"IGUÉN DE GUARAGUAO"

  Rooted in ancestral fiber traditions of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, Iguén de Guaraguao unfolds as a tactile archive of lineage. Cotton, yute, maguey, and hemp intertwine in rhythmic abstraction, honoring generations who transformed raw fiber into culture, craft, and connection.

Each panel stands independently, yet together they compose a unified, atemporal field of texture and pattern… a quiet reflection on how memory, material, and hand converge across time.

The work draws inspiration from ancestral traditions of weaving and fiber-making across the Caribbean, where natural strands such as cotton and maguey were braided into ropes, textiles, and tools essential to agricultural life and cultural practice. These same fibers also formed the rigging and cordage that bound sails and secured ships linking the Old and New Worlds across the Atlantic.

Within the piece, thick strands of rope are woven into singular, unrepeatable compositions — each panel forming its own pattern, like a living tapestry shaped by tension, rhythm, and hand.

The title references the guaraguao, whose name derives from Taíno language and refers to the Caribbean hawk, a watchful presence circling above land and sea. From this vantage point, the work reflects on history itself as a weave: strands of land, ocean, and memory braided together across time.