Repeating Islands

A yet-to-be-unveiled work by José Buscaglia Guillermety, one of the Caribbean’s most renowned sculptors, has become the source of controversy in Hartford, Connecticut. The Harvard-trained Buscaglia, whose work is on display in major museums and buildings throughout the world and who has received commissions for more than forty public monuments in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the United States, created a Puerto Rican Family Monument for the city of Hartford more than 10 years ago, and the fate of the  8-by-10 foot sculpture remains in limbo.  The group that commissioned the 8- by 10-foot bronze sculpture has disbanded, Buscaglia’s collected only half his fee and the piece has been stored in the Armory, the police museum, where it was slightly damaged, and the Learning Corridor, where it now resides. A date had been set for its final installation after Working Families council member Luis Cotto discovered the work in storage and adopted the project and now a heated controversy has arisen about the nature of its depiction of the Puerto Rican family that can send the ill-fated sculpture back into storage limbo.

At the heart of the controversy is a group of critics seeking to prevent the installation because “it oversimplifies and generalizes Puerto Rican history and demonstrates a lack of understanding of public art.” Interviewed by the Hartford Courant, many called it a conservative and stereotypical depiction of a Puerto Rican nuclear family and questioned its gender representation.  “ Why is the man the central figure in the piece? Why not the woman, who’d better represent the mothers and grandmothers who head so many Hartford families? And what about all the families led by gay and lesbian couples?”

“After a huge expense of time and resources, we are stuck with a monument that is in its very nature exclusive and divisive,” said Trinity College professor of fine arts Pablo Delano, who expressed concern over the monument from its inception. Delano and Natalia Muñoz, a Massachusetts-based journalist and granddaughter of Puerto Rico’s first elected governor, said they respect Buscaglia’s numerous artistic contributions. But they can’t support his latest piece. “I think he missed the mark with this work,” said Muñoz.

Told about the complaints, Buscaglia defended his work. “I don’t understand,” he said, pausing for so long I thought our connection had been lost. “It’s one example of a Puerto Rican family. But it’s also about the journey from Puerto Rico to the mainland and all the symbolism around that. I can’t understand why anyone would have a problem with that.”

Very few of those involved in the project over the last decade have taken issue with the work’s depiction of family. Former legislator Evelyn Mantilla and council member Pedro Segarra, both of whom are gay, agree that the monument doesn’t depict their vision, or reality, of family. But, they said, that’s no reason to oppose it. “The fact is that a lot has changed in the gay and lesbian communities in the last 10 years,” Segarra said. “Maybe this should be viewed as a period piece, a historical piece of art.” A suggestion that critics say shows how flawed the process for the public monument was. “We Puerto Ricans in the United States are sometimes too quick to applaud anything that recognizes us without thinking it through,” Muñoz said.

Meanwhile, Buscaglia — who joked that if they paid him a million dollars he’d include everyone’s depiction of family — is still looking forward to the September installation outside the Learning Corridor.  ”I’m 71,” Buscaglia said. “I’d just like to see the thing go up before I die.”

You can find the Courant article at http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/courant-columnists/hc-ubinas0823.artaug23,0,4423358.column

Photo: Buscaglia’s bronze bust of Robert Frost. When it was unveiled at the National Portrait , the New York Times wrote: “Unofficially the most important gift to the gallery since its opening…”