Mid March 2024

Introduction

I’ve written about and shown images of street art, murals on walls, here in San Juan. In this post, I’ll show examples of mosaics, art generated by piecing together ceramic tiles. While not as numerous as wall murals, the mosaics add to the visual tapestry here.

Parc Luis Munoz Rivera

At 27.2 acres, Parc Luis Munoz Rivera is the largest public space in San Juan. It is named for the late nineteenth and early twentieth Puerto Rican statesman. It sits on land that was once San Juan’s first line of defense. A powder and ammunition magazine (El Polvorin de San Geronimo) still exists.

The park was developed in the 1920s, with major restorations in the 1970s and from 2000 to 2004.

The sidewalks along the southern and western edges of the park have extensive ceramic murals. I’m not sure when they were installed, or who the artist was.

A section of the sidewalk along the southern end of Parc Luis Munoz Rivera. Most of the mosaics show flowers and vines.

Here are four more examples of floral-inspired ceramic mosaics.

Here are two examples of animal life as found on the sidewalk along the southern edge of the park. I suspect these represent the ubiquitous Puerto Rican tree frog, the coqui.

Felisa Rincon de Gautier

Felisa Rincon de Gautier served as Mayor of San Juan in the post World War II years, from 1948 to 1968. She was in fact the first woman mayor of any American capital city. Know familiarly as Dona Fela, she started a series of pre-schools known as Las Escuelas Maternales. These became the model for the later Head Start program. In 1952, 1953, and 1954, she chartered planes to bring snow so the children of San Juan could play in it, at least until it melted.

A statue of Felisa Rincon de Gautier, located in a garden along the Paseo de Princesa, just outside the south wall of Old San Juan. She was known for her hair style, large eye glasses, necklaces, and hand held fans.

During 2016 and 2017, San Juan funded a mosaic mural honoring Dona Fela. It is located on the south side of Avenida Luis Munoz Rivera, just west of the park of the same name. The traffic heading into Old San Juan gives some idea of the mural’s scale. Note how the mosaic tiles extend onto and include the sidewalk.

Two images showing the mural under construction.

Note the characteristic eyeglasses, necklace and hand held fans.

The mural includes depictions of the handheld fans favored by Dona Fela.

One section the the mural refers to the Rincon de Gautier museum. It is located in Old San Juan, just inside the San Juan Gate. It is well worth a visit – Dona Fela was a remarkable woman with accomplishments beyond her time as Mayor of San Juan. In fact, when she was buried, in 1994, she was given the honors typically accorded a head of state.

La Casita

La Casita is a small building and associated grounds next to Plaza Darsena in Old San Juan. It now houses a bar specializing in Puerto Rican rums.

In Puerto Rico, each municipality has ceremonial artifacts, flags, coats of arms, etc. The walkways around La Casita have ceramic depictions of the coats of arms of all of the municipalities. Thus, the walkways celebrate the cities and towns throughout the island.

Municipalities (there are 78 of them) represent the second level of government. Each has a mayor and a unicameral legislative body, with all offices up for election every four years. Municipalities with greater than 50,000 residents are incorporated cities; those with a smaller population are incorporated towns.

Villalba

The coat of arms for Villalba, an incorporated town. Villalba is located in the south central mountains, near the city of Ponce. The coat of arms shows, on a green background, a small village, with six homes and a church. A star shines over the village. The border includes five groups of fig leaves.

Hurricane Maria (September 20, 2017) devestated Villalba. One nearby rain gauge measured over 27 inches of rainfall. The winds and rain destroyed the entire electrical system; landslides blocked roads; floods washed the emergency center building away.

Humacao

Humacao, located on the east coast, is named for the Taino chief Jumacao. The first chief to learn Spanish, Jumacao wrote a letter to King Charles I of Spain stating the Spanish Governor was not complying with the existing peace treaty. Impressed, the King ordered the Governor to adhere to the terms of the treaty.

Humacao’s coat of arms was designed in 1975. The gold represents the rising sun; the green the tropical valley of the original settlement.

Vieques

Vieques, the Spanish spelling of a Taino word, lies eight miles off the east coast of Puerto Rico. The island is about 20 miles long (east-west) and 4.5 miles at its widest. The original Taino word meant small land or small island.

Vieques’ coat of arms uses blue and white to represent the sea. A Spanish fort is depicted in the green rhombus.

Aibonito

The mosaic works are about 1.5 ft by 1.5 ft. Unfortunately, the coats of arms in the more heavily trafficked areas suffer damage, as is apparent from Aibonito’s coat of arms. As the damages worsens, plain tiles will replace the coat of arms ..

Condado

I noticed a new mosaic work on the way into Condado, the main tourist area in San Juan. It is on the retaining walls on both sides of the bridge carrying the Baldiority Expressway over PR-2 as it enters central Condado.

The artist, as identified on a plaque describing the work, is Roberto Biaggi Irizarry. The work depicts birds native to Puerto Rico.

The mural depicts a bird (clergigo in Spanish) endemic to Puerto Rico. Note the heavy traffic entering the on ramp to the expressway. This is on the wall to the right of the street entering Condado. The cars also provide a an idea as to the size of the mural.

A Puerto Rican hummingbird, as depicted on the left panel.

This bird is know locally as a San Pedrito (little Saint Peter). It is also known, because of its small size, as a “medio peso” (half dollar) bird.

Old San Juan

Within the last few years, a staircase in Old San Juan was redone with a ceramic mosaic design. The words along the bottom two steps celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the annual Festival de la Calle San Sebastian (Festival of the Street of San Sebastian). But the image on the upper steps calls to mind the story of Saint Sebastian.

According to a story I’ve heard, 50 years ago San Sebastian Street was home to a group of artists. They started a street festival (third weekend in January) to show and sell their art. The festival has grown. It is now the most important festival in San Juan. It typically lasts from Wednesday to Sunday. Seven or eight sound stage throughout the city are home to live music of different types – salsa here, rock there, traditional (bomba, plena) somewhere else. Traffic is not allowed in the city – pedestrians rule the days and nights.

Saint Sebastian (c, AD 255 – c. AD 288) was persecuted by the Roman Emperor Diocletian. According to legend, Sebastian was tied to a post and shot by arrows. He survived, thanks to the efforts of Irene of Rome. After his recovery, he went to Diocletian to warn him of his sins. In response, Diocletian clubbed Sebastian to death. A heart and arrows very often represent San Sebastian.

The ceramic pieces along the wall to the right of the staircase have the names of various sights in Old San Juan. The Mercado was once the main open air market in the city.

I watched with interest as the art work took shape. This is along the wall to the right of the stairs.

Conclusion

So here are most of the ceramic mosaics I’ve seen in San Juan. While few in number, they do add to the visual appeal of the city.

Notes and Sources

The images are mine. I use a Sony mirrorless digital camera. I edit the images with Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop.

Click here for a brief description of Parc Luis Munoz Rivera, and here to learn more about the remarkable life of Munoz Rivera.

See the Wikipedia entry here for more information on Felisa Rincon de Gautier’s remarkable life.

It seems each of Puerto Rico’s municipalities has a Wikipedia page. For example, click here to see the page for Humacao.

I learned about the endemic birds of Puerto Rico from the plaque on the left side of the mosaic. Learn more about the artist (Roberto Biaggi Irizarry) here.

This entry provides more information about San Sebastian.