Portraits
from the Trench
Thank you for visiting the Portraits from the Trench virtual exhibit in conjunction with the publication of Painting Rematriation: Reflections from Year Ten in Borikén in the CENTRO Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Olas de Memorias is a special issue of CENTRO Journal guest edited by Taller Entre Aguas (TEA), Black Puerto Rican microlab in the Community Knowledge Lab, an archipelago of the Diaspora Solidarities Lab, interested in expanding the ways Black Puerto Ricans gather and think together towards liberation, progress and action.
Part of the Rematriating Borikén Project, Portraits from the Trench is an on-going project documenting individuals on the rematriation journey. Inspired by the Puerto Rico Trench and the bioluminescence of the abyss, I paint on black backgrounds channeling the aesthetics described in the Rematriating Borikén Manifesto published in this issue. Written in 2019 to commemorate my fifth year living in Borikén, the manifesto envisions the rematriation journey as an underwater initiation, crossing sands submerged towards rescuing our ancestral and authentic ways. To commemorate ten years living in the archipelago, I began painting others on this sacred journey. Painted on black velvet, the portraits are reminiscent of the black power/ black velvet/ black light aesthetics of my Brooklyn childhood. Some of the paintings feature calligraphy excerpts from interviews done in preparation for each portrait. Testimonials to rematriation as a decolonial practice, they are informed by our daily lived experience. The portrait series combines individuals who have always lived on and cared for these lands; those who, for various reasons, had to leave the archipelago and chose to return; and folks from the Diaspora arriving to reconnect. Mirroring our community, they range from children to elders and represent queer, trans and cis folx. This virtual exhibit traces the project’s progression from its inception in 2019, through the 2020 earthquakes and pandemic shutdown, to the 2023 NALAC Fund for the Arts grant that enabled the expansion of the project with the start of the Studio Sessions interviews and the first portraits on black velvet. You can see Portraits from the Trench at CucubaNación my studio/ community art space in Mayagüez pueblo. Hope you enjoy and thank you for visiting!
In light, Yasmín Hernández
Click the images on the gallery below to see the full artwork. Scroll down for thumbnails with details and captions explaining each piece.
I Come from Life, 2019
Acrylic on Canvas, 20 x 16 inches
This self-portrait with my children at two and five, their ages when we arrived from New York to live in the archipelago, is inspired by the Puerto Rico Trench. The title, “I come from life,” is what my youngest son Josef would respond when asked, “Where do you come from?” Created together with the Rematriating Borikén Manifesto in 2019 to commemorate our fifth year here, it was the first time I was inspired by deep-sea bioluminescence. Previously I had focused on dinoflagellates of our shallow, tepid bioluminescent bays. The concentric circles reference sonar and an indigenous Taíno symbol related to water and the cosmos. These circles also reference seismic waves. Four months after creating this painting, the trench activated with a 6.0 earthquake. Soon thereafter the so-called “earthquake swarm” began with seismic activity to our north in the Puerto Rico Trench, to our south in the Muertos Trough, and around other fault lines in the southwest of Borikén. I understood then why we are called to know our archipelago beyond the geographical boundaries of la “Isla Grande.”
Rematriated Momma, 2020
Acrylic on black canvas, 18 x 24 inches
The first single portrait created for the series, this painting marks my mother’s return to her Borikén birthplace from Brooklyn at the end of 2019, right before the earthquake swarm began. Her first months here were disrupted by the aftershocks and then the pandemic shutdown. Inspired by the light refraction and sustainability of the comb-jelly, it includes concentric circles as seismic waves. Both are referenced in the Rematriating Borikén manifesto that I had written just a few months before her move and before painting this portrait. Superimposed over a map of the archipelago, some of the concentric circles mark the epicenter of the 1918 earthquake in the Puerto Rico Trench and the others appear over Ponce where she was born. A Brooklyn map is also included.
Rematriated Marta, 2021
Color Pencil and Digital Montage on Black Strathmore Paper,
12 x 9 inches
Marta Moreno Vega was my first virtual interview in 2021 when the pandemic shutdown delayed the interview process of this project. Marta has been a huge inspiration since meeting her during my undergraduate years. Again, I worked with the image of the comb jelly which as an intersexed organism has the capacity to migrate to new ocean environments and, singlehandedly and sustainably, set up new communities. As an institution builder both in the Diaspora (Caribbean Cultural Center/ African Diaspora Institute as one of several) and in the archipelago (Corredor Afro, Ori Micro Galería Afro), has brought communities together. This early piece is significant to me because I created it while recovering from an emergency eye surgery, still envisioning possibilities for abyss renditions of bioluminescent Boricuas. Bioluminescence, beyond aesthetic inspiration, has been medicine on my journey.
-Listen to Marta’s interview on the Rematriating Borikén Podcast.
Baby Josef as Angler Fish, 2021
Acrylic on canvas , 24 x 18 inches
"We set out with babies in tow in search of the violated womb because if we return to her, we can wage reciprocal healing."
