My thesis project, tentatively titled “Disfraces Rebeldes: Reimagining Puerto Rican Identity Through A Practice-Led Project on the Interconnections between the Vejigante and the Islamic World”, is a practice-led study that will combine traditional research and an art component involving photography, photocollage, mask-making, and costume design, in order to explore the cross-cultural influences of Islam in the folk arts and visual culture of Puerto Rico. I will focus in particular on the vejigante, a national symbol associated with religious festivals held in the country each year. I am in interested in exploring the extent to which the vejigante—a traditional Puerto Rican masked and costumed character whose physical attributes and movements represent the blending of African, Spanish, and Caribbean influences in Puerto Rican culture—may be a visual symbol representing the legacy of religious and identity tensions between Spain and the Islamic world, which were imported into Puerto Rico during the period of Spanish colonialism. A key component of this will entail studying the figure of St. James the Greater, known in Spanish as Santiago Apóstol or Santiago Matamoros (St. James the Moor-Killer), and the annual festival associated with him which is celebrated in the Afro-Puerto Rican town of Loíza every year. My project will reconsider the confines and understandings of Puerto Rican and Nuyorican identity as one that celebrates its inherited connections to the Islamic world. Ultimately, this practice-led project considers the legacy of Muslim rule in Spain on the formation of Puerto Rican identity and visual culture, in a way that is more overtly perceptible than it is in reality. In this sense, my project will also entail elements of futurism. It will also be somewhat autoethnographic, as I will be inserting myself directly into the visual aspects of the project and reimagining my own Nuyorican identity in this way.
Though the characteristically brightly colored horned and grimacing mask is perhaps its most recognizable feature, the vejigante does not just refer to the mask, but to the whole persona, including its costume, movements, and actions. In terms of symbolism, the vejigante is an interesting representation and exploration of identity. Of most interest to me, some have interpreted the vejigante as a symbolic representation of the Moors, an enemy of Santiago Apóstol (Saint James the Greater) and the Catholic religion in a battle between good versus evil. In this sense, I am interested in exploring the legacy of Muslim rule in Spain on the formation of Puerto Rican Nuyorican identity. This project will be a practice-led exploration which combines photography, mask-making, costume design, and illustration, in a series of self-portraits. My designs for the masks and costumes will incorporate aspects of traditional Puerto Rican, Nuyorican, Spanish, and Islamic visual cultures. As the traditions of the vejigante and its festivals in Puerto Rico continue to change and adapt to newer, more progressive generations, I also want to contribute to this artistic evolution. Ultimately, my intention is to create a photographic series that is in conversation with the legacy of the Muslims in Puerto Rican and Nuyorican visual cultures, in line with current art historical studies that are increasingly acknowledging the culturally hybrid nature of art production throughout history. To emphasize these cross-cultural influences, I will also overlay each self-portrait with text, which will feature aljamiado script (Spanish language written using the Arabic alphabet).
My hope is that this project helps illuminate deeper connections between Puerto Rico and the Islamic world, which can then further situate Puerto Rico as an entity to be studied as part of the larger field of Middle Eastern Studies, as well as encourage the appreciation of shared experiences.
For my project, the goal is to emphasize how Muslims and Islam—in addition to the already recognized influence of (Christian) Spain, Africa, and the indigenous Taíno—have helped shape the visual culture and popular symbols that Puerto Ricans and Diasporicans are deeply proud of.