Puerto Rico has a professional winter baseball league. This past year, there were five teams from around the island – the Indios de Mayaguez, the Gigantes de Carolina, the Criollos de Caugus, and the Atenienses de Manati, and one from San Juan. The San Juan team is the Cangrejeros de Santurce. Their home field is the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Santurce. We can see the lights of the night games from our balcony. The Puerto Rican league ends its season with a playoff, and this year the Cangrejeros were league champions.
Other coutries around in the Caribbean area also have their winter leagues. As in Puerto Rico, each league ends its season with a playoff that determines the champion. In early February, the league champions from six winter leagues play in the Serie del Caribbe. This year, San Juan hosted the series. This meant there were baseball fans from five countries here during the first week of February, attending the games and otherwise having a good time.
The Teams
This year, there were teams from Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. Colombia replaced the Cuban team as it would have been difficult for the Cubans to obtain visas in time for the series.
The series is intense. The first five days is a round-robin with each team playing each other once. There are three games a day – one at 10:30 AM, one at 2:30 PM, and another at 8:00 PM. As host, the Puerto Rican team plays each of their games at night (exception: they played Sunday afternoon); since Santurce won the Puerto Rican league it had the further advantage of playing on its home field.
Two teams are eliminated after the five day round-robin. The remaining four play on the sixth day, and the two winners meet the next night in the final. So the whole tournament takes a week.
New street art appeared in honor of the series.
The Venue
All the games were played at Hiram Bithorn Stadium, in the Santurce section of San Juan. The stadium can hold about 19,000 fans. In fact, the stadium was sold out the night the team from the Dominican Republic played the Cangrejeros de Santurce. The home field did not help the Cangrejeros; they lost 5 to 4.
Some History
By the way, Hiram Bithorn was the first Puerto Rican to play in the major leagues. A right-handed pitcher, he played for the Chicago Whie Sox and Cubs during the early and mid 1940s. He was a big man -200 lbs, six feet one inch tall, and threw with a strange windup.
Hiram Bithorn using his unusual windup.
Bithorn had an overall record of 34 wins and 31 losses, with an earned run average (ERA) of 3.16 in 106 innings pitched. He went 18 and 12 in the 1943 season, with an ERA of 2.60. He finished 19 of his 30 starts and led the league with seven shutouts.
Like so many others, Bithorn went into the military and spent two years in the service. After the war, he was ineffective, perhaps because his weight had ballooned to 225 lbs. He died in Mexico in 1951, at age 35. Bithorn was pitching in the Mexican Pacific League, trying to make a comeback. He was shot by a Mexican policeman who was susequently convicted of murder.
Portrait of Hiram Bithorn in the stadium bearing his name, Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Other Puerto Ricans have played major league baseball, including Roberto Clemente, Carlos Beltran, Ivan Rodriguez, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada, to name a few.
A painting of Roberto Clemente in the Hiram Bithorn Stadium. Clemente played for 18 seasons as the right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had a lifetime batting average of 0.317, and was an All-Star fifteen times. He died at age 38 in a plane crash as he was delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
A walkway into Hiram Bithorn Stadium, Santurce, San Juan.
The Games
We went to three games. We saw the morning and afternoon games on the third day of the tournament, and the first semi-final on the sixth day. The games were close and well-played. I’d say the level of play was roughly equivalent to triple-A minor league baseball in the states.
In the 10 30 AM game, the seventh of the tournament, the team from Mexico beat the team from Panama 6 – 1. The Mexican team showed good pitching and defense, and timely hitting.
A player from Panama takes a strike in his game against Mexico.
The 2 30 PM game, the eighth of the tournament, pitted the teams from the Dominican Republic and Colombia against each other. Colombia’s starter, a crafty left-hander, kept the opposing batters off stride. However, he was relieved in the sixth inning while the score was tied at zero. The Colombian reliever promptly gave up a double and then a home run, all the runs the Dominican Republic team needed. They won 4 -0, making the best of their five hits. They also pulled off a triple play inf the eighth, on a failed sacrifice bunt with two on and no outs.
A player from the Dominican Republic tries to bunt for a base hit. He was thrown out at first.
The Semi-Finals
At the end of the five game round-robin, the teams from Mexico and Venezuela stood at 4 -1, the Dominican Republic team was 3 – 2, and the Cangrejeros were at 2 -3. These four advanced; the teams from Colombia and Panama were eliminated.
I’m not sure how the semi-finals pairings were decided. It seems to me Mexico should have been the top seed, as it had defeated Venezuela during the round-robin. Likewise, the Congrejeros should have been seeded last. But the baseball gods thought differently, and the first semi-final had the two 4 – 1 teams play each other.
It was a close game. Venezuela won 1 – 0, avenging its earlier loss to Mexico.
A Venezuelean batter hits a ball into the dirt in front of home plate during their semi-final game. He was thrown out at first.
In the second semi-final game, the Dominican Republic team scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth and held on to beat the Cangrejeros 4 – 3.
The next day, in the finals, the Dominican Republic team won 9 – 3 and thus became the champions of the fiftieth Serie del Caribbe.
The Fans
Latin American fans love their baseball. They are knowledgeable, fun-loving, and noisy. And really noisy. Fans come with wooden noisemakers, various percussive instruments, and fog horns. And they use them throughout the game, but especially if something is happening on the field.
The Serie del Caribbe was great fun. I hope it comes back to San Juan soon.
Notes and Sources
See the Wikipedia articles on Hiram Bithorn and Roberto Clemente for more information on them.
All the images are mine except for the image of Bithorn in his windup. That is from the Wikipedia article about him.
The fiftieth Festival de la Calle San Sebastion started this past Wednesday. It is a street festival in Old San Juan named after a street – Calle de San Sebastian. Apparently, 50 years ago now, the upper end of that street was home to a number of artists. They started a festival as a means to sell their art. It has morphed into a huge event with closed streets, multiple sound stages, all kinds of street vendors, and huge crowds.
It almost did not happen this year. In view of the recent earthquakes that caused damage in the southwest part of the island, Governor Wanda Vazquez asked the mayor of San Juan to postpone the festival. San Juan Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez joined with the governor in this request, stating that the dispute as to whether the festival should go on was causing divisions among the people.
