Early in the planning for this global field experience (GFE), I learned about El Velorio (The Wake), which is considered to be the national portrait of Puerto Rico. It is housed in the Museum of History, Anthropology, and Art at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Pedras, which is the main campus of the system. I figured that going to the museum and touring the campus would be a good introduction to the culture of Puerto Rico.
So we ordered our Ubers to arrive at UPR-RP by 10:30 am for a guided tour of the museum. Our breakfasts were at the inn, using the food we had bought at SuperMax. We left the inn at 9:15 and arrived in time for the start of a short campus tour. It was already warm for us so the group didn’t want to wander the campus with me for 20 minutes. We returned to the museum and were met by Juan, a university art student, who was comfortable in English. We spend a good amount of time looking at El Velorio – which takes up an entire wall at the museum. There is a lot to see in the painting. I hadn’t notice the baby at the center of the painting from the smaller pictures I had seen. I also didn’t notice the mother who sees to look straight at the viewer from any angle.
This above video is best viewed in full screen directly on Youtube by clicking on the above link.
The rest of the museum featured paintings that connected to music – jazz, concerts – and an anthropology section that includes two Egyptian mummies and a representative of a dig in Puerto Rico and a map of the native peoples of the island. One of our group said that she was a descendant of the native people of Puerto Rico and wondered, based on the location where her family lives, which tribe she came from.
Some in our group needed some supplies, so after our visit to museum we went to Plaza de las Americas, a large mall on the way back to the inn. Some stayed at the mall and had lunch and some went from the mall to Bebo’s Cafe for lunch. Our group got together in the afternoon for our first visit to the beach – the Volleyball section about 5 blocks from the inn. The inn had towels that we might take to the beach. On the way to the beach, I tripped in the deep gutter teaching us all to watch where we were walking on unlevel sidewalks that have stumps that may have come from the remains of parking meters.
In the evening we went to CaféTresbé which has an outdoor patio. We enjoyed sunset to twillight here. The groups of 4 in each of the rooms were getting closer and there was some distance forming between the groups. Some complained that they weren’s a group of 8, but two groups of 4. I was interested in the group dynamics.
Lesson 5 – The world is waking up to diversity, even within groups.
Intercultural Connections among Universities (ICU) 