This image was suggested to me by my dear friend, Joanna Aviles-Soto. It is a chalk drawing (6 feet x 5 feet) and will be on display at the Kennedy Center until November. Then it will be "hosed down" to make room for another chalk drawing. Many people asked about the symbolism of the piece and there were "boricuas" who I didn't have to explain anything to. It was a long hot day but worth… Continue

This prayer was created for the celebration of the end of U.S. Naval activities on the island of Vieques by myself and Samuel "Koki" Paneto. We now share it with the wider indigenous community. Since we were studying the language by ourselves using resources from the Library of Congress, we combined some elements of Carib to get the grammar. This may not be correct, but it was a humble effort on our part to honor the ancestors.



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Tau… Continue

My language is not dead.



It lives in the rustling leaves of the ausubo, the tabanuco, the caoba and the sacred ceiba tree whose deep roots reach into the caves of my heart.



The yuca, maiz and batata still grow in the conucos where we once buried unmarked cemis to inspire the land to be even more fertile.



The sweetness of the guayaba fills me with memories of the joyous freedom and abandon of the time before the others arrived. The colibris, bijiritas and… Continue