Raising Revolution

2004
Mixed Media on Canvas
48" x 30"
Collection of The Center for Puerto Rican Studies, CUNY

Raising Revolution, featuring a portrait of Don Pedro Albizu Campos in his army uniform, speaks to how the Puerto Rican liberation movement, and others, have subverted US institutions--or rather the institutions of the colonizer--for their benefit. As seen in this portrait of Don Pedro, who served as an Army lieutenant, in 1917 The Jones Act involuntarily made Puerto Ricans citizens of the United States, enabling their draft into WWI which the US entered that same year. Don Pedro's experience within the segregated army soured his views on the US. Becoming a revolutionary, aggressively opposing US imperialism, one of the things he studied was military strategy. And speaking of studying, the same Law Degree that he used to defend himself and the other Nationalists against charges of sedition was obtained at none other than Harvard University, where Albizu excelled as a student, served on the debate team and was proficient in 7 different languages. Another Harvard alum, depicted in this painting is Machetero/ Freedom Fighter Juan Segarra Palmer. Along these lines, also featured in this work are Victor Gerena, who also served in the US armed forces, most known for his involvement in the Wells Fargo Robbery and for being at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list ever since. Also included are images of Fidel Castro, a lawyer like Albizu who came to New York to generate support for his 1959 revolution in Cuba, but later kicked the Americans out of his island. Another familiar face is that of Che Guevara who gave up his comfortable lifestyle as a physician to spread revolution throughout the Americas and in Africa. Basically all the images/ text featured deal with revolutionaries and freedom fighters and the oppressive institutions that fuel the fire of their struggle.