The Construction of Nuyorican Identity in the Art of Taller Boricua

In the late 1960s, diasporic Puerto Ricans established the Nuyorican movement, a sociocultural endeavor rooted in New York City to assert their presence and civil rights. El Taller Alma Boricua (Taller Boricua) was a pivotal institution that provided a platform for artists of color, aiming to create workshops and exhibition spaces absent from the mainstream. Artists like Marcos Dimas, Fernando Salicrup, Jorge Soto Sánchez, and Nitza Tufiño, members of Taller Boricua, sought to express their Puerto Rican identity within the context of diaspora. This essay employs the theories of Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, and Michael Seidel, to examine the visual vocabulary and conceptual strategies of these artists. This essay reexamines their work through a diasporic lens rather than exile aesthetics. The artists’ common traits included reinterpreting Taino culture as a symbol of Puerto Rican identity and critiquing colonial history.