-Excerpt, Rematriating Borikén Manifesto
This portrait of my youngest son as an angler fish emerged from him playing with a small reading lamp one night, holding it over his head. I took several photos while we giggled. Laughing, he revealed missing or newly growing teeth. I saw the painting conceptualize before my eyes, thinking of the anglers’ teeth. Many children first learn of the angler fish through the scary scene of the film Finding Nemo. At home however we often discuss all kinds of bioluminescent creatures. At nine years old, Josef began the underpainting for this portrait. The process of collaborating with my son on this work inspired me to include this line from the manifesto. It references the forced sterilization of women and the fact that I was my mother’s last-born child before she was sterilized. Resisting this history, I chose to birth my sons at home with a midwife before learning that my abuelas had been birth workers in Borikén.
Tentacle, 2022
Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 24 inches
“We repurpose venomous tentacles of abyss creatures as our weapons…. We master the survival skills of symbiosis…
Shine our light to secure sustainable meals or to repel predators.”
-Excerpt, Rematriating Borikén Manifesto
In my studio explorations, I have played with projecting images of bioluminescent creatures over my children and myself. This self-portrait is born from such a projection with the image of a bioluminescent jellyfish. The featured quote from the manifesto inspired the concept and title of the painting.
Inter-ocean, Cosmic Marine Species, 2023
Acrylic on black velour , 59 x 53 inches
"We, another interocean, cosmic, marine species of colonial refugees emerge like mermaids from the sea.”
-Excerpt, Rematriating Borikén Manifesto
Susimar, Max, Lilly, Leo, Janía, & Rosie, all on the rematriation journey, live in el oeste de Borikén. The first half left Puerto Rico and returned, the latter three moved to the archipelago from New York and Boston. These were the first people to be interviewed in the Studio Sessions at CucubaNación (my studio/ art space in Mayagüez), against a black background and lighting evoking the bioluminescence of the abyss. The abyss is a metaphor for navigating the darkness of colonialism, power outages and climate change.
515 (Gabriel), 2024
Acrylic and sequins on black velvet , 40 ¾ x 29 ½ inches
Moving into the 2024 Portraits from the Trench series painted on black velvet, I channel this aesthetic from my youth—black power paintings on black velvet, glowing under black lights. I also incorporated sequins simulating scales (though scales are not necessarily seen on deep-sea fish) and mother of pearl, all which catch and reflect light. This double portrait of my son Gabriel marks his age when we arrived, five, and his age at the time of our tenth anniversary, fifteen. We arrived in the archipelago from New York when he was five, in search of a school where he would start Kindergarten. 515 is also a reference to the day we moved: May 15, 2014. The ferocious angler fish with beautiful bioluminescent filaments is the female, a hovering, protective, fierce maternal presence. It is the animal he chose to have represented in his painting and reminds me of the many iterations of motherhood that I have had to embody through the transitions of the move, through hurricanes, apagones, pandemic, earthquakes and more.
Ser el abismo (Ketsia), 2024
Acrylic and sequins on black velvet, 36 x 30 inches
“Nos hemos tenido que lanzar a ese abismo, a esa nada, a ese desconocimiento, a esa incertidumbre tantas y tantas veces… ¿Como yo puedo también ser el abismo… ser esa trinchera?... la respuesta es ese cimarronaje…. Que se escapaba de la hacienda, inventaba nuevas formas de vida en un monte. Por eso para mi me llama un monte también.” -Excerpt, interview with Ketsia, 4/24/24
Likening life in a colony to being forced to face or lunge into the abyss each day, Adjuntas-born and raised artist/ poet Ketsia Camacho Ramos turns to the strategy of learning to become the abyss itself. Learning how to navigate darkness, when to go under the radar and when to emerge from the depths. Requiring one to descend from los montes to the urban centers to study or work becomes the precursor to the ultimate displacement of being forced off the archipelago altogether. Like I longed for Borikén back in Brooklyn, Ketsia, based in Mayagüez, lives with the desire to return to her Adjuntas monte one day.
-Escucha la entrevista con Ketsia en el Podcast Rematriando Borikén.
La rematriación descolonizadora (Javier), 2024
Acrylic and sequins on black velvet
29 ½ x 19 ½ inches
“Esa rematriación es una conexión con lo que somos. En ese sentido es un proceso espiritualmente, simbólicamente, espistemológicamente descolonizador.”
-Excerpt, interview with Javier Smith Torres, May 2024
Javier’s heritage extends from Borikén to the Virgin Islands. He returned to the archipelago from New York to further his education at RUM, the University of Puerto Rico’s Mayagüez campus. Now based in the archipelago, he is committed to the decolonization struggle. In his interview, going on to discuss the crucial contributions of the Diaspora, he affirms the “enormous responsibility that we have to this geography,” referencing the archipelago and the people who live here.
Quiero mi cantito de tierra (Max), 2024
Acrylic and sequins on black velvet
32 x 31 ½ inches
“Rematriación también tiene que venir del sentido de tu poder tener un espacio y sentirte parte, tener tu casa y también así empezar a soñar... Quiero mi cantito de tierra... es mi derecho y el derecho de nosotres estar en nuestro cantito de tierra.”