San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz Soho, herself a gubernatorial pre-candidate for her party, disagreed. She noted the Destination Marketing Organization had published ads stating Puerto Rico was open for business in all but the southwest part of the island. She said
“The Tourism director is telling visitors that the quakes damages are concentrated in one part of the island. You cannot have one government office saying something different from what the government is saying. No one has told the cruise ships not to come. We are going to have over 902 artists and power in San Juan has been fully restored.”
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz Soho as quoted in the San Juan Star, January 14, 2020, page 2.
So the festival started as planned.
Preparations
It takes several days to prepare for the festival. Soundstages were constructed around the city, traffic had to be diverted, tents had to be erected, and beer had to be delivered. Here are some images of the preparations.
The festival was stocked with copious amounts of beer.Fountains were fenced off.The King of Fried Meats set up his stand in Plaza d’Armes.Portable generator powered beer coolers appeared.A sound stage was erected in Plaza d’Armes.
This is the soundstage in the Plaza of Five Centuries. Castle El Moro is in the left background.
Enterprising bar owners used various educational tactics to entice visitors into their establishments.
Parades
The festival features parades. Some are planned; other more impromptu. They always have music and often have people on huge stilts. Dancing on stilts on the rough brick streets certainly takes a lot of skill.
A percussion and trombone band lead a parade in Calle de San Sebastian.This parade included several effigies, one of which seemd to be San Sebastian.’An effigy of San Sebastian (Saint Sebastian).
Aside: Saint Sebastian
Saint Sebastian was tied to a tree and shot with arrows by minions of the Roman emperor Diocletian. This was a part of Diocletian’s persecution of the early Christians during the third century AD. According to legend, Sebastian survived, having been nursed back to health by Saint Irene of Rome. Shortly after his recovery, Sebastian went to Diocletian to warn him of his sins. Diocletian had him clubbed to death for his troubles. Both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox branches of Chrstianity revere him as a saint.
Dancers on stilts follwed the effigies.A stilt dancer oo Calle de San Sebastian.People wearing huge masks followed the stilt dancers, one of whom is in the background.More people in masks. I have no idea as to who or what they may represent.Different day, different parade, another pair of stilt dancers.
Music
There was music everywhere, both on the sound stges and by impromptu groups along the streets
A small soudstage in the La Perla section of Old San Juan.An informal band making its way up Cale San Francisco.A salsa band performing at Plaza Colon.Musicians on Calle de San Sebastian.This group specialized in Caribbean music as influenced by African slaves and immigrants.
Food
There was street food everywhere – almost all of it fried. But is was good.
A cook pours batter onto hot oil. The result is like a garlic bread. Most delicious.Fried foods of various sorts available at the King of Fried Meats tent.
Random Thoughts
I’ve been to San Sebastian festivals several times in the past, though this was my first time in the last three years. The festival seemed a bit less crowded than I remember. There was more of a corporate presence in years past – bands sponsored by banks, hand out samples of medicines and other things, corporate banners in the parades. It also seemed a bit subdued. Perhaps that is because of the ongoing earthquakes in the southwestern part of the island.
The southwestern coast of Puerto Rico has been experiencing an earthquake swarm. It started in December and the U. S. Geological Survey and other agencies have recorded over 1,495 earthquakes of magnitude 1.5 or greater in the last 30 days. Click here for the most recent statistics.
Most earthquakes are small, recorded by seismographs but not felt. Here is a brief description of magnitudes and potential for damage.
Magnitude less then 2.5: Not usually felt
Magnitudes between 2.5 and 5.4: Usually felt, minor damage.
Magnitudes between 5.5 and 6.0: Felt, slight damage to buildings and other structures
Magnitudes between 6.1 and 6.9: May cause widespread damage in populated areas.
So far, the largest magnitude earthquake was a 6.4 which occurred about 4: 20 AM on January 7. It caused widespread damage in communities along the southwest coast: Ponce, Yauco, Guanica. We felt it in San Juan, about 70 miles from the epicenter. We also felt two aftershocks that same morning. Fortunately, San Juan is too far from the epicenter to experience any damage.
Earthquakes: The Big Picture
I remember, as a bored second or third grader, staring at the world map in our classroom. I was sure Africa and South America fit together. Of course, I wasn’t the only one to notice this. The German atmospheric scientist Alfred Wegener had noticed the same thing, in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Wegener mustered geologic, fossil, and other data to theorize that the continents were once connected, and had somehow moved to their current position. Click here for a short lecture on Wegener’s evidence.
The map below shows the current configuration of the 17 major tectonic plates. Note that the Caribbean plate adjoins the North American, South American and Cocos plates.
Schematic showing plates in their current positions. Note the small but important Caribbean Plate. See Notes and Sources
Pangaea – The Supercontinent
So what was the position of the plates in times past? It is now accepted that the super continent Pangaea began to break up about 250 million years ago. The map below shows Pangaea with the modern continents labelled.
Pangaea about 250 millions years ago, before the super continent began to break up. The current land masses are labelled.
Massimo Pietrobon wondered how modern political boundaries related to Pangaea. Using a good bit of cartographic license, he created the map below. The map shows a representation of Pangaea with current countries (which of course did not exist 250 million years ago) overlain. Visit the artist’s website here.
The super continent Pangaea as it existed 250 million years ago. The current coutries are overlain for illustrative purposes. See Notes and Sources.
The Break Up of Pangaea
By about 200 million years ago, the pates had separated into two super continents – Laurasia and Gondwana.
The two mega continents, 50 million years after Pangaea started to break up. Africa and South America are just splitting, Madagascar has separated from Africa and India, and the Indian subcontinent has started its rapid movement to the north north east, Australia and Antarctica have not yet separated. See Notes and Sources.
Plate tectonics explains a lot of disparate data. As shown above, Madagascar had separated from Africa and India as early as 200 million years ago. Lemurs evolved on that isolated island, and nowhere else.
Note also that the Indian subcontinent was separated by 200 million years ago. It moved rapidly to the north north east before crashing into the Asian plate, and causing the uplift that created the Himalaya mountains and the Tibetsn plateau. During its travels the Indian subcontinent sometimes moved at a speed of 5 to 6 inches per year.
For a short video of the plate movements click here. For an animation of the movement of the Indian subcontinent, complete with music from India, click here.
Plate Boundaries
It stands to reason that if tectonic plates are moving, they are separating (diverging), colliding (converging) or moving parallel to each other. It makes sense that earthquakes and volcanoes occur at the borders of plates. In fact, that is the case – for the most part. The schematic below depicts these situations.
