The Anticolonial Powers in Puerto Rico

Shellyne Rodríguez’s art is based on her work as an educator, writer, and community activist. In her drawings, she uses words, symbols, and figures to represent the intersection of various political narratives, creating a work that is also a tool for political education and the construction of solidarity. For The Anticolonial Powers in Puerto Rico, a work commissioned for this exhibition, Rodríguez was inspired by the religious illustrations of the Seven Powers that syncretize Christian saints with orishas of Yoruba origin. The elemental representation of the orishas evokes each deity without explicitly naming them, confronting seven colonial impositions that have shaped the current Puerto Rican social reality. In the center of the work, Carmen Reyes, a 96-year-old Carolina native, holds a machete, symbolizing resistance rather than the passivity and martyrdom represented by the crucifixion of Christ in the original image.