Today I would like to share what I’ve been doing for the past weeks. Beginning of July, I traveled to Puerto Rico to start my thesis research on Puerto Rican artist Lorenzo Homar. This thesis project is a substantial part of the requirements to complete a master’s degree in Art History at the University of Florida. In Puerto Rico I spent most of my time conducting research at the   Lázaro Library at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. Once there I reviewed resources and materials housed at the Colección Puertorriqueña, a special collection department that gathers materials such as rare periodicals and books, graduate theses and dissertations, all dealing with humanities and social sciences sub-specializations or topics such as folklore and culture, music, literature, sociology, etc. I spent many days revising printed materials and books dealing with the work of Homar and especially about plena music, which is a Puerto Rican musical genre originated in the southern town of Ponce

The Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte , the museum of the University, was another area where I consulted archival materials about Lorenzo Homar. Here I specifically got access to a collection of correspondence from the artist to friends, such as Dr. Efrain Barradas and the artist J.A. Torres Martinó. The Colección de las Artes is another department from the Lázaro library also that also collects books and archival materials about fine arts in general, but with a special emphasis on Puerto Rico’s arts movement.

My search for Homar took me to other repositories in San Juan, specifically around the historic area of Old San Juan. There I visited the Collections Unit of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP for short), a place that has a special significance for me because I used to work there a couple of years ago. The ICP holds possibly the largest art collection of the Island’s cultural heritage, which includes paintings made by renown Puerto Rican masters artists such as Francisco Oller, José Campeche, Rafael Tufiño, Manuel Jordan, Miguel Poe, and many others. Other collection divisions are sculptures, furniture from the 19th century, Spanish military artifacts, carved wooden saints (Talla de Santos), and the most numerous of all, their  graphic prints collections which includes many printing works by maestro Lorenzo Homar. This collection also housed prints from the Bienal de Grabado Latinoamericano, now known as Trienal Poligráfica de Grabado, which is an art competition of printing techniques host by the ICP, originally held every two years, but later changed to every three years. Here I was able to get photocopies of clippings about Lorenzo Homar as well as some information from exhibition catalogs. That same day I also consulted ephemeral materials and books at the library of the Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y del Caribe.

Located in the neighborhood of Santurce, the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico was another area where I consulted books and materials about Lorenzo Homar. Inaugurated in 2000, this young and full of potential museum holds a growing collection Puerto Rican art, stretching from the 19th century up to contemporary artists. The museum itself is a state of the arts facility where visitors can appreciate high-level architectural and artistic details such as Eric Tabales’ Sol Naciente Taino, a collection of stained glass windows located in the lobby of the museum, and Antonio Martorell’s Mundillo Mio, a gigantic lace curtain part of the Raul Julia Theater. The museum also has a small library section where I consulted some books and exhibition catalogs.
I can now honestly say that I made the most of my two-weeks to the Island. The initial plan was to peruse all archival and printed material dealing with the work of maestro Lorenzo Homar, specially regarding his prints of the Plenas portfolio. While I was visiting all these libraries and museums, a hidden purpose emerged during this time: to get in touch with what I left behind in December 2003. Going back to my roots was within my research mission, and inadvertently, happened. Slowly, I started to reboot my remote memories of all the things that I knew about Puerto Rican art and culture, and that I knew were hiding somewhere in my mind. I hope I can travel again to Puerto Rico, not only for scholarly purposes, but just to breath, smell, and relive the flavors and colors of my beloved island.