Schematic showing effects of plate movements. See Notes and Sources
Diverging Zones
If two plates separate and the area of divergence is under the ocean, an ocean ridge forms. If the divergence is on land, rift valleys form.
A map of the earth’s mid ocean ridges. The North American plate is moving west; the African plate is moving east. New crust is fromed at the ridges by accretion of lava and, sometimes, volcanic eruptions. The ridges are seismically active, as you might suspect. Plate tectonics does much to explain the geothermal springs, earthquakes, and volcanoes in Iceland.
A nineteenth centruy British expedition used cable soundings to map some of the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. They were the first to find the mid ocean ridge system. After World War II, sonar and other exploration techniques provided greater detail and led to the idea that new crust was being formed as the plates moved away from each other.
As noted above, if land masses are spreading, the result is a rift valley system.
The East African rift sytem with descriptions laid over a Space Shuttle radar image.
Converging Zones
Plates moving into each other create converging zones. One plate sinks under the other in a process called subduction. If the convergence occurs under the ocean, a trench is created along the leading edge of the plate being subducted. Again, these zones are seismic and volcano active regions. In addition, earthquakes sometimes cause tsunamis.
A schematic of two plates converging under the islands of Japan.
Transform Plate Boundary
Two plates sliding against each other form a transform plate boundary. The crust is deformed and sometimes pulverized but, unlike the other two boundaries, no new crust is formed.
The San Andreas fault in California is a famous example of this type of boundary. The North American plate to the east is moving approximately southeast; the adjoining Pacific plate to the northwest.
The Situation in Puerto Rico
The Caribbean plate, as noted above, is surrounded by four other plates. Each one is moving relative to the others. That creates a complex environment. In addition, Puerto Rico might be on its own microplate, itself moving with respect to both the North American and Caribbean plates. (This is further proof to what I have said many times: Puerto Rico is its own unique self).
Map of the Caribbean plate showing relative motion with respect to the South American, North American, Cocos and Nazca plates. See Notes and Sources
As shown in the map above, the Caribbean plate, moving eastward, is converging with and overriding the North American plate which is moving westward. This explains the volcaones in the Lesser Antilles volcanoc arc. To the north, nearer to Puerto Rico, the boundary between these two plates transitions from a converging zone to a transform boundary. Note the faults that cross the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It was one of these faults that ruptured and caused the devastating Haitian earthquake (magnitude 7.0) of 2010. Puerto Rico is in the area where the boundaries transition from converging to transform. In addition, it is near the edge of the Caribbean plate. The fact that Puerto Rico is its own microplate makes for a very complex earthquake environment.
The recent earthquake swarm has been centered off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico. (Google earthquakes pr – that will take you to a USGS site with information on recent earthquakes). The Puerto Rico microplate is being squeezed from both the north and the south.. To the north, the North American plate is sliding under, in an oblique direction, the Puerto Rico microplate. The North American plate in effect lifting and moving the Puerto Rico microplate onto the much larger Caribbean plate.This creates the possibility of seismic activity to both the north and south of Puerto Rico. It is the southern fault that has generated the current sequence of earthquakes.
And the earthquakes have occurred in a so-called swarm – a series of events of about the same size, as opposed to one large event followed by smaller aftershocks.
So will there be more earthquakes here? Count on it. Just like it is a sure bet there will be earthquakes in California, or Japan. It is also possible that the volcanic activity will return to the Lesser Antilles. But anyone who tells you they can predict these things with great certainty is a charlatan. One has to assume the Caribbean attitude: Be happy, don’t worry.
Whatever the cause, the earthquakes have been disconcerting. Here in San Juan, we can barely feel them – they feel, if you were in a flimsy building, like the vibrations caused by a large truck passing nearby. Never the less, the earthquakes will not stop the SanSe20 street festival in Old San Juan this weekend. More on that later.
Notes and Sources
The schematics of the plates and actions along the plant boundaries were taken from the geology.com website. Visit that site here.
The San Juan Star, the English language newspaper here in Puerto Rico, published a month by month review of events that occurred in 2019. I selected a few from each month to illustrate the range of things that happened.
January 2019
As you can imagine, much of the year’s activities involved the Puerto Rico debt crisis. The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), signed into law by President Obama in 2016, caused the creation of the Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB). The board is itself controversial here – seven members are appointed by the President of the United States, and one ex-officio member by the Governor of Puerto Rico. The FOMB reviews and approves annual financial plans and statements for bond issuers, including the University of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority, etc.
A sub committee of the FOMB raises an objection to more than $6 billion in Puerto Rico bond debt. In addition, FOMB recommends that the government – owned public broadcasting corporation be converted to a private non-profit entity.
February 2019
The US Appeals Court in Boston reviews the language regarding appointments in PROMESA. Judge Laura Taylor Swain grants the FOMB 90 days to remove language deemed unconstitutional. FOMB Chairman Jose Carrion informs the Governor that the Board could use its sole discretion to manage Puerto Rico’s funds during the 90 day period.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain was selected to oversee the Puerto Rico debt restructuring.
Federal authorities review the Department of Education to seek information concerning the activities of Secretary of Education Julia Keleher.
Julia Keleher oversaw the closing of over 400 public schools during her tenure as Secretary of Education.
March 2019
Governor Ricardo Rossello Navares announces he will run for a second term. He then vetoes Senate Bill 950 which would have limited access to abortion. The House rejected Senate Bill 1000 which would have banned so called “conversion therapies” to change sexual orientation of minors. The governor then signs an executive order banning such therapies.
Governor Ricarado Rosello Navares.
The governor signs an executive order mobilizing the Puerto Rico National Guard to help ship goods to the islands of Culebra and Vieques. The freight ferry of the Maritime Transportation Authority was ineffective.
April 2019
Julia Keleher resigns from her post as the Secretary of Education. The next day, she accepts a professional advisory contract, at the same salary, to the Financial Advisory and Tax Agency Authority. After public outcry, she resigns from that as well.
The FOMB files over 200 lawsuits to recover payments made by the government in conflict with Puerto Rican laws and the U. S. Bankruptcy Code.
Two of the four shipping companies that provide transportation between Puerto Rico and the mainland begin talks as to a possible merger, TOTE Maritime would merge with the Luis Ayala Colon company. The combined entity would control 70% of the mainland-Puerto Rico shipping business.
A Tote Maritime container ship leaving San Juan. She is headed to Jacksonville, Florida.
