This painting is the result of a photobomb, an accident that seems to be happening more frequently these days in which almost everyone carries a camera in the form of a smartphone.

I was moving around through an art festival in Old San Juan known as La Campechada, named after our first renowned painter José Campeche, from 18th century Puerto Rico. The image of a young woman on top of a platform posing as an 18th century Caribbean Spanish lady caught my eye, wanting to take a picture of her. Unfortunately, that’s what I thought at that moment, a large black woman stepped into my line of sight, ruining my photo.

Later on, as I was glancing at all the pictures I have been takimg that day, I came to realize that I have captured with my camera an image with an important meaning. Here they were, two females staring at each other, each a representation and at the same time descendants of all those white and black mothers that forged in their wombs our multiracial Puerto Rican identity.

To complete my concept, I created a textured landscape that evokes our taino past, deeply embedded in our soil but a very much present legacy in our unique Caribbean culture.