Yo Soy Bonita Pedestal Series

Enovid. Oil on plexiglass & wood. 20"x 72." February 2009

In April 1956, the first trial of Enovid began in a impoverished farming town in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. The participants weren't informed that they were guinea pigs in an experiment to test the world's first birth-control pill. The tablet’s contained three times as much hormones as legally permitted today, and two seemingly healthy women participating in the trials died. 

 La Operación. Oil on plexiglass & wood. 20"x 78." November 2008

Beginning in the years following WW I, the United States government initiated a program to control the impoverished population in Puerto Rico. Many physicians pushed for sterilization because they believed that other contraceptive methods were too complicated for lower class Puerto Rican women to understand. By 1965, such programs resulted in the sterilization of more than 1/3 of the female population, the highest in the world.

La Operación is a visual representation of my reaction to these appalling facts, and is meant to inspire interest regarding the issue. 

 Yo soy Bonita. Oil on plexiglass & wood, 18"x84" September 2008

  

In 2006, Zuleyka Rivera from Puerto Rico won the title of Miss Universe. Like many other contestants, Rivera had undergone plastic surgery to enhance her appearance and attain the desired European look. When interviewed by Fox News Rivera stated. "If we were to compete as a normal state of the United States you would lose the charm of the beauty of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican beauty is totally different from American beauty."

Soon after her throning, Rivera was criticized by U.S. sponsors for gaining weight and was forced to diet in order to maintain the Miss Universe title.