51st State

1995-96
Oil on canvas
48" x 37 1/2"

This is an old piece I've kept hidden because technically I never completed it. At this point, it's a finished piece because I wouldn't go back and change it. I chose to upload it because of the 50th commemoration of the Nationalist attack on Congress that took place on March 1st, 1954. Before having painted Independence Day and Sin Miedo this was my first piece dedicated to that event.

1952 marked the conversion of Puerto Rico from a straight-up colony to one disguised under the term "Free Associated State". Two years after the supposed status change, four Nationalists walked into the "ladies gallery" at Congress and fired shots into the air shouting, "Que Viva Puerto Rico libre!". The large star on the flag represents Lolita Lebron and the rifles symbolize each of the three men that accompanied her: Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores and Andres Figueroa Cordero. The flags in the image are merging to symbolize the limbo association state, but the guns pointing towards the American flag represent the Nationalist Party's 80+ years of battling colonialism and never allowing for full absorption through statehood, hence the fallling stars.