May 2019
The FOMB decides to include several municipalities under its jurisdiction. In addition, it files lawsuits to recover $1 trillion from bondholders who bought bonds issued above Puerto Rico constitutional limits. In addition, the FOMB files other lawsuits against the advisory firms that helped issue the bonds.
Rosa Emilio Rodriguez, federal attorney for the District of Puerto Rico for the last 13 years, retires. She indicates there are ongoing cases involving corruption and ‘ghost’ employees in the government work force.
June 2019
President Trump nominates W. Stephen Muldrow as head of the Puerto Rico Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The United States Senate subsequently confirmed the appointment.
W. Stephen Muldrow. President Trump nominated him to run the Federal Prosecutors Office of San Juan.
Governor Rossello Nevares fires Raul Maldonado Gautier. He had been the Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of the Department of the Treasury. Maldonado had described an alleged ‘institutional mafia’, which included the governor, within the department. Maldonado’s son, Raul Jr, starts a social media campaign against the governor.
July 2019
On July 10, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office issues a 32 count indictment against former government officials. The FBI arrests Julia Keleher and five others.
The RickyLeaks scandal erupts. On July 8, 800 pages of messages between members of the administration are leaked to the press. Some of the messages were considered vulger, racist, and homophobic. One message called San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz  ”a total daughter of a bitch”. Others showed that the governor had shared confidential government data with people outside the government. Still others shared jokes about the deaths from Hurricane Maria.
Mass protests ensued. Puerto Ricans were especially incensed by how lightly Rosello Navares and others seemed to take the loss of life because of Maria. On July 12, over a million protested across the island. Old San Juan was shut down. Cruise ships had to be diverted to other ports. On July 21, the governor resigns as the head of his political part and states he would not run for reelection. On July 22, after 11 days of protests in front of the governor’s mansion, the governor announces he would resign effective August 2.
Signs like this urging the governor to resign were all over Puerto Rico.
The governor called an extraordinary session of the legislature to attend to the appointment of Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia as Secretary of State.
Protestors want no more corruption.
August 2019
Justice Department Secretary Wanda Vazquez, who had previously announced she had no interest in becoming governor, decides she would not relinquish her position after all. This makes her, according the the Puerto Rican Constitution., in line to become governor.
The House confirms Pierluisi as Secretary of State, but the Senate does not. In spite of that, Pierluisi is sworn in as governor. The Senate President challenges the process. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico declares the process unconstitutional. Wanda Vazquez Garced becomes governor, the third in three days.
September 2019
Governor Vazquez Garced states she will not intervene in the merger of Tote Maritime and Luis Colon Ayala. Two days later, she changes her mind and says she will intervene.
November 2019
Renowned astrologer Walter Mercado dies.
The FBI arrests Senator Abel Nazario, along with seven others, on charges of theft or bribery in connection with programs that receive federal funds. He announces he will run for senator as an independent candidate and completes the requisite paperwork to do so.
December 2019
Residents in communities along the southwest coast, especially Yauco and Guayanilla, begin to feel small earthquakes.
To the surprise of no one, Governor Vazquez Garced announces she will run for reelection.
Summary
So here are some of the events in Puerto Rico in 2019. It was quite a year. 2020 is an election year here. All offices will be contested. There will be political rallies all summer, ending with election day in early November. The governor is sworn in on January 1 and then the governor and her/his family walk from the capitol to La Fortalezza, the governor’s mansion in Old San Juan. I’ve been in Old San Juan for the two previous inaugurations – they are truly festive events.
More on that later.
Notes and Sources
The images of Judge Swain and other individuals were taken from the web. The other pictures are mine.
Most of the information is from the December 23, 2019 issue of the San Juan Star. I found other information in Wikipedia; articles on RickyLeaks, Judge Swain, etc.
Saturn was visible, bright in the western evening sky, from our balcony for much of December. One night in particular, it was close enough to Mars to appear as one bright star. As I thought about the two planets, I realized just how much has been discovered about them in my lifetime.
Back in the fifties, I suppose I knew as much about Saturn as any other kid interested in science. I knew it was a planet, the sixth from the sun. I knew it was a so-called gas giant, second in size to Jupiter. Of course, I knew the ancients knew Saturn and I certainly knew about the rings. I had read of, but probably did not remember, that Christiaan Hugyens, an eminent Dutch natural philosopher, discovered Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, in 1655. And I was certainly ignorant of Giovanni Domenico Cassini’s discovery of four more Saturnian moons during the period 1673 to 1686. I did not know that Titan was named by John Herschel in 1847. Herschel chose names for the seven moons (his father, William Herschel, had discovered two more moons) from the Greek Titans, brothers and sisters of Cronus, the Greek Saturn.
Facts
So here is a summary of some basic information about Saturn.
Saturn is named after the Roman god of harvest and time. Saturn is equivalent to the Greek god of time Cronus.
Christiaan Huygens discovered Saturn’s rings in 1659. Galileo had made observations of Saturn as early as 1610 but the poor optics of his telescope could not resolve the rings. Instead, Galileo thought he was seeing a ‘triple planet’.
The diameter of Saturn is about ten times greater than the diameter of earth.
Saturn is an oblate spheroid. That is, the equatorial diameter is greater than the polar diameter. Saturn looks like a flattened ball.
Saturn rotates quickly on its axis, completing one rotation in about 10.7 hours. It takes 29.5 years to orbit the sun. So there are about 1,006 days in a Saturn year.
Saturn is tilted on its axis and to about the same extent as earth. Like the earth, Saturn experiences seasons.
Saturn’s atmosphere consists of the gases hydrogen, helium, ice crystals, ammonia, and ammonia hydrosulfide. The last three appear as white, orange, and yellow, respectively, which combine to create Saturn’s brownish-yellow appearance.
Storms, visible as White Spots, occur in Saturn’s upper atmosphere.
Early Probes to Saturn
Three space probes have flown by Saturn; another achieved orbit around the planet. In addition, the Hubble Space telescope has provided multiple images of the ringed planet.
Pioneer 11
The Pioneer 11 spacecraft, launched on April 6, 1973, flew by Jupiter of December 3, 1974, and by Saturn on September 1, 1979. It returned images and other data from twelve instruments on board. It was the first space craft to fly by Saturn. Here is one image from the mission.
An image from Pioneer 11 during its encounter with Saturn in late summer 1979. Titan is visible below the planet. See Notes and Sources for information about the image.
