Imaging the Great Puerto Rican Family by Lloréns Hilda;

Author:Lloréns, Hilda; [Lloréns, Hilda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 5.1. Photograph of a poster taped to a town wall featuring Tufiño’s Goyita to announce the Fiesta Negra [Black Festival], Arroyo, PR, 2009. Photo by H. Lloréns.

Tufiño’s Goyita (1953) garnered him the honor of being called “the Oller of the twentieth century” (Tió 2002, 52). Goyita is a portrait of an aging black woman wearing a red pañuelo [headscarf]. This image has become a national icon. As a symbol of power, the red color of Goyita’s headscarf also invokes protection for the wearer. Her wide, watery eyes stare contemplatively but directly ahead, her gaze transcending the present. Her deep-set wrinkles signal the experience of a full life. Tufiño’s Goyita evokes Delano’s “Tenant Purchase Borrower? in her garden,” but this black woman, flanked by the working class neighborhood San José is, like Tufiño himself, resolutely urban.

In 1954, at the behest of Ricardo Alegría, Tufiño applied for and later received a Guggenheim scholarship. Using the funds and time afforded by the scholarship, Tufiño produced the first ever-solo portfolio produced by a Puerto Rican artist, El café. In 1957, Alegría commissioned illustrations from Tufiño for the ICP’s third Cuadernos de Poesía [Poetry Booklet]. This booklet featured the poetry of Palés Matos, the father of Puerto Rico’s black poetry. Tufiño was thrilled to illustrate Palés Matos words, and the choice equally delighted the poet. Tió explains,

In A Festive Song to be Wept, the images move beyond mere illustrations to metaphorical essences of the racial and cultural realities of the Antilles. The mulata, that essence of syncretism, the lesser Antilles dancing like the classic Gracias, the masks and the caudillos, the rumba and the alienated tourism, the black dance, the voodoo, and all its magic realities. Tufiño graphically defines Palés’ Antilles. (translation mine; Tió 2001, 60)41

Among the iconic images to emerge from this undertaking is Tufiño’s Majestad Negra (titled after Palés Matos’ poem). Tufiño depicted the “black majesty” walking regally, black faces appearing on the edges of the frame as they witness her strut. A year later, Tufiño painted the black majesty’s figure again and gifted the painting to the poet. As in the first illustration, she appears with her back facing the viewer, her erect and curvaceous body walking away from the edge of the frame. He used carefully blended black, gray, blue, tan, and brown tones to depict her body, the color of her skin merging with her clothes. Her thin torso and elongated arms contrast with her round behind and athletic legs. She wears blue-gray high heels. Her head, which is turned slightly upward and to the side, offers the viewer a glimpse of her fine features. Her thin nose is pointed upward her full lips are demarcated against the lighter tones of the painting’s background. She wears an elegantly positioned orange headscarf, hoop earrings, a necklace, and bracelets. This representation offers a self-possessed black woman, in control of her body and sexuality. In the distance, against a building, Tufiño has painted a group of men. Some are drumming and others just stand.

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