Travels in the 2nd half

  When you visit Old San Juan, you can spend a lot of time walking the streets, looking in the shops, and eating in the cafes. But there are two museums that offer excellent explorations into the history and art of Puerto Rico. They should be on the “to see” list for anyone who comes to San Juan. Museo de las Americas Cuartos de Ballaja The Museo de las Americas (Museum of the Americas) was founded in 1992 with the purpose of exploring the history and culture of the Americas, with a focus on Puerto Rico. It has five permanent galleries and run two or three special shows at any given time. The museum has had sections closed recently, as its building has been undergoing an extensive renovation and modernization project, but when I was there in Feb. 2025, the newly redone Hall of Indigenous People was now open. The main feature of the Hall of Indigenous People is a set of life-size statues by Felipe Lettersten (1953-2003), a Swiss-Peruvian artist. Lettersten would travel throughout t...

  Voyages by Imna Arroyo Cora   One of my favorite places to visit in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, is the Museo de las Americas . Located in the Cuartel de Ballajá, the old barracks, just outside of El Morro, the museum presents a look at the of the island and of all of Latin America. I have visited on several occasions, and you can read about their permanent exhibits here .   This fall I had the opportunity to see two exhibitions of works by contemporary artists of Puerto Rican descent. The first was Quién Profanó la Mansión Georgetti? (Who Desecrated the Georgetti Mansion?) by Eddie Faraioli (b. 1950).    Eduardo Georgetti   Eduardo Georgetti (1866-1937) was the son of a family of landowners, and he became one of the largest sugar barons in Puerto Rico. In 1923 he had a mansion built in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan. At the time it was considered on of the greatest mansions in the Caribbean. Georgette died in 1937, and his wife in 1938. In 1955, th...

Museo de las Americas One of the highlights of visiting the Museo de las Americas  (web site) in Old San Juan is the “Indian in America” which is a permanent exhibit. This is recognition of over 20 tribes from around the Americas. What makes this exhibit special is the statuary produced by Filipe Lettersten. Felipe Lettersten (1957-2003) was a Peruvian born child of Swedish parents. He was an amazing artist who made it his life’s work to pay tribute to the many native tribes in existence throughout the Americas.See video  here He used a method of making full body casts of members of a tribe, and then using that cast to create full size bronze casts. He would often travel up and down the Amazon and other South American rivers on a boat that contained his portable workshop. He would introduce himself to the tribe and show examples of his previous work. He would spend several days getting to know the members and leaders of the tribe. When he convinced the tribal le...

BxTeacher in Old San Juan Today was a day of changing plans and crowd avoidance. We had planned to go to Museo de lasAmericas in Old San Juan. This is a new museum in the building of the InstitutoCultura puertoriqueno near El Morro. Things were looking good. We caught the T5 bus not 2 minutes after we got to the stop in Isla Verde. The weather was beautiful. There was no traffic and we breezed right into the bus terminal in 30 min. Then we encountered our first problem. 3 cruise ships were in dock. That meant that almost A busy day in San Juan port 8000 people were being discharged where we were at the same time. We just missed the trolley to El Morro, so we waited, and we waited, and we waited. After 45 minutes it finally showed up again, completely full with people who had boarded at the stop before ours, near the ships. No room for anyone to get on. Now, some people might complain about there not being enough trolleys to service the crowd, but one must remember w...