Living Quarters for Sugar Workers

CAJ_0022_F0001_R

Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción de la Universidad de Puerto Rico > Colección Carol F. Jopling > Caja 1 -Fotografías

Municipio desconocido | Unknown Municipality

1946

The title, date and address were provided by the Architecture and Construction Archive of the University of Puerto Rico (AACUPR). In the file provided by the archive, the following is clarified: "Photographer: Jack Delano." On the back of the image there are handwritten notes that read: "Fig. 32, X2986, CAJ|0022|F0001". There are repeated photos among the files of this collection because they document different photographic formats created for the project. Examples: 35mm negatives, color, black and white, instant photography, photos that were clarified or with contrast.

This type of sugar workers’ living quarters exposes the entrenched colonial necropolitics (the control of how people live and die) of Puerto Rico. The stilted wooden construction and the huddled group of men in its shadow echo colonial hierarchies. Simple doors stand as metaphorical barriers to self-determination in a building built to control and contain labor. Was this an extant construction from the Spanish colonial era? Or are we looking at a new contrivance of the US sovereignty, meant to evoke the island’s old, socio-racial hierarchies? Workers' wary gazes reflect a complex tapestry of oppression and resilience, suspicious glances hidden under bemused smiles.

English Rights. (hyperlink)

Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín

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