Rematriating Borikén began as this blog, a place to chronicle my rematriation journey from the Brooklyn where I was born and raised to Borikén, birthplace of my parents in the archipelago known as Puerto Rico. I am an artist/ writer always working at the service of this ancestral womb of mine, this homeland. Liberation has been at the root of my work for the past thirty years and, as I delve deeper into my journey, understanding it within the context of our collective journeys, my work is also centered on rematriation.
In May of 2019, when I made five years in Borikén I received the inspiration to explore the aesthetics of the Puerto Rico Trench. I painted my first abyss-inspired painting and wrote the Rematriating Borikén manifesto at that time. As an artist, I had been inspired by Boricua bioluminescence since my first encounter with the bioluminescent bay in Vieques in 2006. I debuted my first bioluminescence-inspired paintings in 2009. Ten years later, I was brought to a realm of bioluminescence never witnessed with our eyes because it lies deep below the Twilight Zone of our seas. The Puerto Rico Trench plummets almost 28,000 feet below the surface. This was spiritually given to me as metaphor for this work of excavating, uncovering, recovering and reclaiming our ancestral stories, lands, ways. The above video is about this project that I am so honored to have channeled, and that I am savoring every step of the way. Visibilizing our journeys, especially the intrepid journeys of Boricuas swimming against the currents, against the colonial conditioning to return and reclaim lost parts of ourselves, this is what fuels me.
I must thank these Boricuas/ Valientes for sharing their journeys with me and allowing me to re-envision them as the rematriation-liberation warriors/ cosmic, bioluminescent mermaids that they are. I also want to thank the National Association for Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC) for seeing me and seeing my work through so many chapters. They supported my work back in 2007, enabling me to make to realize my Bieké: Tierra de Valientes project that debuted at el Fuerte Conde de Mirasol in Vieques in 2009. In Vieques in 2013, I received the call to move. I arrived permanently in 2014. This is a project I have wanted to get off the ground for some time, but various things delayed it, (earthquakes, pandemic, eye surgery). A NALAC Fund for the Arts grant has made this project possible after years of pause, and I am beyond grateful.
Stay tuned for images, videos, previews and for the debut of the Rematriating Borikén Painting Series in the spring of 2024. You can also follow the project on Instagram.
Brooklyn-born and raised, Yasmín Hernández is a visual artist, writer, activist based in el oeste de Borikén in the archipelago known as Puerto Rico. Her work is rooted in rematriation and liberation practices. Rematriating Borikén is her project lifting the conceptual and physical return to her ancestral homeland. CucubaNación in Mayagüez is Yasmin’s art and community space inspired by Boricua bioluminescence. She shares her art at yasminhernandezart.com and chronicles the journey home at rematriatingboriken.com .
Rematriating Borikén 
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