Archivos Subversivos, An Exhibition by Yasmin Hernandez

Art, Education, History

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What does the title represent? We’ll let the artist Yasmin Hernandez describe it in her own words. “With my latest project, ARCHIVOS SUBVERSIVOS (In English Subversive Archives), I pay tribute to the hidden history of Puerto Rico that has inspired my work for the past 15 years. Often referencing historical texts, images and documents in my art, this time I draw directly from the collection at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (located at Hunter College) as well as my own personal archives to bring some of these hidden histories to light in a visual format. The series examines the continued practice of the United States Government surveillance, the secret files that have been and continue to be kept on Puerto Rican independence leaders, as well as programs like COINTELPRO that seek to dissolve the independence movement!

Entering the centro library one can see her work as she describes in clear detail. In one area of her artwork she describes the important relationship between an American Ruth M. Reynolds and Puerto Rican Independence Leader Don Pedro Albizu Campos. (In the book “Campus In Bondage" A must buy! Describes the work Reynolds contributed to the Independence movement). Reynolds who was born in 1916 in Deadwood, North Dakota, she became involved in the case of Puerto Independence in 1943. Yasmin added “She was a North American woman who help co-found the American Legion for Puerto Rico, she did a lot of work on the movement, was a close friend of Albizu Campos, and one of the people who did a lot of work on the subject of him and other Puerto Ricans who were political prisoners! One powerful image that caught the eye of many who attended the activity was an artwork of the “Ponce Massacre” which occurred in March 1937. Hernandez stated “The piece was created ten years ago, when I was an undergraduate student at Cornell University where I was working on my BFA thesis getting Bachelors in Fine Arts. I wanted to show the reality of U.S. Colonialism on the island.”

Hernandez has a fine resume of work (www.yasminhernandez.com). Brooklyn born Hernandez attended LaGuardia High School of the Arts in Manhattan and earned a BFA in Painting from Cornell University. She recently had an exhibit at “El Museo Del Barrio” entitled “Soul Rebels.” The exhibition had portraits of poets and musicians whose work has served to expose injustice were created on eight panels of the Heckscher Theater doors in the museums lobby. She was awarded “La Herencia Latina at New York University in the year 2005. She was recognized for her artistic contribution to the Latin community. In 2004 she was awarded the Ramon Feliciano Social Justice Prize by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College and received an Outstanding Latinas Award by the New York-based Spanish Language newspaper, El Diario/La Prensa. To add she is closely working with the artists collective RICANSTRUCTION, (www.ricanstruction.net) she has worked with them on the publication of several political pamphlets and other creative, political, and educational initiatives.

Tony Dejesus executive director of the Center of Puerto Rican studies stated “This exhibition shows that there has been a long history of surveillance and persecution of the Puerto Rican left and the independence movement in the Puerto Rico and in the United States. Her work educates the public about this important history! Camilo Matos a City University student and a member of the Nationalist Youth of Puerto Rico. “This documents a history of oppression that has existed for years and the educational system never told the community about! The exhibition runs from February 9 through March 10, 2007.

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By: Ismael Nunez

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