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2007
Detail, mixed media, site-specific installation
The Jamaica Center of Arts and Learning, 161-04 Jamaica Avenue, Queens
NYC
Images of installation details follow text
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.
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