For this installation I chose to create a fence that was reminiscent of the military fences that are still set up throughout the island of Vieques. I also replicated the Warning/ No trespassing signs used by the military to block out civilians from the territory taken by the U.S. Navy. I wanted to recapture the experience of having to view the beauty of our land from behind barbed-wire/ razor wire. This is what happened when another country came in and drove thousands of people off their land, fenced them off and used the land that previously fed the Viequenses to experiment with chemical weapons and perfect their military strategy.
The child featured in the painting created on a military tent is Yaurel, the son of anti-Navy activists, who come from a family of anti-Navy activists. Yaurel's father became involved in the struggle to stop the Navy bomb practices in Vieques after realizing that his two children, shortly after birth, suffered from chronic asthma as a result of the contaminants in Vieques' air.
The fence in this piece not only speaks to the demarcation of military property versus public property, but also to the idea of displacement, whether through forced military displacement or through gentrification as seen here in poor neighborhoods of New York City and as is seen with outsiders now coming in to Vieques to buy up the land and the businesses. The beach featured in the painting is Bastimento, where a group of Vieques residents (including Yaurel's family) set up an encampment to protest an attempt to privatize the beach for the tourism industry which is continuing the displacement that the Navy began over 50 years ago. Since my visit to Vieques last November, the protestors were able to secure the public status of Bastimento beach, but the municipality still has a case against the guest house for the damage of mangroves and other natural elements in the effort to build this place for tourists.
Like Yaurel, many Viequenses today suffer from many contaminant-caused respiratory illnesses. Furthermore exposure to the chemicals and heavy metals of the bombings and the radiation of the military radar keeps the cancer rates of Vieques residents soaring high above those on the main island of Puerto Rico. Although the bombings supposedly ceased in May of 2003, the Navy continues to detonate bombs as their so-called clean up process. As such the U.S. government attempts to "clean" their radioactive mess by continuing to release more contaminants into the air. These contaminants are then carried by the Caribbean winds directly over the center of Vieques island, where the military sandwiched the civilian communities, to rain down illness-causing contaminants on Viequenses. Don't believe the hype, before marveling over the next Vieques tourism ad stop to consider the well-being of the people who have lived there through generations of struggle, risking illness. All this in the name of protecting "America's freedom" through military maneuvers at the expense of others, at the expense of our families, at the expense of our children, at our expense.
The BASTA! Installation is but a blink in the long history of imperialism in Vieques and all of Puerto Rico, but perhaps it could at least inspire others to learn about (and act upon) the struggle in Vieques and the real effects that war games have on innocent people.
If your travels take you to Vieques, be sure to support local owned businesses to contribute to the local Vieques economy and not Trump or any other wealthy foreign investor coming in to exploit a grim history to further their wealth.
Y mil gracias a Ismael Guadalupe, Emilio "Millo" Figueroa y su hijo Yaurel. And many thanks to all the Viequenses who defend their right to a peaceful, healthy environment free of contaminants and who deserve to once again have the prosperous, fertile land and abundant seas that once blessed the residents of Vieques.