what their community understands the world and what they value. Today, I want to talk about the Batéy murals, located under an overpass in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I’ve seen these murals multiple times on various trips to Puerto Rico; however, I have to admit that I never considered their significance as art until I started writing this blog. According to my research , these murals were created by Neorican muralist Rafael Rivera García in 1979 in honor of the Pan American Games, which were held in San Juan that year. The murals depict the pre-Columbian people of Puerto Rico — the Tainos — playing a game called Batu, which involved keeping a rubber ball in the air without using hands or feet. The game was ceremonial in nature, carrying deep cultur...