Repeating Islands

On March 2, 2012, 80 Grados published an article by photojournalist Ricardo Alcaraz, in which he denounces the censorship of one of his photos from a photo essay he was preparing for the 25th anniversary edition of the University of Puerto Rico’s monthly newspaper, Diálogo. César Santiago (Global Voices) has posted an excellent summary and commentary on the article. He certainly sums it up as he echoes Alcaraz: “Puerto Rico: ‘Why So Much Fear of an Image?’” Santiago writes:

The photo in question is from the student strike at the University of Puerto Rico in 2010 and shows a police officer shouting to a distressed female student. Alcaraz states that the president of the university had concerns with some photos from the start: “These days the most recent edition of Diálogo has been published, the front page dedicated to the 25 years of the newspaper. On this issue two of its pages were supposed to feature a two page photo essay, with a selection of the most representative photos of my work for the last 25 years, but it was not published. It was censored by the new director of Diálogo, because the University of Puerto Rico’s president, Miguel Muñoz, objected to some of the photos included in the essay.”

This photo by Ricardo Alcaraz of the 2010 student strike was to be published on the 25th anniversary of Diálogo. The paper’s director did not want the photo used because of objections by the university’s president. Rather than taking the photo out, Alcaraz decided to retire the photo essay altogether. However, after some discussions between Alcaraz and the director, everything boiled down to the one photo from the strike (above), and Alcaraz decided to pull out the entire essay: “I was asked to reconsider; that if I took down or changed the photo, the photo essay would be published. But I refused, and told the director that if I retired the photo just to get all the other photos published I would be disrespecting myself. The result: the essay was not published.”

Alcaraz laments that this is how the administration has decided to celebrate 25 years of Diálogo: “This is how the university’s administration celebrates 25 years of the newspaper: with intolerance and censorhip.”

Alcaraz’s predicament has not gone unnoticed. Dozens of people have republished the censored photo on their walls on Facebook and distributed the link to the 80grados story on Twitter. There has been an outpouring of solidarity and outrage. It is not clear why the administration opposes the publication, and Alcaraz does wonder: “Why so much fear of an image? Does it really have so much strength? Does it influence so much? Why this insistence in preventing it from being seen?”

For complete post (in English) by César Santiago, see http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/03/05/puerto-rico-why-so-much-fear-of-an-image/

For original article (in Spanish), see http://www.80grados.net/2012/03/la-censura-y-la-imagen-hasta-cuando/

Also see Special Coverage of the Puerto Rico Student Protests 2010/11