Puerto Rican culture is a Caribbean melting pot of Spanish, African and Taino Indian traditions that have brewed for more than five centuries.
What follows is a primer on Puerto Rican arts and culture on the island as well as the mainland.
JosM-i Campeche (1752-1809), Virgen de la Soledad de la Victoria (Virgin of the Solitary Victory) is displayed at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in Santurce.
Francisco Oller (1833-1917), El Velorio (The Wake) hangs at the University of Puerto Rico Museum in RM-mo Piedras.
Rafael TufiM-qo (1922- ) Goyita is in the collection of the Museo de Arte del Instituto de Cultura PuertorriqueM-qa in Old San Juan.
Antonio Martorell (1939- ), Myrna BM-aez (1931- ), and Francisco RodM-sn (1934- ) are among contemporary artists whose work can be found in museums, galleries and private collections in Puerto Rico and the United States.
Sculptors and Installation Artists
John Balosi, 1931
PepM-sn Osorio, 1955
Vejigante masks: The most popular mask style, they are usually of bright colors, made of papier-mchM-i with horns and fangs. They are used for decoration or worn in carnivals. Santos tallados: Hand-carved wood statues of saints or religious figures.
Mundillo: Bobbin lace whose manufacture goes back five centuries and is unique to Puerto Rico and Spain.
Julia de Burgos (1914-1953): Feminism and nationalism are two favorite themes. Her best known work is Rio Grande de Loiza, a poem about her hometown river.
Luis PalM-is Matos (1898-1959): Internationally renowned for poesia negroide, Afro-Antillean poetry, his masterpiece is TuntM-zn de Pasa y GriferM-ma, (Tom Tom of Kinky Hair and Black Things) a book of Afro-Caribbean poetry.
Enrique Laguerre (1906- ) La Llamarada, the Blaze. Laguerre was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Rosario FerrM-i, (1938- ) The House on the Lagoon, a National Book Award nominee.
Ana Lydia Vega, (1946- ) Falsas Cronicas del Sur (False Chronicles from the South)
Luis Rafael SM-anchez, (1936- ) La Guaracha del Macho Camacho (Macho Camacho's Beat).
Piri Thomas, (1928- ) Down These Mean Streets
Esmeralda Santiago, (1948- ) When I Was Puerto Rican
Judith Ortiz Coffer, (1952- ) The Line of the Sun.
RenM-i MarquM-is (1919-1979) La Carreta (The Oxcart)
Miguel PiM-qero (1946-1988) Short Eyes
Short Story Writers
JosM-i Luis GonzM-alez (1926-1996) En el Fondo del CaM-qo Hay un Negrito, (At the Bottom of the Channel, There's a Little Black Boy)
DM-icima: JM-mbaro or country music with 16th century Andalusian roots, sung by a trovadorwho improvises 10 rhyming couplets of eight syllables each. Musicians playing the cuatro, a small guitar, and percussion instruments accompany the lead singer.
Danza: Popular in the late 19th Century among the aristocracy, danza combines the waltz with Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Juan Morel Campos, 1857-1896, is the most famous danza composer and many of his works are still popular.
La bomba: A sensual bonding between drummers and dancers, first performed on sugar plantations; mostly danced today by folkloric ballet groups.
La plena: A rhythmic folkloric dance tune, popular in the 1920s in southern coastal working-class communities. Almost extinct, plenas have made a comeback in recent years, with groups such as Plena Libre and Los Pleneros de la 23 Abajo.
Other musical traditions:
Casals Festival: Spanish cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973), began this internationally renowned festival of classical music in 1957, after settling in Puerto Rico, the birthplace of his mother.
Rafael HernM-andez (1892-1965): The most beloved composer of popular Puerto Rican music of the 1940s and 1950s, including Cumbanchero and Lamento Borincano.
Noel Estrada (1918-1979): Composed ballads, including En Mi Viejo San Juan (In My Old San Juan)
Tito Puente (1923-2000): A timbalero, or percussionist, whose big band sound popularized salsa.
Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony (1968- ): By blending Puerto Rican rhythms with lyrics in English, they are introducing Puerto Rican-Caribbean music to a new audience.
Theater and film
JosM-i Ferrer (1909-1992)
Rita Moreno (1931- )
RaM-zl JuliM-a (1944-1994)
Jennifer LM-spez (1970- )
Benicio del Toro (1967- )
Miriam ColM-sn (1945- ) film actress and founder of the Teatro Rodante de Puerto Rico, based in New York City.
Chita Rivera (1933- )