Pioneer 11 and its sister Pioneer 10 are two of five space probes that have or will leave the solar system. In 4 million years or so, it will pass near the star Lambda Aquilla. Could, sometime in the distant future, the ghost probe be of interest to space traveling aliens? NASA prepared for that – each Pioneer has a gold-anodized aluminum plaque with information that, presumably, aliens can understand. Click here for information about the plaques.
The Voyagers
The nest two probes to visit Saturn were the twin Voyagers, 1 and 2. Voyager 2 was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 20, 1977; Voyager 1 on September 5, 1977.
The launch of Voyager 1 in September, 1977. Amazingly, both Voyager 1 and 2 are still sending data back to earth. See Notes and Sources for image information.
The Voyagers captured images of Saturn and some of her moons. In addition, the instruments on board measured the wind speeds at the top of the planet’s atmosphere – 1,100 miles per hour at the equator, with speeds falling off towards the poles. Above 35 degrees north and south, the winds change from the easterly direction at the equator and blow both east and west.
Images of Saturn
A Voyager 1 image from November 3, 1980, taken at a distance of about 8 million miles.The two moons are Tethys and Dione. Note the shadow of the rings on Saturn’s surface.
If you want to see a video of Voyager 2’s approach to Saturn click here. Six hundred still images were used to make the video.
Voyager 2 had a slightly different camera system than her sister. The image below, in false colors, shows details of two of Saturn’s rings.
This image, from August 23, 1981, shows is a false color representation of Saturn’s C and B rings, with many ringlets. See Notes and Sources for more image information.
Enceladus
The two Voyagers paid attention to some of Saturn’s moons on their flybys. The image below is of Enceladus. You’ll hear more of her in a bit.
A Voyager image of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, from a distance of 74,000 miles. Enceladus has a diameter of 310 miles. See Notes and Sources.
Voyagers – Still Working
Like Pioneer 10 and 11, the two Voyagers are leaving the solar system. After a successful flyby of Neptune, in 1989, NASA extended the mission so as to explore interstellar space. The two probes are currently beyond the outer edge of the heliosphere, the vast bubble-like space that is created by and surrounds the sun. The interstellar space outside the heliosphere is denser, colder, with more energetic particles than the volume within. Click here if you want to see data like current speed, mission elapsed time, distance from earth, instrument status and other data, all updated in real time. The Voyagers communicate with earth via their on-board transmitters; The Deep Space Network captures their signals. Click here for information on that.
By the way, Voyager 1 will encounter star AC +79 3888 in only 40,000 years. Rest assured – like Pioneer 10 and 11, the Voyagers contain greetings from earth. It is somewhat more elaborate than the plaque on the Pioneers. Click here for information on the Voyager’s golden disc.
Hubble Space Telescope
Although not a space probe, the Hubble telescope has provided images and data from Saturn. The space shuttle Discovery carried the Hubble into low earth orbit on April 24, 1990, and deployed it the next day. It has been serviced in orbit five times; each time it was drawn into the bay of a space shuttle and repaired and upgraded before redeployment.
The Hubble’s designer expected the telescope to last 15 years. It has been gathering images for more than 19 years now and is expected to last until 2025 or so. NASA will augment and then replace the Hubble with the James Webb Space Telescope, now scheduled for launch on March 30, 2021. Click here for information about that mission.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Saturn on June 20, 2019. It is part of a long term study to observe weather patterns on the gas giants by comparing images taken over time. See Noted and Sources.
Cassini-Hyugens
The Cassini-Hyugens probe lifted off from Cape Canaveral the night of October 15, 1997. There were really two probes: the Cassini, a NASA endeavor, was to orbit Saturn. It carried the Huygens probe, created by the European Space Agency, designed to land on the surface of Titan. For a video of the launch click here.
Getting to Saturn is not a simple task. It took seven years, with two gravitational boosts from Venus and one the the earth-moon system. The route also included a fly by of Jupiter,
Schematic representation of Cassini-Huygens route to Saturn.
The above schematic does not capture the relative motions of the planets as they orbit the sun. For an animation that does, click here.
NASA controllers switched on some of the probes instruments at each flyby, both to test them and to gather data. For example, one set of instruments listened for lightning on Venus – none found.
The Cassini-Hyugens probe entered orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. On December 25, 2004, the Hyugens separated from Cassini and, with only a wake-up timer working on board, floated through space towards Titan. This phase lasted 22 days. Hyugens encountered Titan’s atmosphere on January 14. The wake-up timer revived all the instruments on board; parachutes deployed; and the probe settled though Titan’s atmosphere. The probe landed on Titan 2 hours and 30 minutes after entering the atmosphere. The Huygens transmitted data for another hour and twelve minutes after landing. Unfortunately, a software error caused 350 images to be lost – 350 were transmitted rather than the planned 700.
Titan
The Huygens probe, and subsequent observations from Cassini, showed a moon with ephemeral rivers, seasonal lakes, ice, and rain – but of methane, not water.The next image created from several images during the descent, appearr to show a dendritic river channel.
Image from the Huygens probe as it descended through Titan’s atmosphere just before a surface landing. See Notes and Sources.
I’ve written about Titan before, in an earlier post. Warning: That post has some equations. Trust me, you can read it without worrying about the math. And it does have poetry. Check it out here.
In this false-color, infrared image, the sun is glinting off lakes of liquid methane in the north polar region of Titan. Image acquired by Cassini in 2017
Enceladus
Recall that one of the Voyagers acquired images of Enceladus (see above). Cassini found that Enceladus (Saturn’s sixth largest moon) was full of surprises. It is coated by clean ice, which reflects most of the incident light, and which covers liquid, salty water. In addition, jets of icy water gush out into space.
Plumes of water mixed with carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and simple organic molecules. On one of her flybys, Cassini was only 120 miles abouve the surface.
Saturn
Cassini returned stunning images of Saturn and her moons. One of Saturn’s most perplexing features is a hexagonal structure near the north poles, in which storms can be observed. For a video showing storms within the hexagon, click here.
The hexagonal feature surrounding Saturn’s north pole.
A back lit Saturn with earth visible near the rings.
Cassini acquired this image from behind (i.e., farther from the sun than) Saturn. Earth is visible as a pale blue dot.
The Cassini, like the two Voyagers and the Hubble, lasted longer than expected. In fact, NASA extended Cassini’s mission twice. Finally, in 2017, as its propellants were running out, it was put into a series of orbits that ended with a fiery plunge into Saturn’s upper atmosphere. Click here for more information on Cassini’s so-called Grand Finale.
