Twentieth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This is a workshop of research that studies how the Puerto Rican jíbaro (farmworker and rural people) was constructed as a colonial subject through U.S. funded documentary photography in the 1940s. It proposes ways to understand 1) how art and narrative have been used to craft colonial narratives of Puerto Rican identity that play a significant role in governance strategies for assimilation and U.S. occupation, 2) the challenges this presents to Boricua/Puerto Rican notions of collective identity and decolonial futurity in connection to Indigenous experience of land and water, and 3) how artistic practice can be used to interrupt colonial narratives and create decolonial futurity informed by liberatory praxis. This presentation offers an understanding of how art and creative practice contribute to the creation of narratives of both subjugation and self determination that define collective identity and notions of futurity; and invites scholars, artists and art workers to understand and develop a reflective practice for assessing their role in these colonial dynamics when interpreting, managing, and creating archives, histories, and artworks.