Exhibition audio stop

 

This striking masked figure represents a character from Puerto Rican carnival, a month-long celebration before the season of Lent. During the annual event costumed trickster figures roam the streets chasing children, adding excitement to the festivities.

Born and raised in the Calle Cuatro neighborhood of Ponce, Puerto Rico, Angel Sánchez Ortiz excelled at artistic pursuits as a child but was particularly drawn to the tradition of making papier-mâché masks for carnival. He learned the craft "in the streets", watching elder artisans and older boys prepare for the carnival season. While many youth in Ponce demonstrated keen interest in making una mascara (a mask) during the excitement that even today takes hold of the city each year, Ortiz's interest persisted long after the annual celebrations ended. As a young man, he became well known for his artistry, and each year he played the role of vejigante at the carnivals in Ponce and neighboring towns, wearing his intricately designed and boldly colored mascaras. The name vejigante comes from the Spanish word for bladder, vejiga. The vejigante inflates a dried cow's bladder and paints it to resemble a balloon. As you can see from Ortiz's figure, the vejigante's costume is a cape with bat wings under the arms. During the carnival celebrations in Loíza Aldea and Ponce, the vejigantes roam the streets in groups and chase children with their vejigas.

When Ortiz moved to Holyoke in 1988, mask-making kept him connected to Puerto Rico. Today, he teaches local children, many of Puerto Rican heritage, how to make and use the masks. "It is one of my goals that they learn the culture."