Las Caras Lindas

A Journey through Nuyorican and Puerto Rican Salsa Album Art of the Last Century

Co-curated by: Pablo Yglesias & José “Pepe” Flores

Date: February 23 through March 15, 2024

Location: Centro de Estudiantes, University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras Campus (Puerto Rico)

Las Caras Lindas explores the visual and social impact of Latin music album covers during the period when the vinyl LP was a dominant format of entertainment, paying critical attention to issues of identity, sense of place, African roots, faith, rhythm, dance, and the body, as well as graphic aesthetics, through representations of Hispanic people and cultures as they are presented to the consumer, with an emphasis on Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora in New York.

Themes of oppression and resistance, suffering and pleasure, erasure and pride, and utilizing creativity to fight against colonization, marginalization, and poverty are opposites held in tension and constant flux in these humble squares. The sequence of covers is meant to trace a process of constant ebb and flow of evolution over five decades during the second half of the twentieth century.

The title of the show comes from a song of the same name, composed by Catalino “Tite” Curet Alonso, and recorded by Ismael Rivera Y Sus Cachimbos for the album “Esto Es Lo Mío” (This Is Mine). Inspired by exhibition co-curator Pablo Yglesias’s book Cocinando: 50 Years of Latin Album Cover Art, this installation weaves a narrative through the display of album art, proposing that the record cover is not just an invitation to dance, sing, dine, and love, but is also an art piece worthy of serious cultural consideration. The premise is that album art is not just mass-produced ephemera that should be relegated to the dustbin of a bygone era but rather a unique 12 x 12-inch window into the soul of a culture.

This collaboration is made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, Tiznando el País, and the Instituto Interdisciplinario y Multicultural (INIM) at the University of Puerto Rico,