Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora

Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora/Arte de Puerto Rico en el siglo XXI y su diáspora. Edited by Teréz Iacovino and José López Serra. Foreword by Arlene Dávila.

Twenty-five years of creative expression from Puerto Rican artists working in Puerto Rico and across its U.S. diaspora

Connoting back and forth movement, the word vaivén is frequently used to describe the supposed ease with which Puerto Ricans travel between the United States and Puerto Rico. Not just physical but also psychological, this diasporic oscillation is inextricably linked to Puerto Rican heritage, and the fluidity between the two geographies is constant, complex, and profound.

A collaboration between the Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota and Hidrante, San Juan, Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora showcases the work of forty-three intergenerational artists working from Puerto Rico and its U.S. diaspora who explore the hybridity of memory, language, place, and ancestral knowledge as they relate to acts of witnessing, resistance, and kinship. Highlighting their many artistic genres and styles, this bilingual volume uplifts the cultural and political dynamism and shifting interpretations of home and belonging that are inherent to Puerto Rico amid the perpetual transnational migrations of its people.