Jorge Soto Sanchez

Multi-media artist Jorge Soto Sánchez is recognized for fusing African and Caribbean motifs. Born amidst the urban precariousness of El Barrio, East Harlem, Soto Sánchez took refuge in art throughout his child hood. In 1971, he became involved with the artists and activists of El Taller Boricua, who advocated for the socio-political and cultural empowerment of Nuyoricans. Soto Sánchez promoted his Puerto Rican heritage by combining Taíno and Afro-Caribbean iconographies and reinterpreting paintings by Puerto Rican masters José Campeche (1751–1809) and Francisco Oller (1833–1917). By visually linking themselves to their ancestral roots, Soto Sánchez and members of El Taller sought to assert and celebrate their hybrid identities as diasporic Puerto Ricans. Gilberto Hernández made this poster for Soto Sánchez’s last major exhibition at El Museo del Barrio, an institution that, like El Taller, grew out of grassroots efforts to display Nuyorican art.