-Excerpt, interview with Maximilián Adrián, Summer 2023
Maximilián Adrián had to leave Puerto Rico following Hurricane María. He returned two years later, still feeling he belonged to the archipelago, but feeling he was a part of the Diaspora as well. In his interview, he also recounted his experience going through FEMA hotels in New York and the reasons why it is so necessary to have a right to housing upon returning. He also emphasized the specific struggles around queer and trans people and their need for a safe, sanctuary space to call home, and to feel a sense of belonging.
La bomba me sostiene (Janía), 2024
Acrylic and sequins on black velvet, 29 ¾ x 50 inches
“En mis años de (re)matriar en esta tierra, he podido describer montes, costas y horizontes que mi abuela misma no pudo apreciar. Es ahí en esos momentos cuando observo un atardecer, cuando me sumerjo en un mar turquesa, cuando me acaricia la brisa de los montes es que descubro que mis ancestres tuvieron que irse para yo econtrarme aquí.” -Excerpt, interview with Janía, summer 2023
In Janía’s own words: I was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. I moved to Borikén when I was eleven years old. Although I’ve been living in Borikén for thirteen years, it wasn’t until I was twenty-three years old that I came to acknowledge and understand that here is where I needed to be. That’s when my rematriation started; the moment I decided that even though living on this tropi-colonia (and all that it implies) has not been easy, I couldn’t see myself wanting to be anywhere else. Being the only person of my immediate family that lives, survives and resists on this archipelago may be a burden for others, but is a purpose for me.
Regresar a tu raíz (Susimar), 2024
Acrylic and sequins on black velvet, 47 ½ x 30 inches
“Rematriar es regresar a tu raíz para sanar, sanarlo todo, el pasado con el presente y el futuro.” -Excerpt, interview with Susimar González Martínez, Summer 2023
This image is taken from Susi’s Studio Session interview. She arrived wearing this spectacular skirt which created all sorts of effects with the nearby black light. I chose this pose with her fists on her hips, that she naturally took during her interview, because together with the skirt, it reminded me of madamas, ancestral spirit guides whose presence and images I grew up with in my family. Having studied in the archipelago and in Brazil towards a pharmaceutical degree, after living in South Carolina for several years, Susi returned to Borikén following Hurricane María. Originally from Toa Alta, she now runs a farm in Moca, committing to her love of plants and teaching traditional, ancestral farming practices. Susi chose deep-sea coral as her featured abyss organism which in some cases resemble plants.
Arrival (Myrna), 2024
Acrylic and sequins on black velvet, 30 x 20 ½ inches
“My arrival happened before the arrival... Llamado is the feeling that some of us who rematriate experience when we know, by any means necessary, we must get here and that if we don’t a part of us will die.” -Excerpt, interview with Myrna Cabán Lezcano February 2024
Myrna is a community herbalist, educator, cultural organizer and the creator of Sánate Boricua, a collective working to bring ancestral medicine, healing clinics and wellness workshops to our people in el oeste de Borikén. At the time of our interview, Myrna had just completed her first year in the archipelago and was able to provide insight from a very fresh perspective from the Diaspora and the impact of her observations of life in the archipelago. Within that first year, Sánate Boricua was already up and running, offering spaces for collective healing practices.
Reclaiming the Matriarchal (Meli), 2024
Acrylic and sequins on black velvet
29 ½ x 19 ½ inches
“The difference between repatriation and rematriation is that focus on reclaiming or restoring the matriarchal wisdom.”
-Excerpt, Interview with Melissa Rosario, March 2024
One of the early voices lifting the term rematriation in the archipelago, Melissa, originally from New York, is the author of Beyond Disaster: Building Collective Futures in Puerto Rico and co-founder and co-director of CEPA, a healing justice project committed to decolonization. Meli’s interview did not take place at my studio but at la Casa Taller de CEPA en Río Piedras before a large Palestinian flag and surrounded by all the ancestral plants that they themselves have planted. Working with embodied practices and the reinserting of one’s body back in the ancestral lands, as Meli describes it, I was struck by the oasis they had forged in the middle of an urban area. CEPA hosts solidarity visits for folks from the Diaspora committed to healing as a liberation practice and wishing for a space to reconnect and build in the archipelago.
I’d Rather Be in the Womb (Rosie), 2024
Acrylic and sequins on black velvet
48 x 29 ½ inches
“I’d rather be in the womb than be taken from the womb. I’d rather be in the womb of the ocean than be taken on top of the ocean on a boat that spills oil.
It was the water that drew me here.”
-Excerpt from interview with Rosie Díaz, Summer 2023
Born and raised in the Bronx, Rosie has been living in the archipelago for over thirty years. Back when she lived in Seattle, an accident left her unable to walk. With the help of a massage therapist, she fully recovered. Inspired to become a massage therapist too, she moved to the archipelago to bring her healing practice to her people. She credits the waters off Playa Jobos in Isabela as luring her here, where she continues her love for dancing and playing bomba and teaches yoga. Rosie has been a consistent presence in my family’s life throughout my rematriation journey and has also helped my mother with her transition here.