Rafael Tufiño, La Plena

[music]

0:00:05.4 Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank: We’re in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Museum of Art, and we are standing in front of a massive mural that is a celebration of the people and the music of Puerto Rico. This is Rafael Tufiño’s La Plena painted between 1952 and 1954.

0:00:23.9 Dr. Tamara Díaz Calcaño: This mural links us to a very important historical moment for Puerto Rico. We are in the early 1950s, where we have the establishment of the freely associated state in 1952. We also have the Popular Democratic Party in power. Tufiño was involved with the Division of Community Education, La DIVEDCO, a government agency that was focused in producing cultural and educational material to be freely distributed.

0:00:56.0 Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank: This mural was initially made as the backdrop for a film celebrating the music of Puerto Rico. And you actually see Tufiño painting this monumental mural that we’re standing in front of. Typically, when we think of a mural, we think of something painted directly on a wall, but here, Tufiño painted on 20 Masonite panels which means that this is a portable mural. When I first stepped into this room, I was overwhelmed by how many figures and animals and structures I was seeing. But when you spend more time standing in front of it, it becomes clear how Tufiño has tried to group different plenas in the composition. And in some ways, it’s hard not to immediately focus on the horse that’s almost directly in the center.

0:01:41.3 Dr. Tamara Díaz Calcaño: You have this great horse that dominates the center of the composition. This is a direct reference to la plena Santa María, in which we have the tale of a demon that appears in a town of Puerto Rico. The neighbors of the town gather to protect themselves from this demon that is a combination of a horse and an oxen. It throws fire from its mouth. And we can see that reference to the neighbors with these three female figures, one of them holding a wooden figure of the Virgin Mary. In the plena, there’s a reference to how the neighbors ask for the Virgin’s help to protect their town from this demon.

0:02:17.4 Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank: Tufiño, very cleverly, is finding ways to lead our eye, and take us from one plena grouping to another.

0:02:23.6 Dr. Tamara Díaz Calcaño: Tufiño’s clever way of guiding our eye in the composition, in this case, from the horse to the upper right corner as we follow that tail leads us into the cemetery, which is probably a reference to la plena Tanta Vanidad, where we also find a great face of a red devil which appears in another plena called El Diablo Colorao, The Red Devil. And right there on the upper right corner, we have two references. We have a great fire that alludes to the song Fuego en la Cantera, which points to a historical fire in the southern town of Ponce. And we also have a reference to the Tintorera del Mar, which is a very famous plena that tells the tale of a U.S. lawyer that comes to defend the interest of a U.S. sugar mill. When he comes to the island, he gets eaten by a shark. And we can see that Tufiño has added that scene.

0:03:15.5 Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank: But then as our eye moves to the left, we’re actually seeing a personification of a hurricane.

0:03:21.3 Dr. Tamara Díaz Calcaño: This great figure references la plena el Temporal, a very famous song that was inspired by an actual hurricane that hit Puerto Rico in 1928 called San Felipe. We can also see some of that reference to the strength of this hurricane. By the feet of the great figure, we see people and houses sort of being taken away by the wind. The left side of the composition is dominated by a couple of scenes that relate another famous plena Cortaron a Elena. We see the walls of San Juan and we have this whole neighborhood, likely a reference to the La Perla neighborhood outside of the walls of Old San Juan. This plena tells the tale of a very beautiful woman who has a suitor who attacks her, cuts her face, and then the whole neighborhood rallies around her. They want to defend her and they take her to the hospital. We see that scene where her suitor is attacking her, and then we see the town gathering around Elena, getting ready to take her to [the] hospital.

0:04:21.7 Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank: Tufiño spent time in Mexico City. He studied academic painting at the Academy of San Carlos, but he’s also able to observe firsthand many of the murals by David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and Jose Clemente Orozco. Tufiño, when he returns to Puerto Rico, takes what he’s seen and he really does create something new here in San Juan.

0:04:46.8 Dr. Tamara Díaz Calcaño: In the case of this composition, and of course of the larger project of the film, there’s this constant reference to the everyday Puerto Rican.

0:04:56.5 Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank: We see so many figures here that it is really Tufiño’s attempt to give us a slice of life. And it’s important to remember that this is supposed to be a mural about music. This is related to the plenas but there’s also one section of the painting that very explicitly connects song and art. And that is on the rightmost corner where we see musicians playing their instruments.

0:05:20.8 Dr. Tamara Díaz Calcaño: It’s almost like all these plenas are coming from that little group. And amongst that group, he has added a self-portrait as the man in red. Another detail that hints to Tufiño’s desire to capture the everyday in Puerto Rico is his inclusion of elements that help set the scene. We have references to Old San Juan, which was a very important place for Tufiño, and the neighborhood of La Perla, where his maternal grandmother lived. And we also have that reference to the cobblestone streets that are also an important element that characterizes Old San Juan. And we also find it in the ice cream vendor and that reference to the Fort of San Gerónimo, which we can locate close to Old San Juan as well.

0:06:06.1 Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank: So Tufiño is making sure that we are rooted in Puerto Rico, that we are rooted in San Juan, and that we can identify the people, the spaces, and the music as an important part of Puerto Rican culture.

This work at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico

La Plena (1957), directed by Amílcar Tirado

Listen to plenas performed by Canario y Su Grupo on YouTube