The art and artifacts in this exhibition present a sampler of Puerto Rico's history and culture over centuries.
They are part of a vast collection created by Teodoro Vidal (to the right in the picture), who began a personal quest in the 1950s to document the people, history, and culture of Puerto Rico from the 1700s to the present. Mr. Vidal donated much of this collection of more than 3,200 artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution in 1997.
The land from which the objects came has its own rich and dramatic history. For thousands of years, native peoples named Taínos lived on an island they called Borikén. In 1493, Christopher Columbus landed there and claimed the island for Spain. It remained a Spanish colony for over 400 years and became known as Puerto Rico ("rich port").
In 1898, the United States went to war against Spain, siding with the Cuban independence army. When Spain lost the war, it lost Cuba, the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. As a result, Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory. Today, some 3.5 million Puerto Ricans live on the island, and 2.7 million reside elsewhere in the United States.
Teodoro Vidal Santoni
Born in Condado to a prominent family he describes as "100 percent Puerto Rican," Teodoro Vidal earned a B.B.A. and an M.B.A. degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1954, he became an aide to Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rico's first elected governor. He also served on the first Board of Directors of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. Collecting became his lifelong passion, and he soon began to collect objects that for him embodied the essence of Puerto Rican culture.
Vidal collected fine art as well as objects of everyday life because he understood the importance of keeping alive the collective memory of the Puerto Rican people. As a patriot, he especially wanted to preserve objects and traditions that might be overlooked or in danger of disappearing.
"I always thought of this collection as a reaffirmation of 'puertorriqueñidad'-the unique identity and culture of Puerto Rico," he has said. "I always planned to give my collection as a gift to Puerto Rico and all Puerto Ricans." In 1997, Mr. Vidal presented parts of his collection to the Fundación Muñoz Marín in Puerto Rico and to the Smithsonian Institution.
Teodoro Vidal at the Justin Pass, The Swiss Alps
Intrepid Collector
From his early collecting years, Teodoro Vidal Santoni has followed every research trail to its end. To reach santeros and other artists living in isolated areas, he drove a jeep into the field, taking his camera and research notebooks.
In the libraries of Seville, Paris, and San Juan, Mr. Vidal used other research skills to pursue intricate paths through letters, manuscripts, and church and colonial records. Traces of individual lives, histories of previously obscure objects, and details of artistic influences were thus revealed. Mr. Vidal undertook both kinds of research to build a meticulously documented collection.
Teodoro Vidal and Pava maker
Research and Renewal
Teodoro Vidal Santoni is an unusual collector because he conducted highly detailed and systematic research on the art and artifacts he collected. This painstaking study has made his collection all the richer and more valuable to other scholars.
Mr. Vidal spent hours in libraries poreing over documents and handwritten letters to learn more about the lives of artists such as José Campeche. His careful research of church records and religious documents shed new light on the Espada family and proved the connection between the father-and-son santeros, Felipe and Tiburcio Espada.
He also developed relationships with contemporary santeros, maskmakers, and other artists. He supported their work by purchases, by locating governmental and local support for festivals, by featuring them in educational presentations, and by photographing and documenting their lives and work. In so doing, he helped reinvigorate traditional arts and crafts in his homeland.
The Vidal and Santoni Families
Many objects in this collection belonged to members of Teodoro Vidal Santoni's family. Some go back to his great-great-grandparents and other relatives. Mr. Vidal kept jewelry, photographs, papers, and letters to document their lives. His father, Teodoro Vidal Jr., was an entrepreneur and investor and the son of an hacendado, a large landowner in Cayey and a coffee grower.
Lucila Santoni, Mr. Vidal's mother, ran her household and was active in church societies and women's social clubs in San Juan. Her father, Rodolfo Santoni, was descended from Corsican immigrants who came to Puerto Rico around 1815 as French citizens. He was an engineer educated at the University of Paris. Her mother, Ynocencia Ramírez de Arellano, was a descendant of the founder and mayor of the town of Cabo Rojo, Nicolás Ramírez de Arellano, who lived in the 1700s.
Luís Muñoz Marín
Born in Barranquitas to a well-known family, Luís Muñoz Marín (1898-1980) was the son of Luis Muñoz Rivera, an intellectual and activist who helped negotiate the 1897 Charter of Autonomy that brought Puerto Rico greater independence from Spain.
Luis Muñoz Marín attended Columbia University in New York and lived as a bohemian poet in Greenwich Village. He returned to Puerto Rico in 1926 and founded the Popular Democratic Party in 1938. Negotiating with President Truman and Congress, he secured popular elections and became the island's first elected governor in 1948. On July 25, 1952, Puerto Ricans celebrated the inauguration of a new Constitution, which, in the eyes of many people, resolved the "colonial problem" of Puerto Rico.
Governor Muñoz Marín, Industry, and Serenity
Puerto Rican society changed dramatically in the 1950s as industrialization increased and more people moved into cities. Governor Muñoz Marín introduced La operación manos a la obra, Operation Bootstrap, to aid this process. But at the same time, he began to worry about the influence of what he saw as excessive materialism from the United States. To reinforce the importance of preserving distinctive Puerto Rican spiritual values and cultural practices, he began to give speeches about a new concept he called Operación serenidad, or Operation Serenity. The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture was founded in 1955, and Teodoro Vidal returned to Puerto Rico during this period, became the governor's aide, and assisted Muñoz Marín in trying to balance economic progress and cultural preservation. Their relationship would last until Muñoz Marín's death.
In 1964, Muñoz Marín's last term ended. Though not all Puerto Ricans supported his politics, his death in 1980 provoked deep mourning across the island.
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