VI.

Arts

Puerto Rico has enjoyed a long history of artistic expression. Many artists and writers have explored the island’s identity in their works. Music and dance also combine various elements of the island’s many cultures—indigenous, African, Spanish, and American. The Puerto Rican government has long supported arts and culture on the island and runs a number of artistic events.

A.

Art and Literature

The most famous Puerto Rican painter of the 18th century was José Campeche. Francisco Oller was a painter of international renown. Oller traveled to Spain and France in the 1850s, where he was influenced by impressionist painting. In the 20th century, Ramón Frade became the island’s most famous impressionist painter. Contemporary sculptors such as Lindsay Daen, John Balossi, and Rafael Ferrer have contributed to Puerto Rico’s lively artistic life.

A persistent theme in much of the island’s literature is the quest for individual and national identity. Puerto Rican writers often focus on political and social topics. Prominent 19th-century writers include Salvador Brau and Eugenio María de Hostos. Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, who also wrote during the 19th century, is considered the father of Puerto Rican theater. One of the leading Puerto Rican playwrights is René Marqués, who achieved broad international recognition during the 1950s and 1960s.

Poetry has played an important role in Puerto Rico’s cultural and social history. In his poem El Puertorriqueño (1844), and his later book El Gíbaro (1849), Manuel A. Alonso helped define the Puerto Rican identity. José Gualberto Padilla, known as El Caribe, and Lola Rodríguez de Tío hold honored places in Puerto Rico’s pantheon of poets. The most famous Puerto Rican poet of the early 20th century is Luis Palés Matos, known for exploring the island’s African heritage.

Raised in a largely English-speaking environment, a number of Puerto Rican poets on the mainland write poetry in English but place Spanish words tellingly along the way to reveal their deep concerns about identity. Pedro Juan Pietri and Jesús “Papoleto” Meléndez exemplify this trend. An excellent example of this poetry is Pietri’s Puerto Rican Obituary (1974).

The island’s first novelist was Manuel Zeno Gandía, whose first novel was La Charca (1894). Puerto Rico’s best-known 20th-century novelist is Enrique Laguerre, who published La Llamarada (1935) and many other important works. Several Puerto Rican novelists who migrated to the mainland have achieved literary recognition. Among them are Pedro Juan Soto and Emilio Díaz Varcárcel. Soto lived in New York City and taught English. He is known especially for Spiks (1956), a collection of short stories, and the novel Usmail (1959). Another novelist who has gained a wide audience is Piri Thomas, who is famous for Down These Mean Streets (1967). Rosario Ferré has become an influential and widely acclaimed novelist both in Puerto Rico and the mainland United States. Her novels The House on the Lagoon (1995) and Eccentric Neighborhoods (1998) were written in English.

B.

Music and Dance

In music, Puerto Rico has a long tradition of folk songs and romantic ballads based on African and Spanish rhythms such as décimas or coplas. Ballads are very popular in Puerto Rico, and the most famous composer of ballads was Rafael Hernández. His ballads, composed in the first part of the 20th century, continue to be widely sung in the United States and Latin America. Puerto Rican musicians on the island and on the mainland have contributed greatly to the creation of Latin jazz, and more recently to innovations in salsa, a genre of Latin music. Many Puerto Rican salsa musicians have experimented with a fusion of island rhythms and musical influences from the mainland, particularly from the New York City area. Among the most important of these musicians are Tito Puente and Willie Colón.

Puerto Rico also has had a rich tradition of classical music. Among the most important classical composers is Hector Campos Parsi. Classical musicians include pianists Elías López Sobá and Jesús María Sanroma. Two families in particular, the Figueroas and the Hutchinsons, have contributed several outstanding classical musicians. The most famous of all Puerto Rican classical musicians, however, is cellist Pablo Casals, who left his homeland in Spain and settled in Puerto Rico in the 1950s. Casals, whose mother was born in Puerto Rico, became the director of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and the Conservatory of Music. The Casals Festival, an annual two-week concert series named for him, began in 1957. It attracts artists from around the world.

Opera, ballet, and popular concerts also take place throughout the year. The Fine Arts Center in San Juan is the island’s main artistic venue.

Puerto Ricans are also dedicated to dance. In the island’s interior, the seis is the representative dance of the jíbaros (peasant farmers). It is usually danced by six couples, to the accompaniment of a guitar. The bomba is the predominant dance among Afro-Puerto Ricans in coastal regions. By some accounts, it came to Puerto Rico with slaves from Africa. Bomba is played with two drums and maracas, accompanied by vocals. The refined danza is popular with Puerto Ricans of all walks of life.

C.

Government Support

The government of Puerto Rico has vigorously supported the development of the arts. About the same time the government began Operation Bootstrap, it launched a program designed to enrich cultural values and expression. Known as Operation Serenity, it supported activities in all branches of the arts. The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture encourages the program and sponsors concert performances, art exhibitions, and literary activity. The Economic Development Administration (Fomento) makes possible the Casals Festival, as well as providing financial support for the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. The Puerto Rican Department of Education has provided employment and other opportunities for many artists and writers. The oldest cultural agency in Puerto Rico is the Ateneo Puertorriqueño, a private organization founded in 1876. It promotes the arts with prizes and exhibits and brings many kinds of musical and dramatic performances to the public.