Relaciones internacionales.indb - HOMINES

LIZETTE LUGO
STRINGS ATTACHED
SELF-PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST
FROM PUERTO RICO*
Lizette Lugo**
I am the daughter of an isolated land, a beautiful island, colonized
for more than 500 years.
We Puerto Ricans share indigenous roots with Central and South America;
within our Caribbean setting, African slavery permeated our seeds;
the savage Spanish Conquest, not different from other European powers of
the period, gave us a common language and a rosary of traditions which
make us part of what is know as Latin America.
Late in the 19 th Century, when Puerto Rico was gaining some autonomy,
Spain lost the Spanish-American War and the island was handed
over to the United States as a prize of war. 100 years of colonialism under
USA hegemony brought about a brutal culture shock, a displacement of
the Puerto Rican people, inside and abroad, and a firm military control of
the group of islands that conform the Nation of Puerto Rico. One of their
various military installations is the US Navy’s firing range on the small
island of Vieques, which along with its inhabitants, has been consistently
bombarded for the last 60 years. As a result we live on the border.
Our particular political status makes us an outcast in Latin America,
our cultural identity and language makes us an outcast within the United
States. Assimilation has not been possible for the past 100 years and as we
cross the border into a new millennium, the international community will
not be able to ignore our right to be sovereign. Ours is a close-knit society,
family ties are forever, in the best of Spanish tradition, and national pride
has survived centuries of persecution.
It is to these issues that I, as a person, as an artist, feel strongly tied
to. With strings attached to my land, to my culture, to my story, to my
*
Conference presented in Texas Printmaking Convention and Meeting, Texas,
2001.
**
Renowned Puerto Rican artist and printmaker.
• HOMINES • Vol. XX, Núm. x - xxxxx de 2005
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