Luck in Loíza!

Today was fabulous. We decided last-minute to postpone a beach trip since many of us are suffering from sunburns, and instead traveled to Loíza to investigate the oldest operating church in Puerto Rico.



It was closed (par for the trip), but we stumbled upon an even greater opportunity to tour some areas of the city with a local woman named Carmín. She works at the Centro Cultural de Loíza.



We learned about the tradition of the Vejigante, a masked figure that was once used to literally scare people back to church during yearly festivals. Now it's been re-interpreted to represent various evils (colonialism, sin, etc.) and is found all over the city of Loíza.



There were 3 other important figures having to do with these festivals: La Mascara, La Loca, and El Viejo.

From what I could gather, La Mascara is like the opposite of the Vejigante, supposed to represent "good" and be a warrior against the Vejigante.



La Loca is a man who dresses in women's clothing (complete with a fake bust and rear end) and cleans the streets for money. La Loca and El Viejo are usually part of the dances done during the parades in the festival.



El Viejo is an old man who dresses in his very best suits for the festival.



After a tour of the cultural center, Carmín took us to a Taíno cave with hundreds of bees and great big honey comb hives on the ceiling.



It was a little spooky inside... to add to the spookiness, a couple of the guys found a message in a little jar, tucked away in the rocks. We opened it, of course, and found a voodoo-esque message. We showed it to Carmín and she was convinced that it was written by someone who practices Espiritismo. It had the name of a woman, a former contestant in Miss Puerto Rico written on the top and then said something like "I hope she leaves me and my boyfriend alone, and anything bad she wishes upon us will be dealt to her times two." Oooooo ooooo oooooo. The timing couldn't have been better, because Nacho had just explained various spiritual and religious practices that have been blended with Catholicism, Protestantism, and Evangelical Christianity... Espiritismo involves worship of various spirits and special wise ones who can communicate with the spirits to answer questions about our daily drama. Espiritistas has been pushed to the margins and forced to practice in secret. We could have filmed an awesome episode of Ripley's Believe It, Or Not today...





Next, Carmín introduced us to the sister of Los Hermanos Ayala, men who design many of the Vejigante masks in town and also have a competitive Bomba dancing group. Loíza is an especially important and interesting part of Puerto Rico because of the African heritage. The town was made up of mostly freed Black slaves (founded in 1917, I think?) and has strong roots to that African heritage. Dances like la Bomba and la Plena originated here as sort of oral histories that could be remembered and taught to each generation to overcome illiteracy and cultural amnesia.





And the BEST part of the day... Carmín introduced us to local artist Samuel Lind, an amazing carpenter, sculptor, painter who has a library, his home, and a huge gallery/studio located in Loíza. He does fabulous original screen prints that represent the history and culture and life of Loíza, along with fantastic paintings and sculptures that capture the movement of the dances and the beauty of Puerto Rican nature and wildlife. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to wander around his studio, a two-story wooden building with almost all natural light, original art on every wall, and a narrative to go along with every piece!!



I poked my nose into his kitchen by mistake to find a gorgeous mural-size painting of what he called Tierra Mujer, a woman that represents the earth, the power of women, spirituality, etc. She is gorgeous, and he let me buy a smaller print of the same painting!! Here we are, together:



This is the kitchen floor directly below her (built by Samuel, of course). He often sits here to meditate, and he says that sometimes when he looks up at Tierra Mujer he feels like he is flying. :)



The city of Loíza was named after a Taíno woman (goddess or chief, maybe?) named Yuíza. Samuel said he met a Yuíza and decided to paint her... here she is!



I felt so, so lucky to have met Samuel and been welcomed into his home. His feminism and belief in the power of nature is inspiring, and he is absolutely able to convey that through his artwork. I got the feeling that he is a bit of a local hero. I hope to return some day, or at least remember him fondly as I enjoy Tierra Mujer.