Puerto Rico: a near country

American Visions, April-May, 1995 by Henry Chase

Sea breezes, green mountains, a rain forest, baseball games that actually take place, hot clubs, a Latino culture, fantastic snorkeling and the governor's mansion built nearly five centuries ago for Ponce de Leon: Of the Carribean islands, Puerto Rico is my favorite. It's a real country, not just another tourist isle. It has all the things that sound boring--an industrial working class, for instance--but that translate into a fully articulated society, into variety, vibrancy, contention, drama. It has a true culture and a real life for the locals that are independent of tourism. Puerto Rico also has the stamp of the diaspora, particularly in festivals that whisper "Africa."

Old San Juan

Old San juan is one of the Atlantic Ocean's adornments, a seven-square-block city that dates back to 1521. The old town's whitewashed buildings with wrought-iron railings, its statue-filled plazas, its churches and chapels, and the red cupolas of colonial Spain's old government buildings all look particularly enticing in the early morning or late afternoon sun. During midday, however, you may want to be inside one of the surrounding museums, galleries or cafes--perhaps after having slaked your thirst with one of the island's traditional refreshments--piraguas (tropical-fruit-flavored snow cones) or helados (ices, commonly of coconut or pineapple).

Rising at the tip of the triangle of land that marks the Atlantic's entrance into San juan Bay is El Morro, a six-tiered fortress that towers 140 feet above the waves that lap its base. El Morro dominates Old San Juan--and has done so since the final days of Askia Muhammad's rule of the Songhai Empire (or since the days of Henry VIII, of six-wives fame, if that's your point of reference). The fortress has a small museum devoted to the city's military history and, like its neighboring partner in defense, San Cristobal fort, allows visitors a view down on the old town, on San juan Cemetery, on the muralla (city wall) and on the Atlantic.

Looking landward from El Morro, the two most notable sights are the Plaza del Quinto Centenario, which celebrates five centuries of Puerto Rican history, and the Escuela de Artes Plasticas. The last is a lovely two-story white structure with linked arched colonnades on both levels and a red cupola perched atop. The cupola finds its visual twin in the circular neoclassical chapel in the San juan Cemetery (look for it before you leave El Morro).

Not far away from the Escuela de Artes Plasticas is one of my favorite Old San juan stops, Casa Blanca. Although it now houses two small museums--one depicting family life in 16th- and 17th-century Puerto Rico, the other providing an ethnographic look at the Tainos, the island's aboriginal inhabitants--Casa Blanca was once the home of Juan Ponce de Leon, Puerto Rico's early-16th-century governor and the man who sought the Fountain of Youth in Florida. The real attraction of Casa Blanca is its large garden, which provides a shady tropical sanctuary (the palm fronds are the largest I've seen outside of the forests of Zaire).

Of course, Old San juan has tourist shops, several churches, and a number of small museums too numerous to detail; but don't miss Plaza San Jose, whose church is the second-oldest in the hemisphere and whose statue of Ponce de Leen was made from cannons captured from the British during a relatively recent (1797) unsuccessful attack.

Also be alert for the Museo de Pablo Casals, which lies just across the street. Even if you have no deep interest in the classical cello, you may enjoy the museum. Aside from its bizarre fascination with the master cellist's collection of pipes, the small house offers a welcome break from the sun, a place to sit down while enjoying the soothing music that swirls around the museum's three rooms, and a range of photographs of a man whose musical genius took him from President Hoover's to President Kennedy's White House. Note in particular the photo of Casals, John and Jackie Kennedy, and the nearby Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

Finally, take note of Butterfly People, a shop that transforms graceful winged creatures into art. The lives of butterflies are as evanescent and dramatic as that of the prototypical rock star: after a geeky existence as a caterpillar and then a really boring period in a cocoon, they emerge, take a breath, stretch and dry their new wings, take flight, mate in midair, lay eggs (if they're female), and soon fall to the ground, stone-cold dead. It's an old story and it happens in Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Brazil and across Africa.

Today, the fallen creatures are collected and sent to Puerto Rico, where Attenaire Purington at Butterfly People mounts their wings, using them as brushstrokes of color. Even if you don't want to purchase them (prices range from $20 to $1,200, depending on the species and the number of butterflies encased), you'll probably enjoy strolling about the shop and looking at Purington's work.

Loiza

An hour's drive or so east of San Juan is Loiza, the wellspring and guardian of Afro-Puerto Rican culture. It is a journey worth making, but be forewarned: Except for late July to early August, with the feast and carnival of St. James (Santiago), there is little to see and do in the small and poor town, which retains the highest percentage of African descendants on the island. Indeed, excepting its 30,000 people, the town (with one post office and one bank) has perhaps four attractions. None of these are developed as tourist sites, so be prepared to use both your initiative and your imagination--and an expressive face and gestures, should you lack Spanish.