The New Age of Discovery
Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493, during what is known (by Europeans anyways) as the Age of Exploration. I submit the exploration of Saturn (and Mercury and Venus and Mars, etc.) show we are in a new, mostly unappreciated, age of exploration.
Some might say I’m too limited in this – these discoveries are the inevitable continuation of the scientific revolution. In his book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari speculates on the future of Homo sapiens. In his last chapter, he focuses on biomedical issues. He wonders if humans will bio-engineer themselves right out of existence and, if so, what will replace them.
I don’t know about that. I do know Saturn was a bright presence in the early evening sky a few weeks ago, and it was fun to look at it and think about how much has been learned about it and her sister planets.
Notes and Sources
All of the images are from NASA-sponsored websites and are thus in the public domain. To get to these sites, google Voyager 1 mission, or Cassini mission, or similar. The search results will include the NASA sites.
Harrari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Harper Perennial, 2018 (Paperback edition). Highly recommended.
The featured image (the one above the title) was taken by Cassini two days before it burned up in Saturn’s atmosphere.
My time here in San Juan is getting short. I’ll soon be heading back up north. I thought I’d share a few images I’ve collected, in no particular order and with little or no commentary. I’ve done minor editing on all of them; some have received a more complete treatment.
More Faces
I’m intrigued by the art work I see on walls in some neighborhoods, especially the works depicting faces. Here are a few of them.
A face (of African origin?) on a wall in Santurce, near Condado.Woman with Scarf, in Miramar. A religious figure overlooking his Miramar parish. He must have been a beloved member of his community. Face on a wall along Avenida Juan Ponce de Leon in Santurce.A fanciful face along Calle San Agustin in the Puerta de Tierra neighborhood. A face somewhere in Santurce. The Spanish means “Suck on this” or “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.” I’m not sure if there is a political statement here.
Street Art, Not Wall Art
Not all street art is wall art. Check out this example of street art.
I found this vehicle on a side street in Santurce.
Nature
Full moon setting over Old San Juan. Surf in Pinones. I took the color original and converted it to black and white then played around with the tone and contrast.
Maps
I enjoy poring over maps. Apparently an artist in Pinones does as well.
Map of Caribbean on wall in Pinones.
Wildlife
Consider the shark in the bottle.
The Shark in the Bottle. He lives in the Miramar neighborhood.
Miscellaneous
I’m not sure of the cultural reference, if any, in the next two.
Can anyone help me with this one? Or this one?
Check back for more. Maybe I’ll do some image editing over the summer and add a new post or two. You just never know.
Notes and Sources
These are my images, edited to a greater of lesser extent in Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop.
The Ironman 70.3 returned to San Juan for Saint Patrick’s Day. More then 900 athletes from North and South America (and a few from Europe) participated in the swim – bike – run competition. The event is in reality a half – Ironman, with a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride, and a half-marathon to finish. The events are twice as long in a full Ironman.
I live about a block away from where many of the race activities occur, so it is an easy task for me to take pictures at various points along the course. I’ll share some of them in this post.
The Start
The first leg of the triathlon is the swim. The athletes start in groups according to age and gender at five minute intervals. The elite men and women go in the first two groups. The swim is in the Laguna de Condodo. The start is at the Condado end of the Puente dos Hermanos, the bridge of the two brothers.
Starters in three different groups. The colored swim caps identify groups classified by age and gender.
The groups are called into the water at five minutes intervals and begin their swim when a horn goes off.
The Swim
The waters in the Laguna were warm (about 78 degrees F) and calm. Volunteers in kayaks watched over the swimmers who were guided over the course by a series of orange floats along the route.
One group is in the water waiting to start. You can see the splashes of two groups that started earlier. The elite men and women are at the right starting to come back towards the bridge. A swimmer as he goes under the Puentes dos Hermanos,
The Swim – Bike Transition
The swimmers use a ramp to leave the water. They then run about a quarter of a mile to where the bikes are stored. The athletes run with their bikes for about seventy five yards before they can mount and start the 56 mile ride.
Finished with the swim, a competitor leaves the water and starts towards the bike storage area.Many of the athletes ran barefoot from the ramp to pick up their bike.Biking shoes on, an athlete heads towards the bike mount area, about seventy five yards away.Athletes heading towards the bike mount zone.
Bike Mount and Start
The riders had to reach a line before they could mount their bikes, They then biked up a small hill to leave the park and head towards Dorado and back.
Two bikers starting their ride. I bet the bikes cost on average about $3,000 apiece. For a thousand athletes, that means the bikes were worth nearly three million dollars.
Bike Finish, Dismount and Run Start
It was a great day for a bike ride. There were no showers and the wind was not a factor. The riders came back into the park, dismounted, went to the bike corral, put on their running shoes and started the half – marathon.
Three bikers ending their ride.Bikers dismounting and heading to the bike storage area. They will don their running shoes and start the half marathon.
In terms of my interest in getting pictures of the event, the run is the least interesting. I mean, how many pictures can you take of runners grimacing with pain? So I’ll show only this one.
The Results
This year, for the first time I can remember, athletes from the United States won both the men’s and women’s competitions.
Cameron Hackett did the swim in just over 25 minutes, the bike ride in two hours and twelve minutes, and the run in just under an hour and a half. His total time was four hours, eleven minutes, and thirty nine seconds. Christopher Portugal Reibel, from Peru, finished second about four and a half minutes behind Hackett.
Heather A. Jackson crushed her opponents. With a total time of four hours and nineteen minutes, she beat Carolina Dementiev of Panama by nearly 32 minutes.
You can click here to see the full list of participants and results.
It was a great way for me to spend St. Patrick’s Day, especially since later that afternoon we went to a friends apartment for a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner. And we did not once have to worry about snow flurries.
Notes and Sources
The images are all mine, edited with Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop.
In this post, I’ll show a few more examples of San Juan street art arranged by themes. My organizational scheme is rudimentary – I’m sure there are other ways to organize and display the works that I see. This is a follow-up to an earlier post – click here to see that one.
Foliage
Here are a few examples of street art dominated by foliage. Some are fanciful, some just fun, and I’m not sure about others. The first is on a piece of plywood protecting a building being remodeled on Calle Loiza. This area is undergoing rapid gentrification. In the last year, an Irish Bar and a Korean barbeque opened in that neighborhood. I wonder what kind of establishment will be put in this building – maybe a flower shop?
