Puerto Ricans have been a transient and adaptable people ready to move around either for or against their will. El Barrio, East Harlem became Little Puerto Rico for scores of workers and families that live in New York City. When I was a boy, my family came and settled in the South Bronx, where I was raised. 

The need to advocate for the art of the unrepresented Puerto Rican artist brought me to El Barrio, with the mission to bring art to the people. Setting up exhibits in the community and in the streets, we exhibited the Puerto Rican’s art – the young, the old and the con temporary. During this era, a great movement to empower the Puerto Rican community was happening. With the support of groups such as The Real Great Society and the Urban Planning Studios, I and other co-founders of El Taller Boricua were given a space to establish art studios and create works. 

For the past 38 years I’ve seen the fruits of the arts and cultural renaissance bringing positive change and promoting the quality of life in the community. The divisions in the neighborhood have been many, but the spirit of the Borinken has reinvigorated and reinvented itself in affirmation of a love for East Harlem, El Barrio

. 

I want my art to be a legacy of this struggle. I visualize a prosperous and sustainable community with a distinct Latin flavor.