"A Visual Guide to the Heart: The Music of Ismael Rivera”, is a body of work that remains largely incomplete. The images seen are simply gestures or symbols of a people (Puerto Ricans) whose identity is constantly evolving. The fate of its people live in a constant limbo often being challenged by corruption, debated over legitimacy, and defended by those who are willing to fight. Having suffered over a hundred years of colonization, abusive taxation, military occupation, an economic collapse surmounting to an impossible debt, and natural disasters resulting in a mass exodus of its people. Puerto Ricans continue to live in crisis. This crisis is not only of land, property, and economics; it is a cry for dignity and it is a crisis of the soul. In these times of soul searching, the Puerto Rican is relegated to do what he or she knows best: to work hard, laugh, scream, dance, and play the music that feeds her soul. And so here enters our protagonist, the hero of our story, El Sonero Mayor "The Great Improvisor" Ismael Rivera.
For this new body of work I chose to use the music of Ismael Rivera as a vehicle to navigate the complexities of cultural identity. This allowed me to source and compose imagery that could serve as visual representations of the songs themselves. The three songs explored here are, Caras Lindas, La Perla, and A Medias No. All of these songs share a common message. A nucleus that is ever expanding. Ismael is serenading us with the familiar sounds and words that adorn the soul. He's trying to tell us that our culture needs to be preserved, celebrated and defended by any means. The song, Caras Lindas, speaks of the African ancestry of the Puerto Rican people. Ismael sings of the beauty of being black and how one should be proud of the blackness. In song, he is prideful in the face of adversity, aware of the hardships endured by being black, and yet he sings of their pure blackness (prieto), their way of movement, laughter, and dance as a thing of known beauty. In La Perla, he offers his Guaguanco (a style of song and dance that originates from times of slavery) to his beloved coastal ghetto. He sings of both pain and joy, as he offers the curative properties of his gift of song to ease the soul. He sings of a brighter future bearing in mind that we nurture and foster the well being of our youth. On A Medias No, a political protest song, Ismael challenges political greed. He states that he wants half of nothing and will walk amongst his people until they receive everything they deserve.
The images were shot in various places throughout the island but most specifically in Loiza, La Perla, and in Rio Piedras near the university grounds during the student strike. The music of Ismael Rivera exists in the soul of the Puerto Rican people. It is the type of music that plays at the edges of your mind that reminds you who you are, and where you come from, and why you should cherish and defend that place by any means necessary. Ismael was a patriot like his father and his music resonates with the themes of land and liberty. The beauty of giving back to the people you love through song. This work is dedicated to both his music and his message.
CARAS LINDAS
A MEDIAS NO
LA PERLA
