Soy Bonita

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

“Soy Bonita,” a play on the song “Soy Boricua,” by Bobby Valentin. This work explores the tension between spectacle and reality, between what the world sees and what often remains unseen.

In 2006, Zuleyka Rivera, representing Puerto Rico, won the title of Miss Universe. She was the first Puerto Rican winner to visibly showcase the African and Indigenous roots of our island, in contrast to her four predecessors, who aligned more closely with European beauty standards.

Puerto Rico is often consumed as beauty, as spectacle, as pageantry.

The island itself is breathtaking. Our culture is vibrant. Our people are resilient. And yet, behind that beauty lies an often overlooked reality.

Today, Puerto Rico continues to have the highest poverty rates in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in 2024 was $26,297, with 37.3% of the population living in poverty. Approximately 56% of children in Puerto Rico live below the federal poverty line, compared with about 16% on the mainland United States.

“Soy Bonita” includes vejigante masks and traditional bomba dresses, symbols of African resistance and cultural survival. Two figures in bomba attire carry milk jars marked with Taíno symbols, referencing the Indigenous roots embedded in so many Puerto Rican identities. At the base of the piece, contestants stand proudly in their pagent costumes, positioned in front of children who symbolize poverty just behind them.

The figures are glamorous. Ornate. Celebrated. But the children, partially obscured, represent what is often hidden.

Spectacle and pageantry still exist today. Our beauty is still marketed, and Puerto Rico is sold as paradise, especially to those who wish to exploit it. Amid the beauty are many layers, and we must recognize the full history and reality.  

“Soy Bonita” asks us who gets to be seen? Who gets to be celebrated? And what still remains invisible behind the performance?

Although there is beauty, there are layers as well. Puerto Rico deserves to have its full history and reality acknowledged.

Source: US Census Bureau. July 2025 Population estimates.  https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/PR/PST045225