ARCHIVO / Archive

This is our archive where we explore, contextualize and critique monuments found on our map. Just click on the post to read our team’s analysis. Available in Spanish and English (scroll down within the post for English). All pictures, unless stated otherwise, are our own.

Este es nuestro archivo donde exploramos, contextualizamos y criticamos los monumentos que se encuentran en nuestro mapa. Haga clic en la publicación para leer el análisis de nuestro equipo. Disponible en español e inglés. Todas las imágenes, a menos que se indique lo contrario, son nuestras.

Remember to cite our work. Predatory scholarship is deeply imperialistic.

Rafael Capó García Rafael Capó García

Monuments to Mestizaje and the Commemoration of Racial Democracy in Puerto Rico

In this paper, I argue that monuments to mestizaje (miscegenation) in Puerto Rico reaffirm the myth of a harmonious mixture between the White Spaniard, Black African, and Indigenous Taíno. This racial triad, originally conceived in the nineteenth century, was institutionalized in 1956 by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture to legitimize the reformulation of Puerto Rico's colonial status. It was meant to foster a consensus-driven nation-building project through a depoliticized harmonious mixture of races. I analyze ten monuments to mestizaje that privilege the white European root of Puerto Rican identity and demonstrate how their visual discourse sustains the narratives of racial democracy in Puerto Rico.

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