El Cuartel de Ballajá (the Ballajá Barracks in English) is one of the most recognizable buildings in the Old San Juan area in Puerto Rico. It was part of a Spanish military block that included El Morro, a large fortress that stood guard over its section of the coast for the purpose of spotting and protecting against invading forces. Spanish soldiers held military exercises there, along with barracks seurity and weapons storage duties, when the Island was a Spanish colony. The building has multiple entry points, all leading to a big open courtyard that you could fit a small army in. It’s a great space to spotlight local talent, namely through theatrical events, art galleries, folk dance, and markets. In fact, to use El Cuartel to highlight Puerto Rican creativity signifies an attempt to strike at the location’s colonial and replace it with something that pushes back against its oppressive legacy.
Edgardo Miranda-Rodríguez is contributing to this cultural resistance effort with a new exhibit focused on the present and future of his creation La Borinqueña, now on display on the third floor of El Cuartel. Titled “The Art of La Borinqueña,” the exhibit acts as one of the inaugural activities for Humanidades Puerto Rico (Humanities Puerto Rico in English), a non-profit organization invested in supporting projects involving the arts. It’s now open to the public Thursday through Saturday from 11:00AM-4:30PM. It’ll run till August 20th of this year.
“The Art of La Borinqueña” features some of the original comics most iconic pages and covers, featuring the works of legends like George Peréz, John “Crash One” Matos, and Ken Lashley. If you’ve been following Miranda-Rodríguez’s books, you’ll find more than enough to love here. If you’re new to the world of La Borinqueña, then the exhibit is essentially a warm welcome into a fantasy world that has one foot firmly planted in the complexity of Puerto Rican identity and the other on the richness of the Puerto Rican experience from the Island to the Diaspora.
One particularly exciting aspect of the exhibit is its action figure showcase. It contains prototypes of the first line of figures Miranda-Rodríguez released alongside the newest addition to La Borinqueña’s group of allies: V-G1GANTE. This is a Mazinger-inspired mech inspired by Puerto Rico’s own vejigantes, characters from local folklore that sport masks with horns and fangs that originally meant to scare people into going to church. It looks amazing. Those who visit El Cuartel will get a close look at it.
Edgardo Miranda-Rodríguez is a master promoter of his work. Indie creators should take note. Miranda-Rodríguez has built La Borinqueña into an institution, brick by brick. It has taken a lot of steps to get his character to the point it’s at. She’s already been featured at the Smithsonian and in chocolate bars, inspired cosplay and graffiti art, and been the leading voice in a fundraising comic book called Ricanstruction meant to help victims of Hurricane María (which hit the Caribbean in 2017). She just gets bigger and more important each step of the way. This latest exhibit builds upon the mission, and its current stay at El Cuartel de Ballajá is a delightfully loud achievement that points to an even louder future.
Here’s a look at V-G1GANTE:
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