♪ upbeat percussion ♪
I was born here in Loíza.
We have a lot of invention going on.
The aesthetic of the masquerade.
related with the Fiesta de Santiago Apostol
related with African heritage.
I like to play with that.
A lot of energy is going on,
and energy not only with Loíza, Puerto Rico.
but with the Caribbean in general.
There is a communication going above the language.
There is something that is felt.
[leaves rustling in the wind]
[waves crashing]
There are many stories related with immigration
in the Caribbean.
Most of the objects that I try to pick up
are objects related with that story.
I have found a lot of shoes, for example,
a lot of objects with luggage.
The sea bring it.
♪ uplifting ethereal music ♪
I love it.
The mangrove that I am doing upstairs needs a lot of green,
and this could also represent the forest.
Beautiful.
This is a great finding.
It's a curved one.
It is like this.
What does the hurricane do, you know?
Or the movement of the wind.
The thing is that if I have an idea based on
one of my experiences,
the material activate my imagination.
♪ ethereal music ♪
I say, "Oh, I have this object and it's related with this
narrative that I'm trying to organize."
♪♪♪
And I start playing with it.
I incorporate that object.
Or I have to invent an object to the idea,
putting this object related with this one.
It's a very organic way of organizing.
♪♪♪
Here in Loíza, the community, for me,
is like an extension of my studio.
— Nunu!
Mira.
Have you seen any more springs?
— On the Suárez plot. I have to talk to —
— But have you seen any more in the street?
— Yes, which is why —
♪♪♪
See that color?
Everything have been choosen to react against.
Here, look at this.
It's beautiful, isn't it?
Look at that.
♪♪♪
[Daniel VO] It takes time, I feel it.
You have to be there all the time.
You have to live with the piece.
♪♪♪
I literally sleep with a notebook and with a pencil there
so I could trap the idea.
It's interesting how sometimes you are sleeping
and then a solution comes.
And then there is a day when you go to the studio
and there is an harmony.
"Oh, there it is."
My intention with this approach is,
among other things, to remember.
[man VO] The first pictures now coming in from Puerto Rico.
Hurricane Maria slamming into the island and,
as you heard, one official saying the island is destroyed.
[man VO] Tonight, Maria's direct hit,
devastating Puerto Rico.
[Daniel VO] I remember listening the roof of the house.
I was by myself, and the sound of the wind...
[cacophonous noises], you know.
It was really terrible.
Then, I opened the door.
I wasn't supposed to do that, of course.
Then you see the palm trees fighting.
It was sublime and terrible at the same time.
It was something else.
And that's what I'm trying to do with this.
How could I talk about the terrible
and the sublime at the same time?
♪ tense ambient music ♪
Bit by bit, I was gathering debris from the hurricane.
The tarp comes like a sea.
See here? Like a sea.
Water...
sand, represented by the burlap.
The rays of the storm, we use copper and aluminum.
The thunder.
[drum booming]
So music, rhythm, sound are related with the theme too.
And here, there is a figure that might be pointing to
Virgin Mary.
The hurricane was called "Maria,"
and Maria is the mother of Christ.
For me to cite the iconic representation,
there is a contradiction there:
Virgin Mary in the context of destruction.
♪♪♪
The way that these houses are built,
they are not built in order to support the strength of a
hurricane.
So I'm talking about the problem of housing, too --
the people with less resources to build something
strong and properly in order to live in this area in the
Caribbean.
Something that I remember from my childhood is that plant with
those flowers.
So imagine this road without this -- sand and a lot of trees,
but the same road.
[dog barking]
[Daniel VO] The experience of catastrophe,
that's not exclusive of Puerto Ricans.
There is a universality, regardless where you live in
this world.
People have to invent again.
When you don't have electricity, you don't have water,
you have to be inventive.
And it's interesting because knowledge from the past came again.
I remember when I was a child here in Loíza,
everybody was doing something.
My grandmother was a sewer,
my uncle Louis was a mask maker,
and my other uncle was a cabinet maker.
So you could imagine the activities as a child,
working with tools and woods and things.
It was beautiful!
♪ emotional music ♪
I like to construct something that have unity,
even though I am using diverse materials.
They are all alive, you know?
For me, that's language.
The way you arrange them to obtain unity,
there I find beauty.
♪♪♪
[buzzing]
[Jorge] I'm going to put it there.
[Daniel] Try making a sound however you like. Just try!
[conch blows]
That would be nice. It's melancholic.
[blowing continues]
Seems like already the Spaniards were here killing Indians.
Like a lament, the longing of something that has disappeared,
you know?
Which is that land before Columbus arrived.
Use your imagination, yeah!
Recreate that in your mind and then bring it through the
— instrument, yeah! — Okay.
[Jorge] I'm gonna be trying to do what our Taino Indians used to do,
and that is play it with the sound that
was what they used to communicate.
[Daniel] He was my student. [laughs]
[Jorge] If you didn't learn something with Daniel...
-[chuckles] -You are not in the right place.
He doesn't take a "No."
No, invent yourself, reinvent.
Yeah, he pushes you to the limit.
"Okay, listen, try it."
♪ rapid drumming ♪
[conch blows]
Here in Loíza we use costume all year long.
Let's get you a bigger one.
Mask for Victor!
The activity that I have here is to invite people
from my community, my friends and family.
Those neighbors dress in the costume like ancestors
that came from the past to be with us celebrating.
African ancestry is very important ingredient
of our identity here in Puerto Rico, of course.
— This is the only town in Puerto Rico founded by Black people.
But no one ever taught me about the African continent.
and I'm a person of African descent.
No matter how others see it, Spain is not my motherland.
My motherland is Africa.
Now we are going to invite our poets.
They will be reading poetry there, and if there is somebody
in the public that would like to also, you know, read poetry
or whatever.
♪ drumming ♪
[Woman] Real estate is their religion.
The taxes, I pay those.
They saw us on the floor, they kicked us in the ribs and they took advantage
with investments, with influence, with everything they can buy with money.
"You can't live there, that's an Airbnb."
[Daniel] You have this space where everybody who wants
could come and say something and communicate.
♪ uplifting music ♪
[Woman] As a community and people passing on traditions and histories
we have the responsibility to continue with this, to survive.
[Man] We went to grade school together.
We're like family on this long journey through a good life.
♪♪♪
My intention was to find a language.
find a process, find materials that established the link
between our collective experience
and somehow bring something different but authentic.
♪♪♪
We have that knowledge from the past.
We want to keep it and bring it to other generation.
♪♪♪
♪ ethereal ambient music ♪