Flower on plywood protecting job site on Calle Loiza, Santurce.
Here is another example, this time from along Avenida Fernando Juncos.
A wall flower along Avenida Fernandez Juncos, in Santurce.
Here is another example from that same neighborhood. Are they wall flowers or exotic dancers?
Flowers along Avenida Fernando Juncos. Or are they dancers?
Flowers or females? Here is another example, this time from Condado, illustrating the connection. This is on a shutter that was pulled down over Pinky’s, once a popular breakfast place. The space is now a Chinese dumpling restaurant.
Flowers or females? Street art in Condado.
Here is one last example, from near the Placita de Mercado in Santurce. The red background is unusual – I haven’t noticed many examples that use much red at all. I wonder why. The hand reaching through the wall is also unusual. Sad to day, this work has been defaced.
Wall art along a side street near the Placita de Mercado in Santurce. It has recently been defaced.
Faces on the Wall
Here are some faces on the wall from around San Juan. The first is from Rio Piedras, near the University of Puerto Rico. Is his name Baghead, or is that the name of the artist? Or is it a cultural reference to which I am ignorant?
Street art from Rio Piedras. I’m not sure what Baghead is pointing at – perhaps the next face?
Maybe Baghead is pointing to Calle Loiza, the home of the next face. This reminds me of something from an Indiana Jones movie – think of it covered with vines and other tropical foliage, guarding the entrance to a cave, home to some kind of archaeological treasure.
A face from a side street near Calle Loiza, in Santurce.
The next is a red-haired young woman from Avenida Fernando Juncos, in Miramar. Is she angry? Anxious? Happy to see me? What do you think?
The Woman with Red Hair lives on a wall along Avenida Fernando Juncos as it passes through Miramar.
An older woman shares the wall with the Woman with Red Hair. Together they keep watch over their neighborhood.
A rather severe woman on a wall in Miramar.
A somewhat more fanciful face is in Santurce, along Avenida Juan Ponce de Leon, near Parada 18.
A fanciful face in Santurce, near Parada 18.
Finally, two examples of colorful faces, the first from Rio Piedras.
The Devil with Red Face and Yellow Teeth lives in Rio Piedras.This face (decorated for Carnival?) lives on Calle San Agustin in the Puerta de Tierra neighborhood.
Notes and Sources
Errata: In the last post showing Faces on the Wall I said the Woman with Six Arms is found in Santurce. I was wrong – she is from Montreal. She is still beguiling.
The images are mine, edited with Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop, some images more than others.
I’m going to group some the the street and wall art I’ve seen by theme, as I did in my last post about the street art here in San Juan. Click here to see that post. I’ll show some examples of wall art related to food, then some faces, and then one just in time for spring training.
Food
While not a major theme, I have found several examples of wall art showing food in one form or another. The fist one seems to celebrate Puerto Rican coffee which, by the way, is excellent. I wrote about the recovery of the local coffee industry here. Check it out.
Puerto Rican coffee on a wall on Avenida Juan Ponce de Leon, in Santurce. This is near a food truck park. Perhaps it is to lure customers there.
Cheeseburger anyone? Hamburgers are popular here – in fact, there is an iconic place near here named El Hamburger. It is immensely popular, with a cheese burger and fries for $5.50. And they now have some local craft beers. What more could one want?
A food-based mural along Avenida Juan Ponce de Leon, in the Sagrado Corazon neighborhood. I took this several years ago. The art is still there, faded and covered by vegetation.
How about some local fruit? Mangoes, papayas, pineapples, passion fruit, guava – take your pick. Here is one pineapple for your consideration.
A pineapple on a wall along Avenida de Diego, in Santurce.
Faces on the Wall
I’ve shown you the Woman with the Green Face before. I find her evocative and beguiling. She’s been painted over so my photos may well be her the only way she will be remembered.
The Woman with the Green Face. She has been painted over and no longer watches over the Sagrado Corazon neighborhood.
I like the Woman with the Blue Face as well. She is more severe than the Woman with the Green Face, more, ah, in your face, as it were.
The Woman with Blue Face. She overlooks a street in Santurce.
The Woman with Veil is also from the Sagrado Corazon neighborhood. This was an immense undertaking – she fills a three story wall. There is a religious theme about this work but I’m not sure I understand it. Anyone want to help me? Leave a comment. She is still there – much faded but still overlooking her neighborhood.
The Woman with Veil. She adorns a wall near the Sagrado Corazon urban train station. For scale, note the fence along the bottom. It is about five feet high.
Here is another face with what seems to be a religious them. I just found her – the Woman with Rooster and Pineapple overlooks Avineda Fernando Juncos in the Miramar neighborhood. This is another large effort – she is on a wall about two stories high. Maybe some day I will retouch the image and remove the wires in front of her. A project for a rainy day. Again, I’m not at all sure of the symbolism. What’s with the rooster holding a key? And the pineapple? Please leave a comment if you can help me.
An angelic face overlooking one of the main streets in Miramar. I’m not sure of the symbolism displayed in this painting of the Woman with Rooster and Pineapple.
The Woman with Six Arms also needs retouching – another rainy day project. But she protects her Santurce neighborhood. Or is she encouraging you to do something untoward?
The Woman with Six Arms protects her Santurce neighborhood. Maybe some day I will retouch the image.
I hope you don’t think all the faces on the wall are of women. The Golden Buddha protects a no parking zone in Rio Piedras.
Perhaps the Golden Buddha of Rio Piedras in thinking of the fines the city would make if someone parked in front of him.
Finally, I hope you don’t think all the faces are even human. This version of King Kong overlooks a side street in the Puerta de Tierra neighborhood of San Juan.
The Puerto Rican King Kong watches over you as you walk along Calle San Agustin in the Puerta de Tierra neighborhood.
Fun
As a kid, I used to love to read that major league pitchers and catchers had to report for spring training. It convinced me winter would soon be over. There is a winter league in Puerto Rico, and last year the team from Santurce was league champion. A fan in the Manillas area celebrated their accomplishment in a most appropriate manner.
Notes
These are all my images. I used Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop to make various adjustments to the original images.
The Greeks believed the Muses – nine of them – were the sources of inspiration for their artistic endeavors. Each muse had a particular domain. For example, Clio inspired the Greek historian Herodotus when he wrote his histories; Calliope inspired Homer as he wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey.
