2020 would be the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, guaranteeing women’s right to vote, although it was full of flaws and not every woman acquired the right to vote. I started working on my piece with natural pigments and eco printing. It was a magical process full of alchemy.
Title: For Mariana
Size: 11x18.5
Medium: Textiles dyed with tobacco leaves, paper, natural pigments, Ink and found objects
In 1924, Mariana Morales Bernard, a tobacco stemmer who was of legal age, went to the Board of Registration and Elections in San Juan, Puerto Rico to register to vote in the local elections. The Registration Board refused to register her because the law stated that only men of legal age were allowed to vote. Mariana filed a lawsuit against the Board seeking justice for herself as well as the women living on the island.
Despite the fact that Puerto Rico is a United States territory since 1898, and that in 1920 the U.S. Congress ratified the 19th amendment that guarantees all American women the right to vote, there were those who opposed that the amendment be extended to the women living there. It took fifteen years for this right to be granted to the women in Puerto Rico.
Mariana’s bravery dictated my right to vote as a Puerto Rican woman living on the island. Decades later, I am here, living in Florida, and 4 years ago I voted for the first time for the President of the United States. This is a right that US citizens living in Puerto Rico do not have til this day.
This artwork represents what Mariana and numerous other hard working women’s suffrage, from every ethnicity and race, gave me….the freedom to vote.
The virtual gallery is up at mulberryculturalcenter.com . Please make sure to visit and comment!
Thank you!!!