I was thinking about them because there are nine representations of the Muses in the plaza in front of the Center for Performing Arts here in San Juan. I found the sculptures intriguing and wanted to match each to the appropriate muse. This was more difficult than I had imagined. The sculptor has created new Muses that don’t relate directly to their Greek heirs. You’ll see them in a bit.
There was some debate in the ancient world as to the number of Muses. Some authorities claimed there were three; others nine. Diodorus Siculus, writing in the first century BC, seems to have put the matter to rest when he wrote:
Writers similarly disagree also concerning the number of the Muses; for some say that there are three, and others that there are nine, but the number nine has prevailed since it rests upon the authority of the most distinguished men, such as Homer and Hesiod and others like them.
(See Notes and Sources)
The Muses, daughters of Zeus by Mnemosyne, are considered minor gods in the Greek pantheon. Mnemosyne was the Titan goddess of memory. Zeus created the Muses to celebrate the victory of the Olympian gods over the Titans and to allow his followers to forget the past. Apollo, the god of music, art, and poetry, taught them their skills..
Representations of the Muses
Over the centuries, the Muses have become associated with symbols of their artistry. Here is a list, adapted from Owlcation, describing the Muses and their paraphernalia.
Calliope, the superior Muse, inspires poetry, rhetoric, music and writing. She is often depicted with laurels in one hand and Homeric poems in the other.
Clio, the muse of history, is portrayed with a clarion in one arm and a book in another.
Erato inspires love poetry and is shown with a bow, love arrows, and a lyre.
Euterpe created musical instruments to help provide inspiration for songs and poetry of love, war, and death. She holds a flute and is surrounded by other instruments.
Melpomene, depicted with a tragic mask, inspires rhetoric and tragedy.
Thalia inspires comedy and is shown with a comedic mask.
Polyhymnia created geometry and grammar. She is shown wearing a veil and looking upwards to the heavens.
Terpsichore inspires dance. She also created the harp and education. She is shown with a laurel wreath and dances with her harp in her hands.
Urania created astronomy and is shown with stars, a celestial sphere, and a compass.
One depiction of the Muses is on the walls of the Palace of the Vatican. Rafael’s Parnassus shows various figures from Greek history. Here are two excerpts from that fresco.
The Muses Calliope, Clio, Thalia, and Euterpe, with Statius. See Notes and Sources.
Terpsichore. See Notes and Sources
The Muses of Santurce
If you have read my previous blog entries on street art here, you would already know that Puerto Rican artists have their unique blend of Caribbean and European influences. This is certainly true of the Muses of Santurce. (If you haven’t read my blog entries on street art, shame on you. Click here and here and here and here and here and here to get caught up.)
The Performing Arts Center in Santurce opened in April, 1991. The Center consists of four performance venues and two restaurants, surrounding a central plaza. The plaza, the Juan Morel Campos Plaza, is home to nine life-size statues of the Muses created by the sculptor Annex Burgos, in 2005. He used local artists as models, many of them practitioners of the arts depicted. While inspired by the Greek Muses, Burgos was not constrained by them. His Muses show Caribbean influences and relate to art forms unknown to the Greeks.
A view of the Juan Compos Morel Plaza of the Center for Performing Arts in Santurce, San Juan. Five muses, sculptures created by Annex Burgos, are shown.
I tried to relate Burgos’s version of the Muses with the descriptions of the Muses given above. My efforts are documented below.
The Muse of Literature
Burgos depicts his Muse of Literature holding a book. Perhaps she relates to Calliope since, among other things, she is the Muse of writing.
The Muse of Literature, as interpreted by Annex Burgos. Burgos named her after the Puerto Rican author, poet, novelist, professor of literature, essayist, and literary critic Mayra Santos,
The Muse of Theater
The two Greek Muses, Thalia (comedy) and Melpomene (tragedy), are often paired. Burgos transforms them into one Muse.
The Muse of Theater as created by Annex Burgos. She is loosely based on the Puerto Rican actress Kisha Tikina. Note she is wearing one tragic and one comedic mask.
The Muse of Corporal Movement
One of the Santurce Muses seems as if she were captured while performing an elegant dance. If I’m right, she is Burgos’s representation of the Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance, or as he says, corporal movement.
The Muse of Dance. Burgos based this sculpture on Dolores Pedro, an actress born in Cuba and active in Puerto Rican television and film.
The Muse of Music
Euterpe is associated with music. Burgos’s Muse of Music is making music with a conch shell.
The Muse of Music as created by Annex Burgos. She is based on the Puerto Rican musician Yarimir Caban.
The Muse of Vocal Music
I can’t easily relate the rest of the Santurce Muses to their Greek counterparts. Again, Burgos was inspired by the nine muses of the Greeks, but not constrained by them.
The Muse of Vocal Music. Burgos based her on Yaranà Del Valle, a Puerto Rican singer and activist.
The Muse of Architecture
Burgos depicts this Muse presenting a model house for review, perhaps by a client.
The Muse of Architecture is based on Maria Rossie. I could not find any information about her.
The Muse of Design
This Muse is holding a caliper as in implement in her artistry.
The Muse of Design as realized by Annex Borgos. She is based on Catherine Vigo. I could find no information about her.
The Muse of Plastic Arts
The plastic arts involve modeling or molding various materials in three dimensions, e.g. sculpture and ceramics, or art involving the representation of solid objects with three-dimensional effects.
The Muse of Plastic Arts shown holding the tools of her trade. She is based on Annex Borgos.
The Muse of Cinema
This art form was clearly unknown to the Greeks. Burgos shows her with reels used to hold film.
The Muse of Cinema, based on Selva Rivera. I could find no information on her.
So there are the nine Muses of Santurce. They greet visitors to the Center for Performing Arts in fine style.
By the way, Burgos has other public art in Santurce. He created three larger than life avocados for the Plaza de Marcado in Santurce. I think, but I’m not sure, he is also responsible for sculptures of sea shells at a park in Condado. I will have to check that out.
Notes and Sources
See the Wikipedia entry for the Muses here. It has the complete citation for the quote by Siculus.
Some of the introductory material is from Owlcation, a site celebrating the humanities with several pages on Greek history. Click here to go to that site.
The two excerpts from Rafael were taken from the Wikipedia entry for Parnassus. Click here for the site.
The images are all mine, edited and otherwise tweaked with Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop.
